Amazing FPS - Only When Alt-Tabbed

[Harudath 15]

Hey all,

 

I'm really curious about this. I'm running a dual monitor setup, with Arma 3 in fullscreen window. When in-game I'm running at about 35 fps (in this instance, although I've noticed this many times before), but the moment I alt tab I find my FPS skyrocketing to 60 (vsync and -nopause are enabled). The game is still playing; everything is still moving and going about its business but I suddenly find myself with the performance I've always been looking for - as long as I'm not playing the game :P

 

Can anyone explain this?

 

 

[Jackal326 1158]

Surely its because you're alt-tab'ed and looking at your desktop (or internet explorer or whatever) your GFX card isn't actually rendering the game physically and your CPU isn't having to process the rendering (and getting massively bottlenecked) etc. It makes perfect sense tbh.

[Harudath 15]

If the image were frozen, and I could not see vehicles/infantry running about and fighting I would readily agree with you. It just strikes me as odd that I can watch the game continue to play on without me, with no loss of quality or pause in action or gameplay, and have a huge FPS increase simply by becoming an inactive window - The game remains fullscreen on the left, and I do whatever I'm doing on the right screen, able even to keep an eye on what's going on and tab back if I see the need to!

[Jackal326 1158]

My bad, I totally missed the "running a dual monitor setup" part of your original post, and simply thought you meant the window was minimised  :blink: 

[Harudath 15]

Not to worry :) Any takers?

[St. Jimmy 272]

Well this sounds very interesting thing. Too bad that I don't have dual monitor setup to test this.

[Fushko 60]

If you could make a video showing this, that'd be awesome.

[Greenfist 1863]

I'm guessing it's the vsync. I had a same kind of "problem" with it before I stopped using it: 60Hz refresh rate and steady 37 fps. Alt+tab out and back again, and fps is suddenly 50+.

If you disable it, I bet you won't see any difference between in and out of focus.

[badluckburt 78]

Perhaps part of the simulation is disabled when you alt-tab?

[ceeeb 147]

I tried reproducing in the mission editor using the Steam FPS overlay, but see no change in reported FPS when Arma has focus and when not. I tried both dual and single monitor arrangements, with vsync on and off.

 

How are you measuring your FPS? Playing single or multiplayer? (EDIT: although MP always -nopauses)

[Harudath 15]

If you could make a video showing this, that'd be awesome.

 

I just sent my phone off to be repaired, probably won't be able to for a couple weeks, but I'll try to remember once we're reunited :P 

 

I'm guessing it's the vsync. I had a same kind of "problem" with it before I stopped using it: 60Hz refresh rate and steady 37 fps. Alt+tab out and back again, and fps is suddenly 50+.

If you disable it, I bet you won't see any difference between in and out of focus.

 

 

Curiously, I can't replicate it at this moment. I've noticed it dozens of times in the past, with (as far as I can remember (historically I've never played with it on)) vsync both on and off, so I'll take more care to note whether it's in the editor or multiplayer (I spend equal time in each nowadays :P).

 

 

I tried reproducing in the mission editor using the Steam FPS overlay, but see no change in reported FPS when Arma has focus and when not. I tried both dual and single monitor arrangements, with vsync on and off.

 

How are you measuring your FPS? Playing single or multiplayer? (EDIT: although MP always -nopauses)

 

I'm measuring my FPS with Shadowplay at the moment, though in the past I primarily used Fraps as an FPS counter

[Harudath 15]

I'm sorry this took so long to do. RL went nuts and then I couldn't replicate it.

 

Here's a video of the active-window FPS drop.

 

https://youtu.be/ZE4oZn-g0YA

 

Details:

 

Connected to private dedicated server

Arma 3 is not the active window at the start, showing high FPS. I make Arma the active window, which gives the enormous FPS drop, and then you see me alt-tab to another window, resulting in high FPS again. 

While it may not look like it (probably could have chosen a better angle), the game is not paused / the image is not frozen while the game is not the active window; everything continues and can be watched continuing as normal.

 

I'm baffled and curious :P

 

EDIT: Here are my video settings:

General: http://c2n.me/3rvYhHd.jpg

Display: http://c2n.me/3rvYibC.jpg

AA & PP: http://c2n.me/3rvYirs.jpg

[Harudath 15]

Thought I'd bump with another video of the phenomenon.

 

Same as before: private dedicated server running a CTI map.

 

https://youtu.be/WWdzQ7COwh0

[Greenfist 1863]

I'm pretty sure the counter shows the fps of the active program even if the number is in Arma's window. The game still runs at 25fps.

[Harudath 15]

It doesn't show through the camera, but there is a definite and visible performance increase in the non-active Arma window

[ruPal 143]

I'm pretty sure the counter shows the fps of the active program even if the number is in Arma's window. The game still runs at 25fps.

You may run two copies of arma 3 and alt-tab between them.

[Harudath 15]

You may run two copies of arma 3 and alt-tab between them.

 

Even if I could launch multiple copies of Arma (I take your word for it), I'm not sure the FPS counters would work on both simultaneously... Unless I try to use the native one?

[ownedarg 13]

Has anyone solved this? Still a problem for me.

[jumpinghubert 48]

Sometimes cpu is still idling with low clockspeed and low cpu-usage after starting the game. After alt-tab it runs at full clock. Maybe an explanation.

[Meiestrix 25]

I think the fps you see are just the fps of the active window and not the real fps from Arma.

[Hangar34 0]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but as a new forum member I cannot start a new topic and therefore cannot ask a tech support question, but I also have a strange FPS issue...

 

If I run ARMA 3, my FPS even at the main menu is around 12-15fps. If I use the 'autodetect' feature in then Video configuration it selects 'Ultra' and the game is playable at 60fps. This is great and looks good. However, every time the game automatically saves, or I manually save, the framerates drop to around 12-15fps again. If I select 'auto detect' again, then everything is fine and playable at 60fps again.

 

Does anyone else have this problem or has heard of it before?

[Auntystatic 8]

mine is similar to you, everytime I join a new server I auto detect and switch off pip