1 Topic by Nintendo Maniac 64 (edited by Nintendo Maniac 64 29-07-2015 22:32:57)

Topic: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

I thought I solved this issue with a reboot, but now it's back...

Simply put, I seem to be GPU-bottlenecked quite a bit more often with v3.1.7 compared to v3.1.6 - I really don't think it's a CPU bottleneck because my CPU utilization can at times be at only 40% and yet my SVP index will be below 0.8x.


EDIT: I just checked with GPU-Z and it says my GPU load is only 48%.  What the crap?  My processor shouldn't be throttling itself because temps aren't even hitting 45c...

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Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

increase threads number?

  • Thanks: 37

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

Since I'm not sure how to attack this kind of problem, maybe you can make a reference points with these question?
Have you tried with other players?
Have you recently update one of the individual codec (LAV, ffdshow, or madVR, or even the player itself) recently?
Can you check the dropped frame (for example with madvr it's the shortcut ctrl+j) ?
Can you ensure the present queue is working fine?
Have this symptom happened for many videos or just a "recognized pattern" video? (Recognized pattern it is like, it's like the combination of mp4 and 29.97, or just can't play hevc videos smoothly, or the video with scenes that requires calculating the mv very intense).

For what I know from the description, if the SVP index is dropping down, it means there's something problem with CPU. If the frames are dropping but without affecting the index, it means the problem is not in CPU.

Here last question, do you feel the dropping down the smoothness is only happen when it's fullsceen? If yes, then maybe you should check the resizer filter.

4 Reply by Nintendo Maniac 64 (edited by Nintendo Maniac 64 27-07-2015 19:10:43)

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

mashingan wrote:

Have you tried with other players?

No.

Have you recently update one of the individual codec (LAV, ffdshow, or madVR, or even the player itself) recently?

Only thing that's been updated semi-recently are the graphics drivers.

Can you check the dropped frame (for example with madvr it's the shortcut ctrl+j) ?

No idea how to do so, and I'm using EVR CP + D3D fullscreen.

Can you ensure the present queue is working fine?

No idea how to do so.

Have this symptom happened for many videos or just a "recognized pattern" video? (Recognized pattern it is like, it's like the combination of mp4 and 29.97, or just can't play hevc videos smoothly, or the video with scenes that requires calculating the mv very intense).

It cannot be a "recognized pattern" because sometimes the issue does not occur and I'll get smooth performance with the exact same CPU utilization as it would have when being problematic.  In other words, it's not consistent.  I personally know of a video with a "recognized pattern" so I am familiar with such a thing, and I can safely say it isn't that.

For what I know from the description, if the SVP index is dropping down, it means there's something problem with CPU. If the frames are dropping but without affecting the index, it means the problem is not in CPU.

I will look into this and test to see if my CPU is actually running at full speed.

Here last question, do you feel the dropping down the smoothness is only happen when it's fullsceen? If yes, then maybe you should check the resizer filter.

Have not tried it in windowed, but the video is not being resized at all and is playing at 100% scale.

5 Reply by Nintendo Maniac 64 (edited by Nintendo Maniac 64 27-07-2015 20:13:38)

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Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

Apologies for the double-post, but I've got a status update.


I've tried changing the thread count and that definitely makes a difference...but still causes issues.  Having a thread count of 4 or less lower causes the poor performance issue mentioned in the first post while setting a thread count of 5 or more solves the performance problem but causes the weird flickering issue I mentioned months ago that can only be solved by (other than lowering the thread count) turning on "global refinement" or disabling GPU acceleration.


EDIT: ...and now Einstein is rolling in his grave - I closed MPC-HC and re-opened it and now the flicker issue isn't occuring.  For reference this was like the third or forth time I've closed MPC-HC, and yet only now it's suddenly working...

Other than that, the only difference was that I enabled "Global refinement" and then disabled it.  Maybe even just doing that fixes the weird flicker issue?


EDIT 2: *sigh* poor Einstein... now after a reboot the flicker issue is back, and changing threads and enabling global refinement isn't fixing it.  Maybe I just need to keep restarting MPC-HC and eventually I'll get lucky?


EDIT 3: Yup, seems like it's just a lottery - just keep restarting MPC-HC and eventually the flicker issue won't occur (seems like ~30% chance of it working correctly).  Alternatively you can just disable GPU acceleration in SVP and that'll solve it completely...

  • Thanks: 10

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

Looks like you posted while I was posting a reply (auto logout victim). Anyway I'll post again cuz the little I've read above sounds even more like what I'm dealing with...

I'm experiencing a somewhat similar issue. Don't think it's related, or a least directly, to my playback package (MPC-HC, MadVR, AC3filter, LAV, ffdshow Raw Video and AVS+. I playback as usual but I introduce nnedi3 and SVP via AviSynth Scripts (to offload the GPU). Anyway The issue is occasional dropped single frames and small groups during playback. The dropped frames occur in my 3 minute 720P/24fps test clip upscaled to 1080P/60fps with nnedi3 - which pushes the system close to max capacity (occasional CPU spikes to 80%) - at a rate of maybe 30 frames in the 3 minutes.   When all is good it plays without incident. CPU usage does not indicate problems (stays normal as when playing smoothly) - and my hunch it is CPU path related rather than the GPU. It's also not memory related (16GB with all relevant .exe files patched with the 4GB patch) and occurs with MPC-BE as well.

I searched out all unnecessary (or suspicious) tasks and disabled them and rebooted. All fixed - or so I thought.  Only to have the issue reappear at some point. I figured it had something to do with all the starts and stops along with many AviSynth script modifications I was making. Right now (for the past hour or so) it is running fine. I'm keeping an eye it and recheck every time I introduce a new task (program). As I don't watch entertainment programs/movies and such but mess with the MPC-HC, MadVR, AC3filter, LAV, ffdshow Raw Video and AVS+ configuration for the fun of it it's not some much a problem as it is a challenge.

What I suggest is that you approach the issue similar to what I have done. Eliminate all unnecessary tasks and reboot. Run your test clips. See if it made a difference. No? Then recheck that the .exe files are 4GB patched) with increase threads and/or memory in SVP. I suspect something is interfering with the SVP (or MPCxx) buffers. You gotta locate that 'something'  big_smile

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

Well it seems that, if the issue is not present, it will not come back unless I close MPC-HC, re-open the same video, or open a different media file altogether; I can even pause the video, close SVP, relaunch SVP, unpause the video, and the issue will still not be present.

This points to the issue possibly being with MPC-HC after all.  I'll look into that...

  • Thanks: 33

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

I agree that I'm having more performance issues with this latest version. Let me know what you come up with.

9 Reply by xenonite (edited by xenonite 30-07-2015 12:12:04)

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Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

Hmm, could you please list your filter chain, your PC specs and your SVP settings?

Failing that, I have a few suggestions that you could try:
On my G-Sync display, having G-Sync enabled caused a constant amount of frames being dropped, regardless of CPU/GPU usage.
Even if you don't have G-Sync, you could try changeing your display driver's profile settings for the mpc-hc.exe file, and setting the global default to use your custom settings. Specifically, you could try disableing all power-saving features (setting prefer maximum performance) and also try different ways of handling v-sync.
For v-sync, you should have the application (mpc-hc) handle it and not have any value forced in the display driver's control panel. You could also try manually adding dwm.exe (in C:\Windows\system32\) and forcing 'prefer maximum performance' as well as forcing v-sync 'off'. This could have an effect since I believe mpc-hc, by default, defers v-sync handling to the dwm.

I would also suggest that you use madVR as your renderrer, even if you do not use any of the advanced scaling features, simply because you can then very accurately specify the frame buffering and drawing behaviour, and you can also press CONTROL + J to bring up the performance statistics.
If these stats show that you are dropping small numbers of frames, even though your maximum frametimes over the 5 second window are well below the refresh frametime of your display, then it is almost certainly some sort of v-sync or other frame drawing / framerate matching problem and not one of purely insufficient performance.

Edit: Also, if you are using ReClock, be sure to specify the v-sync location at either the very top or the very bottom of the screen and to enable script notifications.

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

Just a heads up, the issue does occur even with a fresh copy of MPC-HC 1.7.9 PortableApps Edition, but the issue does not occur with SVP 4.0.0.21.

Make of that what you will.

  • Thanks: 33

Re: Is v3.1.7 heavier on the GPU or something?

The way settings and performance is handled in v4 is completely different, you can't really compare.