Game suddenly stuttering HARD

[elliott11]

To my knowledge I've got a novel issue here, game was running perfectly smooth up until the chemult horde mission where it crashed twice on me, and since then both the cinematics and the game have been stuttering terribly. The audio and video in the cutscenes is terribly choppy and out of sync, and the game lags so hard it's unplayable.

So far I've tried:
- loading different save files
- changing my laptop's power configuration to optimal performance
- changing the in-game settings for better performance
- verifying the file integrity through Steam
- starting a new game
- checking if the issue is specific to DG (and it seems to be, Fallen Order and The Forest both run just fine)
- using Nvidia control panel
- Backing up my game files and reinstalling DG

So far nothing's worked. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

[elliott11]

Forgot to add I've also updated all my drivers and tried running in admin mode as well

[simon.pete15]

what Nvidia drivers do you have installed?
516.40 ? 516.94?

[elliott11]

Originally posted by simon.pete15:

what Nvidia drivers do you have installed?
516.40 ? 516.94?

517.48

[tewi]

Did you mess with your fps settings? Try 60fps cap, 59hz

[favoredflav]

Also try setting the sample frequency to 44.1 KHz in Sound settings. I spent two weeks of my life trawling forums, installing/uninstalling drivers, and tweaking NVIDIA driver settings per many different threads. It was this. FIxed it instantly. I went from periodic drops to <20 fps, to essentially frame locked at 120fps.

I couldn't believe it was so simple, after so much time, but there you go. Good luck.

[simon.pete15]

Originally posted by elliott11:

Originally posted by simon.pete15:

what Nvidia drivers do you have installed?
516.40 ? 516.94?

517.48

Shouldn't be that then

[OriginalGregory]

A lot of people on the 517.48 reddit discussion are reporting heavy fps drops for that driver, perhaps roll back unless you are on 22H2? I'm avoiding both until the next driver update as I'm at least someone stable right now.

[simon.pete15]

Originally posted by OriginalGregory:

A lot of people on the 517.48 reddit discussion are reporting heavy fps drops for that driver, perhaps roll back unless you are on 22H2? I'm avoiding both until the next driver update as I'm at least someone stable right now.

Are you sure it's the 517.48, and not the 516.40 ?
516.40 was definitely the culprit a few months ago. 516.94 solved it, probably. I didn't have extra problems with 516.40. So don't know if .94 solved the problem.
I don't recall 517.48 coming in, I'm set up to approve update installs, but it's installed so I must have approved it. No extra problems that I'm aware of with it either.

[elliott11]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, unfortunately still haven't found a working solution. I confirmed that I had the 517.48, capped the fps at 60, changed my sound settings to 44.1 KHz (which did seem to improve the fps, it was lagging a lot less but still nowhere near where it was before the crashes), and rolled back the drivers to 516.94.

[simon.pete15]

Originally posted by elliott11:

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, unfortunately still haven't found a working solution. I confirmed that I had the 517.48, capped the fps at 60, changed my sound settings to 44.1 KHz (which did seem to improve the fps, it was lagging a lot less but still nowhere near where it was before the crashes), and rolled back the drivers to 516.94.

Earlier on, when the 516.40 driver update was causing problems, the fix was to roll back to 512.** .

If that doesn't work, try these
https://www.getdroidtips.com/days-gone-crashing-not-launching-pc/
do #3 first, easiest first, work your way through till you find the one that works. No point doing several at a time, you'll never know which one fixed it.

[elliott11]

Originally posted by simon.pete15:

Originally posted by elliott11:

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, unfortunately still haven't found a working solution. I confirmed that I had the 517.48, capped the fps at 60, changed my sound settings to 44.1 KHz (which did seem to improve the fps, it was lagging a lot less but still nowhere near where it was before the crashes), and rolled back the drivers to 516.94.

Earlier on, when the 516.40 driver update was causing problems, the fix was to roll back to 512.** .

If that doesn't work, try these
https://www.getdroidtips.com/days-gone-crashing-not-launching-pc/
do #3 first, easiest first, work your way through till you find the one that works. No point doing several at a time, you'll never know which one fixed it.

Yeah I've been trying suggestions one at a time so far. I just installed 512.15 and it's by far been the best one, not quite back to where it was but it's playable although it still lags pretty hard when I'm on the bike. The cinematics are back to normal it seems but it crashed again at the same spot after I finished the horde.. do you think just trying a clean install, deleting all the game files, saves and everything, would be worth a shot?

[simon.pete15]

Originally posted by elliott11:

Yeah I've been trying suggestions one at a time so far. I just installed 512.15 and it's by far been the best one, not quite back to where it was but it's playable although it still lags pretty hard when I'm on the bike. The cinematics are back to normal it seems but it crashed again at the same spot after I finished the horde.. do you think just trying a clean install, deleting all the game files, saves and everything, would be worth a shot?

A clean install, deleting all your saves etc, would mean starting with nothing all over again. I like this game, but wouldn't really want to do that tbh.
But you can do a clean install of the game, but keep your save files, so you can carry on where you left off. Make a note of which save file puts you into the mission which crashes, and don't use that one. Do the job before it, so you just naturally move onto the mission which has crashed repeatedly. It apparently helps if you go to a different area, then back, possibly do a mission there. The game has to reload each area as you come into it, which includes reloading the hoard(s), and generally over writes the crash scenario.

[elliott11]

Originally posted by simon.pete15:

Originally posted by elliott11:

Yeah I've been trying suggestions one at a time so far. I just installed 512.15 and it's by far been the best one, not quite back to where it was but it's playable although it still lags pretty hard when I'm on the bike. The cinematics are back to normal it seems but it crashed again at the same spot after I finished the horde.. do you think just trying a clean install, deleting all the game files, saves and everything, would be worth a shot?

A clean install, deleting all your saves etc, would mean starting with nothing all over again. I like this game, but wouldn't really want to do that tbh.
But you can do a clean install of the game, but keep your save files, so you can carry on where you left off. Make a note of which save file puts you into the mission which crashes, and don't use that one. Do the job before it, so you just naturally move onto the mission which has crashed repeatedly. It apparently helps if you go to a different area, then back, possibly do a mission there. The game has to reload each area as you come into it, which includes reloading the hoard(s), and generally over writes the crash scenario.

Tried the clean install again and it's back to stuttering and lagging anytime I move. For whatever reason it seems to be having a really hard time rendering the world. I'm gonna keep at it, will post the solution if I find one.

[simon.pete15]

Sorry it didn't work

There is a recent post, by Darek, which is a list of all the solutions to problems playing Days Gone. Here > https://steamcommunity.com/app/1259420/discussions/0/

It lists the solutions in a sensible order, easy to do first, difficult/risky if you screw it up last.
See if you can find the right solution for your problem in there?
Give it an upvote if you like it, especially if you find your solution.

[elliott11]

Originally posted by simon.pete15:

Sorry it didn't work

There is a recent post, by Darek, which is a list of all the solutions to problems playing Days Gone. Here > https://steamcommunity.com/app/1259420/discussions/0/

It lists the solutions in a sensible order, easy to do first, difficult/risky if you screw it up last.
See if you can find the right solution for your problem in there?
Give it an upvote if you like it, especially if you find your solution.

Cheers man I'll check it out. Appreciate all the effort you put in to help me here too.