FPS Observations & Tweaks

On Sunday, when Richmond was loaded, I noticed some FPS hiccups that were annoying. Many times after the start/finish line, I noticed my FPS jump between 30-60 FPS. The jumps are never “smooth” and result in jerky animation. Then there is the usual “hit” on the Libby Hill KOM segment when you go under the train bridge. There I would get 20 FPS for a good 10 seconds or so before it would return to 30 FPS.

I’m running a GeForce GTX 950, Core i3 3.8 GHz, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, SATA III SSD.  Zwift selects the High graphics profile and I use the 1080p (High) in-game resolution from the Settings screen.

Next I tried to set the in-game resolution to 1440p (Ultra) and some interesting things occurred. The framerate remained consistently at 30 FPS through most of the course. Even during the sections in the city where I was getting jerkiness as the framerate bounced between 30-60 FPS often. Somehow running Ultra made this better, go figure.

I then decided to tweak the high.txt graphics profile to see if I could “fix” the 20 FPS section. I set the sres (shadow resolution) from 1024x1024 to 512x512 and also went back to the in-game resolution of 1080p and this seems to have improved my framerate. There were some times the framerate bounced between 30-60 FPS and some jerkiness was noticeable but it was far less than before.

I don’t seem to have the same issues on Watopia, at least as much. 

Once the prices of cards like the 980 or 980 Ti come down, I’ll probably upgrade and won’t have to worry about these issues for a while :slight_smile:

 

Sarah, if you using Windows, FRAPS is the application to use that will display a FPS overlay for Zwift.

If you are using OSX, there isn’t something as slick as FRAPS but there’s an Open GL Profiler tool available from Apple that is a part of the Xcode suite that will also monitor FPS for an application but does not provide an overlay. You have to use it while Zwift is in window mode, not fullscreen mode.

 

I figured out a cool workaround that doesn’t cost a penny!

Zwift works smooth as cream on the iPhone. I have an old iPhone 5s and a mid 2009 15" Macbook Pro.

The idea is that you mirror your phone on your computer.

Here are the instructions I found online:

Connect your iPhone , iPad or iPod touch to your Mac via a Lightning Cable. Open QuickTime on your Mac , and select File > New Movie Recording . A recording window will appear. Click the arrow next to the Record button, and select your  iPhone from the dropdown menu that appears.

For sound select your phone from the Microphone dropdown. Press the un-mute button on the Quicktime screen.

You’re all set!

Hope this helps some folks out!