Performance Issues

[pho5enix]

I've been replaying the Cold Steel games in preparation for Reverie, but I'm having some horrible performance issues with CSIV, no matter how I adjust the settings. My hardware is more than sufficient:

Intel i9 10th gen processor
RTX 2080 S GPU
32 GB RAM
Windows 10 64-bit OS

It's to the point where every few seconds the game will very noticeably slow down, then resume operating at the proper pace before repeating. At first it only seemed to be in certain areas (the forests and Eryn), but now it seems to do it no matter what area I'm in. I've pulled up the performance tab in task manager and have watched the GPU go from 35% usage, with a sudden spike to 100% usage before dropping to a lower number and, like the game's slowing, repeating the process, so I'm guessing these spikes are what's causing the slow down in the game. It's so bad with Pom Party that the minigame is basically unplayable (although I don't necessarily need to play it for my purposes).

I'm just trying to figure out if there's somewhere else I should be looking in my system settings to maybe adjust different variables. My drivers are all up to date, so I know it's not that. I'm hoping this isn't a sign that my GPU is dying (although I haven't had any other performance issues outside of CSIV). Anyway, any advice is appreciated.

[Aerugo]

Try lowering the anti aliasing setting. It's not well optimized. I used to have a 1080Ti and that setting killed my performance. Just reduce it, you won't notice a difference graphically from 2x to 8x

[Alex]

First things first, decrease rendering resolution - not the screen, but rendering.
MSAA basically multiplies it, so reduce/avoid MSAA unless it runs fine.
Then, lower shadows setting I'd say. Shadows settings are by far the most impacting.
If this does not help, reduce the screen resolution as well.
Also, CS3/4 favor AMD cards, not that this helps somehow, but something to keep in mind.

[Entelechia]

Don't run MSAA. It virtually multiplies the resolution in all sense and purposes. Like it's lighter to run this game on 3840x2160 with AA off than on 2560x1440 even with just 2xMSAA.

Don't use HBAO, it honestly makes some characters look funny due to the aesthetic not accounting to it. And it's kinda heavy.

Try turning off 'Higher Quality Post Processing', iirc this one kills the performance in DoF heavy areas aka Eryn and the surrounding forest.