Virtual DMD uses high GPU percentage and makes VPX loose a lot of FPS

[sbeuh]

 

Hello! 

I'm working on a POC of pincab before starting to build the cabinet, and I am facing a really strange behavior where Virtual DMD destroy my VPX performances.

 

I will try to give as much information as possible and keep them concise and maybe it will help some other users who are facing stuttering issues.

 

My setup is the following:

 Harware:

  - Old Asus ROG gaming laptop:

        - Intel Core I7 4700HQ 3.2 -> 3.4GHZ (turbo)

        - 8 Go Ram

        - Internal Graphic Chipset: GeForce 780m (But it is disabled)

  - Used graphic Card:

        - Nvidia Gforce RTX 3060 12Go Vram on the PCI-e port using an external PCIe extender

 

System:

 - Windows 10 (fresh install)

 - All windows updates done

 - Appearances settings set to performances

 - Power settings set to performances

 - Last version of Nvidia drivers installed for the 3060

 - NVidia configuration panel optimized for best performances

 

Screens:

 - 32" Playfield(1920x1080 60 Hz)

 - 23" Backglass (1920x1080 60 Hz)

 - 13" Full Dmd (1920x1080 60 Hz)

All screens plugged on the 3060

 

Software:

  VPX 10.7 (also tried with 10.8)

  FlexDmd (tried with and withour FlexDmd)

  Freezy's Virtual DMD extention last version (tried with and without these extention installed)

 

What is the Issue

When I run a table on VPX (ACDC / Dr Who) I'm facing stuttering on the ball and if I check my FPS I can see them drop form 58 to 34 regularly
If I kill the Virtual DMD window my FPS stay stable at 60FPS (VSync is enabled)

Checking my system monitor give the following results:

With the Virtual DMD window open my GPU use percentage is high (>90%)

With the Virtual DMD window closed my GPU use percentage is a bit higher than (40%)

The playfield which is what I expect to be using the most of my GPU uses only 20% and runs really smooth which the Virtual DMD is using more than 50% and lead the playfield to stutter.

Does anyone faced the same issue or have any idea why my Virtual DMD could be leading to such a power usage and a performance loss?

Things I tried

 

- Played with all VPX settings, put all of them for a low end computer --> No changes

- Tried with VSync and OFF

- Played with the max rendering frames settings

- Played with the B2S settings (Led skip frames etc...) -> No changes

- Disabled everything in windows appearance settings -> slight improvement, my GPU now runs between 75 and 90% but still facing stuttering

- Used my laptop screen (which is plugged on the internal Intel graphic chipset instead of the NVidia GPU) to display the DMD -> No changes

Every time the ball stutter, killing the Virtual DMD window lead to clean and stable performances on the playfield which makes me think that the issue isn't related to my hardware being not able to run VPX in low settings.

 

----

I really hope that these information are precise enough and can help to figure out what is wrong on my side and maybe help any other user having the same issue. I will keep digging on my side and if I'm lucky enough to find what is wrong, I will share it there!

 

Have a really nice day!

Cheers!

 

Exemple with Virtual DMD running

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by sbeuh

[Energetics]

I read yesterday that in the INI turning DMD stay on Top off might help some...trying that this afternoon myself.

[acovukic]

I have i7 10700k, 32gb ram and 3070 overclocked, have issues with dmd too, some times helps using alt profile with lower settings in brightness and color, looks ugly, but lots of stutters are gone. vpx has poor gpu utilization, problems are really fixed with rtx 4080, used it for 2 weeks, and had no problems at all, everything was maxed and run like a brezze. Maybe in some of the next vpx versions will use more of gpu power, till than...