Performance Discrepancy in TouchDesigner: FPS Drops on Higher-Spec Machin

Hello, we are using the amazing TouchDesigner and have encountered an issue we would like to consult with you about.

We created a simple project to play a video using Movie File In TOP. On one machine, the video plays at 60 FPS. However, on another machine, the FPS drops to below 10. Both machines have the same settings for Movie File In TOP and are using the same version of the GPU. Interestingly, the machine that can play at 60 FPS has lower performance compared to the one that plays at less than 10 FPS.

Is it possible to resolve this issue through TouchDesigner settings, or is it more likely a hardware problem? We are at a loss and would greatly appreciate any ideas for a solution. Thank you very much.

If you need detailed hardware specifications or information about the TouchDesigner version, please let me know. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I am ready to share those details immediately.

This is most likely a system configuration issue somewhere. GPU drivers, monitor setup etc. Does the machine have an integrated-GPU as well? What does the task manager show is getting used in terms of CPU/GPU % usage when it’s running at 10%?

Thank you for your response.

I tested the same TouchDesigner project with the same .mov file on four different machines. The setup involves playing the movie using Movie File In TOP connected to Out TOP.

Here are the results:

  1. Machine Name: MANGO(FPS60)
    CPU 13th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i9-13900HX
    Utilization : 100%
    Speed : 3.82GHz
    Base speed : 2.20GHz
    Cores : 24
    SSD NVMe WD_BLACK SN850X 1000GB
    GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX4090 Laptop GPU | Utilization : 23%

  2. Machine Name: No.7(FPS60)
    CPU Intel(R) Core™ i9-14900KF
    Utilization : 49%
    Speed : 4.65GHz
    Base speed : 3.20GHz
    Cores : 24
    SSD NVMe ALEG-850-2TCS
    GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX4090 | Utilization : 50%

  3. Machine Name: DISPLAY-1(FPS5)
    CPU AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X 32-Cores
    Utilization : 49%
    Speed : 4.7GHz
    Base speed : 4.00GHz
    Cores : 32
    SSD M2.SSD Gen4
    GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX4090 | Utilization : 10%

  4. Machine Name: DISPLAY-DEV(FPS5)
    CPU AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5975WX 32-Cores
    Utilization : 85%
    Speed : 4.17GHz
    Base speed : 3.60GHz
    Cores : 32
    SSD SOLIDIGM SSDPFKNU020TZ
    GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX4090 | Utilization : 15%

The first and second machines were able to achieve 60 FPS, but the third and fourth machines only managed to reach 5 FPS. I would greatly appreciate any advice or solutions you could provide.

Thank you very much.

Most of the times when stuff starts to drasticly bog down it is not an issue of how clock but waiting.
What is the Memory-Read Utilisiation of your SSDs? Do the SSDs have DRAM?
Basicy, when TD is trying to load a frame from disk, if FrameRead-Timeout is set to >16 it will halt all of TD before continuing.
Please try to set the “Frame Read Timeout” of the MovieFileInTOP to 0.
My prediction is that the FPS will increase but the video will stutter.

Thank you for your assistance.

Setting the Frame Read Timeout to 0 did indeed increase the FPS to 60, but it caused the video playback to stop.

Additionally, when I set the Speed to a range of 0.1 to 0.7, playback remained at 60 FPS. However, at 0.8 and above, the FPS suddenly dropped.

I also tried updating the NVIDIA drivers. I set the DISPLAY-DEV to the Studio Driver version 565.90. Interestingly, I noticed that the Speed was set to 3, and after adjusting it to 1, playback returned to 60 FPS.

I updated DISPLAY-1 to the Studio Driver version 565.90 as well, but the issue persisted, with DISPLAY-1 remaining at 5 FPS.

The SSD read usage during playback on DISPLAY-DEV is between 13% and 18%. I am using a Solidigm SSDPFKNU020TZ, which appears to lack DRAM. Solidigm SSDPFKNU020TZ

The SSD read usage on DISPLAY-1 during playback is between 25% and 28%. This machine uses a Crucial T700 2TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD, which does have DRAM. Crucial T700 SSD

I hope this information provides some useful insights. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

That’s the issue here. The Frame Rrad Timeout confirms this.
get a proper ssd like a samsung 980pro and this issue will be resolved.