DiRT 4 - Poor FPS with GTX1070

[Xrider55 0]

Hi, this game is amazing but I have really poor performance and low fps. If I max out the game @1080p I get 30 FPS on start of the rally stages.
In order to maintain 60 fps and above I basically need to lower graphical settings to medium-high. I need to point out that during replays my fps still drops bellow 60 sometimes even on the lowered settings. 
My PC specs are: i7 920 @ 3.6Ghz / Gigabyte GTX 1070 / 16 GB G.Skill RAM / Windows 10 PRO.
Now, before there is a doubt about my CPU, I ran tests and my CPU usage is not high and GPU usage is max when I get low FPS on max settings. 
Thank you Codemasters for the game, it brings so much adrenaline and I get addicted. I just wish I could get better performance with my PC specs to fully enjoy this cool game... 

[zeimus 0]

racing games are pretty cpu intense and that i7 is VERY old...

For instance if I run dirt 4 on a single gtx 780 with a 3730k six core I can play on High on 2560x1440 resoluion and get over 60fps.  My card is worse than yours but my cpu is better... also higher resolution than you.  So youre CPU is definitely bottle neck or cause of your lag.  I used to have a 920 like 10 years go... I have no doubt.  Okay it was released in 2008 so its only 9 years old... pretty much past an supported era of use.

Also the recommended CPU via steam specs is i5 4690 which offers about 50% more performance than the CPU you are using: http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/383/Intel_Core_i5_i5-4690_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-920.html note that these benchmarks are very very basic and not going to be a real world/gaming comparison... in which case the cpu performance of the i5 4690 is going to be far better than the 920 due to various factors that can attribute to bottlenecking etc such as more recent microprocessor technologies, pci-e bandwidth, memory lanes, etc even if processor can extract zip files fine... doesnt mean the chipset of the motherboard is up to other demanding tasks related to graphics, etc.

intel pages:
http://ark.intel.com/products/37147/Intel-Core-i7-920-Processor-8M-Cache-2_66-GHz-4_80-GTs-Intel-QPI
http://ark.intel.com/products/80810/Intel-Core-i5-4690-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz

Notice on the intel pages the advanced technologies section is twice as long for the i5 haswell vs your 920.     Intel boot 2.0 vs boost 1.0, etc. Lack of support for newer instruction sets and such.   920 only supports ddr3 800/1066... people are using ddr4 3000mhz now....

intel page on x58: https://ark.intel.com/products/36785/Intel-X58-Express-IO-Hub

Are you using x58 or what?  You didnt specific motherboard at all... x58 only supports PCI-e 1.1 which is only 4x or 8x. Now we are on PCI-e 3.0 16x... so if your card is maxing the gpu load thats one thing but its other things causing your issues, (which can only be fixed by new motherboard, cpu, ram which support better technologies )

So can't really expect much from a nine year old cpu that has reached of  the end of interactive support.  I see you have a new GPU so really confuses me why you wouldnt want to get most performance out of it by upgrading your chipset to pretty much anytning more recent.. 4th gen intel cpu is minimal spec and intel is releasing 8th gen cpu very soon.    Dirt 4 uses new engine anyway so i would expect you're gunna lag a bit with an outdated cpu like a legacy series 920 and an old motherboard chipset.    

TL;DR get a new cpu... even if your cpu benchmarks fine it means nothing for gaming.  10 years old is old.

[Xrider55 0]

Like I've said, my CPU usage is not high, and my GPU usage is maxed out. If the CPU was bottlenecking my GPU then my CPU usage was high and my GPU usage was not 99% all the time.
So you know, the i7 920 is great overclocker, I can run other games maxed out, games like Assetto Corsa, DiRT Rally and Forza Horizon 3 I get 60 FPS locked on ultra settings 1080p res at every moment (while playing or watching replay) with full grid of cars. 

[otto325 0]

Same, 1070 and a 4690k @ 4.5ghz and also have intermittent performance issues with terrible frametime spikes. But only on SOME stages which is weird...in freeplay events the game runs perfectly, but in career mode with all the same graphic settings, the performance tanks for some reeason.

[zeimus 0]

Guys I have an older gpu than both of you can get no spikes... check your video settings.

Xrider55:
Actually after looking at tech specs of card its memory speed is 8 gbps... and your system supports only 2 gbps.  

I am trying to tell you that even without high cpu usage it doesnt matter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#History_and_revisions
If you look at pci express lane throughput 16x PCIe 3 has FOUR TIMES of the throughut at PCIe 1x.   And x58 doesn't even support 16x,which i assume you are using x58...   

here is the link to that and you can see you only support 8x 1.1 pci-e:
https://ark.intel.com/products/36785/Intel-X58-Express-IO-Hub

As you can see the difference is substantial...xrider, your system is only capable of 2 GB/s   versus the 16GB/s the pci-e 16x 3.0 is capable of....   your system is capable of only 1/8th of the performance the card is capable of (roughly not exactly).

You can cleary look at the facts and technical specs to understand the point I am trying to make.. You ARE bottle necking your card. You cannot expect your gtx 1070 to perform the same on a nearly 10 year old chipset versus the performance of a modern chipset capable of a higher data rate.  Which brings me back to my original solution to your problem... upgrade cpu/mobo... your GPU would have EIGHT times the throughput and thus greater performance.  You cannot expect it it to run as well as someone with a modern cpu and same gpu.

If you want to learn more or dont believe me.... google "pci 3.0 vs 1.1 performance"  You can't expect your cpu to do more work when your gpu is being limited by your chipset.  Like its not going to offload to cpu or something... cant expect that to happen.  

tldr: tech specs of card its memory speed is 8 gbps... and your system supports only 2 gbps.  Now if you don't think thats a bottleneck theres nothing really i can say.  Because it is.  All codemasters would have to respond with is: "your pc does not meet the minimum system requirements" cheers

[MuskyBox 0]

I think there are some bugs with the game that affect performance.  I'm running a 4790k @ 4.6ghz with a GTX1080 and I have to run low graphics to get 60fps.  If I bump up to Medium it can't hold 60fps.  Monitor is 3440x1440 but tested it at 2560x1080 and only marginal improvement.  

[otto325 0]

SAd because Dirt Rally runs so much smoother at all the maxed settings and looks 10 times better. This game reeks of console port

[versedi 39]

Try disconnecting your wheel/controller and see if the issue persists. 

[zeimus 0]

mmm guys dont benchmark at the dirtfish school (thats not a very intensive area)... so if you go from somewhere with no shadows on high settings with stable fps you cant expect it to remain that way when you  drive into a shady forest stage.  Also the engine is upgraded so how is this a console port lmao

[bj75 0]

Same here: Win 7 pro, I7-6700, 16GB ram, RAID 0, GTX 960 2GB, with medium-high settings CPU usage is 11% and GPU usage is below 90% , if I try higer settings it can't mantain 60FPS. With DR I was able to have stable 60FPS without stutters with all at high and something at ultra.

Edit: after a clean install of latest Nv drivers everything is smooth with high settings, except for crew/shader/trees at medium and car/track at ultra, AA 4x, AF 8x, 1080p... Can't ask more from my rig.
Maybe the combination of Win 10 and the drivers is the culprit?

[Xrider55 0]

Okay, so finally found a good settings. 
If I max out the game all utra 1080p, max aa and everything with only disabling the crowd off, I get 60 FPS all the time, driving, watching replay. Tested on rally cross, rally stages. 3 hours of racing basically. Never dropped below 60FPS...  

[Johnny2311 0]

I get lag on dirt 4 with crowd turnd off at ultra settings as anyone solved it ......i have a msi z270 mb/msi gtx1070 gaming x/16gb ddr4 gskill/ nzxt wartercooler/i7 7700k cpu 

[Superd00ps 0]

From reading Dirt 4 benchmarks online the game has definitely been optimized for AMD GPUs,...or Nvidia needs to take a good look at their drivers. This includes SLi configurations where only one GPU is maxed out! It is NOT CPU dependent.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1425-dirt-4-performance/

[kertsz 0]

I have already solved the problem. In Dirt 4 I had performance problems with my 1080Ti, but not maximum FPS but frametime stability, so I had cuts in the gameplay.
My monitor is 144Hz, and to solve the problem, I have to run the game at 60Hz and activate the vsync. This is how I have solved it.