Performance Issues with Borderlands 2, Anybody have them?

sk3tch said:
It depends on the area of the game. I see 20 FPS dips even with my GTX 690 and a GT 640 as a dedicated PhysX PPU: http://1pcent.com/?p=151.

CPU is seemingly the only thing different about his system versus mine with the GTX 680. So that was my only point there.
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20 fps with THAT setup? Okay, then something is definitely wrong. I'm running GTX580 SLI and I have not experienced these low fps. I made several runs in the first area of the game where you fight against the big cannon and those two guys. I used grenades extensively and shot all enemies quickly so there would be much blood/fluid simulation. The lowest fps I had were around 40. There was little difference between SLI and a single 580 dedicated to PhysX.

murkris118 said:
My GPU usage never crosses 50% in Borderlands 2, that I have noticed with Vsync On. Could that be creating problems or is it RMA time?.. I dunno because many people with weaker setups report better frame rates.
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The low usage is strange. What about Vsync off? Are you absolutely sure that PhysX is running on the GPU and not on the CPU?

I'm hoping the integrated PhysX benchmark will be released soon, so we can get some comparable numbers.
 
boxleitnerb said:
20 fps with THAT setup? Okay, then something is definitely wrong. I'm running GTX580 SLI and I have not experienced these low fps. I made several runs in the first area of the game where you fight against the big cannon and those two guys. I used grenades extensively and shot all enemies quickly so there would be much blood/fluid simulation. The lowest fps I had were around 40. There was little difference between SLI and a single 580 dedicated to PhysX.
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Ha, nothing wrong - just the game. I've used it on my 4 systems (4-way SLI 680, 2-way SLI 680, GTX 690, and GTX 680 equipped). Similar results.

You need to consider the context. 20 FPS is the minimum framerate. This is captured via benchmarking software. The "feel" is nothing like that. It's regularly over 100 FPS in most cases...over 70 FPS on single GPU.
 
Ha, nothing wrong - just the game. I've used it on my 4 systems (4-way SLI 680, 2-way SLI 680, GTX 690, and GTX 680 equipped). Similar results.

You need to consider the context. 20 FPS is the minimum framerate. This is captured via benchmarking software. The "feel" is nothing like that. It's regularly over 100 FPS in most cases...over 70 FPS on single GPU.
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So do you think there is something wrong with my setup or should I just wait for a patch or a driver update to fix my issues?. As you said the minimum frame rate is what concerns me as 20 is too low for a setup like that. I also get drops till 25 when particles are flying all over the place. The weird thing is the fps starts at 60 but goes down to the 25`s when robots descend from Hyperion or whatever planet that is you see when you look at the sky.
 
GPU usage for my 580 GTX hovers around 60-80%. I am capping the framerate at 60 though.
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Well that is weird, mine never touches 80 when capping or using Vsync. :confused:..
 
sk3tch said:
Ha, nothing wrong - just the game. I've used it on my 4 systems (4-way SLI 680, 2-way SLI 680, GTX 690, and GTX 680 equipped). Similar results.

You need to consider the context. 20 FPS is the minimum framerate. This is captured via benchmarking software. The "feel" is nothing like that. It's regularly over 100 FPS in most cases...over 70 FPS on single GPU.
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I know what minimum fps are. Point was, I never dropped that low and I recorded fps via fraps, too. Maybe it is a Kepler issue - I still have Fermi.
 
boxleitnerb said:
I know what minimum fps are. Point was, I never dropped that low and I recorded fps via fraps, too. Maybe it is a Kepler issue - I still have Fermi.
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How often did you record FPS? I have recorded in several different situations. Sometimes FPS doesn't dip below 50 or 60. Sometimes it has dipped to 0.

I stated this above too - depends on where you are in the game. I'm sure if you left FRAPS running every time you played you would encounter a low FPS situation.
 
Once for each configuration (CPU, 1 GPU, SLI, 1 GPU+ 1 GPU for PhysX). If I let it run all the time, I'm sure loading processes when fast traveling will skew the results. Or loading stutters when doing fast turns.

Your minimums according to fraps are 50ish with the 690. Where do you get the 20fps from? Was it in a scene with much PhysX activity?

When does one reach the Bloodshot Stronghold? I'm still pretty early in the game.
 
It's around level 12-13, I think? I leveled a bit because I kept running these benches, heh.

I didn't have any low FPS issues with the 690, sorry I misspoke - it was with my 680 in some tests:
http://1pcent.com/?p=135

That was with 680 + 640 or 580 for PhysX PPU. And that was just random gameplay that I recorded for longer sessions to contrast with the shorter, "controlled" sessions I was using.
 
I would bet $100 that those minimums are due to loading stutters. Did you by chance record the fps themselves or just the average, max and min values? If the former is the case, could you please provide an fps diagram?
 
I just now tried the 306.97 drivers and can confirm that the problem is still there although Nvidia claim that this driver would give the best performance in BL2 and WOW Mists of Pandaria.
 
boxleitnerb said:
I would bet $100 that those minimums are due to loading stutters. Did you by chance record the fps themselves or just the average, max and min values? If the former is the case, could you please provide an fps diagram?
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The raw data is available in the link I provided. Logs from FRAPS, etc.

It's min/max/avg that I recorded. Basically everything turned on within FRAPS for benchmarking. The same as all of my other bench runs (which showed 50 FPS min).
 
When turning Physx completely off by setting it to Low I am able to play at a constant 60 fps no drops no slowdowns.... so yeah I guess the game itself has a flawed Physx implementation.
 
sk3tch said:
The raw data is available in the link I provided. Logs from FRAPS, etc.

It's min/max/avg that I recorded. Basically everything turned on within FRAPS for benchmarking. The same as all of my other bench runs (which showed 50 FPS min).
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I meant complete fps data. Like

70
72
67
66...

for the first 4 seconds for example. Fraps can do that, you just need to check all the boxes. The minimum value is useless if you don't know how often it was reached. If you play for an hour and the 20fps minimum was reached only for one second (1/3600th of the time), it says little about gameplay.

I mean something like this (my benchmarks I spoke about earlier):

2600K@4GHz
GTX580 SLI
1080p, SMAA, all maxed, PhysX high@GPU
Approx. 90 second run in the Southern Shelf, ending with a fight against Boom and Bewm. Intensive fighting in 2 outposts and then the boss.

 
boxleitnerb said:
I meant complete fps data. Like

70
72
67
66...

for the first 4 seconds for example. Fraps can do that, you just need to check all the boxes. The minimum value is useless if you don't know how often it was reached. If you play for an hour and the 20fps minimum was reached only for one second (1/3600th of the time), it says little about gameplay.

I mean something like this (my benchmarks I spoke about earlier):

2600K@4GHz
GTX580 SLI
1080p, SMAA, all maxed, PhysX high@GPU
Approx. 90 second run in the Southern Shelf, ending with a fight against Boom and Bewm. Intensive fighting in 2 outposts and then the boss.

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Yeah, it's there dude! At the end of the article (and everyone that I do). It's a zip of my full FRAPS logs. :)

:cool:

Not sure why we're even discussing this anymore. I caveated my 20 FPS drops when I mentioned them as being from long play sessions. Could be load screens, could be pause screen - but it happens.
 
very strange, ive been playing on a core i7-920 with gtx 470, no overclocks... physx on high and the game plays great. it does dip below 30 with intense fire fights for a second or two, but no slide show like you guys describe...
 
Fraps can record 3 things at once:
1. Fps (each second)
2. Frametimes (for each frame)
3. min/max/avg fps values

You recorded only the third option. For such frame diagrams, at least the fps recording is required:



I'm only discussing this because when we're talking about fps dips, it is important to know when they happen. If they are occuring during a loading process, they are irrelevant because then it's normal.
 
Ah my bad, you're right! I will rectify that in future bench sessions.
 
Anybody have improvements in gameplay performance in BL2 after the latest driver install?. I dont think people who are already playing the game well should have problems.:D
 
I'll get a 3930K and a GT640 for PhysX today, I can make some performance investigations later.
 
I'll get a 3930K and a GT640 for PhysX today, I can make some performance investigations later.
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Ooh some tasty hardware coming your way huh! good for you :D.... please do take readings asap and report back.By the way what GPU do you have?
 
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I am getting real pathetic performance later on in the game. Everything on max including physx and a dedicated physx card. The game simply does not scale. Whether 1,2,3 or 4 cards. Its all the same. Wirst of all distant views even with 0 enemies still have drops into the 30s. Why arent they fixing this prevalent issue.

3930k at 4.7, GTX 690 quad sli, 16GB memory
 
I am getting real pathetic performance later on in the game. Everything on max including physx and a dedicated physx card. The game simply does not scale. Whether 1,2,3 or 4 cards. Its all the same. Wirst of all distant views even with 0 enemies still have drops into the 30s. Why arent they fixing this prevalent issue.

3930k at 4.7, GTX 690 quad sli, 16GB memory
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Well there you go... sorry to hear that you are experiencing same issues as I am but that boils down to poor optimization or driver issues. The same game cant perform like crap on two high end systems.
 
murkris118 said:
Well there you go... sorry to hear that you are experiencing same issues as I am but that boils down to poor optimization or driver issues. The same game cant perform like crap on two high end systems.
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It's rare for games to scale on 4-way or quad-SLI. This game does pretty well for my at 5760x1080 on my 4-way 680 Classified system (3960x @ 4.5 GHz) - around 70-90 FPS maxed out. But yeah, definitely not 4-way/quad SLI optimized. Probably never will be.
 
Played briefly with the newest driver and it seems to be 100% better.
 
sc0tty8 said:
Played briefly with the newest driver and it seems to be 100% better.
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Not for me. I had to drop resolution to get decent fps without drops. This on a 2500k at 4.4 and a 670 w/ 8gb sys mem on a vista 64 system. Kept getting those damn drops. I mean wtf? Going from 120 to 15 fps? Uh ok. This is with physx on low too.
 
sk3tch said:
It's rare for games to scale on 4-way or quad-SLI. This game does pretty well for my at 5760x1080 on my 4-way 680 Classified system (3960x @ 4.5 GHz) - around 70-90 FPS maxed out. But yeah, definitely not 4-way/quad SLI optimized. Probably never will be.
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You have 4 680s?
I get the same FPS with dual 670s

spaceman said:
Not for me. I had to drop resolution to get decent fps without drops. This on a 2500k at 4.4 and a 670 w/ 8gb sys mem on a vista 64 system. Kept getting those damn drops. I mean wtf? Going from 120 to 15 fps? Uh ok. This is with physx on low too.
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Vista?:eek:
 
magoo said:
You have 4 680s?
I get the same FPS with dual 670s
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Yup. At 5760x1080? Not surprised. 4-way SLI is never very optimized except for the game that I built the rig for (BF3). Even then, it's not the best.
 
murkris118 said:
Well there you go... sorry to hear that you are experiencing same issues as I am but that boils down to poor optimization or driver issues. The same game cant perform like crap on two high end systems.
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I hope they come up with proper patches - I mean its pretty and all but for us to get 30 fps with nothing going on is ludicrous. Just dont understand why they are taking this long to fix it.A lot of people are bound to lose interest.
 
I think there are some problems with the drivers itself for the 600 series cards or atleast a few of them. I see some good improvements with the 306.97 drivers over the past ones in many other games leaving Borderlands 2. I think we need to be patient and let the drivers mature a bit before going all nuts!, of course BL2 needs a definite patch to solve performance issues but since the 600 line finished just now with the 650 I guess Nvidia`s engineers will have more time concentrating on improving the performance of individual cards with driver updates rather than wasting time on advertisement campaigns for their newly released GPU`s.
 
With a 660 Ti I was getting extreme chop with close-in combat. I implemented all of the following and now performance is very good
  • Use 306.97 drivers
  • Install PhysX version 9.12.0613 from http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.12.0613-driver.html
  • In Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings manually add Borderlands 2 exe if installed with Steam (this applies to any Steam game because they are not automatically added)
  • Use Settings
  • Vsync On
  • Framerate Unlimited
  • Ambient Occlusion Off
  • Depth of Field Off
  • Physx Low
  • FXAA Off
  • (Everything else maxed out)
  • After launching set Network Options Offline (this setting is not sticky)
  • Also, on my system, I had to move My Documents folder back to the local hard-drive rather than on a network share as this really kills file access
 
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Hey guys, recently found a temporary solution to get constant high frame rates with high end configs. If you already know this please dont mind but I hope this is useful for people who are experiencing problems.

1.) Download D3D Overrider and force Vsync and Triple Buffering

2.) Set draw distance to medium, no matter if Physx is on high on 670`s or 680`s because after I did these Physx does not seem to be hitting my frames very much.

3.) Set Frame limit to Unlimited in game and set verything to default settings on the Nvidia Control Panel ( DO not force anything except for " Maximum Performance" and "Single Display mode"). I have set Pre-Rendered Frames to 2.

I am getting 90+% GPU usage now after doing this on my 680 on BL2 all the time which I think how it is supposed to be in the first place. I used to run the GPU at 50% before. lol!....

Hope this helps guys. Try it out and report back.
 
Strange. I didn't do any of that and I get over 90% utilization with my single GTX 680 rig.
 
Strange. I didn't do any of that and I get over 90% utilization with my single GTX 680 rig.
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I know, this happens in every game with Vsync ON. I have to turn OFF Vsync in game or in the Control Panel to get over 90% utilization. I dunno if this is a driver issue but something strange is going on Moreover I am getting horrible screen tearing if I turn off Vsync in most games. Anybody else having issues like this?
 
murkris118 said:
I know, this happens in every game with Vsync ON. I have to turn OFF Vsync in game or in the Control Panel to get over 90% utilization. I dunno if this is a driver issue but something strange is going on Moreover I am getting horrible screen tearing if I turn off Vsync in most games. Anybody else having issues like this?
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Ah, that'd explain it - I always turn off vsync. You may want to research up on what vsync is before you use it or don't use it.
 
The GT640 has arrived and the system is up and running. I'm still waiting on a part to integrate it into my watercooling loop (it's waaay too noisy for me even at 30%), but I can put it in for some benchmarks today. Stay tuned!
 
The GT640 has arrived and the system is up and running. I'm still waiting on a part to integrate it into my watercooling loop (it's waaay too noisy for me even at 30%), but I can put it in for some benchmarks today. Stay tuned!
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Could you please post the link to download the banchmark for BL2... or is it the actual game you were going to benchmark?.
 
The benchmark is not implemented yet, unfortunately. I'll be benching the game.

Edit:
I'm dissapointed. I still get drops to 40fps with the 640 dedicated to PhysX high. I begin to think it is the demanding settings in general that are taxing my cards too much.
 
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I know this thread is a few days old, but I've been playing since it came out in my 3770k/GTX680 combo and not had a single issue related to performance. Once in a long while the game will get crazy with the physx (I have it on high) usually through a scope and it will stutter for a split second, other than that no issues. I did have a problem with tons of CTD's before one of the more recent patches came out though. I've been locked at 60fps vsync on a 1200p screen the whole time, very rarely will it drop to 55 or so.

My friend who I play with has a GTX 670 and he had huge drops all the time and a 35fps average, but he was running a stock FX 8150. He recently switched to a 3570k and it seemed to smooth out his issues, but we already knew from reviews that the FX series did not like this game.
 
murkris118 said:
Hey guys, recently found a temporary solution to get constant high frame rates with high end configs. If you already know this please dont mind but I hope this is useful for people who are experiencing problems.

1.) Download D3D Overrider and force Vsync and Triple Buffering

2.) Set draw distance to medium, no matter if Physx is on high on 670`s or 680`s because after I did these Physx does not seem to be hitting my frames very much.

3.) Set Frame limit to Unlimited in game and set verything to default settings on the Nvidia Control Panel ( DO not force anything except for " Maximum Performance" and "Single Display mode"). I have set Pre-Rendered Frames to 2.

I am getting 90+% GPU usage now after doing this on my 680 on BL2 all the time which I think how it is supposed to be in the first place. I used to run the GPU at 50% before. lol!....

Hope this helps guys. Try it out and report back.
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I hate to say this, but these changes are just making your system work harder, not necessarily fixing the framerate issues. Because the framerate is set to unlimited, the game can render as many frames as it wants, but with Triple Buffering and Vsync on, you're still limited to 60 FPS displayed. Additionally, Borderlands sometimes likes to ignore user framerate settings, and just cap at 60 regardless of setting. GPU usage still drops in areas like Sawtooth Canyon and Flynt's Ship, as well as with high Physx loads, regardless of framerate setting.

I've done a lot of testing on both of my machines to figure out a way to make the framerate consistent. Since one of my screens is a plasma, tearing tends to be more noticable, so I fiddled around with various modes until discovering that there isn't a big minimum FPS difference between Capped 60 and Unlimited, and that Smoothed 22-62 is inconsistent at times (this option sometimes affects the game's LOD). As far as I can tell, the framerate right now is something that needs to be fixed on nVidia and Gearbox's side.

Strangest of all, I've found that the game is affected heavily by having your GPU in PCIe 3 mode versus PCIe 2. My 3770k system outperforms my 3930k/Tri-SLI system, and with the PCIe 3 hack enabled on the latter machine, the whole thing will lock up after a few hours of play.
 
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