[16.1] hickups and stable 60FPS unobtainable

[JohnKnife]

Since Factorio version 0.16.1 (up to 0.16.3) on my machine the game does not quite reach 60 FPS anymore and hickups/stalls for a few hundred ms(?) about once every two seconds. The FPS counter shows periods of nice 59.9 or 60 FPS and brief periods of 55~59 FPS in between. For the stall behaviour it does not seem to matter what I am viewing or doing. The machine I am running Factorio on had no problems whatsoever reaching 60 FPS in any savegame I had on max settings and now even a new game does not give me 60 FPS anymore.

To clarify this has not happened in any version before 0.16.1 nor does any stability problem occur in any other game on this machine. I have not tried version 0.16.0.

I have tried the config.ini I had from 0.15 and a fresh config.ini but there was no difference.

The problem occurs in any save game or new game.

I have not enabled any mods.

Machine specs:
i7 2600K 4.5 GHz
GTX780Ti 3GB 1250 MHz
8GB DDR3 2133 MHz
Windows 8.1 x64
2560x1440 monitor
Using Steam

Log file (current): https://pastebin.com/3X9hwzAY
Log file (previous): https://pastebin.com/26zzDRSM
Shitty home video of the problem: https://imgur.com/vuvpdk7

[Loewchen]

High resolution sprites require 2.8GB VRAM if something else uses up some, it results in such issues. Reduce graphics quality or vram usage setting to change this.

[JohnKnife]

I checked VRAM usage and you are right. It quickly shoots up to 2.9 GB which is a sad fact. I should have bought the 6 GB edition four years ago.

Will try reducing the VRAM usage option.

I would suggest two things (there's probably a different subforum for this):
1) Estimate VRAM usage as a function of options selected, get VRAM amount on computer, compare it and show it to the user as he changes options. Just like in for example GTA V. This is getting important because you need 4 GB to max out the game these days apparently.
2) Add more tooltips to the various (advanced) graphics options because even as a computer graphics programmer I am having trouble figuring out what effect all the available GUI settings have.

Just out of interest what is filling up this 3 GB of space? Given that you guys are not doing any kind of deferred rendering or shadow maps or supersampling or whatever it has to be 90%+ sprites right? How does not even fill up 3 GB with that given that there are only diffuse color maps.

[posila]

Hi, try to set Video memory usage to High (instead of All). It will keep trains (which were massive even before addition of artillery wagon) from sprite atlases, which should give your graphics card more room to breathe. I'll make it default to 'High' instead of 'All'.

[cbhj1]

I had that same issue with the 16 experimental, found it was having big spikes in the page flip time, turning down the atlas size got it back to 60fps stable on my system with 2GB VRAM and high res sprites.

[JohnKnife]

I reduced VRAM usage from "All" to "High" which seems to have solved the problem.

What does "High" mean in this case? Does it mean "use 2GB" or some percentage of total space?