Factorio Forums

My friend and I recently completed the Space Age DLC.
Unfortunately, as the base grew, I (client over Steam) noticed performance problems while my friend (Host over Steam) did not.
I am on Windows 10 and he is on Windows 11.

These issues included:
Low FPS while maintaining ~60UPS
Stuttering
Occasional rubberbanding

Ive tried running the same map in singleplayer and it works fine. The UPS and FPS are always the same. The lowest I can get it is ~45FPS/UPS and there is no stutter noticeable. We have also tried switching as host/client. He said he got the heavy stutter but did not notice the FPS drop. I may ask him to post screenshots and logs as well.
This issue is frustrating because no matter the changes I make, nothing seems to change. The FPS drops are the worst when I am doing something on a planet with a lot of bots.

The other issue may be connection. Although, we both run wired connections. A speed test using Ookla got me 149Mbps up 12Mbps down during our normal hours. I also used to have awful internet before space age. The only issues I had then were being dropped and rubberbanding in combat.

Running task manager and performance monitor showed that none of my hardware (GPU, CPU, RAM) was even close to being used fully. The CPU would maybe max at 50% for each core if I had other stuff running. I also tried moving the game from a SATA SSD to a m.2 SSD with no change.

PC Specs:
CPU: Intel i5-10600K
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090
RAM: 32GB
PSU: EVGA 750 BP


In order to try to isolate the issue, I set up a server on my laptop (HP Elitebook 840 G3, Windows 10). I used the guide here:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Multiplayer
Only changes I made were loading the save and various descriptors and password.
Connecting to this server gave me the same problem. I ended up disabling the public server, disconnecting both PCs from the internet, and wiring directly to each other. These tests as seen from my client PC are shown below.

Singleplayer:


Multiplayer:


The save can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Here are a list of some things I have tried and yet to try:
Tried:
Swapping Ethernet cables
Lowering Graphics settings
Restarting PC
Restarting Router
Running /c game.speed=0.9
Using ZeroTier for direct connection
Changing around host
Running dedicated server over LAN
Changing Server network settings
Changing windows network port settings

Yet to try:
Use Kill Command
Upgrade PSU
Buy new Ethernet cables
Unplug all but one monitor
Use Laptop as a client
Running a different save

I'm determined to get to the bottom of this. If I'm missing something or anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Thank You!

What CPU is your friend using?

Jap2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2024 11:47 pm What CPU is your friend using?

Specs of my friend:

CPU: I9 13900K
GPU: RTX 4080
RAM: 32 GB
PSU: 1000 watt platinum

This may not explain all of what you've noticed, but how Factorio handles multiplayer explains some of it.

Every computer connected to a multiplayer game must run the full simulation. The goal is to do this 60 times per second, but in large bases this might not be possible. If a client can't simulate the game at the same speed as the server, it gets dropped. However, if it is just barely fast enough to keep up, the game may jump to simulating the next update right away, instead of having time to draw the previous one first.

That said: lowering the game speed should've fixed that.

(Also: substantial parts of Factorio only use one core*, so even if e.g. task manager shows 25% CPU usage on a 4-core CPU, that may be limiting performance.)

* Slight simplification

Jap2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2024 2:31 am That said: lowering the game speed should've fixed that.

He said they lowered it to 0.9 - that's roughly 54 ticks per second. His SP screenshot above shows he's dipping down to mid 40s, so it wouldn't have been enough to stop it, only decrease it some.

Thank you all for the replies.
I was digging around some more and have some new ideas.

It turns out I never put Windows on that m.2 SSD. My system and game are actually on a SAMSUNG 870 QVO SATA III SSD 2TB.
Could it be possible there is something wrong with the drive enough that it starts slowing things down?
I notice this with other apps too. Pulling up YouTube on Firefox creates a small bump of lag.

I'm wondering if there is a way to run Factorio completely on a separate drive, data and all, or if it would be worth it to move my system to the m.2 SSD:
Crucial P1 2 TB
https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/c ... -2-tb.d119

Jap2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2024 2:31 am This may not explain all of what you've noticed, but how Factorio handles multiplayer explains some of it.

Every computer connected to a multiplayer game must run the full simulation. The goal is to do this 60 times per second, but in large bases this might not be possible. If a client can't simulate the game at the same speed as the server, it gets dropped. However, if it is just barely fast enough to keep up, the game may jump to simulating the next update right away, instead of having time to draw the previous one first.

That said: lowering the game speed should've fixed that.

(Also: substantial parts of Factorio only use one core*, so even if e.g. task manager shows 25% CPU usage on a 4-core CPU, that may be limiting performance.)

* Slight simplification

I was thinking it wasn't before, but maybe this is the issue. Looking at the Resource Monitor, it seems #7 is the odd man out. My question now is how to read the data better. If the problem is the CPU, it starts getting performance issues well under 100%.

ADHD_ADVERSARY wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2024 4:10 am Could it be possible there is something wrong with the drive enough that it starts slowing things down?

Rather unlikely. That should only impact loading times.

Jap2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2024 11:28 pm

ADHD_ADVERSARY wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2024 4:10 am Could it be possible there is something wrong with the drive enough that it starts slowing things down?

Rather unlikely. That should only impact loading times.

Yeah. It did nothing. At least I can cross migrating that off the todo list.
Ive tried giving the game .exe priority and messing with other settings to no avail.
Looks like it's time to throw money at the problem. Unfortunately, it seems the best CPU for singlethreading in the same socket is the I9-11900K. I wonder how long good performance will last on that...

----------------[SOLVED]-----------------------------------
Problem: Low RAM speed set by BIOS
Solution: Set RAM speed in bios from (Auto) to the actual rated speed

Well it took several days but I figured it out.
I was looking at the log again and found it weird that my RAM speed was so low. I figured I must've cheaped out years ago but then I took out a stick and looked at it. Turns out, my PC was just completely underclocking my RAM. I was able to go to the BIOS settings and adjust it. Now the game runs smooth as silk. I knew the devs would never be able to make such a beautifully optimized game run that bad.
I might still upgrade that CPU just to squeeze some power out of it. Rendering stuff seems to chip the fps a bit but multiplayer works pretty much without stutter now.
As always thank you all for your replies.

Huh, yeah that's really odd that your RAM was clocked so low. Factorio is pretty sensitive to memory speed/latency, I guess that's something I usually don't look for in a log because most of the time it has sane defaults. Glad that you figured it out though.