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VSync on even when disabled
posted in Q/A Help
1
#1
0 Frags +

I recently installed the game + mastercomfig on a fresh copy of Windows 10 on an old ThinkPad with an external GPU attached via the ExpressCard slot. I have VSync disabled in my NVIDIA control panel and in the game settings via mastercomfig, but despite this the FPS counter is stuck around 60-66 FPS despite being capped at 1000 and when in game the controls have the input lag VSync comes with. It's not just a case of poor performance, since the framerate is the same on the main menu as in game. Has anyone run into this issue, or does anyone know what might be causing it?

I recently installed the game + mastercomfig on a fresh copy of Windows 10 on an old ThinkPad with an external GPU attached via the ExpressCard slot. I have VSync disabled in my NVIDIA control panel and in the game settings via mastercomfig, but despite this the FPS counter is stuck around 60-66 FPS despite being capped at 1000 and when in game the controls have the input lag VSync comes with. It's not just a case of poor performance, since the framerate is the same on the main menu as in game. Has anyone run into this issue, or does anyone know what might be causing it?
2
#2
0 Frags +

is it possible that the input delay is caused by whatever you're using to connect the GPU to the thinkpad? and you're just genuinely getting 60-66 fps?

is it possible that the input delay is caused by whatever you're using to connect the GPU to the thinkpad? and you're just genuinely getting 60-66 fps?
3
#3
0 Frags +

Are you using a monitor plugged into the gpu, or the internal screen

Are you using a monitor plugged into the gpu, or the internal screen
4
#4
0 Frags +
maraudeRis it possible that the input delay is caused by whatever you're using to connect the GPU to the thinkpad? and you're just genuinely getting 60-66 fps?

It could be that the lag is caused by some part of the egpu setup, but I am fairly certain that the framerate is limited in that range by something other than raw performance since it is identical on the menu as in game with the ‘ultra’ mastercomfig and in game with the ‘medium’ mastercomfig. For the record, I don’t care so much about the framerate per se as it feels the same as when the FPS counter reads 200, but the input lag associated with the cap (?) makes it difficult to play

turbochad69Are you using a monitor plugged into the gpu, or the internal screen

The latter

[quote=maraudeR]is it possible that the input delay is caused by whatever you're using to connect the GPU to the thinkpad? and you're just genuinely getting 60-66 fps?[/quote]
It could be that the lag is caused by some part of the egpu setup, but I am fairly certain that the framerate is limited in that range by something other than raw performance since it is identical on the menu as in game with the ‘ultra’ mastercomfig and in game with the ‘medium’ mastercomfig. For the record, I don’t care so much about the framerate per se as it feels the same as when the FPS counter reads 200, but the input lag associated with the cap (?) makes it difficult to play
[quote=turbochad69]Are you using a monitor plugged into the gpu, or the internal screen[/quote]
The latter
5
#5
2 Frags +

Well it's hard to say anything too definitive without knowing more about your setup but usually to display the output of an egpu on the internal screen of a laptop you have to copy the framebuffer back off of the egpu over whatever interface it's connected via (ExpressCard in your case, which isn't really that fast, basically a single PCIe 2.0 lane at best) and onto the gpu attached to the internal display so it can be displayed there. There's overhead in doing that, in multiple stages of the process, and also when using a slow interface like ExpressCard it could cut significantly into the PCIe bandwidth that you would otherwise be using for everything else the gpu has to do, lowering performance in your game.

It's hard to imagine that the limit for how fast you could copy the framebuffer would be as low as 60-ish fps for normal resolutions on any somewhat recent (past decade or so) hardware, so maybe it's worth going through the display settings for the gpu to which the laptop screen is connected and making sure there's no vsync forced in there or something, but ExpressCard bandwidth is very low so it's possible you're just really running into that limit.

The best test you could do would be to just try a monitor plugged directly into the egpu if at all possible and to check whether the issue is still occuring or whether it's remedied by doing that. You could also try a very small resolution like 640x480 with your current setup and see if that has any effect, as it would require much less bandwidth to copy than a larger resolution.

Well it's hard to say anything too definitive without knowing more about your setup but usually to display the output of an egpu on the internal screen of a laptop you have to copy the framebuffer back off of the egpu over whatever interface it's connected via (ExpressCard in your case, which isn't really that fast, basically a single PCIe 2.0 lane at best) and onto the gpu attached to the internal display so it can be displayed there. There's overhead in doing that, in multiple stages of the process, and also when using a slow interface like ExpressCard it could cut significantly into the PCIe bandwidth that you would otherwise be using for everything else the gpu has to do, lowering performance in your game.

It's hard to imagine that the limit for how fast you could copy the framebuffer would be as low as 60-ish fps for normal resolutions on any somewhat recent (past decade or so) hardware, so maybe it's worth going through the display settings for the gpu to which the laptop screen is connected and making sure there's no vsync forced in there or something, but ExpressCard bandwidth is very low so it's possible you're just really running into that limit.

The best test you could do would be to just try a monitor plugged directly into the egpu if at all possible and to check whether the issue is still occuring or whether it's remedied by doing that. You could also try a very small resolution like 640x480 with your current setup and see if that has any effect, as it would require much less bandwidth to copy than a larger resolution.
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