Vulkan fast on my system but not smooth

[themanuel]

This is something that I have been putting off but would like to sort out.  On my system, Vulkan increases my FPS over D3D significantly but for some reason, things don't run as smoothly.  This is evident when panning the camera around so that background elements "scroll by".  With D3D things flow very smoothly but with Vulkan, it seems as though random sets of frames are being skipped although the FPS counter reports full speed.

It doesn't feel like shader caching which is quite obvious when taking place and causes small pauses in the video output.

Is this a known side effect of Vulkan or more likely an issue with my system?
If a system issue, where should I start looking to diagnose the problem?

Thanks.

[themanuel]

Bueller?...

Is Vulkan jittery for other users as well or buttery smooth like D3D?
This is something that could easily be hardware related but I would like to verify if it afflicts others.

[JMC47]

Probably a lack of exclusive fullscreen + vsync. The drivers determine it.

[Silanda]

They're all the same here, although I'm on Nvidia hardware so it's not a like for like comparison. Just a thought: what refresh rate are you running at? 59.94Hz (usually listed as 59Hz), 60Hz, higher? This might not apply to Dolphin, but in the past I've had issues with PCSX2 becoming a stutter fest at anything other than 59.94.

[themanuel]

(11-24-2017, 03:08 AM)JMC47 Wrote: Probably a lack of exclusive fullscreen + vsync.  The drivers determine it.

You definitely put me on the right track.  I played with vsync disabled and the experience is much, much smoother.  I also saw absolutely no screen tear, which I assume is due to the fact that I'm probably not really getting exclusive fullscreen in Vulkan with my system, if I interpreted your comments correctly.

In some situations Vulkan still feels a bit less smooth than D3D but without vsync, Vulkan certainly becomes an option for me.

Thanks a lot!!!

(11-24-2017, 09:43 AM)Silanda Wrote: They're all the same here, although I'm on Nvidia hardware so it's not a like for like comparison. Just a thought: what refresh rate are you running at? 59.94Hz (usually listed as 59Hz), 60Hz, higher? This might not apply to Dolphin, but in the past I've had issues with PCSX2 becoming a stutter fest at anything other than 59.94.

My monitor's reported rate is 59.93 when I look at the AMD Catalyst control panel but I can't find where I have the monitor refresh rate specified in Windows 10 so I'm not sure what mine is set to.  In dolphin I don't think that user can change that either.  Thanks for the tip.  That was certainly worth checking.

[themanuel]

(11-24-2017, 03:05 PM)themanuel Wrote: My monitor's reported rate is 59.93 when I look at the AMD Catalyst control panel but I can't find where I have the monitor refresh rate specified in Windows 10 so I'm not sure what mine is set to.  In dolphin I don't think that user can change that either.  Thanks for the tip.  That was certainly worth checking.

Actually I just found it but I can only go in whole number increments, i.e., I have to choose between 59 and 60.  Are you suggesting I should create a custom video mode in my GPU's control panel and specify exactly 59.93Hz?

[themanuel]

(11-24-2017, 03:05 PM)themanuel Wrote: Also with Vulkan, I don't have the issue I've been experiencing with crashes in MKW as posted here and in subsequent posts.

Well, this part turned out not to be true, after all.  I've amended my post above to correct that.  Still, Vulkan is very promising because of its performance.

[Silanda]

(11-24-2017, 03:08 PM)themanuel Wrote: Actually I just found it but I can only go in whole number increments, i.e., I have to choose between 59 and 60.  Are you suggesting I should create a custom video mode in my GPU's control panel and specify exactly 59.93Hz?

What's listed as 59 will probably be the rate you're looking for, it certainly is on my system if connected via HDMI. That being said, it's certainly worth trying to create a custom resolution to eliminate refresh rate as a possible cause of your problem.

[themanuel]

I should have mentioned that the PC monitor is where I normally play but rather, on a TV although it reports an almost identical refresh rate. I set it back to 59Hz for now and will play with that for a while.

Thanks again.