Performance issue on new hardware

[Sevenfold86]

Required​

Summary​

Performance issue on new hardware

Description​

- Substantial stutter occurs when unit is selected in combat mode.
- Happens with units that can move far and or cast a large hex field spell etc.
- Occurs when panning or moving the map, while hex field is present along with passable objects or selectable trees etc.
- If combat map is bare of such passable objects (Lucky field, poison gas etc.) then issue is not as noticeable.
- FPS jumps from around 180 down to 100 or less, which makes it quite jarring.
- Lowering settings to "Low" and using 50% render resolution does not fix this issue. (this includes turning off volumetrics, bloom etc.) Using fractional or any other vysnc does nothing, either.)


9800X3D
32GB DDR5 6400
4090 RTX
240Hz Monitor @ 1440p

Steps to reproduce​

1.) Place combat unit of any kind - one that can move far - next to a hex that contains some kind of passable object (Lucky Field, Gas cloud, Trees etc. )
2.) When units turn comes to move, select a large distance (hover over desired hex) while moving the map around. Make sure that the desired path line crosses these objects.
- This generally gets worse if you're panning the map with WSAD while the cursor is hovering over the desired hex destination or moving said cursor while panning at the same time.

Platform​

Steam

Game Version​

1.009.004.101162

Owned DLCs​

• None

Optional​

Affected Feature​

• Tactical_Combat
• Tactical_Map

Attachments​

 

[Sevenfold86]

Guess no one else is experiencing this, unless it's considered normal? (I.e limitations of the game engine or something?)

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Hi Sevenfold86, thank you for your question. Most of what you're describing is likely related to the Animation systems of the game, which is mostly uses the CPU. My first recommendation would be to set a FPS limit either through Nvidia software or by using the Vsync settings in Game. You'll also want to lower the Animation Quality. With these two changes the experience should be much more stable. From there you can experiment further with the Animation Quality and FPS Limits.

 

[Codyksp]

I know it's not super helpful, but it is kind of ridiculous to have these issues with top of the line hardware.
The components the OP listed are extremely high end. They shouldn't be struggling this much with AoW 4.

I similarly experience issues with my own setup where the FPS is just lower than expected for the hardware.
Meanwhile my GPU is heavily loaded and constantly sitting around 90 degrees with 60% fan speed (very audible).
This is with a global FPS limit of 162 (on a 165Hz monitor), limiting it to for example 60 FPS defeats the purpose.

It would be great if the game could receive a pass regarding performance optimisation. Being a custom engine.

 

[teddy_bear13]

I have the exact same issues, it's driving me nuts!!! Workaround is setting your display refresh rate to 60hz in display settings (do not use the fps limiter), then have vsync full, and the game runs smooth, zero stutters. Interesting thing I found is that in the PlatformSettings0.cfg, Video.RefreshRate=60.000000 by default. But changing to 144 does not help unfortunately.

7800X3D
32GB DDR5 6000
5080 RTX
144Hz Monitor @ 3440 x 1440

EDIT: not sure what I was smoking, but even at 60hz I see stutters

 

[teddy_bear13]

Hi Sevenfold86, thank you for your question. Most of what you're describing is likely related to the Animation systems of the game, which is mostly uses the CPU. My first recommendation would be to set a FPS limit either through Nvidia software or by using the Vsync settings in Game. You'll also want to lower the Animation Quality. With these two changes the experience should be much more stable. From there you can experiment further with the Animation Quality and FPS Limits.

Please see my message above. For me, just setting max framerate to 60 with full sync still gives me stutter, while forcing a 60hz refresh rate on the actual display makes everything run smooth as butter on Ultra (at 60 fps full vsync). Also could you comment on the refresh rate setting in PlatformSettings0.cfg locked at 60? Does affect anything? Thank you for your support!

EDIT: not sure what I was smoking, but even at 60hz I see stutters

 

[Taragashi]

Same issue on my end.


I recently got back into Age of Wonders 4 and picked up all the DLCs. I started a game using the Beginner Realm and default settings (no mods), and the game began stuttering badly from turn 1 , it looks almost like lag or uneven frame pacing and junmps like crazy when moving the camera around.


I’ve tried every workaround I could find and many more, that I don't list here:

• Lowering graphics settings
• Toggling V-Sync and G-Sync on/off
• Frame limiting (60 fps and lower)
• Updating to the latest BIOS
• Testing multiple Nvidia driver versions ( 533.36 & 572.83 )

Nothing helps. The stutter remains constant throughout the game.


What’s particularly strange is that my wife plays AoW4 on a much weaker system (on high settings!) and has no stuttering at all.


My Wife’s System:

• GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
• CPU: Intel i7-4790K
• RAM: 32 GB
• Display: 1440p 144Hz

My System:

• GPU: RTX 4070 Ti Super (tested multiple drivers)
• CPU: Intel i7-10700K
• RAM: 64 GB
• Display: 1440p 144Hz
• OS: Windows 11 (fresh install)

I’ve played tons of other 4X, RTS, and grand strategy games , both old and new , and I’ve never experienced performance issues like this in any of them. This seems specific to AoW4, and I really hope it gets some attention soon.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Same issue on my end.

You have chosen to respond to a thread that predates a Major Update and several minor ones and assume you have the same issue.

Firstly, you experience harsher performance drops because the gap in your hardware is bigger. Fundamentally lower-end hardware has a much narrower window of operation than higher-end hardware. On your higher-end machine you're playing the game at a much higher base frame-rate then when you play on your Wife's lower-end device. When these spikes happen and the frame rate drops, they will do so from a higher FPS and be more noticeable on your higher-end machine then on the lower-end machine.

As for your Drivers, recent Nvidia Drivers are known to cause issues on RTX 30 & 40 Series GPU's while trying to resolve 50 Series issues. If you're checking Drivers it's recommended that you use the ones from December 2024 and not newer.

Finally, our Giant Kings 1.2 Update included mitigations for performance issues introduced by more powerful GPU's. Since you haven't specified where and when you experience Stuttering it would be helpful if you could so we can narrow down which steps/in-game adjustments may be most beneficial to you.

 

[Taragashi]

You have chosen to respond to a thread that predates a Major Update and several minor ones and assume you have the same issue.

Firstly, you experience harsher performance drops because the gap in your hardware is bigger. Fundamentally lower-end hardware has a much narrower window of operation than higher-end hardware. On your higher-end machine you're playing the game at a much higher base frame-rate then when you play on your Wife's lower-end device. When these spikes happen and the frame rate drops, they will do so from a higher FPS and be more noticeable on your higher-end machine then on the lower-end machine.

As for your Drivers, recent Nvidia Drivers are known to cause issues on RTX 30 & 40 Series GPU's while trying to resolve 50 Series issues. If you're checking Drivers it's recommended that you use the ones from December 2024 and not newer.

Finally, our Giant Kings 1.2 Update included mitigations for performance issues introduced by more powerful GPU's. Since you haven't specified where and when you experience Stuttering it would be helpful if you could so we can narrow down which steps/in-game adjustments may be most beneficial to you.

Thanks for the detailed reply, much appreciated. I just wanted to clarify a few things and add a bit more context.

I get that the thread was from before some major updates. I only responded here because the issue I’m seeing seemed very similar, and I figured adding to an existing discussion might help consolidate information. But fair point, things might have changed since then.

I actually use a frame limiter on both systems, so the difference in hardware performance shouldn't play too big a role here. Both my PC and my wife's system use 144Hz monitors, but I usually cap the FPS to 60, and for testing in Age of Wonders 4, I’ve even gone down to 40 FPS. That way, both systems operate within a similar range, which makes the comparison a bit more balanced.
Interestingly, despite this, the stuttering appears more noticeably on my system.

Also, just to specify what I mean by stuttering, it's not minor microstutter or occasional hiccups. These are larger frame skips, especially when panning/rotating the camera on the world map. It feels a bit like packet loss in online games, which makes it quite jarring.


Regarding the drivers:
I'm aware of the recent issues affecting 30 and 40 series cards, which is why I’ve been using version 533.36 from December 2024 since it came out. So I'm not running any of the newer versions that might introduce additional instability. The driver version I tested was version 572.83, but this crashed the game a lot and didn't improved the situation anyway!

I found a video on youtube, that shows how the stutter looks like.