Poor performance on an awesome machine

[Neuroboy23]

I have what I think is a great machine:

- Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (2.66 GHz quad-core)
- 2 GB RAM
- 2x500GB HDD in RAID 0 configuration
- nVidia GTX 275

If I boot my machine and run Amnesia, I can turn every setting in the game to high and it runs flawlessly with a high FPS. However, if I quit the game and restart it, the performance with the exact same settings becomes pretty bad. This also happens when I transition between levels in the game, so I can't even get good performance out of a single session of the game. This is highly frustrating and, I think, points out a problem with the graphics card or driver more than the game. It's as if some leak is occurring when the graphics engine shuts down and whatever is flaky doesn't reset until I reboot my machine.

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PS: I am running Windows 7 64-bit.

[Spooder Wekd]

Does this happen exclusively with Amnesia?

[Neuroboy23]

Strangely, yes. I can startup and restart both Dragon Age and Starcraft II with ultra high settings without any issues. I have figured out that if I leave my shadow settings on Medium, Amnesia runs beautifully and doesn't have any problem with scene transitions. However, even under these circumstances, if I shutdown and restart Amnesia, it starts to stutter. I have to reboot my machine to get a decent frame rate. If I even try using higher shadow settings, my frame rate is either never good or starts degrading at the first scene transition.

[jens]

Make sure SSAO quality is normal and not high and that SSAO samples are not above 8-16. Can also try and turn off smooth edge if you turned it on.

[Tanshaydar]

People still comparing Amnesia to DirectX games... *sigh*

[Thomas]

Updating drivers and making sure Windows Aero could also help.

Amnesia is an OpenGL and is therefor more likely to have driver issues and/or conflicts.

[Yuhaney]

I have a feeling that the most likely reason with poor framerate is SSAO.
When I first booted Amnesia, I turned it all the way to the top (mostly because I didn't know what it was) and noticed that the game had poor framerate.
Dropping SSAO down to 8 (or so), fixed the framerate and game looked as good.

[Kein]

I could understand when such issue with OpenGl based game appears on crappy ATI drivers, but nvidia's? Weird.

Be sure to disable Vsync. Forcefully, in driver's control panel.

[gargfump]

Hi, I have the very same issue, would be interested to know if u had any luck in fixing it.

I have more or less the same kinda setup as you, however a gtx260 on win7 32bit.
Also the same, i started the game for the first time with EVERYTHING on high, game ran perfect and smooth. Then i opened the journal and wanted to continue playing...terrible framerate lag, really bad suddenly.
So after having a brief look on the forum ofc, I turn SSAO quality down ( even though it worked fine justa second ago ) and yes the game runs a bit better...then area transition...BAM game slows down again...so i turn more stuff down, FSAA off etc...play ok for a while open the journal and game goes slow again.
Interesting fact it that once the game gets slow, it eve is in the main menu, where barely anything is loaded. And AGAIN i could run the game FINE with everything on high in the beginning.

Any suggestions would be welcome, while i continue to try to improve this.
( game isn't very scare if it's lagging hard )

[Urrah]

Hmmmmm. I use ATI and have been considering getting an nVidia card because of some glitches I've been experiencing, but I think you guys just changed my mind.