(SOLVED) Sonic Forces - Framerate drops on NVIDIA hardware
8It appears that, as of NVIDIA GeForce 419.17 drivers, framerate problems in Arsenal Pyramid have been fixed. Here's the proof: https://i.imgur.com/U2oxGAY.jpg
Click "SHOW MORE" for the original description.
This video is meant to be compared with https://youtu.be/PBvDU4NG5J0 for measuring performance disparity between AMD and NVIDIA hardware. Stress points are at the start (0:00) until going outside and 2:59 inside the pyramid.
The forum on this issue: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1037184/pc-games/sonic-forces-framerate-drops-in-certain-areas-on-nvidia-hardware/
Apparently, Sonic Forces performs better in certain areas on AMD hardware where they drop like sharp mountain descending on NVIDIA equivalent.
For example, on GTX 1060 6 GB, Stage 6 (Egg Gate, Death Egg) drops from ~150/s to ~100-120/s right from start, where it should be stable at around ~150-160/s on AMD equivalent (RX 480/580 8 GB).
The most severe drops are on Stage 7 (Arsenal Pyramid, Green Hill) where the first 9 robots are encountered inside the pyramid and then destroyed the first two circles of 12 robots. These areas inside the pyramid drop from ~130/s to ~65-85/s where it should maintain high framerates down to ~100/s on AMD equivalent.
There's no way to fix those drops, no matter how hard you try, for the three main possible reasons:
1. The lack of native hardware scheduler on contemporary NVIDIA hardware (Kepler or later)
2. AMD GPUs possess some extensions that were absent on NVIDIA hardware
3. FP16 performance on NVIDIA gaming GPUs is far slower than FP32 compared to AMD equivalents (e.g. 2x on Vega, but 0.015625x on Pascal)
The drops occur regardless of CPU brand, be it Intel or AMD. Everything you can suggest or imagine, I've already tried them all, to no avail.
The performance impact vector occurs on all NVIDIA hardware, not just GTX 1060 6 GB, regardless of which CPU brand (be it Intel or AMD).
Disclaimers:
1. Performance impact vector does not change even though there's slight framerate drop while recording.
2. All the snippets in the image link below are taken from recorded footages.
3. These drops occur regardless if recording.
4. PC is fully optimised with TweakGuides Tweaking Companion and all updates installed on Windows 10 Pro 1709.
5. The issue remains as of the latest NVIDIA drivers (390.77).
6. The report on this issue has been filed to SEGA customer support. However they can only suggest that I have the latest drivers installed, which I did (I have supplied them with more details, no responses received)
7. Framerate drops to 60 on cutscenes are not counted.
The snippets in the image (Can take long time to load and potentially lag your browser!)
https://i.imgur.com/hw4rury.jpg
This game is running at 1920x1080 and all settings on maximum possible, including post-process anti-aliasing on High. Framerate is set to unlocked and VSync is Off.
For gameplay, voice language is set to Japanese and all hints and radio communications in stage disabled.
System specifications: See my channel description.
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