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Race Driver: Grid performance

T

todlerix

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
2,244
So I've been playing Grid for a bit now and when i cranked the *in game AA* to 8xMSAA i started having some issues.

1920x1080
Ultra High


Results:
In game AA set to 8xMSAA

2008-09-26 22:52:02 - GRID
Frames: 28931 - Time: 430632ms - Avg: 67.182 - Min: 2 - Max: 98

You'll notice the minimum FPS are @ 2

The FPS drop was observed during a rewinding on an instant replay close up with lots of smoke it is not normal for it to drop to 2fps. However there are 'slow downs' that correspond to FPS droping actualy reducing the speed the game is running at then increasing the speed the game runs at. What I mean by this is a psuedo slow-mo then it runs at 1.5x speed *(rough guess) to 'catch back up'.
____

So i turned off AA:

2008-09-26 23:02:01 - GRID
Frames: 39892 - Time: 396208ms - Avg: 100.684 - Min: 63 - Max: 128

The text was annoying to look at as well as the edges of cars but for the most part i'm staring at the track so the lack of AA isn't so bad. no 'slow downs'
____

Then i turned on 4x Edge Detect (12X samples) - in my opinion it wasnt working - i didnt see a difference at all from no AA - no 'slow downs'

2008-09-26 23:16:08 - GRID
Frames: 40659 - Time: 415314ms - Avg: 97.899 - Min: 66 - Max: 125

____
12x Edge Detect (24x samples)
no visual improvement from no AA - no performance, convinced its not working but no 'slow downs'

2008-09-26 23:36:58 - GRID
Frames: 40036 - Time: 403624ms - Avg: 99.191 - Min: 67 - Max: 128
____
In Game AA option set to Level 3


2008-09-26 23:52:23 - GRID
Frames: 2167 - Time: 37472ms - Avg: 57.829 - Min: 36 - Max: 67

There are 'slow downs' and 'catch ups' with Level 3AA enabled.

Does anyone have similar results?

**I started the bench during the starting countdown and stopped it after I finished. I played in farthest rear cam view for these benchmarks. Running patch 1.2


Race Day > and spam enter key - should put you on a 3 lap race in a toyota supra
 
Your sig says you have an 8800gtx but edge detect is for the 4870/x2 card did you forget to update your sig?
 
ya i didnt bother i'll do it now.

So anyone have a 4850/4870/4870x2 to test this with or that has had similar problems?
 
I've been having slowdown problems with Grid. Most of the time i get 70fps maxed out but then I get fps dips. I'll try without AA tomorrow and report back.
 
citizen__erased said:
I've been having slowdown problems with Grid. Most of the time i get 70fps maxed out but then I get fps dips. I'll try without AA tomorrow and report back.
Click to expand...

The AA either causes FPS dips causing the 'time slow/slow downs' or AA causes the time slows causing the FPS dips. if you can confirm this that would be great.
 
It appears that both of my 500gb WD drives are on the way out, so this could be partly my problem. Will do some more testing today.
 
I have seen this problem using a single 4870 with anything over 2X MSAA. There is also an issue with the 4870 X2 which causes Crossfire to be rendered temporarily ineffective during night driving scenes when the Headlight setting is at high.

Look here for details.
 
not sure what version of grid im running but i maxed out absolutely every gfx option @ 1080p with a single GTX260 and i havent gotten less then ~30fps. even in major crashes it usually stays above 40. this is with vsync off
 
good day,

Just to report: the story of todlerix , original poster, resembles exactly mine.:

Slow downs! when using AA
-------------------------------------------
So I've been playing Grid for a bit now and when i cranked the *in game AA* to 8xMSAA i started having some issues.

1920x1080
Ultra High

In game AA set to 8xMSAA
-------------------------------------------

I did following test:

Since I have a dual monitor setup I started up TechPowerup GPU-Z 0.2.8 on the second monitor so I could follow life statistics of GPU temp and load (checked option continue refreshing this screen while...in GPU-Z program)

When the slowdowns happen (going at 239km /h into a curve while the blurring effect kicks in, while the sensation of speed is reduced to the one I can experience as a pedestrian in busy shopping street)

During normal game play performance:
I notice that GPU load is 99 percent in Menu, but fluctuates between 65 to 87 during game play and replays.

During slowdown game performance:

I notice that the GPU Load drops down to about 50 percent and stays on that round number for a while.

now Im not aware how the second screen active can influence 3D performance. And I m also unaware about how well Grid supports dual GPU functions.
As on 50 percent during the slowdown it seems to mee that it has lost one core which the driver recovers and reactivates later later. Anyone backs this theory? :confused:

Switching off AA completely seemed to eliminate the slowdown phenomenon.

If anyone interested in frame rates report, please explain how to check frame rate in GRID

Hardware:

Asus PQ5 Pro Mainboard
MSI HD4870 X2 OC
Q9450 at 3,2 Ghz
8GB RAM


Software:

Vista 64 bits
Catalyst 8.9

Greetings,

BoosteV
 
No problems on my side. I also play at max settings with 8xMSAA (though only @ 1280x1024 since it's my monitor's native res) and I get an average of 50-60 fps. Min fps never goes below 40 fps. I'm on Vista 64 aswell. Given the reports from other users, this may be an ATI driver problem.
 
boostev said:
good day,

Just to report: the story of todlerix , original poster, resembles exactly mine.:

Slow downs! when using AA
-------------------------------------------
So I've been playing Grid for a bit now and when i cranked the *in game AA* to 8xMSAA i started having some issues.

1920x1080
Ultra High

In game AA set to 8xMSAA
-------------------------------------------

I did following test:

Since I have a dual monitor setup I started up TechPowerup GPU-Z 0.2.8 on the second monitor so I could follow life statistics of GPU temp and load (checked option continue refreshing this screen while...in GPU-Z program)

When the slowdowns happen (going at 239km /h into a curve while the blurring effect kicks in, while the sensation of speed is reduced to the one I can experience as a pedestrian in busy shopping street)

During normal game play performance:
I notice that GPU load is 99 percent in Menu, but fluctuates between 65 to 87 during game play and replays.

During slowdown game performance:

I notice that the GPU Load drops down to about 50 percent and stays on that round number for a while.

now Im not aware how the second screen active can influence 3D performance. And I m also unaware about how well Grid supports dual GPU functions.
As on 50 percent during the slowdown it seems to mee that it has lost one core which the driver recovers and reactivates later later. Anyone backs this theory? :confused:

Switching off AA completely seemed to eliminate the slowdown phenomenon.

If anyone interested in frame rates report, please explain how to check frame rate in GRID

Hardware:

Asus PQ5 Pro Mainboard
MSI HD4870 X2 OC
Q9450 at 3,2 Ghz
8GB RAM


Software:

Vista 64 bits
Catalyst 8.9

Greetings,

BoosteV
Click to expand...


thanks for the interesting info. you can use fraps to see and record FPS.

I can't figure out what the cause is, but keeping the FPS above 60fps prevents the 'time slows' in my experience. Level 2 AA is the highest setting i can have and still keep 60fps.
 
Enabling VSync+Triple buffering prevents all noticeable slowdowns on my system. I typically don't use VSync, but it makes a big difference in Grid.
 
Some reference testing wit GPU-Z showed the following

Stalker Clear Sky DX9 as well as DX10 stress the GPU of the HD 4870 X2 (asuming both GPUs) to 99 percent constantly during gameplay.



GRID is a different story:

Race Day with Supra (just press enter)

-outside view of car in results in smooth game play 80 - 93 Percent GPU usage (lowest point when passing stage with crowd)

-inside cockpit view immediately turns down GPU usage significantly to around 50-60 percent, with speceically the slow motion - speed up effect entering the piece of road with whith diagonal white markings right after a long piece of tribune to the right.

American Muscle something track between sky scrapers:

-outside view of car shows more slowdowns than on the other although not severe. GPU usage dips to 70 percent easily

-inside cockpit view , shows severe slowdowns. And during the worst part of the slow - motion efect, GPU usage dips to 37 percent in my case.

i have the log files where cpu usage clearly shows rising and falling curve depending on the outside or inside view and entering game menut (a nice 99 percent load when F1 circling around my car)


I m not an expert but I would conclude that some effect is just asking too much of some part of the GPU at a certain moment.

While that part of the GPU is being fully used (like rendering motion blur over a 3D crowd with 8xAA etcc), the rest is idling, hence the drop in total usage.

Turning off crowd and motion blur helps to compensate the slow motions slow down efects but does not increase GPU usage to a 99 percent.

I will do some more testing to see if its possible to pin down the 3D effect option that is not being liked by the HD 4870.

I dont understand why reviews show this Graphics card eats GRID for breakfast with average frames around 60 in 1920 ( or does this mean from 2 to 300)

I will not use Fraps , it seems some 30 seconds limited shareware program...?

Hope this info is useful to other people waiting for the next driver release
 
fraps benchmarking and fps OSD are full featured on the limited version ,recording video is limited to 30 seconds though.
 
todlerix, thank you for detailing Fraps.
Its a handy tool indeed :) Not easy to keep the car's paint impeccable with one eye on the fps - counter at 180, though.

Actually they should integrate the fps counter into the games in car dashboard in race games as this info is more important to me than my virtual oil pressure. :D


After launching GRID to try try out Fraps I could not reproduce the problem at first

My computer ran GRID very smoothly with everything maxed out , only one time dropping to a frighteningly 30+ low frame rate on the skyscraper track .

This confirms what I always find, Graphic cards are still way behind software and even the most high end single cards cannot run recent games with all intended bells and whistles at a more desireable 60fps

After some messing around with VSYNC which does seem to smooth things visually, I ve quit the game and restarted only to find that the sudden slowdown phenomenon still can show up easily and when it shows there is no denying: something is going wrong.

Frame rates drop to to 30 - 20 - 10 followed by a cannonbal relaunch to more or less normal speed that makes you end up somewhere in the scenery. On that moment the GPU is taking a little break at 40 percent load or something. Later in the same session, the game play smoothed out but with stuttering feeling now and then, not as smooth as my first session.

With this kind of GAME requirements we would expect our GPU to work for every drop of sweat, lie told and second of suffering that we ve paid for it, but no instead it decides to play the little eco activist and cut down to half activity once in a while.

Whatever is supposed to feed our GPU is not doing its work as efficiently as in Stalker for instance. (99 percent full load whatever you do)

So conclusion is: I have sessions where everything seems to work, so I should not try to mess around with my setup.
But inside the code some process is leaving a mess sometimes and switching views and exiting reentering the game can turn GRID to run badly.

Vista 64
Catalyst 8.9
 
I have big slowdowns with my 3850

Vista 64 and Catalyst 8.9

1280x1024, max settings. It runs smoothly, then every so often it seems to go into a downward spiral to the single digits.
 
Without wanting to sound victorious too soon:

I ve been playing Grid this morning with the above mentioned slow down troubles on Catalyst 8.9 and again liked the game so much that I tried to live with the occasional crashes due to sudden stuttering and frame rate drop.

Later today I discovered that Catalyst 8.10 had been released,
with slight frame rate increase in Grid according to this review:

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,6...yst-Treiber_810_WHQL_im_PCGH-Hands-on/?page=3


I installed as follows: launched new driver setup / chose uninstall function / removed old driver and control pannel / rebooted / launched new driver setup / chose install driver and control pannel / reboot

Nothing else has changed to my config.

Grid seems to run smoothly as reviewed by many people not experiencing these problems.
I have tried many tracks and finally seems to work as propagated by the many reviews of the HD 4870 X2.

Action is much more acurate and swift....

on the downside:
A bsod with windows reporting driver issue ATI upon reboot has already happend from within Grid menu
Fan control seems to work, but already showing some bug reporting 100 percent GPU usage in CCC in desktop environment while GPU-Z reports no activity.


If it turns out that the issues start to reoccur I ll be reporting back here :)
 
Vista x64 / 8800GTX / 169.25's / 4gigs / E6700 / 1920x1200 / all settings max (except trees @ medium) / 4XAA

Smooth racing here with Fraps show high 30's to high 50's.

I'm gonna wait till tomorrow to install the 178.24's
 
GRID ATI Platform HD4870 X2 ,Vista x64 , Catalyst 8.10 Far Cry 2 hotfix driver : all my previous troubles (see starting topic) gone only by changing the Video card drivers...

ATI followed up on this one.
 
Did they go a step backwards? Because I'm using GRID with the 8.12's and I'm getting the slowdown only on certain parts of certain tracks, no matter what my settings are.
 
Well at 1280 x 1024 and 1680 x 105 with maxed settings, 16xaa, and vsync my fps is never lower than 50. Without vsync my average fps is about 90-100.
 
does anyone else's GRID look like its resolution is really low at 1080p? it looks like its 720 p max, with or without AA and the rest.
 
GRiD slowed to a halt when I enabled 2xMSAA on my 4870 1gb. I haven't played GRiD since the 8.9s though.

I play the game @ a slightly higher resolution (1920*1200)
 
GRID2008-12-1618-11-27-09.jpg
AsusStrikerII.jpg

GRID2008-12-1618-53-38-41.jpg
GRID2008-12-1618-29-19-94.jpg
 
That's_Corporate said:
Did they go a step backwards? Because I'm using GRID with the 8.12's and I'm getting the slowdown only on certain parts of certain tracks, no matter what my settings are.
Click to expand...

To Report: Ati driver 8.12 did not set me back. To test the driver I have taken the risc to to ruin my reputation and accepted a Le Mans entry. Any driver problems here will make your car do ballet.
Did not measure any frame rate but it felt like smooth cruising to victory at 400+ km / hr in that TDI Audi

1920 x 1200 setup everything maxed out.
 
I was having this exact same problem, the slowdown thing and i have the Sapphire HD4870 512mb

I was getting the problem using the latest Catalyst version (8.12) and game GRID version 1.2

Searching for the solution i found out that it could be related to some energy saving features from Asus motherboards, mainly the P5Q series.

I have the P5Q-E

Looks like some people fixed it by disabling Speed Step and a couple of others energy saving features in the BIOS. I tried that with no success

But i found out that what was causing the slowdowns in here was the Asus Six Engine software. I uninstalled this crap and it completely fixed it. I also kept the other features that i mentioned above, disabled in the BIOS

Game runs like a charm in max settings

So this problem seems to be related with processor/motherboard, and not with VGA's

Good luck
 
Devils_reject, thank you for sharing this interesting finding about energy saving causing slow down on P5Q series.

I have a P5Q series and speed step and who knows what else in Bios

However the Asus Six Engine crap has never been installed on my PC as it is overclocked.

So next time I experience slow downs and upgrading driver (basically reinstalling) doesn t fix it, I ll experiment with that and report back.
 
how long is the career mode in this game? I have been thinking about picking this up but I dont want to if the career mode is short.
I played the demo and the graphics really are amazing.The wrecks and graphics is enough to make me wanna pick this up let alone it is only $30 now.

SOmeone please tell me how long (est hours) the career mode is.Also how do you think the actual game will run on my rig in sig at 1680x1050
 
forgot to ask this how hard is it to play the actual game with the ole mouse and keyboard?
I dont have a 360 controller nor do I have a wheel.I dont have the cash to get the game and the controller at the same time
 
I have a 4850 running grid on max but I have to turn particles off, if they are on the game has extreme slowdowns. Resolution is 1680x1050.
 
I was running grid fine on XP, then installed vista x64 and I was getting terrible performance. Would start a game at 30fps, then start slowing down the longer I played it. Got more ram in, changed gfx drivers, updated GRID, but all to no avail. Then I noticed when I alt + tabbed out of the game for a moment cmdagent.exe was using quite a lot of CPU usage. This exe belongs to Comodo, and it turns out the problem was being cause by the realtime scanning of their antivirus software. Turned that off and it's all good again. Strange thing was that all other games worked fine without slowdown even with the antivirus realtime scanning turned on. Nevermind. Problem solved.
 
See my sig. If I turn max every setting and keep the resolution at 2560x1600 the game turns to a crawl even at the game menus. Its like less then 1 fps. If I turn AA off all the way, I am able to move through the menus, but its still somewhat laggy.

This has only happened to me in GRiD. I really wanted to play it on my PC this time around since its such a good racing game imo.
 
can anyone who has played the game tell me approximately how long the single player career mode is?
 
I know I'm resurrecting an old thread here, but anyone have another fix for the slowdowns? I just bought this off the steam sale and regardless of graphic settings or AA settings I get terrible slowdowns every 15 seconds or so.

EDIT: nevermind, discovered I had the asus AI overclock on in BIOS and didn't realize it was on-demand. Disabling this fixed the issue. Runs smooth now at ultra settings with 8xmsaa.
 
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