FPS: What is going on?

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

I have always found TO's performance rather questionable. It is rather inconsistent, and I have been able to run much more graphically advanced games at higher framerates. The 16v16 experiment dropped my framerate to very uncomfortable levels, so I have decided to conduct a very unscientific experiment regarding game performance.

I ran TO using the HTML5 client at approximately 990x1920 resolution, with skybox, dynamic lighting, dynamic shadows, dust, soft particles, sprites for bushes, and uncapped FPS. I could have gone further with the graphics settings but I don't think it would have mattered much. My setup was as follows:

• CPU: i5-6300HQ @ 2.30GHz
• Integrated GPU (GPU 0): HD Graphics 530
• Discrete GPU (GPU 1): GTX960M, 2GB
• 32 GB RAM

TO was set to run using the discrete GPU at the maximum performance power setting.

I first drove around an empty Silence map in parkour mode. The results were as follows:

• FPS: ~350
• CPU: ~50%
• GPU 0: ~60%
• GPU 1: ~50%

It is interesting that even though the game was set to run using the discrete GPU, the integrated GPU still ended up working more. But OK, let's move on to further tests.

I then joined a parkour match with 18 players, also on Silence, in parkour mode.

• FPS: 60-80
• CPU: ~50%
• GPU 0: 10-15%
• GPU 1: 10-15%

Now this is strange. I expected an FPS drop because of the players in the battle. But I did not expect an FPS drop from 300+ to less than 100. On top of that, GPU usage decreased substantially. There was more than enough GPU power left to run the game at a higher framerate. Why was it not being used? Perhaps the CPU was the bottleneck? But even then CPU usage was only at 50%. These results were baffling.

I stayed in the Silence parkour match, and mine wars broke out. Mines were spammed all over the map.

• FPS: ~30
• CPU: ~40%
• GPU 0: ~10%
• GPU 1: < 10%

FPS fell again, but so did CPU and GPU usage. Again, there should have been enough power to raise FPS - combined GPU usage did not exceed 20%!

To get away from the madness I made an empty Kungur match.

• FPS: 300-360
• CPU: 65%
• GPU 0: 50%
• GPU 1: 50%

Then I joined a Kungur match with 10 players:

• FPS: 170-230
• CPU: 50-60%
• GPU 0: 30%
• GPU 1: 35%

Conclusions:

1. Despite being set to use the discrete GPU, TO ends up splitting the load between the integrated and discrete GPUs anyway.
2. TO does not use GPU resources to their full potential. This is evidenced by low framerates accompanied by low GPU usage. In high stress situations, TO should ideally increase GPU usage to cope with the load, but for some reason it decreases it. Note that the CPU is not a bottleneck - it sits only at around 50% usage.

This is latter phenomenon is very frustrating. My system clearly has enough resources to handle matches with many players, given how low the GPU usage becomes in those scenario, but they are not being used. My FPS drops significantly in battles with many players, not because my hardware can't keep up, but because for some reason TO decides not to use it. Perhaps there are other factors I am not taking into account, like memory usage. I might do a more detailed and comprehensive test later. Regardless, these results are very disappointing and confusing. With the hardware I have TO should run without any problems.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, or perhaps found a solution?

Edited December 8, 2020 by ThirdOnion

[Mirza7 235]

IMO TOs focus has always been the game that can run on any platform, so utilizing dedicated graphics might not have been emphasized to implementation team. as compared to current version flash version was better in many ways other then "trees" :P . Its also possible that flash version was created by someone who was good at the flash (no offence to curr devs). Even if TO is no longer the hottest thing in market now they still should optimize current version to make most of hardware, since performance in browser is now unbearable they should focus on standalone version.

It's all about implementation....

[Swainswick 6]

It is not a technical problem that has ruined the game BUT 16 tanks per team is far too many, there is no room to move without colliding with a team mate and the enemy pounce on a respawning tank before it has a chance to play.

There are too many items in the garage;  get rid of protections.

Balance of hull strength and turret power is now so bad.

Long range weapons have a big advantage.

Most games of "Capture the Flag" and many "Siege" end in 0-0.

Completing many Daily Missions is now impossible. 

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

12 hours ago, Mirza7 said:

IMO TOs focus has always been the game that can run on any platform, so utilizing dedicated graphics might not have been emphasized to implementation team. as compared to current version flash version was better in many ways other then "trees"

I had FPS problems with Flash too, on the same hardware. And HTML5 has many times been advertised to support discrete graphics cards.

9 hours ago, At_Shin said:

Have you tried playing from the Html5 tanki downloadable client?

I am using the HTML5 downloadable client, otherwise I would not be able to get 300 FPS. I have explicitly set TO to run using the discrete graphics card, which the developers have said numerous times should lead to better performance.

 

[Son_Goku 514]

9 hours ago, At_Shin said:

It can help your PC use the integrated graphics card in tanki too (I guess). 

Here's the link if you are interested in making use of the integrated graphics card.

Integrated graphics are way less powerful than anything else. In fact, the FPS drops could be happening because he's not using his actual GPU, but the integrated one

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

1 minute ago, Son_Goku said:

In fact, the FPS drops could be happening because he's not using his actual GPU, but the integrated one

The thing is, I am using the discrete GPU. I've set TO to use it in both the Nvidia control panel and in the Windows graphics settings. Yet the game still underuses it.

[Son_Goku 514]

6 minutes ago, ThirdOnion said:

The thing is, I am using the discrete GPU. I've set TO to use it in both the Nvidia control panel and in the Windows graphics settings. Yet the game still underuses it.

I'm sure that you can somehow completely disable it, I just sadly don't know how and if it's actually a safe thing to do

[Son_Goku 514]

You could try this: go to the Device Manager (hit Windows key + R and type devmgmt.msc), then expand "Display adapters". You should then see both your GPUs. Next thing to do is right-clicking your iGPU and going to disable.

Again, I'm not sure if it's a safe thing to do, since I've never done it myself. But looks like this would be the only way to get rid of it

Edited December 8, 2020 by Son_Goku

[LunaStar 348]

- Your processor is very bad Intel i5 6th HQ with only 2GB graphic card 

I suggest you to change your PC to Corei7 7700k with GTX 1660 Super and 16 GB Ram DDR4 and run tanki online on SSD you will get above 700+ FPS with full graphics in 16v16 and other  

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

1 hour ago, LunaStar said:

- Your processor is very bad Intel i5 6th HQ with only 2GB graphic card 

My hardware is not particularly amazing for 2020, but for a game like TO it is more than enough. If you read the topic, you'll notice that my CPU and GPU are being underutilized. In matches with players, my GPU usage is less than 15%. There is plenty of power there that is going unused.

Edited December 9, 2020 by ThirdOnion

[JESUSaves2 98]

Yay someone who understand computer stuff!

Now for your problem...

I'm not sure how your iGPU and GPU are working simultaneously. I have a Z490 board which enables me to enable or disable my iGPU. (I have a i7-10700k with Intel UHD 630, and a GeForce GTX 1660ti btw.) On my windows task manager it shows both my 1660ti and UHD 630 because I have both enabled but I never see any usage on the UHD 630 because no monitors are connected to it. It might be slightly different in your laptop, but I would go into the BIOS and see if their is an option to disable/enable your iGPU. As for why your GPU's worked less in a full battle I have absolutely no clue. The only idea I have was that my GPU wouldn't give me more than 80 FPS (Its paired with a 165 FPS monitor) so I reset my windows 10. So basically I would go into your bios and see if their is a iGPU enable/disable feature. Then go to device manager and make sure your drivers are up to date. Maybe download GeForce experience and check for drivers there. Lastly maybe reset windows. That's what worked for me although my problem wasn't exactly the same as yours. Also one question for you : why a dual core processor with 32 gb ram?

[JESUSaves2 98]

4 hours ago, LunaStar said:

- Your processor is very bad Intel i5 6th HQ with only 2GB graphic card 

I suggest you to change your PC to Corei7 7700k with GTX 1660 Super and 16 GB Ram DDR4 and run tanki online on SSD you will get above 700+ FPS with full graphics in 16v16 and other  

Quick question : How can Third Orion swap a soldered laptop i5-6300HQ cpu for a desktop i7-7700k cpu? If he can do that why not suggest a AMD Ryzen 5950X, the fastest gaming cpu? Also how is he supposed to stick a full size GPU that needs a 8 pin pcie power connector in laptop? TB3 cage for a 1660 Super is a huge waste of time and money. And dude my i5-7400+Radeon r7 450 system can do 100 FPS 1440p all settings maxed. And the R7 450 is about as half as good as a GTX 960M. I don't think its hardware issues and I certainly don't think a 7700k and a 1660 Super are gonna fit in his laptop. 

 

[Mirza7 235]

Under utilization might have something to do TO being online game. have you played any other online game with similar features?? 

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

Just now, Mirza7 said:

Under utilization might have something to do TO being online game. have you played any other online game with similar features?? 

I have played many online games that were more demanding than TO and haven't had any issues.

[JESUSaves2 98]

Like I said earlier resetting your pc may help a lot. If I ran a synthetic benchmark like furmark, or played War Thunder my gpu would be fine but when I went to play TO it would act weird. Also check your VRAM usage.

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

I did some more experimentation and I feel that I can conclusively say that the more players in a match, the lower GPU usage is, the lower the FPS. In empty matches I get 50-60% GPU usage and 300-400 FPS, in 16v16 GPU usage drops to less than 20% and I get 60-100 FPS, sometimes even lower.

I found that another game suffers from a very similar problem, so I think this is a problem with TO, and not with my system or hardware. It is possible that the CPU actually is a bottleneck despite the low usage because only one or two cores are being fully utilized. I will do some more tests.

Edit: I checked and all CPU cores are being used about equally. RAM and VRAM are also not the issue.

Edited December 11, 2020 by ThirdOnion

[LambSauce 1,884]

On 12/11/2020 at 1:25 AM, ThirdOnion said:

I did some more experimentation and I feel that I can conclusively say that the more players in a match, the lower GPU usage is, the lower the FPS. In empty matches I get 50-60% GPU usage and 300-400 FPS, in 16v16 GPU usage drops to less than 20% and I get 60-100 FPS, sometimes even lower.

I believe the more players there are, the more CPU processing is required so that would explain why the CPU usage increases and the GPU usage decreases as the number of players increases.

I have seen this issue in quite a few other games; it seems TO is very CPU bound.

[HichigoShiiro 4,378]

disable your igpu, it should sort out all these issues