[16.0] Bad performance/low FPS with 2GB or less VRAM

[TheGegger]

Thanks for the great update, I hope to help with this problem report.

I have created a new 0.16 map, and my FPS quickly dropped to bellow 5, and generally ranged from 1 to 5 (unpleayeable)

I attached logs and SS.

Some details:
UPS seemed ok, but then again, I haven't crafted a single item yet.
If I zoomed out, FPS dropped further (stayed around 1), if I zoomed in close enough, I could get close to 30.
If I enable the map view, it goes up to 60/60 (screen shot added).
Zooming in using map view slowed down at the point where the terrain was visible.
The entire system performance was affected (alt-tabbing to locate the log file was painfully slow).


steps prior to problem:
Loaded 0.15.40 played for a while, everything was fine. Exited to menu, removed all my mods. Clicked Back (which reloaded 0.15), exited again.
Installed 0.16 using Steam Beta/0.16 Experimental, created new map, no pollution, no evolution, none to biter bases.

Thank you for your great work, I look forward to playing it once some of these small wrinckles are ironed out.



My mac:
Nom du modèle : MacBook Pro
Identifiant du modèle : MacBookPro11,3
Nom du processeur : Intel Core i7
Vitesse du processeur : 2,3 GHz
Nombre de processeurs : 1
Nombre total de cœurs : 4
Cache de niveau 2 (par cœur) : 256 Ko
Cache de niveau 3 : 6 Mo
Mémoire : 16 Go
Version de la ROM de démarrage : MBP112.0142.B00
Version SMC (système) : 2.19f12
Numéro de série (système) : C02LJC4WFD57
UUID du matériel : B9AE7306-BE8B-50D8-B4D7-0D85C44E76B5

[Loewchen]

Is it similar with vsync off?
Check against: 45236.

[posila]

Hi, you have just 1.5GB video memory. That is no longer enough for playing with high quality sprites. You need to reduce sprite quality option to normal. I am sorry.
You might be able to make it work if you experiment with "video memory usage", "max texture size", "low VRAM mode" and "low quality rotations" graphics options.

[TheGegger]

I'm trying to find instructions on disabling G-Sync for MacOSX. The information in the related post was for Windows machines.

Other details while I am here:
Have tried re-starting the system with complete power down. Generated new map default settings.
I get what it says is 10-40 FPS, but if I key-in left or right movement, it takes a good 2 seconds before the character starts moving, and up to 5 seconds before he seems to be 'running'.
Zooming in/out I also get a lot more of the graphic artifacts (like seeing zigzags of the sprites on the screen, flashing with mini versions of the sprites like the Labs repeated across the screen for a fraction of a second), then I used to. Not sure this is related, but relaying just in case.

I did try and turn-off V-Sync and started a fresh map again and am gueting about 5-15FPS and 40-50 UPS after a new generation, and still 60/60 on the map screen.

[TheGegger]

Thank you Posila!

I just ran with those settings, and although there is some stuttering left, it is playable. Zoom clearly doesn't behave as well as it used to (loads of stuttering), but playable. I'll play a bit more with those settings when I get more time. but it seems the game start will at least be playable.

Not sure if this is still a bug (detection of graphics hardware) or simply user knowledge, but this definitely helped me.

[sillyfly]

Factorio has stumbled into the "uncanny valley" of needing very little GPU power, but quite a lot of VRAM... Anything above a GTX1050 / RX560 is probably massive overkill for Factorio, but you really do need >2GB, which mostly means a more expensive GPU (lower-end GPUs with >2GB VRAM exist, but they are rare).

[orzelek]

This might need adjustments to warning for high res sprites and what triggers them.
According to GPU-Z loading the game in high-res eats up about 2.8GB of VRAM.

[Loewchen]

This might need adjustments to warning for high res sprites and what triggers them.
According to GPU-Z loading the game in high-res eats up about 2.8GB of VRAM.

That explains why I can no longer load it with 2Gig

[Rseding91]

This might need adjustments to warning for high res sprites and what triggers them.
According to GPU-Z loading the game in high-res eats up about 2.8GB of VRAM.

That explains why I can no longer load it with 2Gig

High res! + more entities.

You can change the Video memory usage option from "all" to "high" which will reduce the amount needed. It's going to perform worse but it should work. That or just don't use high-res and stick to normal.

[TheGegger]

Ok, I'm 70% there with my nvidia 750M 2GB, and guess I have to turn sprite resolution down to normal no matter what.

It mostly works (60/60) in some areas of the map and dips (5 to 20FPS/60UPS) in weird locations (chunk limits? Specific terrain features?) when I walk. If I stop walking and don't do anything, it goes back to 60. If I'm dragging (poles, belts), they skip a few square, for poles this means I have to take poles out and replace manually.

While testing things out to write this post (after reading about decoratives and such), and it seems to fix this problem if I turn Sprite resolution down to Normal.
Other settings (which were turned down from 0.15 already):
Left : Full Windows On, everything else off (inc. decoratives and V-Sync)
Sprite Resolution (problem as above if High, no issues if normal)
Lights rendering: 0.40

Right: Everything on. Video Mem Usage All, Largest Possible, 8 render threads.
Anything else you would want me to test turning off that could help improve this for other people, or '2GB or less just use normal sprite resolutions'?

[ScaryBuh]

I had similar problem and reported it too here viewtopic.php?f=182&t=54694
I fixed it by turning down a bit Atlas texture size, so I could keep the decoratives on

[TheGegger]

Thank you. This seems to be different.

1.6.3 has fixed the secondary problem highlighted above. I am able to play 60/60 (single player, start of game)

The secondary problem I was having (low FPS in certain areas of the map) is fixed. I can turn on V-Sync and decoratives and shadows, still great.

While testing, I tried to re-enable High sprite resolution. It reported I couldn't because it said I had only 1.5Gb of video memory instead of my 2GB.

Could this be the problem? This being a laptop, I have Iris Pro graphics that automatically switch to NVIDIA GT750 (I forgot the name of the feature). The Iris Pro uses 1.5GB of shared RAM where as the NVIDIA graphics has 2GB of dedicated VRAM.

From my about this mac page:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 Go
Intel Iris Pro 1536 Mo

I see that Factorio does enable the GT750M, as it does not show up in my About dialog and doesn't if it is disabled.
Anyways, It plays great at medium sprite resolutions, and I accept the fact I can't play at high with my old graphics, just providing extra details.

[TheGegger]

Something drastically change related to this.

I switched to high graphic, got the error which is mixed up between 1.5Gb and 2Gb, had to do it a couple of times, I think I got the 'Back' and Go mixed up or they were reversed, not sure.

But now I'm set to high, and I cannot seem to lower FPS lower than 54 FPS no mater what I do (playing zoom-in/zoom-out at ridiculous speed, running around, etc) on a fairly used map (slowly preparing my rocket silo).

So either I'm not getting the high res textures or something got fixed that makes high-res textures more than playeable on my mac somewhere betwen 0.16.8 and 0.16.15.