Either stuttering or high input lag, APEX is handling fullscreen badly (PC) [ Edited ]

[MegaCosmic]

I have been testing Apex every day for over 8 hours every day since launch.

There is something VERY wrong with the way Apex is handling Fullscreen.

I had really bad stutter issues from the beginning. Tried numerous drivers all the way back to 397.93. Fresh windows install, and other fixes.

My method from trying drivers is as follows and takes ages to test.

1. DDU while disconnected from any network

2. Install only GPU driver, no HD audio, Physx etc

3. Test apex on completely clean driver with nothing running but that.

The game either creates a large amount of input lag from the mouse (signifying it is using fulls screen optimisations) or it stutters and has really erratic frametime. What is more it seems that when this "fullscreen" is activated my fps drops to around 80 from 140+. I have tested a driver that was displaying 140fps and when I believe it entered this FSO "borderless" and the FPS is cut in half.

What is more Odd is that it seems random. I have tried disabling FSO and sometimes my mouse is back to snappy reponsive and other times it is slow. It seems to be randomly applying windowed borderless (creating Input lag issues, while decreasing stutter) regardless of setting. I have edited the CFG file, which seems to make no effect on full-screen "1" or "0".

When the game boots in windowed its usually low input latency with stuttering.

This is a serious issue (top priority) and I have seen it affecting a lot of people. I know that I play a million times better with the lower input latency, but I shouldn't have to juggle between that and stuttering. IMO this is more important than the crashes because many people can't even enjoy one match.

SPECS

i7 4790

GTX 1070

16gb DDR3

Samsung Evo 860

Evga g2 650w

/u/Jayfresh_Respawn

[The_Tibber · Accepted solution]

Sup muh Diddler.

Have you tried/checked for disabling fullscreen optimisations?

Navigate to your game files and find your r5Apex.exe

Right click and apply the settings like so:

Apply and test etc.

[kto1b]

I think I have this same issue also you've explained it well. It seems very random, I track it by noting how my monitor refresh rate with freesync on is dealing with the game. Sometimes I'm sitting in menu and its 90-100 fps and my monitor overlay looks pretty stable, other times its jumping around to 120, down to 80. In game the fps counter says 100 but my monitor refresh wobbling a lot as its adjusting to the frametimes to keep smooth. 

I also crash a lot, the same popular issue everyone gets tried everything under the sun still crashed without freesync so I leave it on but have an inconsistent experience with input and stutters.

[MegaCosmic]

It defiantly not right, I have tried it multiple times on different drivers where it just seems random.

[kto1b]

Just booted game and had the shocking version instead of the smooth version and noticed another thing. The radeon overlay wasn't reading the fps ingame when other times when its smooth it does/is. It also loaded itself full screen for a change instead of windowed like it normally does.

[MegaCosmic]

For me loading fullscreen indicates it is actually "bordeless windowed" with large input lag with no stuttering. We shouldn't have to pick our poison

[Dnaldaeh]

Is there any chance that it's happening primarily when you move the mouse? If so it may be a mouse related polling/report rate situation. You would have to change it through the mouse software (for instance if it's Logitech you would do it through their Logitech Gaming Software,) I don't think there's an easy way to change it through windows but you can check it with this link:

https://zowie.benq.com/en/support/mouse-rate-checker.html

If it's 500 or less that's probably not the issue, if it's at 1000 you would want to turn it down to 500 or 250.

One thing you could also try if you're using a high refresh rate monitor (120-144hz) is turning off the in-game vsync and activating it through the Nvidia Control Panel instead. I found that the game either was turning off the in game vsync and not telling me or it wasn't working right.

Setting it to 'Adaptive (half refresh)' locks your maximum fps to 60fps for 120hz and 72fps for 144hz, and you could use that as a baseline to see if that's consistent. If you've got Gsync or Freesync going it may be worth disabling it, I don't have either of those but it might be an extra variable.

Also one way to check if the game is actually in proper fullscreen is to temporarily adjust the games gamma setting.

Open the 'videoconfig' file located at C:\Users\*pc user name*\Saved Games\Respawn\Apex\local and find the "setting.gamma" towards the bottom. Double the value to 2.000000 and save.

If it's in proper fullscreen the game will be noticeably darker, if it's the same it's in either windowed or borderless window.

Hope you get it sorted out!

[MegaCosmic]

It's not the polling rate, have checked that. It's kind of a myth that the polling rate eats CPU.

Many other people are reporting the stutters.

I already use a 144hz Monitor and I'm not enabling V-sync, why anyone would ever use V-sync in a competitive shooter is beyond me, as it adds considerable latency.

It's 100% and issue with the game itself.

The gamma is much lighter when entering full screen.

Thanks

[Konform103]

Silly remark.. If you are operating a wireless keyboard make sure the batteries are not near empty

[MegaCosmic]

Its not the batteries, I am wired anyway :P

[The_Tibber · Accepted solution]

Sup muh Diddler.

Have you tried/checked for disabling fullscreen optimisations?

Navigate to your game files and find your r5Apex.exe

Right click and apply the settings like so:

Apply and test etc.