Intermittent Stutter / Long Loading Times -- Potential Solution

[Durante]

If you are experiencing some intermittent stutter with otherwise good performance, or surprisingly long loading times, this might be caused by your GPU driver's shader cache.

To solve this problem, you can try either disabling the shader cache or clearing it.
Note that clearing the cache is generally preferable to disabling it, performance-wise.

For Nvidia GPUs, the shader cache is located at
"C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache"
To clear it, delete the contents of that folder.
Alternatively, the shader cache can be disabled in the Nvidia control panel ("Manage 3D Settings -> Shader Cache").

For AMD GPUs, there is an option in the driver called "Reset Shader Cache".
Find more details here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh2-012

For Intel GPUs, the shader cache is located at
"C:\ProgramData\Intel\ShaderCache"
To clear it, delete the contents of that folder.

Note:
In order to see the "ProgramData" folder, you might have to enable "View -> Hidden Items" in Windows Explorer.

[心儿]

Thank you.

[Stellaron Hunter: SAM]

This actually helped, thanks a lot!

[Asr163]

vary big improvement thank you, i was wondering why my game was running much worse than TOCS3

[Cryomaniac]

Doesn't look like this fully worked out for me. I disabled shader cache for ToCS IV in NVidia Control Panel and cleared NV_Cache folder, and while it looks like it's performing better now, there are still noticeable delays and stuttering.

[Durante]

If you cleared the shader cache folder then you actually don't need to disable the shader cache, and it might be detrimental.

That said, this is only a solution for one specific type of issue some people encounter, there might be other sources of stuttering on your system.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally posted by Durante:

If you cleared the shader cache folder then you actually don't need to disable the shader cache, and it might be detrimental.

That said, this is only a solution for one specific type of issue some people encounter, there might be other sources of stuttering on your system.

Thanks for clarification! Re-enabled shader cache for the game, looks like it runs noticeably smoother now. If this issue happens again, do I have to clear the cache folder once more?

[Durante]

Good to hear!

Yes, if the issue returns you would need to re-clear the shader cache (until/unless we find a better solution). Sadly it's not trivial to solve this issue from our side, since we can't affect the behavior of the driver shader cache.

[CircaSilence]

Originally posted by Durante:

If you are experiencing some intermittent stutter with otherwise good performance, or surprisingly long loading times, this might be caused by your GPU driver's shader cache.

To solve this problem, you can try either disabling the shader cache or clearing it.
Note that clearing the cache is generally preferable to disabling it, performance-wise.

For Nvidia GPUs, the shader cache is located at
"C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache"
To clear it, delete the contents of that folder.
Alternatively, the shader cache can be disabled in the Nvidia control panel ("Manage 3D Settings -> Shader Cache").

For AMD GPUs, there is an option in the driver called "Reset Shader Cache".
Find more details here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh2-012

For Intel GPUs, the shader cache is located at
"C:\ProgramData\Intel\ShaderCache"
To clear it, delete the contents of that folder.

Note:
In order to see the "ProgramData" folder, you might have to enable "View -> Hidden Items" in Windows Explorer.

What if we can't find the "NV_Cache" folder in our "NVIDIA Corporation" folder?
These are the folders I see:
https://gyazo.com/c77c02caeecb8f163439cdae26f699e5

[Durante]

I see a "Local" on the left in the path in your screenshot, I think you might be in the wrong place.

The correct location is "C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation". Can you check again?

[Emma Millstein]

I tried doing this, I use AMD GPU, but the game still lags (more than before) every new area. I think the problem isn't the GPU in my case, the CPU is at 100% and ToCS4 is the only game that this happens (I opened a thread but got no response)

[Bakelith]

This fixed all my problems, thanks

[Helxx_Lutja]

In a bug fix that is only a little ahead of 'turn it off and on again' installing the most recent NVIDIA drivers seems to have eliminated the 'in area' stuttering. There is still some the first time you enter an area but that quickly goes away.

My nvidia drivers were only a few weeks old as well - so even if you have updated recently it is worth checking again.

[CircaSilence]

Originally posted by Durante:

I see a "Local" on the left in the path in your screenshot, I think you might be in the wrong place.

The correct location is "C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation". Can you check again?

Thanks. The "NV_Cache" folder showed up after I updated my Nvidia drivers. I cleared the items in the folder like you recommended.

[pantoska1]

it didnt help me its get better but than again is very slow the loding time :S when will they fix this?

[inveni_te_ipsum]

Originally posted by Durante:

Good to hear!

Yes, if the issue returns you would need to re-clear the shader cache (until/unless we find a better solution). Sadly it's not trivial to solve this issue from our side, since we can't affect the behavior of the driver shader cache.

This seems similar to this business of "bindless" shaders that's starting to affect certain emulated Switch games. Same symptoms actually. Is that what this is?