Dirt Rally fps slowing down to unplayable

[B34T2 0]

Hi guys,

Quick background: I recently got Dirt Rally and had lots of problems starting it as it would crash on the splash screen "executable stopped working". Eventually I was able to fix this by launching drt.exe as admin and in windows 7 compatibility mode in the properties and also adding "-win7" in steam launch options of dirt. (I believe it was the last win10 update that messed things up but not sure).

Now that i am finally able to start the game it does behave a little weird. I get to the main menu and i get about 200+ fps but it slowly goes down and after about 3-5 minutes it's at about 15 fps and if i wait longer its goes down to 5 fps. The same happens if i go straight into a race, it just becomes unplayable :(

If anybody knows a solution i'd be more than grateful :)

Specs: Win10, i7-2600k, P8P67 Pro, 8gb ram, GTX 970

[maximumattack 0]

http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/37632/groundhog-day-stutter-or-what-ever-bug/p1     ;)
(not the only thread about it ...)

Me and other guys writing their fingers to the bones since months (!), but the Devs seem to be unvisible.
Yeah, sometimes they are posting things they found in the internet, but never a real working solution!
It looks like they are working more with google then with the Dirt engine ...

It's painful and sad, that a communitiy has to look for this "bug" ... (HELLO CODEMASTER!)

Most of the "community-solutions" (try this, try that) are "shots in the dark".
But sometimes they are working.  Maybe you are one of the lucky once ...  :)

Welcome on board!

[bradmay 0]

Hey mate this solved stuttering issues for me:

http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/38671/potential-stutter-fix-steam-compatibility-mode

Good luck!

[B34T2 0]

Oh yes just realised I didn't even say hello lol

Thanks for the reply guys!

I did read the other thread and was not sure if my problem would fit into this as must people seem to report fluent gameplay interrupted by harsh fps drops. In my case it is more of a constant slow loss fps.

An important detail I forgot to mention is that the issue is not affected by different graphic quality settings, whether it be ultra low or ultra high.

I'm not an expert but could this be a memory leak of some sort? However CPU and ram are not overly stressed by the game either.

About the steam compatibility, I did check my registry and found nothing.

Anyway thanks guys, hope to find a solution soon!

[maximumattack 0]

bradmay said:

Hey mate this solved stuttering issues for me:

http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/38671/potential-stutter-fix-steam-compatibility-mode

Good luck!

That´s one of the "google solutions" - which is (not only in my case) not working.......

IMHO the Devs should take finaly a look into the general USB/Dirt engine problem, to find seriously a permanent solution!

[stigbeater 0]

try going to network setting by clicking on the network icon in the task bar notification area. click on you network connection and turn off make this pc discoverable. then try playing the game see if that helps also have you signed into the xbox app on windows 10? maybe worth turning off the xbox app. i was having the same issue and turning off the app and turning off my pc discoverable option seems to have worked.

[B34T2 0]

Hi guys, 

i did further testing and the lag happens when the wheel (T500) is plugged in! So it's actual input lag. Sorry a bit silly from my side not to try it without, it just didnt come to my mind to try that, probably as i just wouldnt want to play the game without it lol.
Without the wheel i get 80+ fps and with the wheel it just crumbles to bits.
I've done some research for similar posts but couldnt find anything that might help. I tried both usb 2 & 3 ports but no luck. Steam compatibility mode and registry entries - no luck either. Other posts seem to describe the problem but didnt have a solution yet.

"IMHO the Devs should take finally a look into the general USB/Dirt engine problem" -@Maximum: looks like youre spot on there.

@stigbeater, i havent got the xbox app installed, i removed it months ago, and also disabled pc discovery, no luck sadly. But thanks for the input!

I guess i'll just keep looking. If i find something will post it here.

Thanks guys again for all your help and advice! :)

[LordVerminaard 2]

Thanks for posting, I have confirmed that even on my crappy PC, just having a virtual USB gamepad for game input (to use mouse for steering) causes this.  If I disable it and use keyboard, it runs fine.  So it's not just a USB2/USB3 thing either, it's how the game communicates to any sort of input device.

All this time I spent trying to get it to run on a non-gaming PC and I was blaming the PC.  When I do keyboard control, I can even turn on some of the graphic options and I don't get a FPS hit.

Also, another "google answer" is to turn of Vsync but for me it's already off as well.

Hopefully someone gets to the bottom of this.  It seems as though we are on the right track.  I just can't understand why some other people don't have the issue.

[kcat100 0]

don't know if I can articulate this correctly but Dirt Rally has been operating great for months.  Recently replaced monitor with Sharp 50 in 4k tv and all has been good.  First, when game would load and I would get the fps readout and gpu specs as game is running (after running evga 16).  I've noticed that when the info is small on the screen I would get lower frame rates. But when I left click on the screen info, then the wording gets larger and my fps would jump to 80-120 fps. I have everything maxed--Ultra, advanced blending, etc.  I'm now making the assumption that the resolution changed when I clicked on the specs and they got larger but the graphics setting is still maxed--3420 x something....At the same time, the resolution looked less sharp than it did on my monitor.

However, yesterday, for whatever reason, the screen resolution improved dramatically.  I may have screwed with something in the settings, but now don't know what I did.  The gpu readout on the screen is small but clicking on it doesn't change the size as it did before.  On top of that, the frame rate is down to about 40 fps.  I adjusted the resolution and no joy whether I keep it maxed or drop it down to the minimum--1200 x whatever...only way I can get the higher frame rates is to lower the graphic options to high instead of ultra.

If anyone has an idea what I did or what's happening, would really appreciate it.  My family thinks I've become a mad man trying to deal with this.  Sorry for speaking in very lay terms.