Expected Performance
X4 is best described as a 2018 open world space sandbox developed by a reasonably small development team. Due to the nature of such a game it is impossible to expect high refresh rates and good frame time consistency in all situations when playing. However, with appropriate hardware one should still manage decent framerates in most situations.
The following can be considered appropriate hardware for X4, as well as the effects the player can observe if their hardware is not appropriate.
- CPU: At least a 4 core processor running at 4GHz or more from at earliest 2013. X4 is extremely CPU intensive to run and especially benefits from high single thread performance (>4.0 GHz modern processors) and high cache amounts (AMD X3D CPUs) rather than large core counts. X4 will run on practically any x86-64 processor, even ones over 10 years old, but slower processors may result in very low frame rates in a lot of gameplay situations and could be considered unplayable to some players. Each additional DLC enabled will slightly increase the CPU requirements to obtain the same level of performance.
- Graphics card: 3 GB free dedicated graphic memory discrete GPU with Vulkan support. X4 is not very GPU intensive in most gameplay situations, especially with complex shader effects disabled and running on modern GPUs that run Vulkan very efficiently. It does require at least 3 GB of free dedicated graphic memory to function properly. If a GPU with less than 3 GB of free memory is used, there can be noticeable visual artefacts during gameplay which may considerably impact playability and very demanding scenes might be prone to crashing. Running X4 at high video settings at high resolutions such as 1440p and above may require more than 4 GB of video memory in highly demanding scenes. X4 is not intended to be played on integrated GPUs and may not even start on older ones, and even on newer processors performance might not be ideal due to the memory being shared with the CPU.
- Available memory (RAM): At least 8 GB of free memory (not used by other applications). The amount of memory used by X4 is related to the complexity of the universe the player has made. The base game will usually use less than 8 GB of memory however very complex gameplay scenes, enabling many DLCs or running demanding mods may require more memory. If X4 runs out of available free memory then performance will be significantly impacted due to page faults. X4 does strongly benefit from faster and lower latency memory with slow memory being prone to bottlenecking modern high performance CPUs.
- Installed on: SATA 3.0 (AHCI) or PCIe Gen3 (NVMe) or better Solid State Drive. X4 performs best when installed on a SSDs and will have longer load times and noticeable asset stalls affecting frame rate consistency if running off a mechanical hard drive. X4 does not benefit significantly from faster SSDs, with observed performance varying very little between a reputable SATA 3.0 SSD an a much faster PCIe Gen4 SSD.
Common Technical Issues
The following is a list of technical problems that some players may encounter while playing X4.
- After playing for some time, graphic artefacts start appearing in the form of corrupted or missing textures or corrupted or missing geometry.
This is usually the result of not having at least 3 GB of free dedicated graphic memory for X4 to use. Background applications such as browsers might use graphic memory reducing the amount available for X4 to use. If playing at a resolution higher than 1080p then X4 may require more free graphic memory. If using an older GPU with only 2 GB of dedicated memory, consider upgrading to a more modern or second hand one with 4 GB or more of dedicated graphic memory. - While loading a fresh start in X4 the computer spontaneously turns off or resets. The OS reports the cause as an unexpected power interrupt.
X4 initializing fresh game starts is very CPU intensive, loading more than 8 threads at 100% utilization. This can expose unstable overclocks or thermal issues with either the PSU or motherboard VRM. This issue most commonly occurs with second generation AMD Zen+ Ryzen processors that have been installed on very low-end motherboards or been overclocked aggressively by an automated tool. One can try reverting the processor to stock in the UEFI/BIOS. Another approach which might work is to restrict the cores X4 can load to just 2-3 during the initialization process since power consumption is proportional to the number of cores loaded. Generally, the symptoms of spontaneous restarting, similar to power cycling, is a fault mode of AMD AM4 processors usually caused by an unstable configuration such as CPU or memory overclock. - While panning the in-game map X4 randomly crashes.
This is usually caused by insufficient video memory. The in-game map with a lot of overlays enabled and visible can be very demanding on GPU resources. If you encounter this issue considering turning off overlays that are not currently required, especially player/allied orders and deployables which are prone to generating a lot of visual clutter in well-developed playthroughs.
X4 depends heavily on CPU performance, much more so than most games. Usually a high-performance processor paired with a reasonable GPU will result in a high and consistent framerate in most scenes. If one has such hardware but still gets low framerate then the following advice be able to improve performance. Note that some suggestions require some technical knowhow.
General Suggestions:- Some sectors and zones in X4 are more demanding than others due to a combination of the visual effects used and the random nature of universe. Try flying to another sector and seeing if performance is any different.
- On Windows 7 or platforms without fullscreen optimisation try running X4 in fullscreen mode for the best performance. On such platforms exclusive fullscreen mode avoids coupling presentation to the window composer which can add additional latency or limit frame rates in an undesirable way. Platforms with fullscreen optimisation, such as Windows 10/11, do not suffer this problem and so borderless windowed can be used.
- Some people have reported performance issues when multiple audio outputs are available, especially HDMI audio from the motherboard or discrete GPU. Disable all unused audio outputs at an OS level. A player usually uses just 1 audio output device to play X4 while motherboards often come with 3 or more.
- Try turning off overlays such as steam, discord, etc. These can negatively affect performance or cause other technical issues.
- If a beta version of X4 is currently available, consider giving it a try. The developers try to optimize where possible and so any performance problems may already be fixed in the upcoming release. Remember to backup your saves before doing so!
- Check the graphic driver is up to date. Try clean installing the latest graphic driver. Use Display Driver Uninstaller to completely remove the existing display driver. If the latest graphic driver still performs poorly, try reinstalling with an older version if possible. Some graphic driver releases have unintended performance regressions which may take a few weeks to be fixed.
- The OS should be set to use a balanced power plan. Balanced power plans should offer you performance as good as maximum performance power plans while also saving some energy. Energy saving power plans may severely limit CPU performance by decreasing clock speed responsiveness or even disabling any sort of turbo/boost technology the processor uses. If using a portable device, X4 should only be played when plugged in for an optimal user experience.
- Confirm that your CPU performance is close to what one would expect. Run benchmarks like Cinebench and compare the resulting score with what others get running the same or similar CPU SKU at stock. A correctly functioning system should be within a few percent of such result. A properly overclocked system should score a little higher. If the score is considerably lower then there is some hardware, BIOS/UEFI or settings problem.
- If your system is overclocked, try reverting it to stock and comparing performance. Unstable overclocks might result in a stable system with poor performance.
- Check CPU and GPU thermals in case significant throttling is occurring. CPUs usually throttle at around 95°C and GPUs usually around 85°C, actual temperatures may vary depending on generation and manufacturer. When throttling occurs, effective frequency is reduced resulting in reduced performance. If throttling, revert any overclocks and test again. Some modern CPUs might benefit from being undervolted slightly in these cases as that may improve power efficiency, but care must be taken as this can introduce had to detect instability. If still throttling the system will need better cooling. Some high power processors such as the Core i9 13900KS might always be prone to thermal throttling during normal operation, in such case measure performance rather than temperature.
- Memory should be set to run with XMP/DCOP profiles appropriate for your CPU and motherboard combination. Memory will run at slow compatible speeds by default which may significantly impact performance. Faster memory timings can significantly improve the performance of X4, more so than higher memory transfer rate. If running memory outside the CPU/motherboard supported specifications, additional tests may be needed to assure complete stability.
- Check that your system memory configuration is optimal. Each memory channel should have the same amount of memory inserted in it. Ideally matching DIMMs should be used between channels for best memory performance. Any memory amount not operating in the optimal channel configuration will incur a significant performance penalty when utilized. Most consumer processors are dual channel. HEDT and server processors might have between 4 to 12 channels. Check that the BIOS/UEFI correctly detects all inserted memory DIMMs.
- Enough power connectors must be installed for both CPU and GPU, including any additional motherboard PCIe power connectors if a lot of PCIe expansion cards are used. The power limit of a component may be determined by the number of connectors plugged in, as is the case for modern GPUs. GPUs do not require all connectors be plugged in to function but might perform worse in such configuration due to lower power limits. A CPU usually needs a single 8 pin connector while GPUs use anywhere from 1 x PCIe 6 pin to 3 x PCIe 8 pin or 1 x PCIe 12 pin connectors depending on the SKU and variant.
- For optimal SSD performance the SSD must have at least 20% of its capacity free. This can be allocated to partitions but must not be currently used by the partition to hold data. If the drive has too little free space it may suffer from reduced performance. This should only affect write performance but if the drive is busy writing data, like an OS drive can be, it may affect read performance as well.
- Keep the page file enabled. Windows refers to this incorrectly as "virtual memory" in some of the settings. Contrary to misinformation spread by some, this will not significantly degrade SSD life in a system with enough memory as it will practically never be used. It almost always is required for correct and reliable system operation.
- Update your motherboard BIOS/UEFI. AMD may have rolled out a new AGESA version included in the update. This may significantly improve performance. Be warned that updating BIOS/UEFI may revert all settings in it to default, requiring that they be reapplied. Before updating make sure that the BIOS/UEFI version still supports your current CPU as older motherboards might have BIOS versions enabling support for newer processor variants, for example some AM4 boards add gain support for Zen3 processors but lose support for old processor variants such as Zen1.
- If using Windows 10 and Zen2 then make sure your OS is up-to-date. Sometime during the life of Windows 10 there were improvements made to the scheduler for Zen2 processors.
- If using Zen4 dual chiplet 3DX processors such as R9 7950X3D or R9 7900X3D then make sure both Windows 11 and the chipset drivers are up-to-date and Xbox game bar is enabled. Part of the core scheduling depends on Xbox game bar detecting a game running to correctly schedule the game on the high cache CCD.
- Update AMD chipset drivers. Together with the latest BIOS/ UEFI and OS kernels, these can result in significant performance improvements.
If using an AMD Zen2 or newer processors, the AMD balanced power plan should be chosen. This is required for optimal boost behaviour. AMD Zen and Zen+ should use the standard balanced power plan. Any sort of energy saving power plan may disable boost behaviour, significantly reducing CPU performance. - Zen2 and newer processors use a GPU like aggressive boosting algorithm to deliver optimal performance. As such they will suffer from decreasing performance as temperature increases well below the thermal limit. This effect increases in strength as the thermal limit is approached. Improving cooling such that a processor operating at 90°C is operating at 70°C can yield over a 100 MHz improvement in clock speed. This can be a problem with stock coolers in a poor airflow case.
- AMD Zen and Zen+ processors are picky with the DDR4 memory frequencies they support. Try operating the memory close to the recommended stock frequency, if supported, and compare performance. AMD Zen2 and Zen3 tolerates a larger range of frequencies but has an optimal frequency range past which minor performance regression can occur. Zen 4 processors might require a BIOS/UEFI update to use faster DDR5 kits. All Ryzen processors should use memory with at least the frequency of their specified system memory for optimum performance.
- Verify that your CPU is turboing to the expected frequencies for the workload. The expected frequency depends on the number of cores currently busy as well as the type of workload the core executes and even if the cores are the best cores of the processor. Highest boost frequency is obtained when just 1-2 preferred cores are loaded with non-AVX workloads. Lowest frequency is when all cores are running AVX/AVX512 workloads, if supported. Search online for tables relevant to the specific processor, such as on sites like WikiChip.
- Intel turbo boost is defined to have a finite duration. After this duration expires the processor will revert to the significantly slower base frequencies which define the processor TDP. For optimum performance one wants to disable the duration limit to allow the processor to boost indefinitely. Many motherboard vendors do this by default as it is the recommended value by Intel, but some older or OEM systems require the limit to be explicitly disabled in the BIOS/UEFI. Some OEM systems might not allow this limit to be disabled or it might have no affect due to thermal throttling. This can make the processor use significantly more power than the specified TDP for older processors while newer processors will use up to the specified Maximum Turbo Power in this mode.
- Modern operating system kernels come with security mitigations to combat many of the security flaws in Intel processors. These mitigations have a CPU performance cost on older processors which can result in slightly reduced frame rates. It is possible to regain some of this performance on operating systems like Linux by disabling the use of the mitigations. This does have security implications as such systems are then left open to attack using the exploit. Anyone thinking of doing this for extra performance should read up about the risks involved and balance them against any performance gained.
- Modern hybrid Intel processors with E and P cores such as Intel 12th generation or newer might not perform optimally on Windows 10. It is recommended to update to Windows 11 or newer for optimal performance.
Below is an example of a system used to play X4 when it first released in December 2018. The play experience was not very good with low framerates, bad frame pacing and long load times. Scenes with very low frame rates are when not paused and viewing the map late game, near large stations, near large asteroid fields and during large battles. Framerate could hit single digits which many players would consider unplayable. This is due to the weak CPU. The long loading times and bad frame pacing were due to the use of a mechanical drive to store X4. Loading times were so bad that teleporting into a busy area used to have models popping into view for most of a minute, all the time with a very low frame rate. Visual settings used were pretty much all maxed except anti-aliasing, screen space effects and draw distance. X4 ran stably on this system, just the player experience was not good.- CPU: Intel Core-I7 920 @ stock from 2009.
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 760 4 GB @ stock, 1080p.
- Memory: 18 GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz.
- Storage: Hitachi HDT721010SLA360S @ old 10-year-old 1TB mechanical drive.
- CPU: Intel Core-I7 920 @ stock from 2009.
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 760 4 GB @ stock, 1080p.
- Memory: 18 GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz.
- Storage: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB @ SATA 2.0.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X from 2019.
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 760 4 GB @ stock, 1080p.
- Memory: 16 GB DDR4 @ 3200 MHz XMP.
- Storage: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB @ SATA 3.0.
- After playing for some time, graphic artefacts start appearing in the form of corrupted or missing textures or corrupted or missing geometry.