Playing: PIE/Viewport Framerate extremly low as opposed to Standalone/packaged

Development Getting Started & Setup
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Hi there…

Since I reinstalled my Engine 4 Weeks ago, I got a problem when playing my project in new PIE Window, or even inside the Editor Viewport.

This problem DOES NOT occur in standalone and packaged game.

While playing in standalone and packaged Game gives a stable 60FPS (uncapped 400+), PIE and Viewport drop to 15-35FPS… even uncapped.
It nearly is unplayable in the editor.

Since it does only occur in the Editor, I think it must be an Editor problem.
I never got that before I reinstalled 5.5…

And yes, I know PIE/Viewport take more resources than just standalone - but this discrepancy is way too big - especially with my specs…

My Specs:

PSU: 850 Watt be quiet! Pure Power 12 M Modular 80+ Gold
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16x 4.20GHz So.AM5 WOF
GPU: 16GB ZOTAC GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Trinity Black Edition Aktiv PCIe 4.0 x16 (Retail)
RAM: 64GB Corsair Vengeance schwarz DDR5-6400 DIMM CL32 Dual Kit
SSD: 2x 4TB Crucial P3 Plus M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 3D-NAND QLC (CT4000P3PSSD8)

While playing in PIE/Editor, the CPU never exceeds 15% capacity, GPU never exceeds 8%…
In Standalone, both values stay below 10% all the time.

For testing purposes, I am running the game at 1600 x 900 resolution, not 4K or any other exorbitant resolution.

NVIDIA Controls are set to default global for UnrealEditor.exe, uncapped FPS, no vsync…
Monitor has no sync cap set, too.
Smooth Framerate is set to false in project settings, too.

Again, works flawlessly, fluid and without ANY FPS dropped in standalone/packaged…

Does someone also experience this and/or give me some help?

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Hello! Let me see if I can help you with this issue.

There could be many reasons why the framerate is lower on viewport/PIE mode but is like you said, the difference sounds too big, maybe we can figure something out in the controls. Here are a few things you could try to resolve it:

  • Make sure Unreal is set to run on high performance on Windows Settings > Graphics Settings.
  • Try having the Nvidia GPU Only option enabled from Nvidia Control Panel > 3D Settings > Manage Display Mode
  • Go into the Nvidia Control panel and switch G-sync to “Enable G-sync in full screen mode” (or completely off) instead of “Enable G-sync for windowed and full screen mode”

hopefully that will give you some frames back, let me know!

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ok.

Windows Graphics Settings are all set to use max possible (NVidia)

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In NVidia Control Panel all is globally off:

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And Unreal only uses global settings.

In the NVidia App, G-Sync is not available, cause no G-Sync Monitor :slight_smile:

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Beside that, UnrealEditor.exe does not get overridden in the NVidia App, too

I did not change ANY settings from before reinstalling the engine… but it completely broke after reinstalling…

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It is a pickle, the only other option I can think of is a while back someone was having trouble with FPS on PIE/Editor and disabling the UDP connection worked for them, its probably worth giving it a shot just disable it on the project settings here

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nah… doesn’t work… also deactivated TCP Transmitting…

Thing is… i now also set Editor Scalability to Something other than EPIC…

BUT… Low, medium, High… Epic… Cinematic… All have the same FPS in PIE. So it’s definitely not hardware related…

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Additional Info:
It also happens with a complete new, empty Project, just the Third person template…

In Standalone: 420+ FPS
In PIE / Viewport: < 40FPS - sometimes even < 20 for some seconds…

Playing 2 Player in PIE - FPS around 1-5 (yes… 1… to 5…)
While in Standalone… even with 4 Players, one window each… on my single PC… 420+ FPS… or stable 60…

Interesting Part:
Having Task manager opened for profiling CPU and GPU capacity utilization…

Playing in Standalone / packaged => CPU below 12-20%, GPU below 10%
Playing in PIE / Viewport => CPU below 12-20%, GPU below 10% - Yes… same… So definitely the Editor messes stuff up…

Edit:
Thing i also recognized:

While playing in PIE / Viewport:
When opening ANY Widget, the game shortly laggs (even stops for some frames)… before continuing… framrate in this case drops to 1-4… and then goes up again, instantly.
Same happens when dealing with Destroying of existing actors (like collecting items) and such.

Again… CPU is still bored and stays below 20% - even with 10 PIE Windows running… GPU stays below 15%, too… (50% with 10 PIE Windows)

And again - in standalone / package game… it runs smooth… without any problems or drops or lags…

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pushing this a bit :slight_smile:
My PIE is still running aweful…

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Ok, I’m running low on ideas at this point but lets keep trying we can fix this haha.
Couple of questions:

  • Do you have multiple viewports open and running in realtime? You can turn off realtime in the viewport if this is the problem
  • Have you checked that your Nvidia drivers are actually up to date? Run the driver updater just to be safe.
  • Have you tried reseting the layout to default? Maybe its a panel display issue.
  • Finally can you try to run an insights trace in editor vs in build? that could tell us exactly where your resources are going and figure out why editor is consuming so much more.
    Here is a quick guide on how to use unreal insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64PQI6Tup0Q
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@BDC_Patrick DId you ever find the solution?
I am running a Ryzen 9 5600x with RX 6900xt and 64gb DDR4 and have the exact same problem.

Even in new project, the New WIndow PIE has like 20fps, while Playing in Editor or as a standalone or packaged game, the FPS is over 100.

Tried all the solutions posted and nothing seems to be working.

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@XxRajeevxX , no… sadly not…

@BRS_Martin_E:

* Do you have multiple viewports open and running in realtime? You can turn off realtime in the viewport if this is the problem

Nope… only 1 - and Realtime is off.

* Have you checked that your Nvidia drivers are actually up to date? Run the driver updater just to be safe.

All up-2-date - always.

* Have you tried reseting the layout to default? Maybe its a panel display issue.

Yes - multiple times - And as said - also completely reinstalled the whole Engine multiple times.

Unreal Insight is awkward… and even after watching over 6 Videos now… i still cannot get any readable result from it - this window is just a mess and nothing i can understand :confused:

But again… when i play the Game in Standalone… or packaged… It runs absolutely fine… so it definitely is a problem with PIE/Editor…

I also made an Issue report now…

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Hi @BDC_Patrick,

I think an Insights trace will be the best way to track down exactly what’s hogging your FPS. Insights is an incredibly powerful tool that logs exactly what happens within every frame, but as you’ve noticed, yes it’s the opposite of artist-friendly.

If you can capture a trace and send it over via a google drive / dropbox link, I can take a look and see if I can help you out with this.

If you’ve figured out how to run a trace and open it, then it saved that trace to your project directory. You should be able to track down the file location using the Insights frontend.

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Hi Sarah - thanks, that would be great.
Also @BRS_Martin_E

Here is the Trace file (rar archive): (LINK REMOVED)

GOD DAMNIT - found the problem… my Stamina regeneration fired waaaay to often per tick… reduced the call and raised the amount fixed it…

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