I'd be incredibly grateful for any suggestions about possible causes/what to do. My game is fine without the ESEA client - smooth, responsive, constant 150+ fps, etc. No it isn't, but the issues started after restarting to install the client, and haven't gone away after uninstallation. When I joined the server tonight, I had a constant 67 fps, unless I moved my mouse really quickly, in which case it would spike to 300ish for a fraction of a second before going back down. Although the game claimed the framerate was consistent, it didn't feel that way at all, and worse, I had a huge amount of input lag. Enough that my screen was still noticeably moving after I stopped moving my mouse.
I'm on Windows 8.1, dx8, etc. Have a i7 2600, Radeon 6770. I know for a fact it wasn't caused by these things:
Windowed mode (I play fullscreen)
Antivirus (turned it off)
Windows update (turned it off)
Steam downloading things (I checked)
Something eating CPU cycles/hard drive activity (I kept an eye on process manager)
Messing with fps caps (sort of - I normally play capped at 130, but uncapping it had no impact)
I also tried messing with affinities - giving TF2 and the client specific and separate cores. Didn't see any impact from that. I haven't had any issues like this for quite some time, and everything seemed flawless this season. That said, in past seasons, on my older computer, I have had issues where after starting the client and joining a server, I had very low fps for a time - around 15ish. I don't remember having input lag nearly this bad though, and that eventually went away, and this didn't.
I'll love you forever if you have any sort of insight that leads to me maybe solving this. It's pretty frustrating. Thanks for your help.
LOL OKAY I GOT IT IT WAS A FUCKING BITCOIN MINER DON'T I FEEL SILLY NOW
I figured it wasn't anything malicious because virus scans were showing nothing, and there wasn't really any CPU activity, but this explains it pretty well. Windows task manager doesn't monitor GPU stuff, so I just never saw it. Good news is it doesn't look like it's really got any tentacles into my machine - it just set up a folder deep in %appdata%\roaming and ran a fake WinDefend process. Deleting it seems to have solved the issue.
What I'm still really curious about though is how consistent the bad performance was. Like it wasn't just "my frames have dropped like a rock, wtf." It was as if there was a specific fps cap that got removed briefly like once a second. That still has me wondering what's up with it. But the problem is solved.
[s]I'd be incredibly grateful for any suggestions about possible causes/what to do. My game is fine without the ESEA client - smooth, responsive, constant 150+ fps, etc. No it isn't, but the issues started after restarting to install the client, and haven't gone away after uninstallation. When I joined the server tonight, I had a constant 67 fps, unless I moved my mouse really quickly, in which case it would spike to 300ish for a fraction of a second before going back down. Although the game claimed the framerate was consistent, it didn't feel that way at all, and worse, I had a huge amount of input lag. Enough that my screen was still noticeably moving after I stopped moving my mouse.
I'm on Windows 8.1, dx8, etc. Have a i7 2600, Radeon 6770. I know for a fact it wasn't caused by these things:
Windowed mode (I play fullscreen)
Antivirus (turned it off)
Windows update (turned it off)
Steam downloading things (I checked)
Something eating CPU cycles/hard drive activity (I kept an eye on process manager)
Messing with fps caps (sort of - I normally play capped at 130, but uncapping it had no impact)
I also tried messing with affinities - giving TF2 and the client specific and separate cores. Didn't see any impact from that. I haven't had any issues like this for quite some time, and everything seemed flawless this season. That said, in past seasons, on my older computer, I have had issues where after starting the client and joining a server, I had very low fps for a time - around 15ish. I don't remember having input lag nearly this bad though, and that eventually went away, and this didn't.
I'll love you forever if you have any sort of insight that leads to me maybe solving this. It's pretty frustrating. Thanks for your help.[/s]
LOL OKAY I GOT IT IT WAS A FUCKING BITCOIN MINER DON'T I FEEL SILLY NOW
I figured it wasn't anything malicious because virus scans were showing nothing, and there wasn't really any CPU activity, but this explains it pretty well. Windows task manager doesn't monitor GPU stuff, so I just never saw it. Good news is it doesn't look like it's really got any tentacles into my machine - it just set up a folder deep in %appdata%\roaming and ran a fake WinDefend process. Deleting it seems to have solved the issue.
What I'm still really curious about though is how consistent the bad performance was. Like it wasn't just "my frames have dropped like a rock, wtf." It was as if there was a specific fps cap that got removed briefly like once a second. That still has me wondering what's up with it. But the problem is solved.
My computer will do this sometimes and have all those issues. It's my graphics card capping my fps and I have to disable it.
That's the only thing I can think it would be.
Go to your radeon settings>gaming>global settings>make sure frame rate target control is off.
My computer will do this sometimes and have all those issues. It's my graphics card capping my fps and I have to disable it.
That's the only thing I can think it would be.
Go to your radeon settings>gaming>global settings>make sure frame rate target control is off.
I'll take a look at that. Thank you.
I'll take a look at that. Thank you.
I may have fixed it. Posting an update in case anyone else ever has the same issue and stumbles across this thread.
It wasn't caused by the client - even with it completely uninstalled, the issue persisted today on pub and local servers. But disabling Steam overlay solved the problem, and fps skyrocketed past where it was before on top of that - I never dropped below 600 running around an empty process server. Hoping this solves the issue permanently.
nvm not fixed. It's back after a restart. I'm still confused.
OKAY. Experimented some more on a local server today and I've figured it out sort of, but I haven't fixed it and have no idea how to. The fps will consistently cycle between 70 and 300ish. Spends a second or so at 70 and then spikes for maybe a quarter of a second. Capping the fps below 70 will get rid of the input lag, but also means I'm playing at 70 fps, which is terrible.
BUT. If I disconnect from the internet, I immediately spike to 1000 fps and don't really drop below 500. I don't understand how or why, and this obviously isn't really a solution, but it's something I guess? Reconnecting causes the problem to start again immediately. If anyone has any idea what might be causing this, please let me know. I'm so confused and I'd really like to solve this.
Also, running in borderless windowed mode causes the game to report a much higher fps (around 200 consistently, no drops to 70,) but it doesn't feel any different, and it very clearly isn't actually displaying that kind of framerate. It's definitely much lower.
Just checked L4D2. Exact same problem there too (except capped at exactly 60, not 70,) and exact same response to yanking wireless card/plugging it back in. This isn't strictly TF2 related. Unsure whether it's Source only, and not sure how to check, Just checked with DXHR. This is happening with everything. Right now I strongly suspect Steam is the culprit. This happens whether or not I'm signed into friends fwiw, and I don't see anything in the console that might suggest anything.
[s]I may have fixed it. Posting an update in case anyone else ever has the same issue and stumbles across this thread.
It wasn't caused by the client - even with it completely uninstalled, the issue persisted today on pub and local servers. But disabling Steam overlay solved the problem, and fps skyrocketed past where it was before on top of that - I never dropped below 600 running around an empty process server. Hoping this solves the issue permanently.[/s]
nvm not fixed. It's back after a restart. I'm still confused.
OKAY. Experimented some more on a local server today and I've figured it out sort of, but I haven't fixed it and have no idea how to. The fps will consistently cycle between 70 and 300ish. Spends a second or so at 70 and then spikes for maybe a quarter of a second. Capping the fps below 70 will get rid of the input lag, but also means I'm playing at 70 fps, which is terrible.
BUT. If I disconnect from the internet, I immediately spike to 1000 fps and don't really drop below 500. I don't understand how or why, and this obviously isn't really a solution, but it's something I guess? Reconnecting causes the problem to start again immediately. If anyone has any idea what might be causing this, please let me know. I'm so confused and I'd really like to solve this.
Also, running in borderless windowed mode causes the game to report a much higher fps (around 200 consistently, no drops to 70,) but it doesn't feel any different, and it very clearly isn't actually displaying that kind of framerate. It's definitely much lower.
Just checked L4D2. Exact same problem there too (except capped at exactly 60, not 70,) and exact same response to yanking wireless card/plugging it back in. This isn't strictly TF2 related.[s] Unsure whether it's Source only, and not sure how to check,[/s] Just checked with DXHR. This is happening with everything. Right now I strongly suspect Steam is the culprit. This happens whether or not I'm signed into friends fwiw, and I don't see anything in the console that might suggest anything.