VR Mark and general tweaking
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:50 pm
Hey ladies, have many of you played with VR mark?
Recently I have been tinkering trying to get everything running as good as possible on the Rift and have learned a few little things that I'd like to share. I'd like to hear any tricks you guys have worked out to eke the most out of your systems too. With how CPU limited iRacing is, especially in the latest build it really puts a lot of stress on the system and small things can matter.
I am hanging out for AMD RyZen, which will at the very least push down socket 2011 setups slightly. VR Mark seems to be pretty CPU limited, then again so does iRacing (my GPU is at 40% in a race?!).
VR Mark Orange Room benchmark (Free demo):
SCORE: 10747
FPS: 234.28 avg
Current setup:
i7 4790K @ 4.7GHz (HT enabled, cache also at 4.7Ghz)
16GB DDR3-2400 CL10
Asus STRIX GTX1070 8GB OC @ 1934/8734 (boosts to ~2.1GHz solid, power limit to 120%)
Little things, big impacts:
If you do a bit of overclocking and if you have a Sandy Bridge to Haswell CPU try and run the cache/uncore at 1:1 with the CPU (add cache/uncore voltage), people say it doesn't make a difference but it makes enough of a difference in CPU limited scenarios depending on the workload. First gen i series only need double the RAM frequency apparently, you get huge gains from those CPUs from extra bclk though. I personally have to sacrifice some CPU clock speed to attain 1:1 cache speed, in my configuration it is worth it. iRacing is very limited by the single core performance even with current i7s so small gains count. I have found overclocking the cache/uncore gets Haswell very very close the the memory and cache performance of the DDR4 6700K which is known to have the best single core performance currently.
Put compatible hardware into MSI instead of the older IRQ mode. I have found latency to be MUCH lower with the GTX1070 in MSI mode (LatencyMon), watch out though because older hardware can cause a BSOD on reboot if its not supported so use system restore or similar (graphics cards always work to my knowledge). In theory lower latency reduces CPU overhead and can improve frame rates and frame times in CPU bound games. Heaven benchmark gains 10 fps in the high end (lows are the same, GPU limited) and the stutters at the dragon are gone http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378044
If you use Windows 10 disable as much as you can.. disable Cortana and XBOX with a registry tweak, Windows Update in services.msc. Every now and then enable Windows Update when you know you aren't going to game. Windows 10 loves to update at the wrong time.
There are obviously many other things more important like using the latest nvidia driver with a 10 series or having enough RAM but I just thought I would share these less obvious things that might help to make your VR experience slightly better.
Recently I have been tinkering trying to get everything running as good as possible on the Rift and have learned a few little things that I'd like to share. I'd like to hear any tricks you guys have worked out to eke the most out of your systems too. With how CPU limited iRacing is, especially in the latest build it really puts a lot of stress on the system and small things can matter.
I am hanging out for AMD RyZen, which will at the very least push down socket 2011 setups slightly. VR Mark seems to be pretty CPU limited, then again so does iRacing (my GPU is at 40% in a race?!).
VR Mark Orange Room benchmark (Free demo):
SCORE: 10747
FPS: 234.28 avg
Current setup:
i7 4790K @ 4.7GHz (HT enabled, cache also at 4.7Ghz)
16GB DDR3-2400 CL10
Asus STRIX GTX1070 8GB OC @ 1934/8734 (boosts to ~2.1GHz solid, power limit to 120%)
Little things, big impacts:
If you do a bit of overclocking and if you have a Sandy Bridge to Haswell CPU try and run the cache/uncore at 1:1 with the CPU (add cache/uncore voltage), people say it doesn't make a difference but it makes enough of a difference in CPU limited scenarios depending on the workload. First gen i series only need double the RAM frequency apparently, you get huge gains from those CPUs from extra bclk though. I personally have to sacrifice some CPU clock speed to attain 1:1 cache speed, in my configuration it is worth it. iRacing is very limited by the single core performance even with current i7s so small gains count. I have found overclocking the cache/uncore gets Haswell very very close the the memory and cache performance of the DDR4 6700K which is known to have the best single core performance currently.
Put compatible hardware into MSI instead of the older IRQ mode. I have found latency to be MUCH lower with the GTX1070 in MSI mode (LatencyMon), watch out though because older hardware can cause a BSOD on reboot if its not supported so use system restore or similar (graphics cards always work to my knowledge). In theory lower latency reduces CPU overhead and can improve frame rates and frame times in CPU bound games. Heaven benchmark gains 10 fps in the high end (lows are the same, GPU limited) and the stutters at the dragon are gone http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378044
If you use Windows 10 disable as much as you can.. disable Cortana and XBOX with a registry tweak, Windows Update in services.msc. Every now and then enable Windows Update when you know you aren't going to game. Windows 10 loves to update at the wrong time.
There are obviously many other things more important like using the latest nvidia driver with a 10 series or having enough RAM but I just thought I would share these less obvious things that might help to make your VR experience slightly better.