G-Sync + Shadowplay Cuts FPS in Half

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
Christopher Shaffer

Christopher Shaffer

Honorable
Sep 22, 2013
482
0
10,810
I'm going to post in some info I posted at the Nvidia GeForce forums below as this does a pretty good job of explaining the issue.

I want to make it clear that G-Sync works great on its own, and that Shadowplay previously only cost me maybe a few FPS.

Before you post a solution note that I have tried 4 different driver versions, two difference GF Experience versions and have even just done a fresh Win8.1 install to no avail. This is not limited to BF4, either, though the example I give below references this game.

This problem did not occur prior to G-Sync installation. I actually have slightly better overall FPS with G-Sync so long as Shadowplay is not enabled. My FPS drops as much less significant, as well.
I posted this on the general Shadowplay post, too, but I've now tried literally EVERYthing and can't resolve this.

When I have Shadowplay enabled in 1.8.2, it cuts my FPS in half in BF4. I am easily hitting my target of 144FPS (144Hz monitor) without SP. Previous versions caused only a few FPS hit. 75 is ridiculous.

I have tried rolling back to the previous version, but as the GF Experience settings to NOT CHECK FOR AN UPDATE and NOT NOTIFY ME OF AN UPDATE don't work, have never worked and make it impossible to bypass the update message w/out updating, I cannot roll back.

Note that I have recently installed G-Sync in an Asus VG248QE monitor. I strongly believe this is related.

As of today, I am removing GF Experience and looking for a different solution. In it's current state, it's worthless.


My system specs are below:

i5 3570k @ 4.5GHz
ASRock Z77 Ext 4
8GB GSkill Sniper 1866 @9-10-9-28
Samnsung EVO SSD
Seagate 1TB Hybrid SSHD
2x Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB in SLI
Seasonic X-850
Click to expand...

I wanted to post again (though after surfing these forums I am convinced Nvidia could give a shit less) because I have experimented with this on a completely fresh installation of Windows 8.

I am now 100% convinced that when using G-Sync, Shadowplay somehow ignores the 2nd card in my SLI setup. Note that Afterburner shows that both cards GPUs are only at about 60%, yet my FPS drops from 144 to 75 just by enabling Shadowplay with NO CHANGE IN GPU OR VRAM USAGE.

Here's the kicker: when I disable SLI and even the 2nd card entirely, the performance in BF4 is identical. That is to say, the FOS stays around 75-80 in open areas and the FPS drops occur at the same times (explosions, etc) as when using SLI + SP. I don't know how this is even possible but that's what's happening. It's as though the 2nd card is just working for no reason.

If you want G-Sync to be successful, Nvidia, I'd suggest fixing this ASAP.

My next move is to document my testing and report this to Tom's Hardware and Blur Busters. I'd hate to see negative press screw G-Sync, but people should know before buying that the GeForce Experience with G-Sync is shit.

I'll add that G-Sync looks amazing otherwise, but without compatibility for your latest capture software, GF Experience is a no-go.
Click to expand...
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Christopher Shaffer

Christopher Shaffer

Honorable
Sep 22, 2013
482
0
10,810
For those who may read this, I've discovered this issue is actually related to the G-Sync driver and Shadowplay. Shadowplay essentially has to work a lot harder with a VRR. It seems to think it's capturing a far higher number of frames than it actually is. In fact, the files written with this tend to be a bit bigger, too.

It looks like I'll just have to use Open Broadcaster until the driver issue is resolved.

But seriously, folks, just get G-Sync. BF4 has never looked more amazing. It's insane.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

bystander

Champion
Dec 9, 2009
15,141
6
57,965


This does make sense. Video is always with a fixed refresh, so it makes sense that Shadowplay would have difficulties with variable refresh rates.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Christopher Shaffer

Christopher Shaffer

Honorable
Sep 22, 2013
482
0
10,810


I think the issue comes down to the frame buffer. I found a frame buffer of about 500ms on Open Broadcaster works perfectly fine for slightly better quality video than Shadowplay without an FPS hit. I'm not sure what Shadowplay's buffer is, but for 1080p it's probably over 1500ms. This means if it can't calculate the FPS properly it might be repeatedly buffering and bogging down my card.

Open Broadcaster actually works very well and I haven't noticed any performance issues so far. It's a tad bit buggy, but for a completely free, open-source capture software, it rocks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RobCrezz

RobCrezz

Expert
Ambassador
Mar 14, 2013
19,080
99
75,190


Shame you're having the problems, but these things happen sometimes with new tech.

G-Sync sounds brilliant! :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

bystander

Champion
Dec 9, 2009
15,141
6
57,965


Whether or not the performance issues can be fixed, G-sync and creating videos with it create a problem. Videos are displayed at a fixed refresh, your shadowplay with g-sync likely has to convert what ever is created into a fixed refresh, which probably means the video quality of these g-sync + Shadowplay combinations will not be of great quality. I'm betting the large buffer may be something required to convert the frames into a fix refresh when saving it to a video.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Christopher Shaffer

Christopher Shaffer

Honorable
Sep 22, 2013
482
0
10,810


I hear what you're saying but I have less than a 5FPS hit using Open Broadcaster to capture and the video quality is superior to Shadowplay, so I don't think that's the case. It's got to be a driver issue related to the method of capture being used. The reason I say this is that the problem persists even with G-Sync disabled and using a completely different monitor. Once the G-Sync driver is installed, Shadowplay is broken. In fact, it's like Shadowplay somehow ignores the processing of the 2nd card because performance on SLI and off SLI is exactly the same if Shadowplay is turned on.

Also, again: the performance drops even when SP is NOT recording; if it's simply enabled, it drops. It's definitely a driver issue. There is a background "capture server" process that runs if it's enabled, and isn't present if it's not.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom