Microstutter Graphics [ Edited ]

[ObsidianVashti]

Hello everyone,

I know there's a lot of comments in general about SWTOR's rendering/engine limitations and negativity aside I just want to make sure I have every possible feature adjusted to obtain the best possible performance. My game has what I call "microstutters" every couple of seconds where the graphics hitch and create a "tear" in the visual experience. I posted this issue in the past and some brilliant soul (*@proxos666) was able to tell me that if I turn "Triple Buffering" to "On" and set "Pre-rendered frames" to "1" in the NVIDIA Control Panel the experience should be much improved. Thankfully after that suggestion the game went from being an unplayable flip comicbook to the microstutters I still experience today. The stutters exist no mater the graphics settings. I can turn everything to low and still see the same issues, so I know it's not lacking hardware. I didn't have these issues on my old laptop so I know it's something either about my hardware or configurations that SWTOR doesn't like. I've tried all the typical avenues: driver updates, turning off shadows (which have their own blocky issues) etc... Anyone have any step-by-step guides for using what others have called "NVIDIA Profile Inspector" or how I can at least try to smooth the visual? It just breaks the immersion for me. I have a sneaking suspicion it just may be the fact that I got an overclocked EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX970 SuperSC ACX 2.0+ which sets off the output rhythm. But I'm not that techy on GPUs. Specs, DxDiag, and more should be attached. Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Right now SWTOR is set to Ultra
NVIDIA Control Panel:
Antialiasing- FXAA: On
Antialiasing- Mode: Enhance the application setting

Antialiasing- Setting: 8x

MFAA: On

Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance

Triple Buffering: On

Vertical Sync: On

Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames: 1

[proxos666 · Accepted solution]

@ObsidianVashti 

driver can be uninstalled via the control panel, or you can use DDU at this link

At the end of the day it comes back to user preference for settings

I am still on driver version 419.17 have had no reason to update so havent yet

As to playing the game, i dont use vsynch, and tend to play in fullscreen (window) mode which uses its own form of sync

I gather you have tried setting vsync to fast , this setting is also meant to have no tearing and be a more improved version of initial vsync

[proxos666]

@ObsidianVashti 

Just to confirm a setting do you have the below pre-rendered frames set to 1 as well ? that is different to the VR setting

[proxos666]

@ObsidianVashti 

Also if you think the overclock may be related you can place the driver into debug mode per this guide link

This lowers the clock speed back to nvidia reference and can be turned on and off as needed

[ObsidianVashti]

@proxos666 Oh my goodness you still exist and are the brilliant saint you ever were! Hope you are well sir/ma'am!

My control panel does not have the option for Maximum pre-rendered frames. Only virtual reality. So maybe that's part of the problem? See attached images. I tried playing around with "Low Latency Mode" which seems to have a similar concept behind it of limiting the frames the CPU can process before it reaches the GPU. It made no difference (Ultra, On, or Off).

I'll try the Debug Mode, but I think I already tried it in the past. Thank you for the thoughts!

*Update: Tried Debug mode, maybe a very slight improvement. But the stutter is still there. The stutter usually only occurs when turning the camera during movement (regardless if on mount) or when in the middle of battle. FPS meter shows steady ~60 fps on Ultra. When the stutter occurs it usually shows a short blip of yellow and occasionally red.

[proxos666]

@ObsidianVashti 

Ahh ok yes it seems nvidia introduced a new low latency setting, you will need to revert to a driver prior to august to get the original pre-rendered setting back and see if it makes any change.

If it does make a difference it may be something that the new feature needs to be looked into as what you say is correct it does similar function but you find it makes no impact on swtor

This will tick off that it isn't a driver version issue specifically

[ObsidianVashti]

@proxos666Ok, I'll be able to test that later this evening as I'll have more time them. Isn't there some clean uninstall tool you're supposed to use to roll back? And is there a specific 36x.x version of NVIDIA drivers you recommend? Just in case you didn't see my update to the post prior, debug mode doesn't seem to work.

And just to be safe, do you see anything that I changed in my Control Panel (in prior images) that I should reset to default? For a while I tried upping my framerate/refresh rate in SWTOR control panel and I learned real quick how that can crash the game because the monitor/GPU got out of sync.

Gratefully,

Obsidian

[proxos666 · Accepted solution]

@ObsidianVashti 

driver can be uninstalled via the control panel, or you can use DDU at this link

At the end of the day it comes back to user preference for settings

I am still on driver version 419.17 have had no reason to update so havent yet

As to playing the game, i dont use vsynch, and tend to play in fullscreen (window) mode which uses its own form of sync

I gather you have tried setting vsync to fast , this setting is also meant to have no tearing and be a more improved version of initial vsync

[ObsidianVashti]

@proxos666You should be hired at EA, put their excuse for "Customer Support" to shame. As far as I can tell changing VSync from "On" to "Fast" did the trick. Once in a blue moon I get a stutter but I think that's natural loading and rendering in high traffic zones. I can now play the game in full fidelity and "Ultra" graphics. I can't say thank you enough @proxos666 . I am forever indebted to you for helping me to get this game to run. I didn't even have to roll back drivers which is a relief when trying to keep Windows 10 as a whole running smoothly.

Thank you, thank you.

Looks like the complete tricks were:
Antialiasing- FXAA: On
Antialiasing- Mode: Enhance the application setting

Antialiasing- Setting: 8x

MFAA: On

Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance

Triple Buffering: On

Vertical Sync: Fast

Moreso putting this in writing on here for my own reference if I have to reset anything.

Spoiler

[highjinks84]

@ObsidianVashti Thanks for all your work guys, i was having the same issues, and for the life of me could not find any normal fix haha. changing those settings in the 3d settings the the nvidia control panel got me back to a steady 144 fps, where at some points i was only getting 5 fps.

[Kyosos]

Hey! Sorry to bring out such an old post but I have the exact same problem and no matter what I change in the Nvidia panel, nothing changes, nothing at all, I'm really lost, I see a lot of people who manage to fix this problem, but I can't. I really need help.