I actually noticed this during beta 4, but it was the first time I noticed buildings, on my new laptop, so I thought they just needed some optimizing, which would be done for the release.
I get a constant max framerate (limited to 90 in my case, for example) over all the map, on a bare ground, units for example are ok. But as soon as a small 3D object enters the field, it decreases. A tree in the corner? 45 fps. A city (not a big one, just the first settlement) visible? 15 fps.
I tried to change the various settings, deactivated soft lighting, AA, shadows, resolution, it's still doing the same. It works good on the cloth map, without a problem, though, as there are no such elements.
Now I would understand such thing on my older laptop, but I'm surprised to see this on the new one. Specs:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~1.6GHzMemory: 8192MB RAMVideo Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
So I'm guessing there is somehow a problem with drivers (though latest ones from ATI), or at least some incompatibility somewhere. Because the objects are nice, the cell shading effect too, but it's hardly something to bring this computer to its knees.
ps: I understand that a game like this doesn't need to run at 90fps. But 15-20 is actually unpleasant on the long term.
Edit: To make a complete (more or less) analysis, I tried at a high and low configuration, similar effects:
LOW Settings:
- Video Configuration
- Over a city: 20 fps
- Without objects: 138 fps
HIGH Settings:
- Over a city: 18 fps
- Without objects: 80 fps
So it doesn't seem to be related to the video settings. I also tried windowed, same.
It is really related to these 3D objects, as shown by these two other screenshots:
- Full zoom, empty ground: 99 fps
- Same place, just a bit higher to have one tree in the view: 29 fps
So far, the only thing which seems to improve performance is to force the game to run only on one core (physical one, so two virtual cores on Core i3/5/7), as suggested by thebigJ_A in this answer.
It should be the other way around, clearly, so maybe it's giving a hint on where the problem could be. Note that this doesn't solve the performance problem, there is still a big decrease on framerate when passing on cities, but less than when the game is authorized to run on all cores. I noticed however that doing this since the 1.05 version makes the sound choppy, probably because it was expecting to run on a different core to begin with.
I've been searching for a common thread but its difficult. I did overclock my CPU and it gave a modest increase in frame not where it should be running at. I overclocked a Intel Core 2 quad from 2.8 ghz to 3.4ghz. Funny thing is that there was very little increase in heat. I monitored Cpu usage and i got the first one at 60% max, the second at 20% and the last two in single digits. Another funny thing is that I can play a movie on my second monitor with no lose in performance. Its very odd to have a game that chugs but can still watch a movie. By the way I also have a radeon 5850. Somehow, this Elemental is just not taking advantage of the computing power. Using resource manager it uses 26% average cpu and 35 threads.
Throwing my hat in the ring
C2D E6700
4 gigs of ram
GTX 260
Vista
Latest drivers (258.96)
Don't have any issues with other 3d apps
Fraps shows sub 10 fps when 3d view is enabled. I've pretty much just been playing on the cloth map - I tried turning down various graphical settings, but it didn't seem to make a difference.
edit: to echo some oddness here, turn processing is lightning fast, it's purely the 3d view that's chugging
I'm on a 2ghz core2duo, nvidia 8600mgt, 2 gb ram, vista 32bit. Latest drivers.
The start of the game runs great, but i experience the same problem as you all once it gets rolling. Almost unplayable after a few cities are introduced.
- Othello
Chalk me up as another one with this. Core2Quad Q6600 (2.4 ghz), 3 GB RAM, Geforce GTS 250 1GB. No matter what settings I run it at, it runs extremely poorly, especially when scrolling the map or when new units emerge from the fog of war. I've got literally nothing running at startup, msconfig'd everything out to no effect. Have the latest drivers and still nothing.
Here's my list if it helps:
System Idle Process 0 Console 0 28 kt
SYSTEM 4 Console 0 104 kt
smss.exe 728 Console 0 160 kt
csrss.exe 788 Console 0 2ÿ300 kt
winlogon.exe 824 Console 0 1ÿ736 kt
services.exe 872 Console 0 1ÿ564 kt
lsass.exe 884 Console 0 2ÿ392 kt
ati2evxx.exe 1056 Console 0 496 kt
svchost.exe 1072 Console 0 1ÿ932 kt
svchost.exe 1152 Console 0 1ÿ504 kt
svchost.exe 1348 Console 0 27ÿ428 kt
svchost.exe 1388 Console 0 436 kt
svchost.exe 1444 Console 0 1ÿ808 kt
svchost.exe 1652 Console 0 492 kt
ati2evxx.exe 1784 Console 0 712 kt
spoolsv.exe 1920 Console 0 1ÿ244 kt
CTAudSvc.exe 1964 Console 0 236 kt
explorer.exe 376 Console 0 64ÿ716 kt
Ctxfihlp.exe 636 Console 0 676 kt
VolPanlu.exe 656 Console 0 1ÿ712 kt
BJMYPRT.EXE 672 Console 0 300 kt
FSM32.EXE 680 Console 0 2ÿ908 kt
CTxfispi.exe 748 Console 0 576 kt
jusched.exe 964 Console 0 300 kt
MOM.exe 888 Console 0 3ÿ052 kt
ctfmon.exe 1092 Console 0 1ÿ464 kt
msmsgs.exe 1128 Console 0 2ÿ084 kt
svchost.exe 1464 Console 0 368 kt
CTSVCCDA.EXE 1488 Console 0 380 kt
dgdersvc.exe 1504 Console 0 360 kt
fsgk32st.exe 1992 Console 0 376 kt
FSMA32.EXE 2012 Console 0 956 kt
fsgk32.exe 1516 Console 0 908 kt
FsUsbExService.Exe 164 Console 0 260 kt
FSHDLL32.EXE 928 Console 0 3ÿ392 kt
hamachi-2.exe 348 Console 0 1ÿ156 kt
iviRegMgr.exe 1084 Console 0 464 kt
jqs.exe 1316 Console 0 1ÿ396 kt
NBService.exe 2004 Console 0 1ÿ168 kt
NMSAccessU.exe 2464 Console 0 180 kt
CCC.exe 2472 Console 0 3ÿ868 kt
PnkBstrA.exe 2488 Console 0 320 kt
PnkBstrB.exe 2504 Console 0 408 kt
svchost.exe 2672 Console 0 692 kt
ULCDRSvr.exe 2732 Console 0 348 kt
CALMAIN.exe 2796 Console 0 460 kt
fsorsp.exe 3416 Console 0 856 kt
FNRB32.exe 3460 Console 0 380 kt
fssm32.exe 3512 Console 0 50ÿ248 kt
fsdfwd.exe 3552 Console 0 1ÿ528 kt
FIH32.exe 3580 Console 0 288 kt
wmiprvse.exe 3628 Console 0 2ÿ812 kt
wmiapsrv.exe 4008 Console 0 1ÿ180 kt
alg.exe 1276 Console 0 556 kt
fsav32.exe 1528 Console 0 2ÿ124 kt
fraps.exe 944 Console 0 6ÿ116 kt
Elemental.exe 2236 Console 0 682ÿ928 kt
cmd.exe 776 Console 0 20ÿ944 kt
wmiprvse.exe 324 Console 0 30ÿ360 kt
tasklist.exe 3704 Console 0 4ÿ808 kt
Btw, game uses GPU in tactical battles for me
Has anyone tried using older nvidia drivers?
Though I think I saw some ATI people are having the issue too, so that wouldn't explain it...
Some have. Didn't help.
Cloth map + grid works alright in the meantime. Lightning fast. Should tide you over until this is sorted.
Has anyone tried redownloading and reinstalling because I'm giving that a try right now. Maybe it had something to do with the earlier patches doing...something.
Was everyone here in the beta/prerelease?
No, and as noted I'm not using an Ev- ..an Intel CPU either. Still on XP sp2 and ancient video drivers too, but that doesn't seem to be the issue
Going to try 1.05 later today and run without many other background processes, and document GPU and CPU usage. I might even update some pieces of software.
I got it at pre-release yes (Aug 23 to be exact).
I was in the beta. Reinstalled the game when the "gold" version was released, but since then I've just updated it.
I didn't install the game until 1.00 came out.
Anyone run into this on a clean install of windows?
Well reinstalling didn't fix it.
Just installed Win7 last night and updated everything etc.
Still getting crashes,low memory,and sub par performance on this setup
i7 860
Asus Evo P55D
ATI 5870HD
Intel SSD 80GB
What sort of FPS should we expect?
I'm getting around 50fps in the cloth map. 5fps in the 3d map zoomed out. 20fps in the 3d zoomed in.
Running an nVidia 285 graphics card but the computer it is in is a little old (about 2 years). Also running XP.
Hello everyone
Same problem as you all have, runing the game on :
Intel Core 2 Duo (like everyone else here, INTEL) 2.20GHz E4500
Nvdia GeForce 9600 GT 1 GB GDDR3
win xp pro sp3
Frame rates normally are around 50-70 but when i look at a 3d object, lets say a city , they go down to 5-15 fps , as lots have posted above, lowering res doesnt help nor lowering other details doesnt help.
Playing the game with "cloth map only" enabled
I am going to try the game on my other computer, this time on a AMD Phenom 2 CPU and ati HD5770 1GB GDDR5 and see how it goes, cu with an update in about 30 min
im running an AMD Phenom chip as well and i have the same issue, its not a processor brand thing i dont think.
I tried several things, cutting the antivirus, anything that could take CPU, but nothing works. When I check the other processes, nothing is really hogging the CPU time, only elemental really uses it.
It seems to happen on multicore cpus, but the rest is different for everyone. It's not ATI or NVidia related, it's not system related. From what I see from the different list of processes, and what I tried, nothing in common on these lists is causing the issue.
So far, the only thing which changed performances was the trick given by thebigJ_A, to change the affinity of the Elemental process, so that it runs only on one core. It seems to improve the performances, which should be the other way around, so maybe there is something to look into.
I will keep editing the original post with new details we find.
So, as hyphonz said , AMD cpu has same issue. I just tried the game on AMD Phenom 2 and same thing, fps drop to 15-20 when looking at a city (mine was a level 3 city with some buildings in it , i cant immagine how much it will drop when i reach a higher level and add more buildings ...)
Well, worth the try ... so, we are back to 0 , that sux, i guess we stay at cloth map until this prob will get fixed
Yeah, my affinity trick helps, but now that I'm getting bigger cities and stuff, it's not enough. Currently the slow-down is merely very annoying, but I can tell that it'll be damn near unplayable once my towns get a little bigger. I was really hoping the 0-day patch would help, but it didn't.
And playing on the cloth map is no solution. I'm no graphics whore or anything, but I didn't pay 50 bucks to look at a drawing. I do have faith in SD. Their all-nighter to get the archer hotfix out at like 4AM,(I think 3AM their time) shows they care. I just hope it doesn't take too long!
If you have an older Quad core processor (one with two dual core cpus stuck together - Pre i5/i7 era) then opening up taskmanager and setting affinity to cpu cores 0 and 1 should improve performance by 30% or so. This should remove the specific performance hit that those systems are having. This will not fix everything if they are also having the general peformance hit issue, but it will at least remove one problem.
I would expect future patches to resolve the older quad core specific issue.
We are still investigating why there is also a general performance issue on some systems (the above issue is specific to those particular chips and is a side effect of how they are built).
Is there a way to disable bug logging? Just curious how big impact it has on the performance....
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