[Solved] Warfronts Performance Issue

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
1
Ryzen 1600 and Gigabyte AB350 Gaming-3 Rev-1 now.

I fell into a little cash and want to upgrade.

The only issue I'm having in the game now is warfronts. I ran one last night and bottomed out at 15 fps (granted, I was literally in the middle of the roughest part of the battle).

If a few hundred dollars will get me into not dropping below 30 fps in warfronts on medium settings, I'd be willing to go there.

Right now the baseline is this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Qmwb8YCPU:
AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 $264.90 @ OutletPC
Motherboard:
MSI - X370 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard $79.49 @ B&H
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Total: $344.39Let's call the top end of my budget $400.

I have 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance 3200 DDR4 RAM, plenty of storage, a decent power supply unit (less than 18-month-old EVGA 550 G2), and a pretty good cooler (Gammaxx 400 with an extra fan in push-me-pull-you configuration).

I'm using an RX-480 GPU with a factory OC that puts it just a hair under RX-580 performance.

If I've understood the issues raised on this forum in the past couple of years, I need a touch more single-thread CPU power and I need to do it in my budget.

I'm open to anything except ASRock components. There still on my crap list after an abysmal customer service encounter when I was first doing my current build and I'm not ready to let them off the hook just yet.

Otherwise, I know the AMD side of things reasonably well, but the Intel side puzzles me somewhat. There's so much fanboi and hype out there on both sides that I just can't seem to make an intelligent decision on my own.

Well, I can.

I can come here to ask for help.

And . . . go:
2
doesn't really sound like a hardware issue, unless you're running into thermal issue.

but if you're itching for an upgrade.

I'd highly recommend you watch buildzoid's video of the x470 version of that board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wW1lAbgBZw

If you want to switch to intel to see what all the fuss is about, a 8600k/9600k +z390 would be my suggestion. Yes it'll be better but you'll probably not even notice that often
3
I'm really trying hard not to say it

I'll let shottielol do it
4
On a more serious note, have you tried ptr yet? Maybe the new multi-threaded enhancements will help and you won't need to upgrade.
5
10/27/2018 10:52 AMPosted by Aquorius
doesn't really sound like a hardware issue, unless you're running into thermal issue.

but if you're itching for an upgrade.

I'd highly recommend you watch buildzoid's video of the x470 version of that board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wW1lAbgBZw

If you want to switch to intel to see what all the fuss is about, a 8600k/9600k +z390 would be my suggestion. Yes it'll be better but you'll probably not even notice that often
Thanks. I'm gonna watch that vid now. I'm not aiming to switch, per se, but I'm also not locked into AMD for anything other than my GPU (I've got two moderately expensive Freesync monitors I want to get good use out of).
6
10/27/2018 10:52 AMPosted by Aquorius
doesn't really sound like a hardware issue, unless you're running into thermal issue.
I'm not seeing anything either during game-time or when I stress test using AIDA64 that would lead me to believe there is a thermal issue.
10/27/2018 10:52 AMPosted by Aquorius
but if you're itching for an upgrade.
No, but 15 fps in a busy moment seems low. If that's what I'm to expect, then I'll leave things be, but 15 fps seems pretty low to me. I've been raiding recently and at no point in my raiding has my fps dropped below 30 for long enough for me to catch it. Maybe raiding isn't the benchmark activity anymore?
10/27/2018 10:52 AMPosted by Aquorius
I'd highly recommend you watch buildzoid's video of the x470 version of that board.
Did that - lots of data - very little information. I don't have the context to analyze what he's saying. At the beginning it sounded like he was dissing the board he was evaluating for having a crappy non-heat-sink for the VRM heat-sink, but by the end, I wasn't sure what he was saying. Is there a TL;dr version of that somewhere?
10/27/2018 10:52 AMPosted by Aquorius
a 8600k/9600k +z390 would be my suggestion.
I can't begin to evaluate which z390 boards are good and which aren't. Choosing a mid-priced board with that processor put me over the $400 budget limit almost immediately. It looks as if my cooler will work with that but I might need to acquire an adapter (I'm relatively sure mine came with the correct adapter, but who the heck knows were it is now).
10/27/2018 10:52 AMPosted by Aquorius
Yes it'll be better but you'll probably not even notice that often
Back to my second response - is 15 fps expected in warfront battles at times?
7
Video:
TLDW:
Its okay for price point. Its a low tier board so don't expect too much since you'll be limited by heat or power delivery.

*Don't think you should be buying any new upgrades.
*Suggest that you do further investigation. Check Addons for example or technical forum to see if reports about low fps are there.

*I haven't done a warfront, but did the weekly world boss with 40+ people. Sat in the 30s for the most part.

Trying to keep it short and simple and just didn't want to type an essay.
8
I run very few active addons running and none of them are likely to cause (or have a history of causing) system degradation.

In Uldir I run a minimum of 30 fps, an absolute floor of that as far as I've ever noticed, no matter how busy it gets or how many people are in the raid.

But in warfronts and only in warfronts, I'm running well below that to as low as 15 fps.

ElvUI, DBM, !BugGrabber, BugSack, Advanced Interface Option, ViragDevTools, and a few things that I *KNOW* aren't sucking up CPU (because they're only active when things like the AH is open or the social pane).

If it's not hardware, is it just something that we have to live with in warfronts? What sort of frame rates is everyone getting in there in the busiest spots on decent hardware?
9
I drop to around 50 fps during the last boss of warfront with lust and everyone going ham on the boss
10
If you really wanna do this on a budget, best thing for you to do is review your settings.

I run the exact same mobo you do, with a Ryzen 1500X and a 1050ti.

I do not go below 30 FPS in a Warfront, ever. But then I tweaked my settings to be more reasonable. A few things:

1). Reduce your Shadow Quality. In most situations, especially battle, you will never notice a decrease in Shadow Quality, but yet it is one of the biggest strains on your hardware. Reducing this would go a long way if you're struggling.

2). Don't be afraid to notch the view distance down a peg. This will also provide huge boosts to performance, and you can do the same with the level of detail further away from your character. If you're in a raid, or something you're not going to be looking at the scenery 500 feet away to be honest.

3). Are you trying to run 4k? Consider trying 1080p.
11
I'll be honest, nothing you do hardware wise will make a difference. It is either thermals (which is rare on 1st gen), optimized settings or an addon. Sure an Intel chip like a 9600k would do better but not a 2x multiplier.
12
Stop throwing money at Ryzen and save up for a better performing, longer lasting intel chip.
13
10/27/2018 03:48 PMPosted by Griefs
Stop throwing money at Ryzen and save up for a better performing, longer lasting intel chip.
Otherwise, I know the AMD side of things reasonably well, but the Intel side puzzles me somewhat. There's so much fanboi and hype out there on both sides that I just can't seem to make an intelligent decision on my own.
"...a better performing, longer-lasting Intel chip..." is a bit vague as they currently have about forty-leven chips in production and I'm on a fairly tight budget.

For anyone offering actual help, this is where my settings are now:

https://imgur.com/a/EQLPJlH

Yes. I'm running 2560 x 1440. As mentioned, I'm having no problem with that in Raid settings, only in Warfronts.

I have everything set at 5 primarily because frankly my eyes aren't good enough to see much past that anyway.

I can run at 7 really well in most situations and even in Raids I can hold 7 above 30 almost all of the time but my thought is this: Why push the system to do something I'm not really getting any good out of in the first place?

I've tried shutting off everything except !BugGrabber, BugSack, AIO, and VDT and checking for any alteration in frame rates and there are literally none. There's nothing running in the background chewing up cycles. I don't run WA (which can be a pig if custom triggers are written wrong and sometimes even if they're not).

If it's an addon, I'd be really surprised as there is just about nothing an addon can do in a tactical situation that is effected by the activity level on the screen (other than Weak Auras and similar add-ons - which, again, I don't have).

Thermals don't seem to be an issue as far as anything Aida64 can detect and I'm running the paid version of that, not the crippleware free version.

If this isn't enough CPU for Warfronts, I'm willing to spend a little to fix it, but the information I'm seeing is a) it's not hardware, b) it's thermals (which it isn't), c) it's an addon (which it isn't), d) Ryzen sucks, and e) hardware doesn't matter.

I'm attempting to make sense of that, but it's going to take me a bit.
14
Why are you so adamant on not disabling all your addons for testing.
I have yet to see people complaining about warfront, so its more likely a problem on your end.
15
10/27/2018 04:06 PMPosted by Ehiztari
I've tried shutting off everything except !BugGrabber, BugSack, AIO, and VDT and checking for any alteration in frame rates and there are literally none.
I'm guess a recent product of the public education system, but maybe not. <grin>

If one of those is causing the problem we're all in a lot of trouble.
16
Sometimes saving a few bucks at first costs you more in the end.
17
It's sad how far the quality of feedback on this forum has fallen in the past few years.

Brand fanatics spewing nothing but "anti-other-team" (with no reason (I explicitly asked for help with the Blue Team stuff as I don't know much about it) and absolutely nothing helpful or relevant) and a handful of folks unable or unwilling to actually read what I've written.

I'd say I'd go try to find a Facebook group for an answer, but it's not any better there.

<sigh>
18
Maybe try disabling all your addons and go test to see if the problems still persist?
The things you left on are still addons.

But hey you're the only with the problem, feel free to do as you please.
19
10/27/2018 05:26 PMPosted by Ehiztari
It's sad how far the quality of feedback on this forum has fallen in the past few years.

Brand fanatics spewing nothing but "anti-other-team" (with no reason (I explicitly asked for help with the Blue Team stuff as I don't know much about it) and absolutely nothing helpful or relevant) and a handful of folks unable or unwilling to actually read what I've written.

I'd say I'd go try to find a Facebook group for an answer, but it's not any better there.

<sigh>


If you look at what I said, you might have gained some insight.

Have you tried the PTR to see if the enhancements have helped?

I'm not a brand fanatic - in another event thread I've also recommended the 2600 over the intel counter part.

You also have a habit of asking for help, ignoring people's advice and demanding ten different sources for peoples opinion.

At that point why should anyone bother trying to help you if all you are going to do is question them anyway?
20
10/27/2018 05:46 PMPosted by Salhezar
You also have a habit of asking for help, ignoring people's advice and demanding ten different sources for peoples opinion.
Yup. I was tempted to write, "Don't even bother with Ehiztari." You especially should know better by now. It's like a broken record.

It's also funny (in a pathetic sort of way) how the Ryzen fanboys all can't even wait for Zen2 to buy another Ryzen chip, even picking up new motherboards along the way. And anyone that points out the waste of going from first- to second-gen Ryzen instead of buying one better performing Intel CPU from the start is an Intel fanboy.