FPS comparison between V3.3 and 5.1. Result: massive FPS drops between the versions.

[Polofix]

Hello,

I have returned to X4 after a long abstinence (from V 3.3 to 5.1).

Since I wanted to keep using my old savegame (several 100 hours) I didn't start a new game. But I immediately noticed that the FPS had dropped massively. Measured in the first few minutes of the old game in 3.3 and 5.1.Namely from about 44 to under 25. I've read many times that people have noticed massive FPS dops with 5.1.

Time to investigate the matter further. I started a new game and always measured in the same places to compare better.
Namely I always measured the new game start 'The Young Gun'. Always on the station, 2d Map and made a short fly around the station where you start. And always in the first 5 minutes, otherwise the universe changes too much and a direct comparison becomes more difficult.

Since I first suspected mods (XR_Ship Pack, VRO, etc.) I have tested after many tests with mods without mods.

Here are my results:

V3.3 without mods
2d Map -> 60 FPS
Walking around the station a bit -> 60-65
3D flight around the station -> 70-100 FPS

5.1 without mods
2d Map -> 30 FPS
3d Walking around the station -> 50-55 FPS
3d flight around the station -> 60-75

And I have repeated the tests several times to exclude errors, the results were always the same.

I also tested this without DLCs, which had virtually no effect.
I did not make any changes to the graphics settings
or any other settings. At least not during the comparisons.

It seems like Egosoft did something that massively pulls down the FPS, and in my case between V3.3 and V5.1.

My system:
Win 7
Processor: I7-2600K@4.3 Ghz
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1080TI
Ram: 32MB DDR 3 (1600 Mhz)
SSDs

I am aware that the processor and slow ram is the bottleneck for me. It's just a pity that with V3.3 it was still very smooth and playable and with the update to 5.1 I sometimes only have 10-20 FPS, where before I was fine with 30-40 FPS.

I am also aware that systems with Win 7 probably no longer pay much attention.
I would also be interested to know if Win 10 or 11 systems are also affected by this FPS drop.

I also just wanted to point it out. I have already done everything possible to increase the FPS. It's not the graphics card, no matter what settings I choose there, nothing changes at all. The processor load will be the problem. It's also probably that with 5.1 came a much higher system requirement.

[Alan Phipps]

I suspect that a big part of the problem could be that Nvidia are not supporting Win7 as much in their graphics driver optimisations. See this thread from user1679's post onwards.

I say that because while the DLCs each add content that may well impact overall performance, there have also been several game performance optimisations made in various game updates over the same sort of period and many players have commented as to how effective those have appeared to have been on their Win10/11 systems.

[Imperial Good]

If you are enabling the newer DLCs since 3.3 (Cradle of Humanity and Tides of Avarice) then a reduction in performance is to be expected. This is because there is just so much more universe to simulate. This has been shown in the benchmark thread where the performance reduction can be quite significant and change the ordering of the "best" CPUs if used to compare with older results.

If playing with the same DLCs (just Split Vendetta or no DLC) then performance should have improved due to various optimisations. Exception maybe being inside sectors that use the new 3D fog system but in that case you are trading some performance for better visuals. There may be other cases where performance has reduced due to additional features and improvements being added.

Your tests were made near a station. It is possible the improvements to character models and animations might factor into this. Might be a good idea to run a test in "empty space" far away from any stations to rule this out.

I also recommend using the same 3.3 not modified save for testing 5.1 in case it is due to changes in the initial state of the universe, such as more ships or stations.

X4 also has a minimum requirement of Intel 4th gen or newer processors. Your processor is 2nd generation so it is possible some of the "optimisations" used regress performance on older processors. A possible example would be becoming more reliant on branch prediction for performance with older intel processors not only having worse branch predictors but also suffering more from spectre mitigations to further reduce branch predictor performance. Such optimisations might be made automatically by the compiler and from personal experience have shown to impact performance on older processors while improving performance on newer processors.

[Polofix]

I suspect that a big part of the problem could be that Nvidia are not supporting Win7 as much in their graphics driver optimisations. See this thread from user1679's post onwards.

I say that because while the DLCs each add content that may well impact overall performance, there have also been several game performance optimisations made in various game updates over the same sort of period and many players have commented as to how effective those have appeared to have been on their Win10/11 systems.

As I wrote above, I also tested with the DLCs turned off (Cradle of Humanity and Tides of Avarice). That was also my first consideration, that the universe has become more complex. But there was no change by turning them off.

I will, however, as described in the thread, test the older graphics driver.

If playing with the same DLCs (just Split Vendetta or no DLC) then performance should have improved due to various optimisations. Exception maybe being inside sectors that use the new 3D fog system but in that case you are trading some performance for better visuals. There may be other cases where performance has reduced due to additional features and improvements being added.

I also had all graphics settings set to minimum to see if it was due to higher graphics requirements. But nothing has changed.

Your tests were made near a station. It is possible the improvements to character models and animations might factor into this. Might be a good idea to run a test in "empty space" far away from any stations to rule this out.

I could test that again, I had also already looked around for a completely empty Sector, but found none.

I also recommend using the same 3.3 not modified save for testing 5.1 in case it is due to changes in the initial state of the universe, such as more ships or stations.

This had turned out to be difficult because I had used a lot of mods in the old save that were 'burned' into the save. Ok, I could delete the mod requirements from the save, however I already start on the bridge of a mod ship. This will not work.
And since I unfortunately only have 10 saves (that should also be changed) I can't fall back on very old saves either.

X4 also has a minimum requirement of Intel 4th gen or newer processors. Your processor is 2nd generation so it is possible some of the "optimisations" used regress performance on older processors. A possible example would be becoming more reliant on branch prediction for performance with older intel processors not only having worse branch predictors but also suffering more from spectre mitigations to further reduce branch predictor performance. Such optimisations might be made automatically by the compiler and from personal experience have shown to impact performance on older processors while improving performance on newer processors.

I had even, in desperation, turned off the mitigrations to test if it had any effect on performance. But even with that, there was no change. And besides, I didn't do it during the comparison, the conditions were always the same. I have already spent many hours on this.

So even with migrations turned off, I had the same big performance differences between V3.3 and V5.1.

But the one about the changed processor architecture in newer processors makes the most sense to me. I had also considered installing Win 10 in parallel as a test. I'm just not sure if I'll have an advantage because of my older processor. Unfortunately I can't afford a newer processor (+ motherboard,ram and case) financially at the moment. I had only renewed the graphics card (from GTX 770 to 1080TI), Ram and power supply. I thought the graphics card would bring a big change. But unfortunately it did not bring any FPS. But the advantage was that I now have no flickering with maximum graphics settings and MSAA 8x turned on. After all.

Maybe I should have changed the processor, mainboard and ram instead of the expensive graphics card. Probably made the wrong decision. But that I have zero FPS Boost, compared to the GTX 770, I did not expect.

[Polofix]

As I wrote above, I also tested with the DLCs turned off (Cradle of Humanity and Tides of Avarice). That was also my first consideration, that the universe has become more complex. But there was no change by turning them off.

I will, however, as described in the thread, test the older graphics driver.

Your tests were made near a station. It is possible the improvements to character models and animations might factor into this. Might be a good idea to run a test in "empty space" far away from any stations to rule this out.

I could test that again, I had also already looked around for a completely empty Sector, but found none.

I have tested this again with an older graphics driver (461.40). Unfortunately, I did not notice any significant difference.

I also flew 100 km south into the black, far away from a station.

There I got 105-115 FPS with V3.3 and 90-95 FPS with V5.1.
I always have the difference of about 10-15 FPS between V3.3 and V5.1.

[Polofix]

From another thread with a different topic, I had posted these screenshots. But right below at the FPS you can see very nicely the difference between V3.3 and V5.1. 10 FPS. Same save, same place, only difference V3.3 in the first image and V5.1 in the second image.

I always have this 10-15 FPS difference, in 2d map as well as in 3d space.

V3.3 (30 FPS)
https://abload.de/img/x4_fadenkreuz_31yhkjl.jpg

V5.1 (20 FPS)
https://abload.de/img/x4_keinfadenkreuz_51hnk3s.jpg