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  1. #1
    GregJA's Avatar Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    20

    Legit really odd fix for stuttering (tested on Nvidia)

    Heres the steps:
    1) downsample your resolution in nvidia control panel (2560x1440 if using a 1920x1080 monitor)
    2) delete the GamerProfile.xml file in the Documents/My Games/Watch_Dogs/ a bunch of numbers file/ GamerProfile.xml
    3) run Watch Dogs
    4) Change settings to what you want, and texture detail to ultra (since this is whats causing the problem)
    5) Then play the game for a min or two (it will stutter worse than usual, ignore that)
    6) Alt out of the game again and change back the resolution in Nvidia Control Panel (undo the downsampling completely)- look up how to properly downsample, its not just changing resolution higher
    7) Then alt tab back into the game (you can change your resolution again to what you want) and then good to go! - I personally use 2240x1260, for a better image quality and less performance hit than 2560x1440
    8) do this each time you play, its annoying but until they fix it we have no choice.

    below is just the thought process I went through so it is a mess hahahahaah

    EDIT: you must delete the gameprofile found in mu games/watdogs/bunch of numbers and letters each time before starting the game, then set your setting ingame before following the steps iat the end of this post.
    Also you do not need to have UPlay in offline mode

    Hey guys.
    so my system is:
    Nvidia GTX Titan 6gb
    i7 3770
    16 GB ram
    SSD
    Windows 8.1 64 bit

    And ever since the game released I have had terrible stuttering on ultra textures, and after the patch? 10x WORSE.

    So.
    the first step was I emailed support. they recommended the usual, latest drivers blah blah. but they also recommended I use TXAA as my AA and use offline mode on uplay(not entirely sure if this is necessary)

    These 2 fixes alone did nothing.

    then lately I have been downsampling so that I bumped up my monitor from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 (game looks a lot better this way)
    - I was still getting lag

    SO what did I do?
    I started up watchdogs, put everything maximum and downsampled in the nvidia control panel to 2560x1440
    I played for a couple min (laggy as hell-worse than anything before) then after driving for a bit I alt-tabbed out and disabled downsampling in the control panel
    (I set my resolution back to the default 1920x1080, I set it back to display and unchecked override setting.
    I alt-tabbed back into the game and changed NOTHING in game. clicked continue and BAM no more stuttering. at all.

    The only thing is you must do this EACH time you load the game.

    I would be interested in knowing if this works for anyone else! It was really weird but hey it works for me at least.
    It seems like it may be tricking the game into using more gpu power, while not actually needing it or something I do not know

    Thanks!

    p.s I also use 2240x1260 for less of a performance hit
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  2. #2
    GregJA's Avatar Junior Member
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    May 2014
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    I updated the first post after playing around with it
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  3. #3
    going in offline mode on uplay actually does improve performance for me, but minimally. My cpu and gpu still plummet while driving, or running around randomly, especially after 30 minutes of gameplay or more it starts getting worse and worse.
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  4. #4
    I'm not entirely sure I could follow exactly what you did.

    What res did you set in WD?
    You set Windows to 2560x1440 or just the scaling res in NV control panel?
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  5. #5

    Finally!

    Originally Posted by GregJAlbert Go to original post
    EDIT: you must delete the gameprofile found in mu games/watdogs/bunch of numbers and letters each time before starting the game, then set your setting ingame before following the steps iat the end of this post.
    Also you do not need to have UPlay in offline mode

    Hey guys.
    so my system is:
    Nvidia GTX Titan 6gb
    i7 3770
    16 GB ram
    SSD
    Windows 8.1 64 bit

    And ever since the game released I have had terrible stuttering on ultra textures, and after the patch? 10x WORSE.

    So.
    the first step was I emailed support. they recommended the usual, latest drivers blah blah. but they also recommended I use TXAA as my AA and use offline mode on uplay(not entirely sure if this is necessary)

    These 2 fixes alone did nothing.

    then lately I have been downsampling so that I bumped up my monitor from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 (game looks a lot better this way)
    - I was still getting lag

    SO what did I do?
    I started up watchdogs, put everything maximum and downsampled in the nvidia control panel to 2560x1440
    I played for a couple min (laggy as hell-worse than anything before) then after driving for a bit I alt-tabbed out and disabled downsampling in the control panel
    (I set my resolution back to the default 1920x1080, I set it back to display and unchecked override setting.
    I alt-tabbed back into the game and changed NOTHING in game. clicked continue and BAM no more stuttering. at all.

    The only thing is you must do this EACH time you load the game.

    I would be interested in knowing if this works for anyone else! It was really weird but hey it works for me at least.
    It seems like it may be tricking the game into using more gpu power, while not actually needing it or something I do not know

    Thanks!

    p.s I also use 2240x1260 for less of a performance hit
    My System:
    Nvidia Gtx 570
    Intel i7 4770k
    8 gb ram
    SSD
    Windows 8.1 64 bit

    This worked! Thank You!
    I can finally play with texture on high without stuttering. Without this method i stutter like hell, something like 2-3 seconds every 10-15 seconds
    Actually ultra texture works too without stuttering now but with my not really powerful gpu i've got no stuttering but almost 10-15 fps avg so i stay with high ones.
    Thank you again , it makes no sense but for me worked.
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  6. #6
    SaltyT3xan's Avatar Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    26

    Step Process????

    Originally Posted by Gaddster Go to original post
    I'm not entirely sure I could follow exactly what you did.

    What res did you set in WD?
    You set Windows to 2560x1440 or just the scaling res in NV control panel?
    same here, reading the post was really hard to follow.

    So from what I read:

    1) first delete the GamerProfile.xml file in the Documents/My Games/Watch_Dogs/ a bunch of numbers file/ GamerProfile.xml
    2) run Watch Dogs
    3) Change settings to your desire? In my case Ultra on everything since I'm running a $4K beast at 1080P
    4)Atl out of the game and down sample in Nvidia Control Panel (this is where Im confuse)
    5) Then continue to run the game for a min
    6) Alt out of the game again and change back the resolution in Nvidia Control Panel
    7) Then continue to run the game (no stutter)

    Can someone confirm this for me??? I"m scratching my head at steps 4 thru 6
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  7. #7
    GregJA's Avatar Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    20
    Hey sorry here it is broken down:

    1) downsample your resolution in nvidia control panel (2560x1440 if using a 1920x1080 monitor)
    2) delete the GamerProfile.xml file in the Documents/My Games/Watch_Dogs/ a bunch of numbers file/ GamerProfile.xml
    3) run Watch Dogs
    4) Change settings to what you want, and texture detail to ultra (since this is whats causing the problem)
    5) Then play the game for a min or two (it will stutter worse than usual, ignore that)
    6) Alt out of the game again and change back the resolution in Nvidia Control Panel (undo the downsampling completely) - look up how to properly downsample, its not just changing resolution higher.
    7) Then alt tab back into the game (you can change your resolution again to what you want) and then good to go!
    8) do this each time you play, its annoying but until they fix it we have no choice.
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  8. #8
    Originally Posted by GregJAlbert Go to original post
    Hey sorry here it is broken down:

    1) downsample your resolution in nvidia control panel (2560x1440 if using a 1920x1080 monitor)
    2) delete the GamerProfile.xml file in the Documents/My Games/Watch_Dogs/ a bunch of numbers file/ GamerProfile.xml
    3) run Watch Dogs
    4) Change settings to what you want, and texture detail to ultra (since this is whats causing the problem)
    5) Then play the game for a min or two (it will stutter worse than usual, ignore that)
    6) Alt out of the game again and change back the resolution in Nvidia Control Panel (undo the downsampling completely) - look up how to properly downsample, its not just changing resolution higher.
    7) Then alt tab back into the game (you can change your resolution again to what you want) and then good to go!
    8) do this each time you play, its annoying but until they fix it we have no choice.
    Still not completely on a couple of things. In WD are you setting the higher resolution you've created in NV panel?

    Are you setting the higher 2560 res in Windows prior to running the game then changing it back to 1920 once you've done the game settings? The downsampling tutorials I've read say you don't need to do this.
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  9. #9
    Originally Posted by Gaddster Go to original post
    Still not completely on a couple of things. In WD are you setting the higher resolution you've created in NV panel?

    Are you setting the higher 2560 res in Windows prior to running the game then changing it back to 1920 once you've done the game settings? The downsampling tutorials I've read say you don't need to do this.
    Don't know what the op did correctly but i'll tell you what worked for me:
    -Create the custom resolution for downsampling in the nvidia control panel
    -Open Watch Dogs
    -Put All to maximum and the higher res (for me 2560*1600 (i've got a 16:10 monitor)
    -Start Game
    -Just walk around/drive a bit with stuttering and lag
    -Open options and put resolution to normal one (for me 1920*1200)
    -Profit

    Hope will work for you too, i tried everything in the past and this is the only thing that worked for me.
    Another Thing that helped me a bit is to set the thread priority of Watch_Dogs.exe to RealTime on the task manager.
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  10. #10
    Mr_Shade's Avatar Senior Community Manager
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    EMEA CRC
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    21,335
    Hi Guys,

    If you have stuttering - and no other fixes help - can I ask you try this?

    Inside the "screen" menu, changing the "window mode" from "full screen" to "without borders"


    Please post back your findings - or - update your ticket to support - if it helps!
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