I started using Windows 11 on October 5th, since it has been released. I didn't join the Insider Program for the Machine which is running as my gaming rig. Since switchting to Windows 11 I experienced a great gaming performance (some games improved also by 5-10%) in almost all my games but Star Citizen. In Star Citizen I got a performance decrease of about 30-50% depending on the situation (and this is very interesting).
To narrow down my system and what has been done already to check if it is a Windows 11 bug or misconfiguration:
- System Configuration: AMD Ryzen 5900X, 32 GB RAM (running at 3200 MHz), 2 TB SSD (nVME, ~3.500 MB/s), GPU: AMD Radeon RX6900 XT (Original from AMD), X570 Chipset, My Main Screen resolution is 2560x1440 (WQHD)
- Has the AMD L3 Bug been fixed? Yes I'm running Windows 11 Version 10.0.22000.282 (which includes KB5006746)
- Did I install the lasted AMD Chipset Drivers? Sure! It's running the latest version of the Chipset drivers which should help with the CPPC stuff. It's version is 3.10.08.506
- Did I re-install Windows from Scratch? Yes I first started with Windows in-place Upgrade, everything worked but Star Citizen hat bad performance so I decided to re-install the whole system from scratch.
- Did I deactivate Windows Reporting? Yes I did deactivate Windows reporting, since I'm running Windows 11 Pro I can use gpedit.msc to deactivate it completely with Group Policies
- What AMD Radeon Driver Version am I running? I'm running the current official version from AMD (Adrenalin 21.10.2 Recommended (WHQL)), I also tried the optional versions (also the latest one, Adrenalin 21.11.1 Optional) but there where no changes and I feel running the Recommended version is more stable (although I don't really have stability issues, this thing is rock stable, typically no CTDs or black screens).
What do I expect from my system?
Expected Behavior of the System: Running about 60 FPS almost all the time (but Orison), at least in Windows 10 this was the case.
Current situation of my system
Star Citizen is running typically at about 30 FPS, in almost all space stations or in the verse. Sometimes the FPS increase to about 35 FPS if I'm on a moon or on a planet (this should be vice-versa!).
The CPU is having a utilization of about 20-30%. It is also boosting, so it looks good for me.
The Graphics Card is having a utilization of about 70-80% it is running at about 85Watts and stays cool. I expect it to do more FPS, so I would expect it to run on higher Watts and to go on higher Utilization. It switches between Idle and ~1100 MHz.
Setting up the Graphics Card to get a bit more FPS (STILL NOT >60 FPS!)
If you read until this line, that's amazing. Thanks for that!
As everything is running good in the system and any other game is running perfect I currently believe that there is not an issue with Star Citizen itself but with the AMD Graphics Driver for Windows 11. Although it is the same version as in Windows 10 I guess there are some performance optimizations for different configuration combinations of Operating System and Games.
I'm not giving any advice of following the next steps nor do I take responsibility to configuration that you do based on what I did on my system!
In a short summary:
1) I did enable Radeon Image Sharpening especially for Star Citizen in the AMD Radeon Software
2) I did enable "Virtual Super Resolution" in "(Global) Settings > Display" so I can run Star Citizen in 4K instead in only WQHD
3) Then I went to Performance > Tuning - added a new Game Profile only for Star Citizen (so that the tuning settings only affect Star Citizen and not any other game!)
3a) In the Game Profile I activated "Manual Tuning > Custom" in "Tuning Control"
3b) I enabled "GPU Tuning"
3c) I enabled "Advanced Control"
3d) I set Min Frequency to 2400 MHz (which is 96% of Max Frequency) and kept Max Frequency as suggested by Radeon Software
3e) Apply Changes (top right)
4) Started Star Citizen and Switched Resolution to 3840x2160 and "Fullscreen"
As written above I had about 30-35 FPS before these changes, now the game is running with about 40-45 FPS, although the resolution has been increased.
--> Now the graphics card is running with about 2300 MHz up to 2400 MHz. And Wattage increased to about 180W.
After that I disabled Virtual Super Resolution and switched Star Citizen to 2560x1440 again --> I do not have 40-45 FPS but the game is now running at 35-42 FPS, so it is better that before giving a more "fluid" experience. Wattage and GPU performanced stayed at about 180W. Looking on the Graphics Card Metrics it still switches between running at >2300 MZ and "idle". So I'm running now without Super Resolution but the change with the Super Resolution has been done just to check if higher resolutions give more or less FPS. I would expect less FPS, but it was the other way round. I'm running most of the time in "Borderless" mode, so I cannot use Super Resolution.
Conclusion
To sum it up, due to increasing load on the Graphics Card by giving it "more to render" the graphics driver seems to force the graphics card to render faster. If the settings are not made it looks for me that the system thinks there is not much to do, give it about 30 FPS and keeps it like that.
I did already file a bug report to AMD, but please feel free to submit bug reports on your own if you experienced the same behavior.
Before people suggest it: Of course I can switch back to Windows 10, but I'm not going to do that.
I heard that there are driver versions out there which do not have that issue as written before, or maybe I'm missing a setting. But for me it looks like the current version of AMD Adrenalin Drivers do not officially support Star Citizen.
