Fps and GPU issues

[Jeremyr]

For the last week or so, I have been trying to figure out a issue I've been having with low fps. For my game I'm using a lot of VisuStella's plugins and SRDHudMaker, to create a lot of custom states and graphics, which I've found causes the gpu use to increase quite a bit which is understandable. Which leads me to the issue at hand, when nothing else is open on my laptop, the game will run at a mostly solid 60fps and gpu usage at like 40%, the problem appears when I have something else open which uses the gpu as well, suddenly the gpu usage drops to around 20% which I believe causes the fps drops, since it is needing to be at that 40%+ usage point.

My laptop isn't the greatest "Msi GE60 2PL" having only a gtx850M, but I've tested other games and such, both being able to go up to 40% together without hassle, I've also made sure in the NVidia graphics settings that its set to max performance, tried upgrading the nw.js, which at this point now I'm just lost, I have no clue why the gpu usage drops. Another thing to note is, when tabbed out the game is paused but the gpu usage goes back to the full amount.

Does anyone have any clue? I feel like it could be a system related issue, but since cant test it out on anything else I have no idea, is there anything it could possible be in any js, or a nw.js clash with a laptop that uses Optimus, I did not have this issue with mv.

 

[Andar]

Does your graphic chip support webgl?

 

[caethyril]

Are you seeing the ~40% limit for "overall usage", or for some specific subset, e.g. "3D"? GPUs comprise a number of circuits optimised for specific operations, so I wonder if one of those subsets (e.g. rasteristation: vector -> pixel conversion) is being nearly maxed-out by your RMMZ game, leaving too little to effectively run another similar app at the same time. This article might help to explain the specifics:

GPUs in the task manager - DirectX Developer Blog

The below posting is from Steve Pronovost, our lead engineer responsible for the GPU scheduler and memory manager. GPUs in the Task Manager We’re excited to introduce support for GPU performance data in the Task Manager. This is one of the features you have often requested,

devblogs.microsoft.com

It might also be a bottleneck elsewhere: perhaps the GPU could handle more data, but the system isn't providing data to it fast enough?

I've done a little testing with the VisuStella MZ core plugins and seen a notable impact on framerate. They add a LOT of great features, but demand a commensurate amount of system resources.

Rendering should usually be suspended when the window is minimised (or hidden from view), but that's a plugin or core script issue: I wouldn't expect the application itself (browser/NWJS) to block draw calls based on window visibility, since there are valid reasons for hidden rendering, e.g. measuring text.

RMMV supports a non-WebGL renderer, but RMMZ does not. As far as I'm aware, RMMZ's WebGL renderer puts less strain on the system than the same from RMMV. The GTX 850M is a dedicated laptop card that was released back in 2014; it's fairly low-spec by today's gaming standards, but it should be perfectly capable of WebGL.

 

[Jeremyr]

Does your graphic chip support webgl?

Yes I believe it does.

Are you seeing the ~40% limit for "overall usage", or for some specific subset, e.g. "3D"? GPUs comprise a number of circuits optimised for specific operations, so I wonder if one of those subsets (e.g. rasteristation: vector -> pixel conversion) is being nearly maxed-out by your RMMZ game, leaving too little to effectively run another similar app at the same time. This article might help to explain the specifics:

So I think the ~40% I was referring to seems to be overall usage in the task manager, I've done some more playing around and found some more things to note.

Two of the biggest culprits are, OBS and twitch 'or more so just chrome and videos', i figured chrome was just normal because of them both being chromium, but I found that if I actually put the game over the twitch stream and fullscreen, blocking it out it will allow the game to run full speed, or simply if the video is not on screen even on another tab, the quality also plays a part, the lower the better the two can run together. Then the other being obs, which it simply being open will cause the gpu and fps drop, it being another thing that essentially runs a video on screen.

So maybe it is something like you said, the rasterization is being maxed out, which I guess I still don't really understand how I could go about fixing, other than having higher spec/higher requirements or removing things from the game.

 

[caethyril]

Yea, if it is being bottlenecked by your GPU then I think the only options are to reduce the demand on that component (e.g. remove/replace some game features, lower game resolution, lower stream bitrate, etc) or upgrade your hardware.

I'm not super confident on my knowledge on this stuff, though; perhaps someone else will have some ideas.

Edit: just had a thought - maybe double-check that your game is using the Nvidia card rather than the onboard graphics. You can manually set apps to use the dedicated GPU via the Nvidia Control Panel.