Game: Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour (Steam, 1.04 data)
Summary
In-match render FPS drops to ~7-10 while game logic keeps running at full speed (the FPS counter shows e.g. 10[38]). The main menu renders fine (~30 fps). Bisected across the weekly releases: weekly-2026-05-01 is good (38[38]), weekly-2026-05-08 is bad (10[38]), still present in weekly-2026-07-03. The 2026-05-08 changelog is dominated by the heightmap / terrain-draw-size changes of PR #2677, which makes those the prime suspect.
System
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D (8C/16T)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, driver 595.71
- OS: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
- Display: 3440x1440 ultrawide
Measurements (skirmish, default camera, stock map Alpine Assault)
| Build |
In-match fps counter |
| weekly-2026-02-20 |
38[38] (good) |
| weekly-2026-05-01 |
38[38] (good) |
| weekly-2026-05-08 |
10[38] (bad) |
| weekly-2026-05-15 |
10[38] (bad) |
| weekly-2026-06-05 |
10[38] (bad) |
| weekly-2026-07-03 |
7-10[38] (bad) |
While slow: GPU utilization ~2% (nvidia-smi), exactly one CPU core pegged at 100% - the render loop is CPU-bound, the GPU is idle.
Ruled out
- Renderer: reproduced both on stock Windows d3d8 and through dgVoodoo2 2.87.3
- Fullscreen and windowed (
-win), resolutions from 800x600 up to 3440x1440
- Fresh Options.ini (all defaults) and custom settings
- GenTool absent in all measurements above
- Custom vs. stock maps (both slow on bad builds)
- Process priority / CPU affinity changes: no effect
- Ctrl+Numpad+ render-fps hotkey: no effect on bad builds
Reproduction Steps
- Steam ZH 1.04 data, any "bad" weekly build of generalszh.exe
- Start any skirmish
- Observe render fps ~10 while logic fps stays at the game-speed setting
Happy to provide more data (traces, dxdiag) if useful.
Game: Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour (Steam, 1.04 data)
Summary
In-match render FPS drops to ~7-10 while game logic keeps running at full speed (the FPS counter shows e.g.
10[38]). The main menu renders fine (~30 fps). Bisected across the weekly releases: weekly-2026-05-01 is good (38[38]), weekly-2026-05-08 is bad (10[38]), still present in weekly-2026-07-03. The 2026-05-08 changelog is dominated by the heightmap / terrain-draw-size changes of PR #2677, which makes those the prime suspect.System
Measurements (skirmish, default camera, stock map Alpine Assault)
While slow: GPU utilization ~2% (nvidia-smi), exactly one CPU core pegged at 100% - the render loop is CPU-bound, the GPU is idle.
Ruled out
-win), resolutions from 800x600 up to 3440x1440Reproduction Steps
Happy to provide more data (traces, dxdiag) if useful.