Huge Map Performance

Could you tell us exactly what your CPU and RAM usage are when it lags?

It appears my RAM is consuming about 2.32 GB. THe CPU is a little harder to nail down as I am jumping out of the game and monitoring the Task manager. It appears that some of my cores are going between 30% usage upto about 60%.

IN other words all of the components have still enough resources to grab more than they are using.

Also at those numbers I would not necessarily say it was "lagging" but there was choppiness. Enough to gripe IMO.

Alls I did was load up an old Huge auto save that was still there and there was a battle with my Titan going on. Choppy on any zooming or panning etc.

It does ease up a bit after the load. But then it will return (as I have seen it many times) if I continue. I will give it a whirl again (I had a large game going on) and see if it bogs and post the numbers when it gets real bad.

Is that total or just for Sins? You can see this in the process tab of task manager. I also have a quad core and it always maxes out at 25% for Sins, because it can only use one (or the equivalent of one, not computer savvy enough to know exactly how that works in practice). Of course I could never play games that size even on Diplomacy for more than two hours so...

SLI does not convert two 1GB cards to 2GB of available VRAM.

the huge maps are just promotional features of the game and that goes with the graphics aswell. Sins can't handle itself with the current iron engine.

I play these kinds of games just fine. I'm running at 1x speed on everything (normal settings) and routinely have 8-12hr + games without any problems. Have LAN games on slow settings that routinely last 25+ hrs on max settings without issue.

I unpin everything from the feature tree as well. I have 1 GTX 560Ti (1gb) graphics card with a quad core (3.3ghz on each core) with 8gb of ram.

Exactly, settings have to be turned down otherwise the choppiness and lag will continue till it hits the 2gb limit then crash, (mini dump)...

Edit: Unless you have a super rig like boshimi, then it may not be a problem... 

Normal Cultural Settings, Normal Research Rate, Normal Ship Speed etc ... MAX graphics, MAX shadows, MAX anti-aliasing ...

Try turning SLI off. When its not working properly, it causes the game to feel choppy, even though you supposedly have stable 60FPS.

Additionally, overclocking the CPU might help. 2,8 Ghz is surely not enough, 4,5 Ghz sounds more like it  

Firstly, your comp is OP so it needs a nerf.

Secondly, i've met guys who consider 10-20 frames per second playable during battles so i clearly understand where your coming from.

Thirdly, your immortal- a timeless being who has alot of time in his hands to play 25hour games. You my friend are the next step in human evolution and im proud i met u but us mortals will continue to play at the fastest speed.  

First off RiddleKing ... I see you are a who likes to about most things to get your cheers. Now that that has been established ...

I'm sorry you feel that playing 3-4 hours worth of multiple game matches leaves you feeling only like a Demi-God. To each their own. We prefer a beer and pretzels style of game play.

Game speed (slow, normal, fast, faster) does not affect performance...only the 2x, 4x, etc "gamespeed" would...

Fast and Faster settings increase the load on the CPU ... to simplify what you just said.

Not really...the rate of iterations isn't increased because the game speed is increased...if faster game speed gives you 50% more income, then every second (or actually half second, it seems) you simply get more income...the game isn't having to calculate your income more frequently just because you are on a faster game speed...

Likewise, faster game speed is not changing how often the game has to iterate through all the checks for ability autocasts, autoattacks, ship movements, etc...

The only difference is that faster game speeds allow you to spam trade and amass large fleets much sooner than slower games would, which may lead some players to experience lag much sooner than they would on slower games...additionally, income is increased more than most other variables, allowing a larger fleet in general than what you probably would have had if you played the same map but with slower speeds....

Now, for those using ICO, the early game "Alloy Boost" may affect performance and increased the iteration rate, and since most ICO games are on faster it may easily appear that faster game speed increases the iteration rate....I'm not sure if the Alloy Boost affects all gamespeeds equally, but logically it seems it also would be independent of game speed...

You do realize that at faster game speed, faster ship speed, all of these things means that more movement orders are calculated quicker? Things are finding themselves in range of abilities and out of range of abilities faster than at normal or slower speeds? Simply the calculations per second of ship movement (especially fighter movement) as well as calculations for targets etc due to faster ship movement alone increases CPU load? At faster game speeds trade ships and fighters tend to be more resilient as the DPS stays the same but the ships are in and out of the combat / gravity well (in the case of trade ships) faster than they can be damaged? On normal and slower ship speed settings fighters often get chewed up by flak frigates and flak burst abilities before their supporting fleet gets into combat much quicker, thus reducing cpu load all in and of itself. Trade ships are more often like to be blown up by strike craft and other smaller defensive structures on normal and slower settings as they linger in a gravity well longer and therefore, due to the DPS being the same, actually receive more damage and are more often to be destroyed, lowering load on the CPU.

Pirate fleets on slower settings don't bulk up on slow/normal settings on large maps while on 'raiding missions' against the highest bid player as they leave their base slower and are destroyed before the next wave pours out. On faster settings often you can have two raids seemingly screaming through gravity wells  (one departing the base) while the first finally reaches it's objective intact, unscathed by the system defenses in the other gravity wells it screamed through, where it could have been had it lingered longer due to the DPS being the same). Envoys actually have a chance to do something on slow / normal settings as they can get there and work on raising relationships before your ships are fighting every other ship in existence. With envoys allowing ceasefires and alliances much sooner, ships don't have to calculate firing orders and the like which ultimately lowers cpu load when compared to large faster setting games where the relationship values lag behind due to scalar values and research rates being increased. All of this adds up to mean faster settings puts more cycles, clicks, i.e. higher load on the cpu at faster settings when compared to slow / normal settings.

How many more examples do you want? I can't play a 'faster' game for more than 3-4 hours max (where I have fleet supply and research maxed out) before I run into issues. I can play a normal or slow game up to 25+ hours where I also have fleet supply and research maxed out and surprisingly ... my game does not lag at all whereas during the 3-4 mark on the 'faster' game setting, everything starts to creep to a crawl.

The game was originally designed to be played and was originally optimized for 1x game settings. Anything faster, even if rebellion has been better balanced for these settings, increases cpu load. I would never play a fast or faster game on a large map, or even a 5v5 if I wanted it to be lag free. Only on normal / slow settings, on ANY SIZED MAP, with a max field of players (human or AI) can you play on max settings with a capable PC without any lag as long as you unpin items from your feature tree.

I don't know what else to tell you.

So basically, what you are telling me is that faster game speeds affect performance not because more iterations are done, but because players are able to have more stuff while playing on faster game speed....

Well, that seems eerily similar to this...

As an aside, the lag I experience both in SP and on ICO is independent of game speed....I've played a lot of games (SP and MP) with both normal and faster game speed...in the case of SP, I never have late game lag...in the case of MP, I always have late game lag...the only difference between the two speeds is that the lag hits earlier in the faster games because players hit trade spam and bomber spam much sooner....

That's not what I'm saying at all. I am saying that faster game speeds increase the iterations and processes that are loaded onto the CPU, therefore inducing 'CPU-caused-LAG' into the game. Every game that I and my friends have played MP over LAN or ICO has seen this be the case. Most of us rock out on max graphics settings and everything. If you take the same sized map, the same fleet compositions, the same big battles, and start duking it out, on Faster game settings with the same situation it lags. On Normal game settings in the same situation with our equipment it does NOT lag.

Most of your "examples" are consequences of scalar variables affecting the gameplay, not a higher iteration rate...

A case in point: on faster ship speeds, ships simply move faster (scalar variable)...sure, this may result in SC surviving longer or shorter....it may result in ships moving in and out of ability/weapon ranges more often....but the iterations, the frequency of "checks" that have to occur to see if X is in range of Y etc. would not be changed...ships have to check to see if targets are in range of their weapons regardless of whether the targets are actually in range...that they move in and out of range more often does not affect the frequency of checks, only the actual results of those checks over time....

Things like the number of pirates, trade ships, etc. are again only indirect consequences of game speed...faster game speeds may allow players to maximize trade or see larger pirate fleets earlier (via more available resources to put on bounty), but the contribution of each individual pirate ship and each individual trade ship is not affected by gamespeed....

In short, gamespeed may affect the number of assets in your game due to differences in income, construction rates, etc....but, the individual contribution of each asset is independent of game speed...the gamespeed settings are merely scalars applied to in-game variables like income rate, ship speed, etc...

Yet for me the lag is independent of game speed...using task manager, I can verify that the CPU resources used by Sins is independent of my gamespeed selections....

If what you say were actually true, then what is the iteration rate for a game that has mixed settings, say faster income but slow ship speeds?  The game engine is not going to change the rates of individual processes because of your settings........only a universal game speed changer (like the "gamespeed" 1x/2x/4x/6x/8x option) actually is going to control that...

Haven't read thread, but a simple suggestion: Try turning down gfx settings when playing these 'huge' sessions and see if things improve. I think a smooth play is more important than having the graphics look absolutely pristine (especially since you'll often be looking at the ships from a distance and they'll be just an icon, anyway).