Patch fix for Watch dogs stuttering on GPU's with 3gb's or less of Vram?

[EJSLP]

I just got off the phone with EVGA and the rep told me that there was a patch released that now will run a 3gb card run WD smoothly without the stutter?
Can anyone confirm this? i have not been able to find anything about this elsewhere?

 

[BrightCandle]

Would be nice there was a patch, even on high textures I am having issues but seeing as how the image gets corrupted and all the other problems I am having in game I would say patches are in coming for a number of problems with the game!

 

[EJSLP]

Would be nice there was a patch, even on high textures I am having issues but seeing as how the image gets corrupted and all the other problems I am having in game I would say patches are in coming for a number of problems with the game!

yeah i am reading about different probs with it.
One thing for those that were wondering about the textures
i found this chart which shows the regular 760 set to high whereas the 4gb version 760 can be set to ultra.
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/gu...ng-guide#watch-dogs-optimal-playable-settings
That answered my wondering about 3 gb 780's.
as it stands now this game needs at least 4gb of vram for max textures,dont know if that will change unless the patch rumor is true?
I am not finding anything about it,but the evga rep told me it is official?
he said he thought he saw it on guru3d?

 

[BrightCandle]

I am on high and still stuttering on 2x 680s and temporal SMAA. Just as Nvidia recommends but its still not possible to do a driving challenge. Even on medium textures its not fixed, it just strikes me as a problem with the game rather than graphical settings because there isn't anything I can do to remove those multi second long pauses where I get 0 fps in the game. The low FPS stuttering I see with ultra textures is different, that is clearly VRAM related but those pauses are a bug of some description.

 

[EJSLP]

I am on high and still stuttering on 2x 680s and temporal SMAA. Just as Nvidia recommends but its still not possible to do a driving challenge. Even on medium textures its not fixed, it just strikes me as a problem with the game rather than graphical settings because there isn't anything I can do to remove those multi second long pauses where I get 0 fps in the game. The low FPS stuttering I see with ultra textures is different, that is clearly VRAM related but those pauses are a bug of some description.

yeah its the game for sure, here check this out,
right now it is a mess!
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/watch_dogs_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,1.html

 

[MTDEW]

yeah i am reading about different probs with it.
One thing for those that were wondering about the textures
i found this chart which shows the regular 760 set to high whereas the 4gb version 760 can be set to ultra.
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/gu...ng-guide#watch-dogs-optimal-playable-settings
That answered my wondering about 3 gb 780's.
as it stands now this game needs at least 4gb of vram for max textures,dont know if that will change unless the patch rumor is true?
I am not finding anything about it,but the evga rep told me it is official?
he said he thought he saw it on guru3d?

All I see on guru3d that might be what he's talking about is THIS


And there is this Ubisoft Working On PC Patch For Watch Dogs, Offers Advice To Boost Performance

Ubisoft’s Sebastien Viard explains that “Making an open world run on [next-generation] and [current-generation] consoles plus supporting PC is an incredibly complex task.” He goes on to to say that Watch Dogs can use 3GB or more of RAM on next-gen consoles for graphics, and that “your PC GPU needs enough Video Ram for Ultra options due to the lack of unified memory.” Indeed, Video RAM requirements are hefty on PC, especially when cranking up the resolution beyond 1080p. (This is why I knew Sony was on the right track using unified GDDR5 memory for the PlayStation 4.)

While recent driver updates from Nvidia and AMD should improve general performance, Viard promises that their PC programmers are “currently working on a patch to improve your experience,” and thanks both his team and users for diligently reporting performance issues. The most perplexing thing about the PC version of Watch Dogs is how divided user experiences actually are. I saw at most 30% scaling when using Nvidia GPUs in SLI, while others with near-identical hardware see upwards of 75%. Some users see stutter and artifacting while others report no problems using even older generations of AMD and Nvidia cards.....(there is more..click the link above to read the rest)

And the Tweet

 

[EJSLP]

MTDEW, yeah i think you got it. thanks.
the way the evga guy was talking the patch was available now?
I cant feel bad for these companies cause they are more about the money and not the customer, they rush these games out for a platform that is not even ready yet or wont play without issues.
right now i am kicking myself in the ass for the false hope of a game that performs correctly from day one.

 

[Tweak155]

There are some suggestions in the PC Gaming thread on how to help with performance.

 

[Grooveriding]

I've tried lots of suggestions and nothing really makes the game smooth. Best I can run is Ultra game settings with High textures and SMAA. Still some stutter while driving around, but it's not terrible. Ultra textures are unplayable altogether without 4GB+ VRAM at high resolutions.

Have not even played the game that much tbh. The lack of FOV controls makes the game feel pretty bad.

 

[MTDEW]

I've tried lots of suggestions and nothing really makes the game smooth. Best I can run is Ultra game settings with High textures and SMAA. Still some stutter while driving around, but it's not terrible. Ultra textures are unplayable altogether without 4GB+ VRAM at high resolutions.

Have not even played the game that much tbh. The lack of FOV controls makes the game feel pretty bad.

Agreed, 3gb isnt enough with my 7950's to play completely smooth without stutter with Ultra textures despite the day 1 patch that keeps the vram usage below 3gb on my setup.
High textures and it runs smooth though.
So i just purchased a R9 290.

Anyway about the FOV, someone on guru3d posted that Flawless Widescreen now has a plugin for Watch_Dogs which allows FOV adjustment.
.
Never used it myself so i don't know much about it other than that.

 

[Carfax83]

Ubisoft’s Sebastien Viard explains that “Making an open world run on [next-generation] and [current-generation] consoles plus supporting PC is an incredibly complex task.” He goes on to to say that Watch Dogs can use 3GB or more of RAM on next-gen consoles for graphics, and that “your PC GPU needs enough Video Ram for Ultra options due to the lack of unified memory.” Indeed, Video RAM requirements are hefty on PC, especially when cranking up the resolution beyond 1080p. (This is why I knew Sony was on the right track using unified GDDR5 memory for the PlayStation 4.)

Is this guy a Sony propaganda artist or something? I like how he praises the PS4's unified memory architecture by making it seem as though that's the reason why the PS4 is able to maintain the 30 FPS threshold..

The PS4 is also running at 900p, high settings with FXAA which makes a huge difference.. Most PC gamers with good rigs are going to be running at 1080p and greater with ultra settings, temporal SMAA but with textures on high.

Ultra LoD has a significantly longer draw distance than high, which increases the burden on VRAM.

 

[Attic]

Glad the patch is coming. I've had to shelve the game for now due to frequent random crashing to desktop. I had thought this was related to Ultra Textures, but i'm getting crash to desktop from Watch Dogs across other settings as well.

Appears to me to be related to how the game is using memory, memory leak or something.

This combined with uPlay's general mess of a game launcher and handler, ugh.

Glad Ubi acknowledging issues with WD's, hope they have a handle on what's causing the issues.

Unfortunate that Ubi delayed the game to fix this kind of thing and they didn't fix it.

 

[EJSLP]

Glad the patch is coming. I've had to shelve the game for now due to frequent random crashing to desktop. I had thought this was related to Ultra Textures, but i'm getting crash to desktop from Watch Dogs across other settings as well.

Appears to me to be related to how the game is using memory, memory leak or something.

This combined with uPlay's general mess of a game launcher and handler, ugh.

Glad Ubi acknowledging issues with WD's, hope they have a handle on what's causing the issues.

Unfortunate that Ubi delayed the game to fix this kind of thing and they didn't fix it.

TBH i think Ubi bit off more than it can chew this time.
the gaming community as a whole is furious over the mess WD turned out to be on release. Maybe that will get Ubi on the ball and get WD all patched up and any future games will be much better from launch?
I got lucky i am still waiting for the game, it was included as a bonus for a GTX 780 purchase. so by the time i get mine maybe it will be much better for pc? fingers crossed

 

[Attic]

TBH i think Ubi bit off more than it can chew this time.
the gaming community as a whole is furious over the mess WD turned out to be on release. Maybe that will get Ubi on the ball and get WD all patched up and any future games will be much better from launch?
I got lucky i am still waiting for the game, it was included as a bonus for a GTX 780 purchase. so by the time i get mine maybe it will be much better for pc? fingers crossed

Should be. It's a fun game and there are some "omg" moments with the graphics at Ultra/Ultra, there's also the ugh moments.

But driving through this virtual Chicago if you can get rid of stutters and hold a decent FPS at very high settings is gd'mnd fun. As much fun or more for this type of game since I played GTA3 on PC.

It is nauseating at low frames and I can't imagine playing those parts with heavy stuttering.

 

[Silverforce11]

Ultra LoD has a significantly longer draw distance than high, which increases the burden on VRAM.

Yup, in a big city with huge viewing distances, ultra LoD is going to hammer cards that cannot cram in all the textures into vram, it will cause stutter by loading from system ram (or worse, disk) on the fly.

And he is correct, PS4's shared GDDR5 ram is a bonus in these situations, fast ram for the entire system, it allows it to maintain constant fps without stutter in such a big open game.

 

[Techhog]

This game seems like another mess, and unplayble on a 7950 and i5 without low-mid settings from what I'm hearing. I really hate this trend. I was looking forward to this game, but now I'll wait for the $10 Steam sale. I almost wish that I had bought a PS4 instead...

 

[Silverforce11]

This game seems like another mess, and unplayble on a 7950 and i5 without low-mid settings from what I'm hearing. I really hate this trend. I was looking forward to this game, but now I'll wait for the $10 Steam sale.

Its perfectly playable on high-high with SMAA, for both 7950 and gtx670.

 

[Techhog]

Its perfectly playable on high-high with SMAA, for both 7950 and gtx670.

I don't really like any drops below 30. An unstable framerate reduces the time I can play.

 

[Carfax83]

Yup, in a big city with huge viewing distances, ultra LoD is going to hammer cards that cannot cram in all the textures into vram, it will cause stutter by loading from system ram (or worse, disk) on the fly.

It's when the game loads from disk that the stuttering becomes unbearable. There's a tweak to stop the game from using the page file, by adding -disablepagefilecheck at the end of the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Watch_Dogs\bin\watch_dogs.exe" in the target section of the shortcut.

So it should look like this "C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Watch_Dogs\bin\watch_dogs.exe" -disablepagefilecheck

Or you could do like I did and disable the page file completely at the OS level :biggrin:

Even then though, I'm not sure whether the game stops using the page file completely. The streaming system in this game isn't very efficient. Even with 4GB of VRAM, I still get the odd stutter every now and then, but for the most part it's smooth.

And he is correct, PS4's shared GDDR5 ram is a bonus in these situations, fast ram for the entire system, it allows it to maintain constant fps without stutter in such a big open game.

Yes, but what I meant was that the PS4 is running at reduced settings, which helps a ton as well. Discrete VRAM to me is still superior as it can be much, much faster than the unified memory.. Normal DDR3 system memory is more than fast enough for everything else but graphics. A good streaming system keeps a lot of data in system memory (including textures) ready to be sent to the GPU in case it needs it.

Data transfer speeds between system memory, CPU and GPU with PCI-E 3.0 should be very fast and with little overhead. Not as fast as a unified memory system, but fast enough. And there's a lot more memory. I think that's the main issue with the Disrupt engine. It's not using enough system memory to buffer data, and is instead pulling it off the much slower SSD/HDD which causes the stuttering.

 

[Deders]

I'm playing it smoothly on my rig, one thing I noticed is that it streams the data better from my RE4 drive than my Samsung F3, which makes sense as it is designed for servers/video streaming.

Has anyone having issues who are playing with the suitable settings for their ram (high for 2GB and Ultra for 3GB, with SMAA) tried running it from an SSD?

Also Vsync seems to make things worse in this game. It's the first game I've had to use Adaptive Vsync from the Nvidia CPL.

 

[Carfax83]

Has anyone having issues who are playing with the suitable settings for their ram (high for 2GB and Ultra for 3GB, with SMAA) tried running it from an SSD?

I doubt an SSD would do much to mitigate stutter. The SSD, although much faster than a HDD is still way too slow to keep up with the immense draw distances, density, scale and fast travel time in this game.

I've never seen a game this dense before, or with this level of realistic scale. And all of it loads seamlessly!

 

[blackened23]

The patch fix is voting with your dollars and not buying the game. I wouldn't mind the VRAM requirements if the game looked amazing. Honestly, it looks worse than both Crysis 3 and Metro: LL by a significant extent. It looks okay but certainly not amazing. Not even close. Nothing even remotely close to justifying the VRAM requirements.

Check out Total Biscuit's "WTF is" video for Watch Dogs. Hilariously enough, with SLI Titans with 6GB of VRAM (and nearly all of it being used) the game still has texture pop-in. Console ports are not getting better, they are getting worse.

Wolf: TNO is another great example. Now, don't get me wrong. The game is fun and I love it. But how the HECK does that game use so much VRAM? THE GRAPHICS AREN'T EVEN GOOD.

I guess we're using VRAM for the heck of it without any benefits these days. Good stuff. It's another completely new era for terrible console ports. Using more VRAM without any added benefit.

 

[Deders]

I doubt an SSD would do much to mitigate stutter. The SSD, although much faster than a HDD is still way too slow to keep up with the immense draw distances, density, scale and fast travel time in this game.

I've never seen a game this dense before, or with this level of realistic scale. And all of it loads seamlessly!

"Nvidia explains that Ubisoft’s Disrupt engine is quite complex, and that the way the game streams in data may be a potential bottleneck. If you think about the open world variables and the metadata that must be randomly assigned to every individual roaming the streets of Chicago (for the purpose of Aiden’s profiler tool), it stands to reason that’s at least one factor impacting performance."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...atch-dogs-offers-advice-to-boost-performance/

So it makes sense that the faster this random data can get to the CPU/Memory the better. We all know that SSD's offer much less latency than HDD's and can deal with multiple read/writes better, plus it's better at dealing with smaller files than any HDD.

 

[MTDEW]

I don't really like any drops below 30. An unstable framerate reduces the time I can play.

I just moved my 7950's onto my backup rig with a 2500k to be ready for my 290 in my main rig when it arrives tomorrow.
And it never drops below 30fps on that pc using only one 7950 @ 1920x1200 with....
Textures at high
Max buffered frames at 1
Temporal SMAA
Vsync 1
And graphics quality settings at default Ultra settings. (minus motion blur cuz I HATE it!)

And it runs very smooth at those setting with no stutter, locked at 30fps/vsync-1 on that rig and the game isnt even installed on the SSD, its running from the mechanical drive.

Backup rig specs...
2500k @ 4.6ghz
Asrock z68 Extreme 4
16gb Gskill DDR3
3gb 7950's x2 (x-fire disabled for this game)
Intel SSD
WD Black HDD

So im wondering if even at 1920x1200 if 8gb of ram vs 16gb makes a difference also. (i haven't been monitoring system memory usage)

 

[Carfax83]

The patch fix is voting with your dollars and not buying the game. I wouldn't mind the VRAM requirements if the game looked amazing. Honestly, it looks worse than both Crysis 3 and Metro: LL by a significant extent. It looks okay but certainly not amazing. Not even close. Nothing even remotely close to justifying the VRAM requirements.

I think it's unfair to compare Watch Dogs to Crysis 3 and Metro LL. Watch Dogs is an open world game set in a major American city that is seamless and a helluva lot bigger and filled with way more content and unique objects than Crysis 3 and Metro LL.

Check out Total Biscuit's "WTF is" video for Watch Dogs. Hilariously enough, with SLI Titans with 6GB of VRAM (and nearly all of it being used) the game still has texture pop-in. Console ports are not getting better, they are getting worse.

Do you have the game? The game has massive draw distances when LoD is on ultra and the City of Chicago is very dense. That said, there's no game that uses streaming technology that does NOT have pop in.

Personally, I think the pop in is very reasonable considering what the engine is having to render. The extra VRAM on Total Biscuit's system was likely used to cache textures, which was why nearly all of it was being used.

I don't think that's a bad practice, as I'd rather the game use as much of my VRAM as possible..