How do AMD GPUs currently perform in Gears of War: Ultimate Edition?

GameLifter

Gawd
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Sep 4, 2014
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I currently own a GTX 1080Ti and the performance and GPU utilization I am getting in Gears of War: Ultimate Edition seems way lower than it should be. Back when I had a 980Ti the performance in Gears: UE was fairly consistent and pretty high for the time at 1440p. I now have a 4K monitor and the GPU utilization with my 1080Ti stays around 40-60% most of the time which results in low performance. I've searched the internet and found other threads in other forums on this issue and all of the users who are experiencing this have Nvidia GPUs.

So, I'm wondering if AMD GPUs are also having low GPU utilization in Gears: UE or if this is an issue related to a recent Nvidia driver update?
 
What CPU are you using. Have you tried different driver versions for your card.
 
What CPU are you using. Have you tried different driver versions for your card.

I'm using an i7 3770K. I haven't tried different driver versions yet but other users have tried all the way back to 398.11 and it didn't fix the issue for them. I'm using the latest driver (417.58). I'm in communication with Nvidia Customer Care on this issue and they've had me do some troubleshooting in addition to the multitude of things I've tried but to no avail. Recent benchmarks of the game on AMD hardware have been tough to come by so if someone tests the game on an AMD GPU and doesn't get low GPU utilization like me and others have on Nvidia GPUs then that would rule out this being an issue with the game itself or a Windows update. It's also worth mentioning that this issue isn't as apparent in the in game benchmark but as soon as you start the game in the first few rooms the GPU utilization and FPS tanks so it's easy to reproduce.
 
Does your GPU clocks or memory clocks go down or is it just the GPU usage.
 
Does your GPU clocks or memory clocks go down or is it just the GPU usage.
It's just the GPU usage that is low. In fact, since GPU usage is low the GPU clocks are able to go really high but performance is still inconsistent. An example would be at the beginning of the game when you are looking out of the prison cell door where Dom is. The GPU utilization is around 50% here so the fps is a little below 60 if I remember right. Then when you leave the prison cell and turn right and look out into the court yard the GPU usage and frame rate tank to 30 or below. Fluctuations like this occurred throughout the first few levels that I tried and I found a YouTube video of a guy testing a later part of the game with a 2080Ti and having similar inconsistencies.
 
try using process explorer

and show the threads utilization of the process. That will show you a cpu bottlenck better than anything else
 
Well, it could just be a shitty port of the original.

You know how badly criticized Master Chief Collection was, right? Well, both ports were handled by new teams working at Microsoft.

EDIT: just did a search for optimization issues for the game, and it on this:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...war-ultimate-edition-performance-compromises/

Seems like a shitty port to me.

The port is definitely not the greatest but me and others don't remember it being quite this bad. Others have reported what I have which is the game running much worse than it did in the past. Performance and GPU utilization numbers from an AMD GPU user would be vital in determining if it's an Nvidia issue or some new issue with the game itself.
 
I just did a quick test at 1440p and it ran exactly the same as it did at 4K which means it for sure runs worse than how my 980Ti ran it a few years back at the same resolution. Something broke the game recently and now I’m determined to do everything I can to figure it out.
 
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I just checked it on my 1080 ti and yeah the game is fucked up now. GPU usage is very low at times and fps can even drop into low 40s and upper 30s outside. It was not like that when I originally played it.

EDIT: Others having issues too. https://forums.geforce.com/default/...war-ultimate-edition-performance-compromises/

All we are going to likely get is people ignorantly saying we are cpu limited.

Yep, every where I looked I found people complaining about these performance issues with no solution or planned fix. Such a shame since I really like the Gears series and still enjoy the first one but the only easy methods of playing it right now yield lower performance when the game should be getting well over 60fps at 4K on more powerful hardware.

I did find a guy on the official Gears forum who claims to not be having these performance issue with his 2080Ti. https://forums.gearsofwar.com/t/gea...does-it-currently-perform-on-amd-gpus/13311/5

You can see my conversation with him where I get his specs to see what is different about his setup but everything seems normal.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm still kind of in communication with Nvidia Customer Care on this but it's been going no where lately. They keep having me try things to troubleshoot the issue most of which I've already done but unsurprisingly nothing has worked. I tried to have them test the game on their end and they said they had the driver team look into it and found no errors in the driver but who knows if they really played the game or just looked through code.

Test results from an AMD card would be really helpful in solving this so once again, if any AMD user out there comes across this post and owns Gears: UE then please play the game and report your results. The issue isn't as apparent in the built-in benchmark so running that wouldn't be a good test. Loading up the first level and simply looking around in the cell will reveal the problem if it's there.
 
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Just for the hell of it I tried doing a DDU and the very latest drivers and nothing changed. I honesty think the guy saying it runs fine for him has no idea what he is talking about. This issue goes back for many months now so it is probably related to a Windows update. Two different Widows updates broke Gears of War 4 one of which actually required the game to be completely reinstalled. That game was more popular so luckily it always eventually got fixed. Also the first Creators update well over a year ago made Quantum Break start stuttering for me and it has never ran right again. Windows Store is a shitshow.
 
My opinion is it is probably a Gears issue itself and not the card. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game yet?
 
I just checked it on my 1080 ti and yeah the game is fucked up now. GPU usage is very low at times and fps can even drop into low 40s and upper 30s outside. It was not like that when I originally played it.

EDIT: Others having issues too. https://forums.geforce.com/default/...war-ultimate-edition-performance-compromises/

All we are going to likely get is people ignorantly saying we are cpu limited.

Nope but then again, I have this game and Gears 4 and have witnessed issues not unlike this.

Edit: Oh, and I have played it on an AMD Vega 56, RX570 and RX580. (I have all 3 in different machines right now.)
 
My opinion is it is probably a Gears issue itself and not the card. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game yet?

Yes, I tried completely uninstalling the game and I've reset it from the app settings menu multiple times. I also tried moving it to my secondary HDD (where it still resides) instead of my SSD C drive and same issue.

Nope but then again, I have this game and Gears 4 and have witnessed issues not unlike this.

Edit: Oh, and I have played it on an AMD Vega 56, RX570 and RX580. (I have all 3 in different machines right now.)

So, you are having low GPU utilization on your AMD cards or did I misinterpret your post?
 
Yes, I tried completely uninstalling the game and I've reset it from the app settings menu multiple times. I also tried moving it to my secondary HDD (where it still resides) instead of my SSD C drive and same issue.



So, you are having low GPU utilization on your AMD cards or did I misinterpret your post?

On Gears 4, I would have lower than normal GPU utilization when running the benchmark. I have no idea how I fixed it but it does work again. (I did redo my computer from scratch but for a different reason.) I will need to check Gears Ultimate this afternoon and see what happens.
 
On Gears 4, I would have lower than normal GPU utilization when running the benchmark. I have no idea how I fixed it but it does work again. (I did redo my computer from scratch but for a different reason.) I will need to check Gears Ultimate this afternoon and see what happens.

Thanks! Gears 4 is fine for me right now as well.
 
So, Nvidia Customer Care asked for a video of the performance issues I am having with the game so I recorded a short clip and put it on my Google Drive account to show them. Here is a link to it for those interested:

 
Well since nobody gives a crap enough to help I just tried it on an RX 580 and its the same exact problems. Bottom line is its a game issue and like I said earlier its almost certainly one of the Windows updates that broke it. So the person claiming it currently runs fine for them has no idea what they are talking about. Tell them to make you a video and I guarantee you they will not do it.
 
Well since nobody gives a crap enough to help I just tried it on an RX 580 and its the same exact problems. Bottom line is its a game issue and like I said earlier its almost certainly one of the Windows updates that broke it. So the person claiming it currently runs fine for them has no idea what they are talking about. Tell them to make you a video and I guarantee you they will not do it.

I really appreciate you taking the time to test it. I was hoping the game would run fine on AMD hardware so we could narrow it down to an Nvidia issue and Nvidia would be more likely to fix any issues on their end with the game than the developers or Microsoft would. At this point it's clearly a game issue and like you said it was most definitely caused by a Windows update. Last response I got from Nvidia was to contact the devs about the issue but that's like yelling into the void most of the time.

As for the guy who claims he's not having these issues, it's clear something is up with either him or his system. It's possible he doesn't have the latest Windows update and thinks he does or he's just running the benchmark to test which is not accurate and doesn't show the issue as well or at all. I'm going to start a new thread on the Gears forum to bring the issue to light more but at this point it might be futile in terms of getting it fixed.
 
Well since nobody gives a crap enough to help I just tried it on an RX 580 and its the same exact problems. Bottom line is its a game issue and like I said earlier its almost certainly one of the Windows updates that broke it. So the person claiming it currently runs fine for them has no idea what they are talking about. Tell them to make you a video and I guarantee you they will not do it.

Well, it is easy to not give a crap when I received a legit 3 day ban. :D (Forgot to ignore a person.) Well, for some reason, the GOW:UE runs at a constant 49fps regardless of the gpu usage, which would jump from 0% to 100% and all over the place. (I used the AMD Link app to watch it.) Really strange problem.
 
Well, it is easy to not give a crap when I received a legit 3 day ban. :D (Forgot to ignore a person.) Well, for some reason, the GOW:UE runs at a constant 49fps regardless of the gpu usage, which would jump from 0% to 100% and all over the place. (I used the AMD Link app to watch it.) Really strange problem.

That's really odd. I guess those results are better than mine but still not good. I started up a new thread about this issue on the Gears forums to try and get the word out some more but I doubt anything will come of it. So, I decided to order a copy of the original version of the game on PC released in 2007. Last time I checked the performance on it isn't broken and installing it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
 
That's really odd. I guess those results are better than mine but still not good. I started up a new thread about this issue on the Gears forums to try and get the word out some more but I doubt anything will come of it. So, I decided to order a copy of the original version of the game on PC released in 2007. Last time I checked the performance on it isn't broken and installing it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

The original game required Games for Windows Live to be installed. I think I gave up on my original copy when I was unable to get it working correctly, at least the last time I tried.
 
The original game required Games for Windows Live to be installed. I think I gave up on my original copy when I was unable to get it working correctly, at least the last time I tried.

Uh-oh, hopefully there is a way to get it working. If not I’m only out $12 so no biggie.
 
My copy of the original Gears on PC arrived Friday and I just finished it up. Installing and getting it running wasn't too bad but there are some small issues you may run into. The install process of the game itself works fine on Windows 10 but it doesn't put a shortcut anywhere on the desktop or start menu. You have to dig through the games files and find the Startup.exe file and use it to run it. Should be located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Gears of War\Binaries. You also need the patch that fixes the certificate error or else you'll get the "can't run with modified executable code" error. Fortunately it's easy to find with a quick Google search.

The game requires you to sign into GFWL or else you can't save your progress in the game. The password field on the sign in screen for GFWL didn't allow for many characters so I couldn't put in my password manually. Luckily when I put in my Windows ID username and hit tab it somehow put my password in automatically or some kind of password in the password field that let me sign in. After GFWL updated and I put in the product key I was good to go. I was able to set the resolution to 4K in the menu no problem.

Performance of the original Gears on PC isn't broken like the Ultimate Edition but it is capped at 62 like most other early UE3 games. The cap can technically be defeated but not without some caveats. You can't uncap the fps by the usual method of modifying the config file. You have to use the console command to do it which is set Engine.GameEngine bSmoothFrameRate FALSE. Unfortunately if you use any set command during the game they won't work or if you use the command while in the menu before starting the game it will hang on the loading screen if you are signed into GFWL.

The workaround for this is to stay signed out of GFWL after launching the game, type in the command in the console, start a new game, then sign into GFWL afterward. This will let you play the game with the frame rate uncapped and still be able to save your game and unlock achievements. The downside to this is that when you quit the game and come back you won't be able to continue your saved game unless you sign back into GFWL which will then make the game hang if you try to continue the saved game after using a set command.

I wasn't able to find a workaround for this issue so I continued the rest of the game with it capped at 62. Not a big deal since I was playing with a controller but it lacked the extra smoothness of it being at 144. Still beats any other current version of the game though.

Other than the frame rate cap the game performed great. Besides the occasional frame rate hitch it was a rock solid 62 fps and the visuals still hold up well and look great at 4K. Funny how the 2007 release of Gears on PC is the best way to play it at 4K/60fps+.
 
Gears of War 4's awful crashing for Nvidia users has scared me away permanently.


I love Gears of War, and really enjoyed the original PC port at 1080p60. I didn't even own a 144hz back then, so I remained ignorant of how nice high refresh could be.

GoW UE and GoW 4 have scarred me from even wanting to buy 5.

The lack of bug fixing on The Coalition's part is maddening. I have no idea what the heck is going on over there.

it sort of reminds me of Halo 1 CE supporting 4k for PC but Halo 2 did not iirc.
 
Gears of War 4's awful crashing for Nvidia users has scared me away permanently.


I love Gears of War, and really enjoyed the original PC port at 1080p60. I didn't even own a 144hz back then, so I remained ignorant of how nice high refresh could be.

GoW UE and GoW 4 have scarred me from even wanting to buy 5.

The lack of bug fixing on The Coalition's part is maddening. I have no idea what the heck is going on over there.

it sort of reminds me of Halo 1 CE supporting 4k for PC but Halo 2 did not iirc.

Halo 2 Vista only goes up to 1080p and it was tricky to install on Windows 7 and had other problems of its own. I'm lucky to have never had any issues with Gears 4 on PC but it's bad that it still has issues for others even after patches. Luckily it still gets patched sometimes. It was patched on January 15th last.

As for Gears: UE, it seems the Creators Update is what broke it going by earlier posts. It's hard to say if it's strictly a Windows issue that is causing the problem or a weird combination of the update and TC needing to patch the game to work right with later Windows 10 builds. Either way it's concerning that any UWP game could potentially get broken by a Windows update and never be fixed. Right now I'm playing Forza Horizon 4 and it runs great but who knows how long until an update comes along that breaks it and we get screwed over? I think it happened with Forza Horizon 3 a while back and I'm not sure it ever got fixed.
 
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