Sulphur on 13/8/2017 at 15:48
That HDD access combining with stuttering does sound like swap file churn. Like Judith says, it's usually a sign that you need more system RAM to combat that.
Jason Moyer on 14/8/2017 at 08:00
It could also be the system swapping textures since there's not enough VRAM.
Sulphur on 14/8/2017 at 08:32
Maybe, but it'd do that by committing to main memory first instead of the HDD, because any available RAM is faster than physical media. HDD churn is usually accounted for by games that stream textures, so if it's causing bad stutters and pauses during gameplay, that's a good sign there's swap file thrashing going on.
samIamsad on 14/8/2017 at 10:15
Cheers guys, much appreciated! I either have to upgrade or make a new build anyhow at some point -- it's Sandy Bridge based from 2011/2012 largely at its core. You can probably tell that I didn't engage in much AAA 3d gaming these days. :D When trying to narrow it down -- if anybody can take anything from this, this shows both:
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http://i.imgur.com/y88ZRTa.png) HD access when sprinting around the lobby area (textures on low, 320x200 oldschool Ultima Underworld resolution :P) -- curiously, when shutting the game down, the svchost.exe kicks in heavily here for a minute or two until activity dies down again
- (
http://i.imgur.com/RIBdUYI.png) RAM usage, never goes much further up from my experience
I think LA:Noire uses heavy texture streaming as well, the HDD was pretty much constantly in some use on that one for me too when driving around. Much older game naturally, and no occasioanally micro stutters as such. It's partly what is making me suspicious, maybe the HDD isn't fast enough too, so a completely new build may be a better option. At the time of release, various people seemed to experience such or similar on much better hardware, I also read a couple posts on Steam that during combat they experienced such, such when Physics got involved, e.g. glass breaking:
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https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1334600128973311323/)
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https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/2741975115075657063/)
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https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/2741975115068088350/)
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https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/2741975115075657063/?l=german)
Sulphur on 14/8/2017 at 11:07
All right, that's definitely part of your problem right there. See that bit that says Free RAM: 0?* You've got most of your RAM committed to the game, the rest to Windows and its standby cache. This means that for programs that go over the memory budget (like Prey), the swap file will be used to compensate, and that's going to literally grind things to a halt depending on how much data is being cached. I assume that's Win7? If it is, Win7 tends to need about half a gig to one and a half gigs depending on whether you're on a 32- or 64-bit install.
Prey's minimum requirements are 8 GB of RAM, and it's recommended to have 16 (which is a bit overkill, to be fair). Your system is definitely under the requirements for it, unfortunately.
*This is usually not a problem if you've got enough 'available' memory, but I strongly doubt it's sufficient for this game, given it's got to cache textures somewhere, and it needs ~3 GB of VRAM on average at 1080p. Should need less at low quality and lower resolutions, but you're riding up against the limits of your rig.
Judith on 14/8/2017 at 12:02
Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you actually have 4 gigs of system ram only? :O That would be the major cause of stuttering.
When you run out of VRAM, the most typical symptom is not stuttering, but a major slowdown. Everything is relegated to GPU these days, not only because its core architecture, but also because GPU memory is much, much faster than the most expensive system RAM. E.g. my (very old) system RAM (DDR3) is clocked at 1600 MHz, while my GTX 1060 has 6 gigs of DDR5 RAM, clocked at 8000 MHz. That's why most of my games run like charm in 1440p (Dishonored 2 being one of few exceptions).
samIamsad on 14/8/2017 at 12:39
It's true, which may tell you something about how many modern 3d games I usually play. :D Thanks for the analysis, RAM is the cheapest thing to shoot. Just don't want to invest hugely into this platform anymore, as it's based on DDR3 and doesn't support faster processors than Ivy Bridge generation Core i5 / i7 with a Bios update. Except for not being able to play Dishonored 2 at all, I'm not hugely held back though in my "needs". Before buying I checked various Youtube recordings on lower end systems to check if it was worth the shot at all, and some claim to play this on 4GB. Makes naturally sense though, in particular if that "cached" RAM isn't actually available to the game. More recently Tyranny had a similar profile, but it's obviously a different kind of game. It just manifested into a few longer loading times, depending on the memory requirements of the map loaded up. Sorry for dragging this there, this should be about the game, I think I'll shoot a cheap stick or kit and put it in, and perhaps a video card which is required to play Dishonored 2 one day too. Thanks! :)
Sulphur on 14/8/2017 at 12:42
Keep in mind that won't reduce slowdowns in VRAM-heavy situations, as normal RAM is a good deal slower than VRAM as Judith said. It also won't fix all slowdowns as the bottlenecks then become the CPU and GPU.
dishes on 17/8/2017 at 02:14
So, playing the demo for ~3 hours. I'm on two thoughts about this. On one hand, it's basically drawing from my least favourite LGS-descended game, System Shock 2, with the Metroidvania style backtracking, respawning enemies, scarce resources, and horror background. (Thank god the weapons don't degrade.) The difficulty curve is MUCH higher than in Dishonored, where I didn't have too many problems doing Mostly Flesh and Steel/Ghost/Clean Hands. Stealth seems a bit clumsy, or perhaps I'm still way too used to Thief when Arkane games do line-of-sight. On the other hand, I feel compelled to explore despite the risks involved (Phantoms are EXTREMELY annoying, presumably because I lack the ability to pour coffee on them as a cup) - mainly due to the intriguing atmosphere, environmental detail, and the plot's mystery. I don't even have a gun yet! (Though the GLUU gun is incredible.)
Performance seems OK on my system (Core 2 Duo/8 GB DDR2/750 Ti) - the hard drive is crunching like crazy; most likely swap as others have stated. I have everything set to low 720p and it's totally playable. Seems to be mostly around 30 with occasional rises to 60 and it can go down to 20. Perhaps a Yorkfield is a good investment if I want to milk this platform for all its worth....
I should probably turn down the difficulty to Easy though. I sometimes wish there'd be a granular difficulty like in SS1 (and a lesser extent, Dishonored 2) where I could just play it like a walking simulator merged with a platformer.
Twist on 17/8/2017 at 03:14
Prey is now 50% off on Steam.
