FGU using GPU at almost 100%

[lostsanityreturned]

Well it could be a good excuse to buy a gaming PC... ;-)
The problem is that if FGU requires high end PC that would probably mean I'd loose half of my players and that's something a can't accept. In that case I'll probably have to opt out.

I wouldn't expect purchasing a high end PC to matter much atm, the program is horribly unoptimised and I expect it to change in the future (that or Smiteworks will simply nolonger have a product and have to scrap it :P )

I am having performance hitches with a 2080ti, 3900x (ryzen), 32gb of low latency high speed ram, on a fast m.2 ssd.

One moment it will be running fine, the next I am fighting frames in the single digits while moving a character.

[Draco Oricalcinus]

I've made no modifications nor am I running any utilities that would affect my GPU. My "performance" gaming days are decades behind me.

[Zarkamorta]

I agree that this Surface Pro appears to be GPU bound, but it shouldn't be. I have a MacMini with a less powerful integrated GPU and it is not GPU bound. We also have reports of users with dedicated GPUs having similar issues. In the first example (5E Sample Campaign, Simple Gray, just starting the campaign), FGU is drawing around 14k triangles. That's it. There isn't any post-processing or anything else running. It certainly isn't vertex bound. Reducing the resolution suggests that it is pixel bound, but again, I wouldn't expect it to be. Zarkamorta has helped to eliminate runway FPS as an issue in this case, which is progress.

Hi Pindercarl,

Meanwhile, I installed Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers. (I also updated the GPU driver to 27.20.100.8190 with no change in FPS or GPU load).

I took a frame snapshot for the test scenario 2736x1824 – native resolution, 5E Sample Campaign, Simple Gray, just starting the campaign, not opening any windows, not using any effects.

Again this translates to CPU 7%, 1 GHz, 3.5 GB RAM, GPU/3D 90-99%, 0.4 GB VRAM, 60 FPS.

From the Graphics Frame Analyzer I get the following reading:

FGU.jpg

Full Frame 10870 µs, 92 FPS

Early on there is a log for draw indexed which takes up 5157 µs of the 10870 µs. Bottleneck is the pixel backend.

Further, larger spikes are 2120 µs for resolve subresource (bottleneck not available), 1538 µs and 1352 µs for two other draw indexed (bottleneck is geometry transformation).

Going through all the logs, I get mainly the bottlenecks pixel backend and geometry transformation.

I hope this helps. Since my knowledge with Intel GPA is very limited, I’m not sure what to look for.

Of course, I’m more than willing to perform other measurements (e. g. for map opened and using effects) or send you the frame snapshot for an in-depth analysis.

[Zarkamorta]

PS:

Here is also an overview for the test scenario 5E Sample Campaign, Simple Gray, Battle Map01 open and zoom to fit, just using one effect (rain):

FGU2.jpg

Full Frame 27067 µs, 37 FPS

Things are getting a little bit more complex, main bottlenecks are (poorly prioritized):

pixel backend
geometry transformation

(sampler)
(setup backend)

((rasterization))
((early depth / stencil))

[Zarkamorta]

PPS:

In addition, an overview for the test scenario 5E Sample Campaign, Simple Gray, Battle Map01 open and zoom to fit, using no effect:

FGU3.jpg

Full Frame 24991 µs, 40 FPS

Main bottlenecks are the same as above (poorly prioritized):

pixel backend
geometry transformation

(sampler)
(setup backend)

((rasterization))
((early depth / stencil))

[pindercarl]

PPS:

In addition, an overview for the test scenario 5E Sample Campaign, Simple Gray, Battle Map01 open and zoom to fit, using no effect:

FGU3.jpg

Full Frame 24991 µs, 40 FPS

Main bottlenecks are the same as above (poorly prioritized):

pixel backend
geometry transformation

(sampler)
(setup backend)

((rasterization))
((early depth / stencil))

Thanks for the info. The bottleneck on stencil buffers is particularly interesting. As soon as I wrap up work on the LOS refactor, I already plan to look at writing custom clipping to remove our reliance on stenciling. It is a known issue that we often run out of stencil buffers. I'll have a look at batching while I'm in there. It is possible that we are not batching textures as well as we could. Thanks again for the additional metrics.

[Zarkamorta]

Thanks for the info. The bottleneck on stencil buffers is particularly interesting. As soon as I wrap up work on the LOS refactor, I already plan to look at writing custom clipping to remove our reliance on stenciling. It is a known issue that we often run out of stencil buffers. I'll have a look at batching while I'm in there. It is possible that we are not batching textures as well as we could. Thanks again for the additional metrics.

Hi Pindercarl,

Though, the much bigger problem seems to be pixel backend and geometry transformation. It would be good to carry out a differential analysis. Comparing my readings with readings from a flawlessly performing system (with similar specs). In my opinion that would help to pinpoint the problem.

[mah25]

Just some feedback on the GPU issue. I have a 2012 iMac and Unity just slams the GPU.

2012 iMac - MasOS Mojave 10.14.6
2.7 GHz Intel i5-3335S 4-cores
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512 MB
16 GB Ram

At FGU start up - GPU ramps to over 60% and CPU use is under 25%
Attachment 36014

With just a campaign loaded - the GPU spikes to nearly 100% and drops to around 75%

Attachment 36019

With a single map with no tokens - the GPU pegs at 100% with the CPU around 25%

jpg3.jpg

I know it's an older machine, but never seen the GPU pushed so hard with not much going on. I still edit video (not 4K) on it with no problems.

[mah25]

Just some feedback on the GPU issue. I have a 2012 iMac and Unity just slams the GPU.

2012 iMac - MasOS Mojave 10.14.6
2.7 GHz Intel i5-3335S 4-cores
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512 MB
16 GB Ram

At FGU start up - GPU ramps to over 60% and CPU use is under 25%

jpg1.jpg

With just a campaign loaded - the GPU spikes to nearly 100% and drops to around 75%

jpg2.jpg

With a just one map opened - the GPU pegs at 100% with the CPU at around 25%.

jpg3.jpg

I know its an old machine, but I still edit video (not 4K) on it with no problems.

[benmxs]

Hi guys,

we were facing simliar GPU problems in our new campaign with FGU yesterday. Had to fall back to the classic version. It's already our 2nd try with FGU. With regards to the acceptance of the app this develops towards a show stopper in our gaming round. Spending the whole evening with this again.

Only some people were facing the issue, seems like the high-end laptop faction only. My laptop (Dell XPS15 9560 with 32 GB RAM) was sweating in before unknown ways even when only the updater dialog was open. Not even the mouse pointer was running smoothly any longer.

I would really appreciate help here, please let me know if I can support in any ways.

Regards,
Ben