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

[EJSLP]

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

I ordered a GTX 780 6Gb version instead of the 3g one because i dont want to be at the mercy of this type of thing again.
I like open world and ultra textures and from what i am reading that uses Vram?
I did not see the point of getting the 3gb version just to save $40 even if i never need all 6g's of vram.

 

[MTDEW]

I ordered a GTX 780 6Gb version instead of the 3g one because i dont want to be at the mercy of this type of thing again.
I like open world and ultra textures and from what i am reading that uses Vram?
I did not see the point of getting the 3gb version just to save $40 even if i never need all 6g's of vram.

I think that's a smart move and one a lot of others will probably make also.
(im not red or green biased , we have both in our systems here at home)

If i could have afforded it at the moment, i would have done the very same thing.
But wife said we need to stick to "priorities" right now. LOL

My next upgrade in the fall will definitely have as much vram as i can afford without her knowing how much i spent. :biggrin:

 

[lopri]

Are there YouTube videos that show stuttering of 3 GB cards (or 2 GB for that matter) for lack of frame buffer @1080p/1600p? I am skeptical of all these GPU memory inflation tales.

 

[lopri]

I mean, lack of memory often manifests itself in a much more pronounced manner than stutters.

 

[Techhog]

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)

Hm. A 4.2GHz Haswell should match a 4.6GHz Sandy Bridge, right? If so, the only points to consider are your GPU clocks and RAM

 

[Teizo]

Yay. Another game released before it is ready.

 

[Silverforce11]

I mean, lack of memory often manifests itself in a much more pronounced manner than stutters.

Lack of vram has often resulted in stutter and lots of fps dips, as the vram is flushed out and reloaded with new textures. Quite a normal and expected response.

 

[escrow4]

i7 4770 non K | 16GB DDR RAM | 780 Ti GHz | 500GB EVO | 1920 x 1200 |

All settings maxed, AA disabled, .ini file tweak resolution + "pc" quality

Vysnc on, 60 FPS most of the time, occasional stutters to 40 ish. Have not see it drop below 40. Stuttering eased when I set that rendered frame option to "3". Very very playable. RAM usage sat today at 4.8GB, and this game can and does use up to 6 threads/6 cores. With HwInfo I've seen CPU usage peak at 80% some parts.

Bottom line, you need an i7 at least + 16GB RAM, if not a hexa core. I suspect an i5 wouldn't have high enough minimums. All that said, the game doesn't look that good and doesn't justify the requirements. And seeing as a 4930K is $664 over here I don't particularly think this game justifies that upgrade. I'll point the finger at downgrading the quality of the game + releasing in on new (untested) and old consoles + Ubisoft's sloppy coding. Still, at these specs, its smooth enough and I'm not that bothered by the dips in the end.

 

[Carfax83]

Are there YouTube videos that show stuttering of 3 GB cards (or 2 GB for that matter) for lack of frame buffer @1080p/1600p? I am skeptical of all these GPU memory inflation tales.

It's not merely lack of VRAM causes these problems, it's the fact that the streaming system isn't optimized properly for PCs..

Even some Titan based PCs have stutter, and they come furnished with 6GB of VRAM.

 

[MTDEW]

Hm. A 4.2GHz Haswell should match a 4.6GHz Sandy Bridge, right? If so, the only points to consider are your GPU clocks and RAM

It's definately not the GPU clocks.
My current GPU clocks are VERY conservative at 950mhz / 1375mhz.
I quit trying to push them so hard awhile ago to keep the voltage and temps low and have them both flashed to those speeds on bios 2.

I just tested with vsync off and it runs around 34fps - 52fps (mostly in the 40's)

I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64bit
CAT 14.6 drivers
And I have a set virtual mem size on my SSD of 200min - 1024max

Doing some quick monitoring using MSI Afterburner, it reports around..
2.4gb Vram usage
4.5gb of system memory usage
and around 7gb pagefile usage despite my system settings
I cannot think of any more info that may be helpful.
So like most people, I have no clue what's different from one system to the next.

I do know people report that system memory usage keeps going up the longer you play.
And I only tested with Afterburner for like 10min running through heavy traffic intersections in the city in a fast car to check the system memory usage.
So take those memory numbers with a grain of salt.
I mean they are accurate for my testing, but may increase the longer its played.

I don't usually use MSI Afterburner , I use Radeon Pro which doesn't report my system memory usage in the OSD.
So I never monitored system memory usage during a longer actual gaming session since i just have FPS and GPU info onscreen with Radeon Pro.

At least it's known there is a patch coming.

Ubi themselves pretty much said the game was only optimized for the consoles unified memory and the pc version currently is just making up for lack of unified memory with GPU vram until they patch it.
So it was never really optimized for the pc platform at launch and was left to be patched later.
Whether that is what he meant to say or not...that is basically what was said IMO.

 

[Techhog]

It's definately not the GPU clocks.
My current GPU clocks are VERY conservative at 950mhz / 1375mhz.
I quit trying to push them so hard awhile ago to keep the voltage and temps low and have them both flashed to those speeds on bios 2.

I just tested with vsync off and it runs around 34fps - 52fps (mostly in the 40's)

I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64bit
CAT 14.6 drivers
And I have a set virtual mem size on my SSD of 200min - 1024max

Doing some quck monitoring using MSI Afterburner, it reports around..
2.4gb Vram usage
4.5gb of system memory usage
and around 7gb pagefile usage despite my system settings
I cannot think of any more info that may be helpful.
So like most people, I have no clue what's different from one system to the next.

I do know people report that system memory usage keeps going up the longer you play.
And I only tested with Afterburner for like 10min running through heavy traffic intersections in the city in a fast car to check the system memory usage.
So take those memory numbers with a grain of salt.
I mean they are accurate for my testing, but may increase the longer its played.

I don't usually use MSI Afterburner , I use Radeon Pro which doesn't report my system memory usage in the OSD.
So I never monitored system memory usage during a longer actual gaming session since i just have FPS and GPU info onscreen with Radeon Pro.

At least it's known there is a patch coming.

Ubi themselves pretty much said the game was only optimized for the consoles unified memory and the pc version currently is just making up for lack of unified memory with GPU vram until they patch it.
So it was never really optimized for the pc platform at launch and was left to be patched later.
Whether that is what he meant to say or not...that is basically what was said IMO.

Since I can't overclock this card at all anymore (especially the memory), it looks like my minimum would be below 30. :/

 

[EJSLP]

Bottom line, you need an i7 at least + 16GB RAM, if not a hexa core. I suspect an i5 wouldn't have high enough minimums. All that said, the game doesn't look that good and doesn't justify the requirements. And seeing as a 4930K is $664 over here I don't particularly think this game justifies that upgrade. I'll point the finger at downgrading the quality of the game + releasing in on new (untested) and old consoles + Ubisoft's sloppy coding. Still, at these specs, its smooth enough and I'm not that bothered by the dips in the end.

I have a i5 3570K oc'd to 4.3ghz and have a gtx 780 superclock 6G on the way
will i be able to set this pretty much maxed?
I also have 16g of kingston RAM

 

[digitaldurandal]

Bottom line, you need an i7 at least + 16GB RAM, if not a hexa core. I suspect an i5 wouldn't have high enough minimums.

Mmm not really

http://www.techspot.com/review/827-watch-dogs-benchmarks/page5.html

 

[Kenmitch]

Mmm not really

http://www.techspot.com/review/827-watch-dogs-benchmarks/page5.html

Would have been helpful if they showed the minimum frames also. Without the minimum frames it's hard to determine either way.

 

[RussianSensation]

Bottom line, you need an i7 at least + 16GB RAM, if not a hexa core. I suspect an i5 wouldn't have high enough minimums. All that said, the game doesn't look that good and doesn't justify the requirements. And seeing as a 4930K is $664 over here I don't particularly think this game justifies that upgrade. I'll point the finger at downgrading the quality of the game + releasing in on new (untested) and old consoles + Ubisoft's sloppy coding.

To me the E3 2012 content looks like a more realistic game with more visual effects (fog/smoke/sparks), better lighting and more NPCs and vehicles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_A6Z3gkXlk

How did they end up with a worse looking game 2 years from reveal and yet GPUs became much faster since then? The last 6 months they probably spent 90% of their time optimizing the heck out of XB1/PS4 versions and 10% for the PC version. Since GTX780Ti came out, they had 5-6 months to improve this game for the PC. Looks like that time went completely to waste both in terms of graphics and performance optimizations.

E3 2012 - realistic Bokeh Depth of Field

Retail

E3 2012 - feels more alive and real

Retail

E3 2012 - Even more realistic water effects in the E3 version

Retail

 

[tg2708]

I have the game and the stuttering is more prevalent when driving cars. Game has huge fps dips too. If some of it can be mitigated through a patch and or driver update its a pretty solid game. Was planning on buying a 290/x but because I'm not too fussy about graphics quality i'll wait until next year. 770 is doing fine with all other games.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Would have been helpful if they showed the minimum frames also. Without the minimum frames it's hard to determine either way.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-pc-performance,3833-8.html

Minimum frames are obviously going to be lower but 37 is still playable for a 3rd person open world game. Not great, but playable.

 

[Kenmitch]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-pc-performance,3833-8.html

Minimum frames are obviously going to be lower but 37 is still playable for a 3rd person open world game. Not great, but playable.

That's a huge difference between the i5 and i7....Too bad they didn't include a 4 core i7.

 

[digitaldurandal]

That's a huge difference between the i5 and i7....Too bad they didn't include a 4 core i7.

It is a big difference, however unlike the first person asserted. It is not true that you need an i7 to play the game period.

I think the game has some optimization issues related to the fact that the engine has so much data for every entity. I hope they will be able to address a lot of the issues through patching.

 

[Kenmitch]

It is a big difference, however unlike the first person asserted. It is not true that you need an i7 to play the game period.

I think the game has some optimization issues related to the fact that the engine has so much data for every entity. I hope they will be able to address a lot of the issues through patching.

The game looks interesting but not for the current price and sketchy performance.

Might be worth picking up later this year for a more reasonable price tho.

 

[EJSLP]

I have the game and the stuttering is more prevalent when driving cars. Game has huge fps dips too. If some of it can be mitigated through a patch and or driver update its a pretty solid game. Was planning on buying a 290/x but because I'm not too fussy about graphics quality i'll wait until next year. 770 is doing fine with all other games.

How does the 770 do for you on watch dogs? what settings are you using?

 

[tg2708]

How does the 770 do for you on watch dogs? what settings are you using?

apart from texture option that is set to high for 2gb cards im running everything else maxed. Lowering a few of the options still gives me the same amount of lag and or stutter so i just crank them back up. Their is something definitely up with the games use of vram because i have see as high as 2017mb being used.

 

[Attic]

Nice examples there Russian. I think even though I was aware of the graphics downgrade I was still expecting the E3 version, especially on PC maxxed to the max.

I guess we'll get to pay for the Watch Dogs Definitive Edition or the Watch Dogs Redux that gets released later and will deliver E3 graphics.

I'm on the rig in sig, 8GB RAM the 4330 is basically half an i7 4770, game installed to SSD.

No stuttering at all, but frame dips to sub 30fps during driving at ultra details/ultra textures. I also get frequent crash to desktops.

At high settings/high textures I can maintain 40-60 on foot and >30fps driving.

The game is not worth the trouble of an upgrade at this time. It's close though, but Ubi just didn't deliver, more a classic bait and switch than anything. Ubisoft is excellent at hype, godly at hype, but their delivery is consistently piss poor IME.


Though for buying now, I think watchdogs does mean you'll want to seriously consider greater than 3gb cards and i7 cpus, I just wouldn't reccomend buying specificially for this game,... yet.

 

[EJSLP]

Though for buying now, I think watchdogs does mean you'll want to seriously consider greater than 3gb cards and i7 cpus, I just wouldn't reccomend buying specificially for this game,... yet.

yeah i agree, it has me thinking all kinds of stuff over 2g of vram on cards now whereas before i never gave it a thought.
was in the mindset that 2-3g's was plenty for 1080 single monitor gaming.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'd really like to try this game, make my system stretch it's legs, but not at $60. I have 16GB of fast memory, two SSD's in RAID0, a 3GB video card, and eight FX Vishera cores currently at 5.3+Ghz. Maybe when it hits the value bin. For me I doubt it would be little more than a technical curiosity, it should make for a good benchmark for my system if nothing else.