Why would my fps tank?

[Daeris 1,116]

I had a 2070 which the game was working pretty well on. My region is not very build up at all, like under 10k population. A few weeks ago I upgraded to a 3070, and now I'm a little worried because when I go into a city tile I think my fps is dropping when I move the camera. Seems to be dropping down to single digits even. I'm really not sure what might be going on. Anyone seen anything like this, when upgrading to a new gpu? I'm wondering what I should try?

[rsc204 21,808]

All PC games are coded at a point in time to a set of specifications that befit that time, but these standards do not stand still. Therefore there is always going to be the potential for problems in maintaining compatibility with your GPU/Drivers and the legacy DirectX modes SC4 needs to work.

If you were not using one before, you might want to try using a DXWrapper which acts as a sort of translator, enabling cards running on newer DX to communicate with legacy versions correctly. If you were already using one, then make sure it's configured for the new GPU correctly. But I have to say I experienced a similar issue upgrading from a GTX 750ti to a GTX 960 a while back, performance just hasn't felt the same since. Thankfully it's not as severe as what's going on in your setup, although it's possible that something can be better configured to help with scrolling. Although I would look into the Wrapper first, since messing with DirtyRect values isn't very user friendly. Plus wherever I've seen issues requiring non-default settings, it's always been ATI cards having problems, usually NVidia cards work fine.

[Daeris 1,116]

Thanks @rsc204!

@Ulisse Wolf was kind enough to instruct me on the discord that maybe I should try installing Dgvoodoo2. I'm guessing that is similar to what you're describing? I haven't had the courage to try doing this yet, but if you have any other resources let me know.

You know... I just realized. I do have a 970 sitting around (even older than my 2070). Maybe I can install the 970 into my 2nd slot and have my game run on that? As a last ditch effort?

[rsc204 21,808]

You could use a second card, but the way SC4 works is that it only wants to ‘talk’ to the primary display on your system. You’d have to plug it into the second card and be using it for Windows itself. All rather a faff.

Frankly I am surprised to hear your older 2070 could run SC4 without a Wrapper. So for certain that’d be the best first step. It’s not so hard, full guide here, just copying a few files really.