Running AC silky smooth on mid-end PCs

WHAT'S THE AIM OF THIS THREAD?
Assetto Corsa looks beautiful, even if the graphic engine is already outdated compared to other racing games, the visual quality touches the photorealism and drops the player directly into the game at the cost of an heavy computing power.
But in Assetto Corsa, as a racing simulator, the driving experience should be prior to any other aspect of the game: rock solid 60fps are not an option, they have to be achieved everytime in any condition, quality comes after that.
But as soon as the game runs silky smooth, why to not be delighted by the stunning visual effects? The graphics helps with the immersion.

As an owner of an average PC I can't just max every settings and play at 60fps, actually my current configuration runs AC maxed out at around 35fps
My configuration (aka a 6yo PC):
Intel Core i5-3570k (3.4Ghz)
8GB RAM
Sapphire R9 380 OC 4GB

HOW DO I MANAGED THIS?
The goal of this test is to achieve a solid playable framerate in a race with full grid.
I started with the maximum graphic settings and then I lowered them all step by step until the framerate became stable above the 60fps limit with a decent safety margin and then lock them.

Why not more fps? Well.. a 60Hz screen can't show more than 60fps, so a crazy amount of frames per second doesn't ensure a smooth experience at all. Plus, screen tearing is something to avoid as plague and occours even at 144fps unless you have a freesync or gsync monitor; to avoid screen tearing on most cases V-sync is common way to go, but has a side effect to not be flexible at all and introduces input lag.

Regard screen tearing read the helpful post by Ghoults here at http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/why-more-than-60-fps.81864/
In my case limiting the framerate to 75fps on my 75Hz freesync monitor does the job without using V-sync, but for a 60Hz monitor V-sync is needed for a smooth experience.

Now come the other settings: I posted my personal settings below, but not everyone has the same hardware.
So, what impacts the performance more?
What impacts the quality more?
Some switches affect the framerate much more than others, these needs to be lowered first if you are looking for more frames:
  • AA: huge framerate player, but also big impact on the quality, should be at least 2x to see small details far away in the racetrack.
  • Motion Blur: big impact on fps, I recommend to disable it.
  • Smoke generation: doesn't improve visual quality so drastically, but cause severe loss of framerate when someone goes into the gravel.
  • Depth of Field (DOF): it soften the background and it's a big fps eater, I reccomend to keep it on OFF.
  • FXAA: it reduces a lot of jaggedness with minimal frame drop, but it soften the image.
  • Reflection: HUGE framerate impact, big quality impact. I keep it to None and Static, the only noticeable step forward is on Ultra.
these specific settings eat A LOT of fps, furthermore some of them doesn't improve visual quality so drastically to keep them maxed, so lowering them helps a lot with the fps.
Graphic filter needs a separate mention: Natural Graphics Mod and gbW are the two that I love. Choosing a light PP filter helps with frames, but everyone has his own favourite.

Personal settings:
bandicam 2018-02-26 15-40-12-214.jpg bandicam 2018-02-26 15-40-20-513.jpg bandicam 2018-02-26 15-40-28-916.jpg
(click on the images to open)

IN-GAME SCREENSHOTS
Screenshot_ks_mclaren_650_gt3_tor_poznanl_11-8-117-20-44-40.jpg
Screenshot_ginetta_g55_oulton_park_25-1-117-16-16-23.jpg
Screenshot_bmw_z4_gt3_imola_26-1-117-15-9-2.jpg
Screenshot_porsche_997gt3cup_ks_nordschleife_26-1-117-15-44-10.jpg
Screenshot_ks_porsche_911_gt3_cup_2017_spielberg_2-3-117-18-34-0.jpg
 
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So I've always had v-sync enabled in AC and get a steady 60fps with my settings. Out of interest, I tried locking FPS to 63 and disabling v-sync as mentioned above. The moment I started driving I could see stuttering. FPS was reported at a steady 63 yet the stuttering was constant. regardless of how detailed the view was out the windscreen. Switched v-sync back on and disabled the FPS lock, and all was smooth again. What's that all about?

Exactly the same thing. I have tested with several levels of fps lock, from 55, 63, 67, 73, etc...but everytime getting stuttering.No matter about quality settings (low, médium or full) The only way for me to run smooth with 60 fps high quality is enabling v-sync.

My specs:CPU i7 5820K @ 3.6Ghz | RAM 16GB DDR4 2133MHz | MOBO ASUS X99-A DDR4 ATX | GPU nVidia GTX 970 4GB gddr5 | OS W-7 Pro 64-bit |
 
So i recently managed to get my brother into simracing, i build him a pc with spare parts i had from previews builds, he is running a Intel Core i5.2310 @ 3.10ghz, an evga GTX 780Ti SC (sligthly overclocked) and 8GB RAM. He manages to run the game when solo hotlapping really good even with quality maxed. Even his FPS stay smooth till he adds no more than 15 AI. I know AI's are quite demanding on the CPU, but i want to know which are the most CPU taxing settings (appart from AI's) so maybe he could get a 18-20 AI grid when offline. He doesnt have problems in multiplayer afaik but sadly he doesnt have the time to online race too much.
Thanks in advance.
 
So i recently managed to get my brother into simracing, i build him a pc with spare parts i had from previews builds, he is running a Intel Core i5.2310 @ 3.10ghz, an evga GTX 780Ti SC (sligthly overclocked) and 8GB RAM. He manages to run the game when solo hotlapping really good even with quality maxed. Even his FPS stay smooth till he adds no more than 15 AI. I know AI's are quite demanding on the CPU, but i want to know which are the most CPU taxing settings (appart from AI's) so maybe he could get a 18-20 AI grid when offline. He doesnt have problems in multiplayer afaik but sadly he doesnt have the time to online race too much.
Thanks in advance.
Only thing I know about having an impact on CPU are shadows. Maybe reflections too.
But it's only a guess...
Asked the question last year for pcars and got shadows, grass, smoke, crowds as an answer.
So everything "physically calculated" and everything that is actively moving seems to have an impact.
 
My specs are :
Resolution 2560x1080 @75mhz Freesync enabled. Single LG ultrawide screen with Track IR 5.
Intel i5-4670K Haswell permanently overclocked @ 4.4 ghz AIR cooled.
16gb Ram
Normal hard drive, use SSD for operating system only, Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit.
AMD Radeon RX480 with 8 gig.
I have most settings on high or Ultra in AC and my FPS never drop below 90. Mostly in the 130 upwards bracket.
I dont use post processing though as I prefer it without for a cleaner, crisper look. If I put all post PP on my FPS drops to to the low 50's but can still be up to the 80's. But because I use Freesync, even if it drops to below 30 fps (max cars and details) it is still buttery smooth.
 
I got

i7 6700K
GTX 1070 SC 8GB ACX 3.0 Black Edition
16GB DDR4

1080p 144Hz monitor

Running the game everything maxed with just post processing disabled, i hate the look of post processing and disable it in all games.

Last time i checkd i was getting on average 120FPS.
 
I have a super turbo nuclear powered.............

Just kidding, it's a

i3 3220
HD 7770 2GB
8GB Ram
Viewsonic 24" Full HD Montior

Whole thing cost me $400.00

Running the game with some things lowered, it looks pretty darned good, I am more interested in racing than lovely looks. Gets over 60 FPS doing my favored hot laps. So you can run this game fine on a "low" end PC.
 
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The most common taxing effect in Assetto Corsa is the Shadow Resolution, Anti Aliasing, dept of field, smoke & reflection.

Motion Blur is mostly based on the video memory, but it's also better to turn that off.

You hardly see the difference with the shadow resolution, but I recommend on low as the difference in perception is little as it is probably the most useless taxing effect in 3d games.
 
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I don't seem to be doing too bad.

I5 6600k mini itx 16gb ddr4
980ti
5760 x 1080 ( triples 27")
8x
2x
Shadows low
Smoke low ( need it for a visual waning of what going on ahead )
No post processing
Reflections low
Mirrors high quality.
No vsync
Full field of AI (24) at spa, start grid 80 to 90FPS in lap over 100FPS
 
Number 1 loss of FPS I've found is overlay apps; I've recently stepped up from a mid-range rig to something nearer top end ( I have a 6 year old i7 CPU, but an RX580 & RX570 thanks to events ) & messing around with multiscreen for the first time - just the timing app open will drop me from 60fps to about 42 ( that's in triple screen obviously ) and it degrades more with more things open. Otherwise, agreed, the reflections tab is a killer.

Running two GPUs has also maxed out my CPU use in AC for the first time ever - AC is not hard on CPUs, at least.
 
I have a question about Crossfire.
If Crossfire is on, i need more RAM ? I asked because with crossfire i gain much more fps, but can’t race with full grid. For ex. Nordschleife with Crossfire off i can run 25 cars (several GT3, GT2, LMP), with Crossfire on - only 19 (if more, game crash to desktop) and have some shutters. Video settings is the same, both in AC and Radeon Settings. I have 12Gb RAM
P.S. this happens not only in AC
 

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