Ratchety graphics on new system

[Shenanigunner]

So after mumble years I finally built a new workstation. (3770K to 10700K... need I say more? although it was 90% due to creeping age issues and reliability more than performance...)

 

Anyway, I installed CoH using the HC launcher this time and all is great... except that my graphics are lousy no matter what I do. I'm using the same video card (GTX 1050Ti) and initially was using the same graphic settings. Started tweaking to see what I could get out of the new system and now... I'm completely unhappy with almost every aspect. Nudged a lot of things while watching the framerate, backed off on everything that slowed it from ~60.

 

And now nothing looks quite right, I had ny Nav window keep slllooowwwwlllyy sliding over to the right edge, setting visscale further bounces back to a setting of one... and I have perpetual little rubberbandy snaps when I am moving or rotating.

 

4K monitor, was running at full res before, tried backing it off to 1920x1080 and varying the field of view. No fixes.

 

How'n'hell does going to 3X the system power, on the same video card, with all the same settings cause so many problems? Any idea what I can do to get the nice, smooth, reasonable-distance graphics I've had all along?

[EmperorSteele]

Is the game actually using your graphics card? It should by default, but you should have the ability to change it back if it's not.

[Shenanigunner]

Well, as the monitors are connected to the card, I assume it's in charge.

[GM Tock]

13 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

And now nothing looks quite right, I had ny Nav window keep slllooowwwwlllyy sliding over to the right edge, setting visscale further bounces back to a setting of one... and I have perpetual little rubberbandy snaps when I am moving or rotating.

 

Just checking, are you using multiple computers to play City of Heroes?

 

The game saves window positions on the server from the last session, so if you're playing on a different graphic/monitor setup than your new system, everything will be out of whack each time you hop between systems.  You can use the Chat Settings and Windows Settings "Save to File" buttons in the Windows tab on the Options menu.

 

1. Position the windows how you like them on your new system.  Also, choose your tabs and chat channels as well.
2. In chat, type "/optionsave", followed by "/wdwsave".  If you're a visual person, you can find the same two commands in the Options menu, Windows tab, scroll ALL THE WAY to the bottom.
3. Next time you load a character you played on a different system, use "/optionload" and "/wdwload" to load your presets.

You can even make a macro of the last step to put on your power trays or Macro window. 
 

Quote

/Macro Fix "optionload$$wdwload"

If that isn't what's happening, let us know.

(Credit to Healix for this info.)

[Drakwatch]

Did you try lowering the FSAA (Full Screen Anti-aliasing)? I recently changed monitors to something a bit bigger, and I had that setting all the way up for some reason. It was giving me around below 30 FPS on medium settings no matter what I did, but when I changed it to my correct monitor resolution and switched FSAA to 8x (I believe?), it made everything a lot smoother and back up to 60FPS on max settings.

[Shenanigunner]

Yeah, I learned a long time ago that FSAA really hammers the video on this engine, and leave it at 0 or 2.

 

No, I messed with just about everything and either had crummy graphics or problems. Will start from scratch tonight and see if I can get back to that happy medium.

 

The weird things were the little bump-bump-bump on looking around, like micro-rubberbanding, and having my Nav window decide it was going to slide across the screen no matter how many times I repositioned it or changed settings. (That stopped with an exit and restart.)

 

 

ETA: And yeah, I'm way familiar with tweaking, saving and loading window configs. This is a one-time switch from an old system to a new one, with the same video card and resolution, so that hasn't been a problem. It's the actual 3D video quality/performance that's gone sideways.

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[Shenanigunner]

...and the problem seems to have sorted itself out, spontaneously. I have good graphics and can turn almost everything way up with no issues. Must have been some kind of driver interaction or update or such.

 

But hey, it's great. 4K at HD scaling, 60 fps and all the shinies I could ever want.

[WanderingAries]

On 3/21/2021 at 9:54 PM, Shenanigunner said:

So after mumble years I finally built a new workstation. (3770K to 10700K... need I say more? although it was 90% due to creeping age issues and reliability more than performance...)

 

I feel called out :p

 

On 3/21/2021 at 9:54 PM, Shenanigunner said:

How'n'hell does going to 3X the system power, on the same video card, with all the same settings cause so many problems? Any idea what I can do to get the nice, smooth, reasonable-distance graphics I've had all along?

 

I'm guessing driver issue TBH. I get slightly different system response when my wifi card changes slots.

Edited March 26, 2021 by WanderingAries

[Hyperstrike]

On 3/24/2021 at 8:39 PM, Shenanigunner said:

...and the problem seems to have sorted itself out, spontaneously. I have good graphics and can turn almost everything way up with no issues. Must have been some kind of driver interaction or update or such.

 

But hey, it's great. 4K at HD scaling, 60 fps and all the shinies I could ever want.

If you had the default Windows NVIDIA driver, yeah.  It sucks harder than than an L1 Mastermine in Incarnate content at 4+x8.

And I wish I could go with an Intel rig.

Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver the features I need.

Edited March 27, 2021 by Hyperstrike

[Shenanigunner]

2 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

If you had the default Windows NVIDIA driver, yeah.  It sucks harder than than an L1 Mastermine in Incarnate content at 4+x8.

And I wish I could go with an Intel rig.

Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver the features I need.

 

Pretty sure I'd done a full Nvidia update before running (or even installing) CoH. But yea, driver seems the likely culprit, one way or the other.

 

Other than higher performance at the maxed end of the scale, what does an AMD system deliver an Intel one doesn't? I went with a 10700 because it was $100+ cheaper, uses a lot less power (I leave my system on 24/7) and ran neck and neck with the 10900 until the tippy-top end of the chart. Just couldn't justify greatly expanded cost for that marginal top-end power increase, or that of any of the Ryzens.

 

And my other (paying )use for the system is graphics, video, rendering etc., so it's not a trivial question.

 

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, Shenanigunner said:

Pretty sure I'd done a full Nvidia update before running (or even installing) CoH. But yea, driver seems the likely culprit, one way or the other.

 

Other than higher performance at the maxed end of the scale, what does an AMD system deliver an Intel one doesn't? I went with a 10700 because it was $100+ cheaper, uses a lot less power (I leave my system on 24/7) and ran neck and neck with the 10900 until the tippy-top end of the chart. Just couldn't justify greatly expanded cost for that marginal top-end power increase, or that of any of the Ryzens.

 

And my other (paying )use for the system is graphics, video, rendering etc., so it's not a trivial question.

16 hyperthreading cores.  Not to mention the IPC uplift does EXCELLENT things for the R5K series.  In a consumer-grade chip.
A motherboard platform I can mount three M.2 SSDs onto without coming up short on my SATA controller.
Nominal all-core overclocking in the 4.5Ghz range without extreme cooling (which I'm providing anyhow).

I mean, if I wanted, I could go Epyc (or dual-Epyc, or Threadripper) and drive the core count through the roof.

And my mixed workload includes SQL, video, multiple forms of virtualization, etc.

Is the machine I'm building completely overkill for gaming?

YEP!

But the machine isn't built primarily for gaming.  It's a work box that'll just happens to be a sleek, sexy game system if I choose to use it that way.

The thing that REALLY bites is I can't put my hands on a 3000 series RTX worth a damn, and I happened to buy the ONE RTX 2060 that nobody builds watercooling plates for, because there are multiple PCB geometries for the card used on the same SKU.

And I'll still be using the same case from my last build.  With some improvements (in my eyes).
Thermaltake Core X9 (the original black).

I managed to dig up another copy of the case, which is completely out of production after 7 years.
I've lost the spare hardware and several case thumbscrews.  So the second box will have that.
I'm going to be getting rid of the stupid window panel and it'll run both sides with vented panels and magnetic filters.
And I can use the spare case to prep the motherboard, watercooling setup and everything else.  So that, when the CPU comes in, I simply have to drop it in, swap over the cards and the side panels, then hook up the tubing and bleed the system.

Looking likely to be a 3 day weekend.  Final assembly and bleed on the first day with an overnight leak test.
Fix any leaks and begin system install on day two.  Maybe with preliminary application setup, depending on how far I get.
Finalize application setup and dial the system in on day three.

Granted if I wanted to go "ultrastupid", I could stack the second box on top of the first, and throw God's own radiator setup in there...
2900mm of radiator anyone?  And that's just the top case. 

But no, I'm not going to burn $1200 just on radiators.
Nor am I mounting an Eheim pump anywhere NEAR my computing area (because you'd need that for that sort of volume.


 

[WanderingAries]

16 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

Granted if I wanted to go "ultrastupid", I could stack the second box on top of the first, and throw God's own radiator setup in there...
2900mm of radiator anyone?  And that's just the top case. 

But no, I'm not going to burn $1200 just on radiators.
Nor am I mounting an Eheim pump anywhere NEAR my computing area (because you'd need that for that sort of volume.

 

Don't hit me for the suggestion, but didn't LTT sort out that more than 3 was a loss in return value?

[Hyperstrike]

6 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

 

Don't hit me for the suggestion, but didn't LTT sort out that more than 3 was a loss in return value?

Didn't say it wasn't.  Most single components outside of things like Threadripper need approximately 1x120 mm rad to prevent overheating.
If you want a margin of safety, 2x120.
I use 140mm as my base measure.  And I'm going to be "playing" a bit.  So there's going to be 2x 420mm (3x140) in my case.  Just trying to decide if I want to go high density 45mm, low density 60mm or low density 85mm.

And yes, 2900mm of rad won't allow stupid overclocks.
It'd just keep you as close to ambient as possible.

[WanderingAries]

16 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

Didn't say it wasn't.  Most single components outside of things like Threadripper need approximately 1x120 mm rad to prevent overheating.
If you want a margin of safety, 2x120.
I use 140mm as my base measure.  And I'm going to be "playing" a bit.  So there's going to be 2x 420mm (3x140) in my case.  Just trying to decide if I want to go high density 45mm, low density 60mm or low density 85mm.

And yes, 2900mm of rad won't allow stupid overclocks.
It'd just keep you as close to ambient as possible.

 

Eh, I'm just too leary of fluids inside a system is all. 😱

[Hyperstrike]

11 minutes ago, WanderingAries said:

 

Eh, I'm just too leary of fluids inside a system is all. 😱

I've been doing liquid cooling in my case for a long, LONG time now.
Though this'll be my first custom loop in over a decade.

[Hyperstrike]

Don't feed them after midnight.

Radiator space?  Let me SHOW you radiator space!

[WanderingAries]

@Hyperstrike, What did I tell you about those cables young man?!? *ducks*

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, WanderingAries said:

@Hyperstrike, What did I tell you about those cables young man?!? *ducks*

*Poops in WanderingAries' cornflakes*

[WanderingAries]

[Hyperstrike]

Having a bit of an issue with Aquatuning right now.
It's supposed to be $500 = free shipping.
But My order's over $600 and it's telling me $125 in shipping.

Now, compared to buying stuff off Amazon or Newegg, that's STILL cheap.  But if they're telling me "free shipping"?  DAMMIT!  I WANT FREE SHIPPING!

[WanderingAries]

On 3/31/2021 at 8:01 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Having a bit of an issue with Aquatuning right now.
It's supposed to be $500 = free shipping.
But My order's over $600 and it's telling me $125 in shipping.

Now, compared to buying stuff off Amazon or Newegg, that's STILL cheap.  But if they're telling me "free shipping"?  DAMMIT!  I WANT FREE SHIPPING!

 

That's the Evergreen surcharge. Didn't you know?

[Hyperstrike]

Well, had an emergency dental bill fall from orbit and hit me DIRECTLY in the danglies...

So my build bling got revised.  Not going custom loop.
Pared down to a 420mm "AIO".
Technically it's an AIO.  But it's built of stock Alphacool components and is totally expandable.
It's got a quick disconnect setup to allow you to add components.
And if I want, I can convert it to standard fittings and turn everything into regular soft-tubing and quick disconnects or go hard tube.

But just dropped $3600 today.  And should have everything in my posession by mid-month.

If you want a 5950x CPU and can use a new 27" gaming monitor, the deal I took is pretty good.
https://www.antonline.com/Lenovo/Computers/Computer_Displays/Monitors/1424182

I don't need the monitor.  So I'm giving it to my bosses.

If I needed it, the markup over MSRP for both things is only about $80.

Link is still good as this post goes live at 11PM Central 04/08/21.

[WanderingAries]

20 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

Well, had an emergency dental bill fall from orbit and hit me DIRECTLY in the danglies...

 

Dental and Danglies should not be mixing...

That said, I'm still due an extraction (Ins starts next month) and Hopefully some implants. The dental kind ...before it comes up. :p

[Hyperstrike]

[RogerWilco]

On 3/27/2021 at 6:45 AM, Hyperstrike said:

The thing that REALLY bites is I can't put my hands on a 3000 series RTX worth a damn, and I happened to buy the ONE RTX 2060 that nobody builds watercooling plates for, because there are multiple PCB geometries for the card used on the same SKU.

 

I am trying to build a X5900 system for similar reasons, but I've had no luck getting a 3080 in December last year, when I first ordered the system, and now the prices have gone completely crazy. I still have an ASUS RTX3080 TUF on order since December 5, and the MSI RTX3080 Gaming X Trio I also ordered was cancelled and refunded, apparently because MSI stopped making them.

I am in no mood to pay €2000 or more for a card that should be €750.

In the mean time I am stuck on my Mac Pro 2010, which can run CoH at 4K thanks to a MacVidCards GTX980.