Carbonite Major FPS Loss Confirmed

[Eincrou]

I can confirm that Carbonite causes a massive drop in FPS on my machine. I've been wondering why my performance in WoW was so poor, especially when I'd get 20 FPS in LFR. I did a lot of trial and error and discovered that the problem is Carbonite. I've been using Carbonite for years, but haven't done many 25-man raids since TBC, so I usually never had FPS low enough to be an annoyance. So, I can't say how long this problem has been around.

Some very simple tests prove that Carbonite is the cause:

• When sitting alone in a remote part of Deepholm, I get 300-330 FPS with High settings, 2x multisampling and 1920x1080 resolution. I get this FPS with all of the addons I usually use enabled, except for Carbonite. In addition, I get the exact same FPS with no addons at all enabled.

• With all addons disabled and only Carbonite enabled, with the exact same graphics settings, location, and conditions, it drops to 210-230 FPS.

Obviously, these drops in frame rates are unnoticeable as long as it stays above 120, the refresh rate of my monitor. I can quest, do heroic dungeons, 10-man raids, and fly around Org without having FPS dips low enough to make the game choppy.

But, since LFR came out and I'm playing 25-man raids again, I have had horrible performance during combat. FPS ranges from 15 if a lot is going on, to 50 when out of combat and everyone is just standing around. Lowering graphics settings does not increase FPS very much, if at all.

I just did some testing of addons while in LFR, and with no addons enabled at all and the same High graphics settings as mentioned above, I get around 70 FPS during the heat of combat. That is about the performance I would expect to get with those graphics settings and my hardware.

I enabled a few of my essential raiding addons (I did this testing during a boss fight, heh...), including some heavy ones like Prat and Recount, and there was no hit to FPS. I expect that if I had enabled all of my usual addons, there would be no FPS loss, same as the Deepholm test.

I tested with the latest version of Carbonite v4.3 and a fresh SV. My machine's relevant specs:

Quad-core CPU Core i7-930@3800 MHz
12GB DDR3@1600 MHz
Geforce GTX 570

If there's anything else I can do to help pinpoint or fix this issue, let me know. For now, I will disable Carbonite while running LFR.

[Othgar]

Just out of curiosity I tested this as well. Sitting in Eastern Plaguelands on my level 42 priest with no one around but NPC's I was at around 80 fps with everything on ultra settings and carbonite enabled. I disable only carbonite and my framerate picked up to 115-120. No ther changes but carbonite. Framerates were stable at those points for 5 minutes for each test.

Not that it should matter too much but my specs are:
DirectX 11 enabled
Fullscreen Mode
AMD Phenom II x6 @3.2 gigs
16gigs RAM
XFX HD6770 + XFX HD5770 crossfired
2x Corsair Force Series 3 SSDs in Raid0

[Eincrou]

Another Carbonite-caused frame rate loss test.

I chose a spot in Orgrimmar with very few players, and noted that my frame rate was a steady 83 FPS. This was with my normal selection of addons enabled, including Carbonite.

Without moving or changing my camera view, I disabled only Carbonite and reloaded the UI. I immediately gained 40 FPS, with the frame rate steady at 119 FPS.

This test and the test I posted earlier both showed about a 30% reduction in frame rate from Carbonite. Othgar's test also showed the same 30% frame rate drop.

[OmegaExtreme]

So it is obvious that there is something wrong with carbonite that is causing the FPS issues, it could be that way due to design. perhaps if Carbonite was coded better and spread out over different moduels then it would not only be easier to narrow down were issues are occuring but it would also be more user friendly.


Hopefully the reason for the lack of response from the Carbonite Devs is that they are hard at work with Carbonite2? (and yes i know they have jobs and families IRL, but it takes less than 5 mins to post a reply).

[Petrah]

I've been using Carbonite since the first month back when it was pay. What you guys are reporting isn't anything new... there were posts about it back on the Carb forums, and even more on these forums if you search a bit (and you'll find answers from the devs in those threads here).

Disable Carbonite before going into a raid. If you use Addon Control Panel, it takes two seconds to reload the UI after disabling Carbonite.

[Eincrou]

I don't care if the issue is new or if it's old. It's a problem in the present, and that's all that matters. I had no idea about the problem until yesterday, despite having used the addon for a very long time. Others are ignorant in the same way and should be made aware of it.

My testing identified that Carbonite was the problem before I came to these forums to see if anyone else had reported FPS loss. The most recently replied thread was someone saying they had problems. In that thread were several replies doubting that the FPS loss was either caused by Carbonite or that it was a problem for anyone with a good machine.

This thread was created to prove both beliefs wrong. Clearly this isn't a well understood issue by some Carbonite forum users, much less many players using the addon who may have FPS problems they can't pinpoint.

Rather than those "searching a bit" for older topics, this up to date thread provides solid proof that Carbonite causes a major ~30% loss in frame rate on my system. It also gives a method by which other players can test to see if Carbonite is having the same negative effect on their machines.

[Petrah]

I personally do not have any FPS issues with Carbonite and I run the latest version on an old machine with completely updated drivers and up to date Windows updates.

If you really wish to troubleshoot the issue, then rename both the WTF and Interface folders to Interfacebak and WTFbak. Manually create the Interface/Addons folders and drop a freshly downloaded copy of Carbonite into it without installing any other addons. Log in to the game.

Be sure to enable LUA Error checking. Run instances and raids with only Carbonite running. Paste any LUA errors you get here.

Not much can be done to help if you are not running a machine with the latest drivers (this includes motherboard drivers, sound card drivers, video drivers etcetera) the latest Windows updates, and are willing to run thorough troubleshooting steps with a clean new test bed (renaming Interface and WTF folders and running with no other addons but Carbonite).

[242729]

I also have the 10-20 FPS issue, but Carbonite is also causing a massive memory leak for me.
With all my other mods running WoW uses 100 to 200mb of RAM.
If Carbonite is the only add-on running my memory use starts at 300mb and climbs by 4 to 5mb per second, within about 30 to 40 minutes WoW crashes for lack of memory.This happens with the Items, Nodes and Transfer option both on and off.
About 4 or 5 WoW patches ago similar memory leak and FPS issues were present and were corrected within a week but I have yet to see any progress on the current problem.

[Chmee]

Originally Posted by 242729 I also have the 10-20 FPS issue, but Carbonite is also causing a massive memory leak for me. With all my other mods running WoW uses 100 to 200mb of RAM. If Carbonite is the only add-on running my memory use starts at 300mb and climbs by 4 to 5mb per second, within about 30 to 40 minutes WoW crashes for lack of memory.This happens with the Items, Nodes and Transfer option both on and off. About 4 or 5 WoW patches ago similar memory leak and FPS issues were present and were corrected within a week but I have yet to see any progress on the current problem.

I'm no expert on Windows, but I do not think an add-on can cause the problem you're attributing to Carbonite.

[242729]

Originally Posted by Chmee I'm no expert on Windows, but I do not think an add-on can cause the problem you're attributing to Carbonite.

My system:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
i7 930 @ 2.8GHz
12GB DDR3 RAM
Asus GeForce GTX680 4GB RAM

Without Carbonite I can run the game 8 hours with 150+ FPS and no crashes. With Carbonite (and no other add-ons) maximum 40 FPS and crashes out within an hour having run out of RAM.
The first Carbonite compatible with Cata 4.0.3a also had memory leak issues but not as bad, that version was replaced within a week. I love Carbonite and have donated in the past, just wondering why this problem has been here for months without even an acknowledgement?

[Chmee]

What I'm saying is that if there's a memory management problem with an add-on appearing to cause crashes, it seems to me it's more likely in the client code that handles add ons than in the add-on itself. OTOH, like I said, I'm no expert on Windows. Either way (1) I wonder what happens if you install some other complex add-on rather than Carbonite and (2) I wonder if others are having this problem. If you do (1) and get crashes, then it's probably not the add ons (it still could be, of course). If the answer to (2) is no, then there's something about your setup that's wonky.

I can't answer the question in your last post.

[Xrystal]

I believe nUI5 had really bad memory leaks in the past, I haven't noticed it as much recently though. And, nUI6 is looking to improve on it more. If I remember rightly Scott believes the cause is to do with the garbage collector not being called at the right time or something related to the garbage collection routine.