Great optimization

[Richard Eriksson]

Just wanted to give a cheer for the great optimization now that AI is available to test with.

It is way more optimized than many other titles already. Did some measurements on it and 20+ AI, at the back of the grid yields steady 60 synced fps and no problems at all. The cores are evenly used and the gpu has room to spare.

As a contrast one could take pCars that still has trouble with the optimization of the code. I've got to say, big Kudos to the team for the work done so far. AI is already rather good, physics core is there and better yet: it is already looking to be a solid, optimized codebase.

Joy

 

[Leemstradamus]

It still comes down to resolution and system specs. I'm having no issue Wyeth the guys off to run 16 cars most of the time only a few times does my frame rate drop below 60fps. But I'm running at 5890 x 1080.

Intel needs to release their freaking Octo cores!

 

[Richard Eriksson]

I would actually prefer if Intel stepped up the clocks again. There are many things in software that just won't lend itself well to multicore/thread execution. Other problems often occur, like sync issues and deadlocks.

So 4 cores is enough really, in my opinion, but for running cpu heavy single entry software, there is no replacement for pure power.

Intel should be able to safely reach 4,5 GHz. on next generation tech, with good stock coolers. Instead they opt for many slow cores, for multitasking, like on tablet devices and for power saving and price, like on consoles.

I would be surprised if the physics of any racing sim lends itself well to 4 core parallelism, let alone 8 core.

Assetto Corsa by the way responds very well to higher clock speeds

 

[Stereo]

Yeah, AC seems to run on 3 main threads (physics/graphics/audio) and with AI around, all of them have a heavier load, so higher clocks should do a good deal. 4 cores is definitely enough to get optimal CPU performance though.

Making the physics multi-threaded (eg. simulating half the grid on each core) can't hurt, and if they add more features to the physics model (more points in the tire carcass, or dynamic surface rubbering, or whatever) it'd help, but I think right now you can't expect a huge performance improvement by that alone.

 

[Leemstradamus]

anyone who has overclocked before knows that you can push quite a bit pass stock. I don't blame Intel for not upping stock clocks. We're a niche group that needed this much power for home applications. as long as they allow higher overclocking ability on their selected chips I'm cool with it.

As far as me wanting more threads, I need them for other software and I'm not upgrading again until I have something with a long shelf life ahead of it.

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

From what I can see - on my system anyway - is that the CPU is nowhere near to reach full load even with a full grid on max settings. Do not recall the exact numbers now but running with a 4770K on stock speed works ok.

 

[Leemstradamus]

From what I can see - on my system anyway - is that the CPU is nowhere near to reach full load even with a full grid on max settings. Do not recall the exact numbers now but running with a 4770K on stock speed works ok.

What are you using to check cpu usage

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

What are you using to check cpu usage

AIDA64, and displaying the info on the LCD screen on my keyboard so I can monitor it "live".

 

[Leemstradamus]

Are you seeing spikes in the 90's on your first thread?

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

Hmm, not that I can recall but I'll try and do a check during the weekend. Although we are now on a newer build so the numbers could of course be different. (if they have done some optimization.)

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

Did some tests at Monza with a full grid, 26 McLaren GT3's. Usually 2 cores go a bit higher than the others but the maximum I could see on a single core was 71% - for a brief moment - otherwise 62-67%

Also note that the total cpu load mostly stays around 30-35%, not seen it go over 50% at any time. Game seems to use all 4 cores reasonably even but not much HT going on.

 

[Pedro Cunha]

I'm droping to 39fps
1080p maxed out settings
24 cars at Silverstone

my system:
i7 47740k 4,8ghz
Titan SLI

The game needs heavy GFX optimization, cause i still play Project cars maxed out 4K resolution, allways above 60fps!

 

[Leemstradamus]

I'm droping to 39fps
1080p maxed out settings
24 cars at Silverstone

my system:
i7 47740k 4,8ghz
Titan SLI

The game needs heavy GFX optimization, cause i still play Project cars maxed out 4K resolution, allways above 60fps!

Are you playing with the hud on? I get fps drops with it on.

 

[Richard Eriksson]

I'm droping to 39fps
1080p maxed out settings
24 cars at Silverstone

my system:
i7 47740k 4,8ghz
Titan SLI

The game needs heavy GFX optimization, cause i still play Project cars maxed out 4K resolution, allways above 60fps!

Have you tried without SLI, running a single card? Also, maximum settings in ac and in particular the reflection mapping are insane, so it is really demanding... Are you dropping constantly or in the starts? What is your gpu usages when dropping?

Try lowering the reflection settings, to maybe 2 faces and see if usage changes dramatically...

 

[Richard Eriksson]

Also... Windows 8.1 causes issues with hud in my experience. Possible conflict between new WDDM and drawing calls...

 

[Leemstradamus]

@Richard Eriksson I'm running Windows 7. 8 had way too many issues for me to be used any time soon. I'm getting about a 35% drop in frame rate from 60 fps using cricket sync when I have more than 15 cars on the grid and the hud is on.

@Pedro Cunha what drivers are you using?

 

[Pedro Cunha]

@Richard Eriksson I'm running Windows 7. 8 had way too many issues for me to be used any time soon. I'm getting about a 35% drop in frame rate from 60 fps using cricket sync when I have more than 15 cars on the grid and the hud is on.

@Pedro Cunha what drivers are you using?

I'm using 334.89 driver

 

[Pedro Cunha]

Are you playing with the hud on? I get fps drops with it on.

haven't tried that but i'm sure the main issue is AI related.

 

[Pedro Cunha]

Have you tried without SLI, running a single card? Also, maximum settings in ac and in particular the reflection mapping are insane, so it is really demanding... Are you dropping constantly or in the starts? What is your gpu usages when dropping?

Try lowering the reflection settings, to maybe 2 faces and see if usage changes dramatically...

I drop from 50fps even with lowest possible settings when racing full grid.
I'm pretty sure the game needs big CPU optimization.
my GPU and CPU never go above 60% usage on maxed settings.

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

Here is something strange I found out:

26 car grid at Monza, kills the framerate really bad as we all know so I turned cubemaps to low and faces/frame to 2 and this doubles the fps (from 30ish to 60) no surprise there.

But.... the weird part is that I then get the >95% cpu usage warning instead....not sure I see the logic here. Lower setting gives a warning but I could not really see any real change in the actual cpu usage.....

Edit: GPU load is abit lower of course, 40-50 instead of 50-60%

Edit2: Just to make it clear, I am talking about the start when all cars are close together with tiresmoke and crashes.