Steam Low Fps In General And Severe Fps-drops

am I doing something wrong or is TSW5 pretty bad at performance?
On My setup (i9-10940, 32GB RAM, GTX4080 Super [3840x1080]) I reach max. 40 FPS (best case) in general and several heavy FPS-drops down to 15FPS every now and then (~30sec.) - then even the game gets stuck for a while. I even lowered the Settings down to "High" but the performance remains.
When checking the ressoruces, CPU, RAM and GPU run at max. 30%-50% load.

 

You could see the game dropping frames and stuttering quite badly in all three TSW 5 streams. I thought it might have had something to do with the stream, but for FPS to be dropping so much on a relatively powerful PC is not great.

 

Watching the streams, you see they are getting the first time achievements (Opening a cab door etc.), means they haven't run the routes before on that PC, so they're victim of shader caching I presume because of using nightly builds

They could've just run the route twice (up and down) as passenger using 4x time acceleration (UE "slomo" command) before streaming to create the shader cache.

 

especially as it is not problem of users hardware but awful game performance...

 

The new routes (I tried Frankfurt-Fulda and San Bernadino) look stunning and offer a lot of variety. So far so good. But I got about 40-60 fps in the old routes like München-Augsburg or Cologne-Aachen. On TWS5 framerates on the new routes sometimes drop to 15 fps or lower. Do you have the same problems?

I use a NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4050 mobile (6 GB VRAM), Intel i5-12500H, 16 GB RAM, Windows 11 (Gaming-Laptop). Are these specifications too low for the new routes? Any hints?

Resolution: On TSW4-Routes I used to play on 3240x2160, now on 2560x1440

 

Running on a PC with a Nvidia 4070TI and besides some stuttering on the first runs as shaders are being loaded I haven’t noticed any slow downs. Running ultra settings by the way

 

I'm seeing similar (frame rate drops to single digits). Happens with new to me as well as previously driven routes, and happened with TSW4 as well. It's very frustrating as I've dropped about $1400 US into hardware upgrades in the past couple months (7900 XTX GPU, 5700 X3D CPU) and have not seen significant improvements. Furthermore, lowering resolution, frame rate cap, and graphics settings don't seem to help much at all. The first time round with the help of this forum we figured out the game was caching to my network share instead of local SSD, but I don't think that's the case this time.

 

Same here, TSW5 is installed on a SSD, i9 9900k, Nvidia RTX 2080. CPU is barely being utilized. GPU however, is at 99% but i do see little powerdraw > 150 watts. Where usually, on routes where everything runs smooth I see it being utilized 99% at 250 watts. Something is telling me that on routes as WCML (heavy stutters at certain points) and the San Bernadino (unplayable for me) route isn't using all of the GPU where it can/could.
For the Frankfurt Fulda route I have 0 performance issues.

 

I'm running a 4080 with 32gb RAM and Intel 12th gen i7. On West Coast Main Line and Frankfurt Fulda I'm getting a solid 62 FPS (I have the game capped at 62 FPS max) and on average it utilises between 60-80% of my GPU and around 30% CPU. I get very occasional stutters the first few runs on these routes.
For some reason the San Bernadino route stutters really heavily, much more than the others on the first few runs, but I'm guessing this is because I was on the section where there's hundreds, well probably thousands, of houses and the mountains in the distance. I am hoping this improves as it makes the route less enjoyable than the others which run super smooth.

 

Alright, it's still not perfect but I managed to get a lot less stuttering and San Bernadino is now playable for me.
What I did was upgrade my graphics card drivers to version 561.09 and lowered most of the settings to medium, with exception of texure details.

These 2 routes are now at least playable without going into single digit FPS. Also my my graphic card seems to use more power too, I'm seeing 190 to 200 Watts now.

Hopefully this can help someone else.

 

I can confirm that in Frankfurt Fulda the FPS is sometimes going nuts.... Its bizar with a RTX4070TI and not what i have experienced before on German TSW4 routes.

 

Seems the new 2D map takes a lot of FPS when playing whil it is zoomed in, especially with the Text. I got the early access version, since the german route is done very well and made some tests.

For all stutters i used to press 9 for the map, and zoom out entirely. Same after task are finished it seems to stutter sometimes, so open the map and zoom out and it works well again.

In general the FPS are a bit lower than on the TSW4 routes yes.

 

Yeah on my Nvidia 2060 I had the same issues in Euston and every time I was in conductor mode the game would freeze a little bit would at least utilise 86%-96% of the GPU in the Nvidia control panel I'm assuming that the game has to be optimise to make it run smoothly

Before purchasing it said recommended 2060 too on the Xbox app it's okay but it does freeze a little bit for a second or two here and there

 

Update 555.85 GPU drivers for older hardware 2070/2080
Update chipset driver's for your specific motherboard.
Sound card update too or latest onboard sound driver.
My only problem route was San Bernardino, crashing in timetable mode constantly.
Spawn on free roam.class 43 and start at one end,stay in the cab.Dont forget to set path to other end.
WCML one crash one lockup
German route one crash no lock up
All medium settings except texture high,draw distance high.
Sync off 62 FPS locked.
55 minutes in the hst only slowed down for anything below 50.
Stayed in cab with no sightseeing.
Fixed after cache run.
No more lock ups or crashes.
Worst areas 35-45 FPS stayed around 60 everywhere else.
No more crashes to desktop or lock ups.
And 3600 ,2070 super,32 gig ram, separate SSD for tsw5.Ae5 soundcard,5.1 speakers.

 

Thanks for your work but its a little useless....

 

I checked my Windows 11- and BIOS-settings and deactivated the Intel graphic card (BIOS) and the VM platform (Windows). I also set the Shade Cache Size 10 GB in the NVIDIA control panel. Seems to run better, but not perfect, after a few runs. Maybe my next computer will be a desktop and no more a laptop.

 

You on Xbox or playstation then Xander?
Hopefully they'll be on with the patch quickly for the consoles.

 

What does this mean? I'm on PS5 and on my first run also experienced this. I heard this advice before but what does it actually mean? I think it's the first game I know that you have to play before it runs smoothly.

 

It’s quite common in a lot of games but is probably more obvious in TSW due to the nature of the gameplay. It’s most definitely an issue with UE4. There are things developers can do to circumvent the problem, like have the game compile shaders on first load or have the option to do it from the main menu but DTG have so far chosen not to do that. It isn’t something you should experience on console however.

https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/04/07/shader-compilation-stuttering-pc-games-explained

 

8GB of RAM in 2024?

You've been living dangerously up until now.

 

No im on pc but i have build my self a 2500€ pc by my own so i know very well how to update a driver and all the advice you give.

 

Wasn't being rude, just trying to help out.
You're lucky you can afford a top end pc.
Never bought a Pc myself, always best to pick your own bits, when you build your own.
Prefer spending on my motorbikes
Only usually game in the winter.
TSW got me hooked.

 

No im not saying your'e rude... it was more a conclusion that for me that doesn't help.

 

Not a pro gamer. My laptop came with 8GB and TSW ran pretty good until i started TSW5 routes and its pretty bad. So upgraded the RAM

 

I am still fascinated: On the tracks before TSW5 (Cologne - Aachen, München - Augsburg) I get 40-60 fps running on "High" and a resoultion of 2560x1440. On Frankfurt - Fulda I need to go to "Low" to get framerates close to this. Statistics show a bored CPU, but full RAM usage (about 15,7 GB of 16), full VRAM usage (6 GB) and 100% GPU Power. As I mentioned I have a RTX 4050 mobile, not far as light, but anyway the newest generation.

I will try a RAM Upgrade hopefully tomorrow and then let's see.

I wonder why just so few people see this difference between TSW4 and TSW5 tracks. Am I doing something wrong? Is my setup strange? I don't know.

 

Thank you DTG-Chris for your support. I already deactivated the onboard GPU and updated to 32 GB RAM. It didn't lead to framerate improvements. I also followed your advice to deactivate Gaming Mode in Windows 11. I think I have to deal with it. All other routes before the release of TSW5 run perfectly, also most other games on middel to high details. Well that's it. Right now I download the Geforce GameReady driver from 9/11. I will tell if things have gone better.

 

I just wanted to say thank you for the tips and the good documentation, e.g. for improving shader cache oder virtual memory. That brought me about 5 fps!

Since I am not satisfied with my gaming device I ordered a new PC and looking forward for all those great routes with good performance.