Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Technical Issues SLI and Quad Core i7 performance issues...

Hey Larian (and others),

Any news on SLI support for this title? I am having performance issues that (I think) are stemming from SLI malfunctions. Here is what I have observed...

When I leave the Nvidia Control Panel options for Original Sin alone at the default settings, the game performs around 30-40 frames per second, sometimes dropping lower. Now when I modify the game settings in the Nvidia Control Panel to Alternate Frame Rendering I can boost the frame rate up to 50-60 frames per second with the occasional dip down into the 40s. But when I do this I cannot set the shadows lower than medium because the low and lowest shadows will flicker for some reason.

Is this something that Nvidia has to fix on their end? Or you folks over at Larian do something about it?

I think it is the SLI that is holding my performance back, but I am not entirely sure if it is only that. To this end I wanted to add to this post the request that others post how their Quad core CPUs are performing in this game. When I run the game in windowed fullscreen and check my CPU usage it is using all the cores, which is generally a good sign. But they are not being used very high. So either this means that the CPU is not being used enough, or it does not need to be used that much and the problem is in fact the GPU...

Curious to see which it is...

Here are my specs...

Lenovo Y500 Notebook
GPU: Nvidia 650m x2
(running in sli, both dedicated, no integrated GPU or Optimus nonsense)
RAM: 12GB DDR3
CPU: Intel 3630QM i7 Quadcore 2.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost @ 3.4 GHz

Like I said, I suspect the problem is the SLI but I am not sure. And if it is the SLI my guess would be that Larian can only do so much about this before Nvidia needs to step up to the plate and produce a proper profile for the game. But until they do so has anyone found an SLI Compatibility Bits setting for Nvidia Inspector that works better than AFR2?

Sorry for the lengthy post... I'll stop now. Haha.

Oh, by the way, fantastic game Larian!

So updating this because I just read on the Nvidia forums that an SLI profile was added to the game.

[url=https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/760686/sli/divinity-original-sin-sli-profile-released/][/url] https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/760686/sli/divinity-original-sin-sli-profile-released/

I can confirm that this is true. With this I can use the SLI profile with the same performance as Alternate Frame Rendering.

But this still does not fix the overall performance of the game. It really just maintains the same performance via a proper usage of SLI. The CPU usage is still all over the place and my fans are spinning like jet engines when I run this game.

I am guessing that the performance will improve when Nvidia releases an official driver with better support for the engine. And Larian still has work to do with optimization. As for the texture streaming that was patched today, I noticed very little difference and still get better performance with texture streaming off entirely.

The fact that Larian are going all in with this game, and the inclusion of full mod support, gives me high hope that these issues are only launch related.

Keep these threads alive though. And post your specs so we can gather info on which hardware is having the most problems.

So after looking around for some time I have discovered that the issues I am facing may perhaps be related only to mobile GPUs.

People in this REDDIT posting...

http://www.reddit.com/r/DivinityOri...d_performance_on_my_computer_any_advice/

... stated that they were getting more performance from their integrated 4000 series Intel cards than better Nvidia mobile cards. They also made reference to this post...

http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=13468&game=Divinity%202:%20Original%20Sin&title=Divinity:%20Original%20Sin%20Benchmarks%20Intel%20HD%204000%20Integrated%20Graphics

... which stated that the game has been optimized with 4000 series Intel integrated GPUs in mind...

I would greatly appreciate an official response from a dev in this post with affirmation that optimization for mobility cards is coming soon. Please read this and comment. I implore you. I've been dealing with rollercoaster frame rates ever since buying this game and it would make me feel a lot better knowing a developer was aware of my issue. I have sent a support ticket but no response has come in the last three days. I know you all are busy with patches but if you could take a moment to at least comment of the issue.

I'll bump this post again tomorrow with any new information I find on the issue.

Yes, there's certainly something weird going on here. There's also this thread: http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=505407#Post505407 and another that I created by mistake in the general forum.

Furthermore, when changing the resolution setting, I'm only getting one item in the dropdown list which reads "Display 1 - Intel Integrated etc.". I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dropdown there before, and anyway, why is the system detecting only the integrated gpu? No other game seems to have this problem.

Specs: i7 4700 HQ, 765M, 16 GB RAM, Win 8.1

So the newest patch did nothing for my performance and I am still awaiting a new driver set from Nvidia to see if that helps. The game just will not keep a consistent frame rate. I certainly can lock the frame rate to 30 fps from the video settings menu, but watching a slideshow like that without the motion blur added to console games that run at 30 fps is just a pain to my eyes.

Can a developer please respond to this thread with an answer about the Nvidia mobile GPU support? Specifically the 600 series (650m in my case). And before you go and start taking about Optimus, remember that I am running an SLI setup without an Intel GPU. Both of my GPUs are the 650m Nvidia cards. I've tried running this game single GPU and the performance only gets worse. The only way I can get a frame rate even close to a consistent 60 is by running the game in SLI, and the performance using Alternate Frame Rendering seems to be better than the SLI Nvidia released for the game.

And the CPU usage is continuing to baffle me. If I force the game into high priority mode and off of the first core of my CPU then I can get the CPU usage up into the low 40s, but if I let Divinity auto allocate the usage then it stays on the first core and never gets above 20%.

Please, Larian, look into optimizing this game for laptops. You stated you optimized the game for Intel 4000 series GPUs, now do the same for Nvidia mobile GPUs and Intel CPUs. The game is just flat out not using my computers power. It is overheating my system while under-utilizing my hardware. At the very least just say whether you can or cannot further optimize the game on your end and more importantly whether you will or will not do this. Any response on this problem would be welcome.

Any new information on this issue? Has Larian given an ETA for when this might be fixed? I know RAZE said they were aware of the issue, but "aware" and "working on" are two very different attitudes. I don't mean to be redundant about the issue, but I don't want it to be forgotten either, and I don't like having spent $40 for a game I cannot as of yet play due to these issues. Just wanted to keep this thread alive so others might continue to post input on the subject. I've no new information on the matter. In case others did not read the other thread on the single core usage, here is what I found running a monitoring tool...

------------------------------------------
Core 1-
LP1 = 50-100% load
LP2 = 10-20% load
Core 2-
LP1 = 10-20% load
LP2 = 5-10% load
Core 3-
LP1 = 0-5% load
LP2 = 0-5% load
Core- 4-
LP1 = 0-5% load
LP2 = 10-30% load

Total CPU Usage - 10-20%

GPU 1 = 80-95% usage
GPU 2 = 80-95% usage

FPS = 28-34
-------------------------------------------

So far these readings are staying consistent. Does anyone else run HWiNFO along with Rivatunner, or a similar monitoring setup? It would be interesting to get more readings from other folks with differing hardware architecture. I still don't know if this is effecting all i7 CPUs or just mobile.

Another couple days gone by with not a word from Larian... Its been two weeks since I posted this thread and the issues have not gone away. I know Raze said they were "aware of the issue", but I really would like something more along the lines of "it is being worked on" or at the very least "expect this to be fixed by".

Can someone at Larian please respond to this thread and others like it? I know the folks playing on laptops might be a minority, but I've read many other posts on this topic and it seems like everyone using a mobility GPU or CPU is having an issue similar to mine. Can you at least acknowledge the issue in some official capacity? As I stated, Raze is the only one around here who seems to have said anything about the issue. And he only works for Larian in a peripheral manner here on the forums from what I understand. You've been out of beta now for almost a month and these issues have still not even been acknowledged. I've sent two tickets into the support center and the only advice I got was to lower some settings down and turn V-sync off.

I don't usually like bumping my own threads in forums like this, but this issue needs to be addressed. This game is not in beta anymore and these issues are quickly becoming inexcusable as time goes on. At least give some manner of ETA on the matter.

Again for anyone who reads through this thread, please post a listing of your system specs and if possible the CPU and GPU usage you are getting. I'd like to know just how widespread this issue is.

Hello, same problem here, running the game on a (powerful) laptop and framerate issues that I can't get... I'm waiting for an answer from Larian as well!

I agree i am using an 870M and this game causes the system to just overheat while underperforming

Yeah, that 870M should mop the floor with this game. Heck, my SLI 650m cards should be doing the same.

What kind of CPU do you have on board your laptop tbjamies?

My desktop shreds it on Ultra with lowish load. The lightning shows me in color the load (green = low, blue = 50%, Red = 80%+) and it rarely goes blue. Also its cold and i can tell its having an easy time. The laptop on the other hand, doesn't even matter the settings i use (windowed mode on low ffs). Its just a hot mess and runs like crap.

i7 4710HQ

http://ark.intel.com/compare/71459,78931


Yup. That is nearly identical to mine, short of a few variations.

Thanks for the post!

Ya no worries, hopefully they work on the optimization soon. I am glad i'm not alone (kind of?).

Copy-paste from my topic: I may have a temporary solution.

1) Follow instructions here: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Divinity:_Original_Sin (Framerate Drops and Suttering section).

2) In-game, do Alt-Tab to any other application then back in game.

It works a bit for me - I have still big framerate drops during fight mode, but they are short and the game keeps a normal display in exploration mode.

I hope it helps.

Yeah, the texture streaming in the game is definitely part of the problem. I've tried that setting and honestly I don't think it makes much of a difference for me. With it on or off my frame rate is still terrible.

Did you try the alt-tab thing ?

So today, the 29th of July, Nvidia released new drivers. They are the 340.52. They have done nothing for my performance leading me to believe that the issue is with Larian at this point. It has been three weeks since I posted this thread and still no response has been produced regarding the performance of this game on mobile CPUs and GPUs. Can anyone at Larian respond in an official capacity regarding this issue? Where are Larian these days anyways? After the personality update they went silent regarding any other patches or planned patches. Please let this be a top priority. I cannot play this game right now for fear of burning up my PC with overheating issues and poor utilization of my hardware.

This is why you should get a Radeon card.

I had a Radeon card a few years back. I hated the damned thing. It sounded like a jet engine readying for take off whenever I played a game. Generally I love my Nvidia GPUs I've had since then. Almost all the games I have run perfectly well. This has nothing to do with Nvidia support at this point and everything to do with Larian's poor support.