Playing VPX with an RTX 5070 in 4k/144fps - and the strange cases of "The Machine - Bride of Pinbot" and "Funhouse"

[Mopple]

A couple of months ago I decided to ramp up my Virtual Pinball system a little bit and buy a bigger graphics card. First I thought an RTX 5060 should probably be a good compromise between price and performance but then a special offer came along and so for about 700 Euros I bought the big-a** Asus RTX 5070, which, I thought, should have more than enough power for sending a silver ball smoothly around a 4k playfield at 144fps. (my mainboard / CPU is about 10 years old but still an i7 / 3800 MHz already so I don't know if this could still be called a bottleneck of any sort). 

 

With using the overclock app that you can download from NVIDIA (see screenshot), here are my experiences so far: Overall I'm pleasantly surprised; virtually all of the usual VPX tables I can run at more or less the highest adjustments at a stable 144 framerate. Gameplay is totally smooth, and especially the VPW tables with their quite realistic ball physics are great fun to play. 

 

I'm attaching a screenshot of my Video/Graphics adjustments:

*I found out that running the tables in Windowed Mode, not Fullscreen, gives better results 

 

*Frame Pacing, which was, as I can remember, the "hot sh*t" for smooth, lag-free gameplay some years ago, can't be used anymore, it has to be Vsync 

 

*Regarding anti-aliasing, I noticed that with most tables, especially 80s and early 90s tables, I could set the super sampling value easily at 150 or 175% (probably 200% would also be possible) but since I really don't see any difference on my monitor my standard setting here is 125%. The other settings you can see.

 

I have to admit I have no deeper knowledge regarding what every setting really does or how it changes and affects visual appearance in actual gameplay but all settings are more or less ramped up to max. 

 

The step from my old RTX 3060 to the new 5070 was especially noticeable with VPW's "Fish Tales" where, with the 3060, I had unplayable stuttering at around 100fps whereas with the 5070 I now get smooth 144fps! 

 

I was really afraid that somehow even the 5070 wouldn't be capable enough to handle all the recent VPW titles but I've tried so many of their tables now, like "Goldeneye", "Johnny Mnemonic" "Red and Ted's Roadshow", "Defender", "Space Station" etc., and they all run fine at 144 fps.

 

And then there are the strange cases of VPW's "The Machine - Bride of Pinbot" and, low and behold, any version of "Funhouse"! 

 

If anybody can help me here or shed some light I would be most grateful. No matter how I lower or adjust the settings, these two tables stubbornly resist running at 144fps. I can't get more than around 100 to 115 fps with "Bride" and about 90 to 100 fps with "Funhouse". I tried the "Funhouse" Bigus and 2.0b versions with no luck. 

 

What is it with these two tables? To my knowledge there isn't a VPW version of "Funhouse" yet, is there? I was under the impression that the VPW tables are the most demanding, and they have every right to be since they're really top notch and the best we all could wish for probably!, but as I said, every other VPW table works flawlessly at 144 fps, except for "Bride of Pinbot". 

 

I would be delighted to read about experiences and game settings from other people around here and especially if I'm the only one who has difficulties with these two tables. 

 

A great time for a great hobby. Greetings to everybody reading this and to the whole community - and especially to everyone spending and devoting their precious time programming, tweaking and sharing all those great tables from yesteryear, VPW, borg, Uncle Paulie and all the others!

Edited March 7 by Mopple

[Schlabber34]

The bottle neck could be the 10 year old mainboard. What level is the PCI-E port? 5.0 would be perfect for a 5070 but 4.0 should also do it. 3.0 might already be too low for a 5070 at 4k.

[robertms]

9 hours ago, Mopple said:

*Regarding anti-aliasing, I noticed that with most tables, especially 80s and early 90s tables, I could set the super sampling value easily at 150 or 175% (probably 200% would also be possible) but since I really don't see any difference on my monitor my standard setting here is 125%. The other settings you can see.

 

Using a 4K screen, both your Supersampling and Sharpen should be set to DISABLED. Any amount of Supersampling other than 100% (disabled) will take a significant performance hit, especially running at 144Hz.

 

Regarding vertical sync vs frame pacing, looks like you're running the DX version of VPX? Have you tried the 64bit GL version with frame pacing enabled? I use it exclusively running RTX4070 at 4K120Hz without any issues.

[Mopple]

I've tried GL with every setting and  none worked well. Frame rates were ridiculous, Frame Pacing or not; or the results were the same as with the DX version.

 

I guess my older CPU and mainboard are the bottenecks and I'll replace them in the next few weeks with a reasonable upgrade, there are bundles out there for about 400 to 500 EUR, and that should do the trick - I HOPE! 🙂

 

All I want is smooth gameplay for the immersion effect. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for replying!