Players having performance issues. Are you using Intel or AMD?

[Astral]

I'm getting some info about these performance issues I'm seeing with AC6. A lot of people seem to be reporting these issues are mainly happening on Intel based systems, specifically pre 12th gen chips. AMD systems seem mostly unaffected.

If you're having performance issues, what model of CPU are you using (Intel or AMD) and what model of CPU is it? Trying to collect together a list.

My hunch is FromSoft borked their implementation of P and E core support for 12th and 13th Gen Intel chips and that's having a knock on effect on chips pre 12th gen but need more data to figure it out.

Edit: From early observations it seems like Armored Core 6 is a VERY CPU Bound game. It seems to run relatively OK on low end GPU's provided the CPU has enough oomph in it. Still gathering more information but this is the pattern I've been noticing so far

Edit 2:

Intel users with performance issues, please try DISABLING HyperThreading in your BIOS as that seems to be helping a lot.

[VIKTOR VAUGHN]

Running on i7-7700K, 3080, and on a nvme and getting gif awful stuttering :/ sits at 60fps and constantly drops to 40ish fps during combat. Sometimes getting 100fps standing in some areas that is still choppy af when u turn the camera. Playing at 4k 120hz. Most games get me at least 90-100 fps. Definitely something wrong with pre 12th gen cpus

[Solanero]

Originally posted by AstralPhnx:

Originally posted by Solanero:

My system is running an I7 13700k and an RTX 4090 with 32 gb of ram and with AC6 installed to an nvme drive. I was experiencing horrible stutter no matter the frame rate cap or graphics settings, either bouncing between 40-120 fps or 30-60 with the lower cap. Through HW Monitor i could also see core 0 and core 1 getting maxed out while all other cores seemed to have a pretty low useage.

The solution that seems to be working for me so far that has seemingly eliminated stuttering (fingers crossed) is I went into my BIOS settings and disabled all E-Cores for my CPU. Now currently I've only loaded into the very beginning of the game after the intro cutscene and am just walking in circles, but it is performing much smoother than it was previously in the same area. Will try and update if things change, but hopefully this is the only workaround I need to do. Hope this can help someone. Current settings now are 120 fps cap and graphics preset on high.

I have to wonder if disabling hyperthreading on pre 12th gen chips would have a similar effect but yeah this almost completely confirms what I was thinking about the P and E core thing.

How's CPU utilisation looking now after the change?

CPU load still appears to be biased towards core 0, but the max usage has dropped dramattically. Before, it was showing the first two cores maxing at 100, but now max usage is below 90 and average core usage is around 50-60, with some of the other cores passing off around 20-30%.

Still appears to be going silky smooth now, bumped up to max settings and max rt and I don't think I've seen it drop past 120 yet.

[T3chnicality]

cpu Ryzen 3600
RX7600 Gigabyte gaming oc(the3 fan one)
16G ram
1080 smooth 60 except when the menu's decide to crash the game. While actually in a mission it's smooth as hell.

[Astral]

Originally posted by Solanero:

Originally posted by AstralPhnx:

I have to wonder if disabling hyperthreading on pre 12th gen chips would have a similar effect but yeah this almost completely confirms what I was thinking about the P and E core thing.

How's CPU utilisation looking now after the change?

CPU load still appears to be biased towards core 0, but the max usage has dropped dramattically. Before, it was showing the first two cores maxing at 100, but now max usage is below 90 and average core usage is around 50-60, with some of the other cores passing off around 20-30%.

Still appears to be going silky smooth now, bumped up to max settings and max rt and I don't think I've seen it drop past 120 yet.

I wonder why the overall usage and load distribution changes after switching E cores off. Very weird

[Quy4]

https://youtu.be/GBrrpWu3gKs

Look at the frametime and cpu utilization

[AEP8FlyBoy]

Yeah, running a i7-6700K and a GTX 1080. CPU is slightly above the recommended i7-7700 in terms of frequency (4.0GHz 6700K vs 3.6GHz 7700 base) and has the same core/thread count. My GPU is above the recommended spec as well and still performs admirably in several new / couple years old titles at 1440p medium-high. (if you don't mind frame rates between 70-90 on average).

Noticed that the CPU utilization in Task manager while running AC6 seems to be weighted toward Core 0 more than the other 3 cores. And the GPU usage is all over the place on my GTX 1080, bouncing between 80% for a second then 20% for a bit, and then back to 70 or 80%.

I do believe it's probably a CPU utilization issue, or potentially a CPU age problem. Because even though it's faster in terms of base frequency to the recommended 7700, the 6700K is a generation older. (and they both turbo to 4.2 without overclocks)

Even switched from my Toshiba HDD to a Crucial MX300 SSD thinking it was a background hard drive load causing the problem. But, after trying for 35-ish minutes troubleshooting I don't doubt that there are some performance issues in the game overall, because the game isn't even fully utilizing what my CPU can give it. (Average usage never goes above 60-70% just close to 100% on the first core.)

Hopefully there's a patch soon as I don't want to get too far into the game just to have the experience bogged down by hitching. Tried low, medium and high settings, full screen and borderless and nothing seemed to affect the hitching on my end at least.

Edit: Another big giveaway that something isn't working quite right is that staring at a wall, or sitting in the settings or main menu of the game, they all seem to have stutters present. (At least for systems that are seeing it in general gameplay, too) Probably just need to wait for a patch.

[soundofbeast]

Originally posted by AstralPhnx:

Originally posted by Arcmanov:

I set mine to the 120 fps limit, but it's stuck on 75 fps.
If I change it to 60 or 30 the fps drops but if I set it to 90 or 120, it stays at 75.

Any ideas? (7800X3D/3080/64GB RAM)

I think the in game framerate cap is busted up the ass. You'll want to unlock the framerate in game then cap it using external means

Chose 120 fps in-game, and 60 fps in amd utility app. Framerate is still below 60. 49-56 fps, even when idling and staring at a wall, cpu and gpu usage sub 40%.

[Astral]

Originally posted by soundofbeast:

Originally posted by AstralPhnx:

I think the in game framerate cap is busted up the ass. You'll want to unlock the framerate in game then cap it using external means

Chose 120 fps in-game, and 60 fps in amd utility app. Framerate is still below 60. 49-56 fps, even when idling and staring at a wall, cpu and gpu usage sub 40%.

Oh... Oh there's no way to turn the framerate cap off in game isn't there?

Gimme a sec, gonna hit PCGamingWiki and see if we can co-opt a method used by another fromsoft game

Edit: Try using flawless widescreen. This apparently unlocked the framerate for elden ring

[AEP8FlyBoy]

Originally posted by AstralPhnx:

Originally posted by soundofbeast:

Chose 120 fps in-game, and 60 fps in amd utility app. Framerate is still below 60. 49-56 fps, even when idling and staring at a wall, cpu and gpu usage sub 40%.

Oh... Oh there's no way to turn the framerate cap off in game isn't there?

Gimme a sec, gonna hit PCGamingWiki and see if we can co-opt a method used by another fromsoft game

Yeah, I personally found it odd that among the settings for 30, 60, 90 and 120, there wasn't an off selection. Since there are ways on the driver level to limit the frame rate yourself.

[Dankheart]

at least in the first mission im getting a slightly smoother performance than elden ring on a laptop with a 4060. i think its because its mission based where elden ring and its big map leads to weird studders. i was kinda expecting a lot worse. and im doing it at 90 fps compared to ER's locked 60.

and of course anyone who is having issues make sure your drivers are up to date. can make a world of difference.

[6480]

i7-8086K CPU @ 4.00GHz / 2080 TI. Installed on an NVMe drive.
System under light load, under 40% usage.
Got some stuttering on mission 5 (I think) where you take out the walker on the desert . Happens on the top of the stage, I'm getting over 60 fps. Just bad frame pacing. Tried disabling online mode, disabling telemetry, disabling easy anti cheat with mods, disabling my first core. Nothing helps. Still, not unplayable, just unpleasant.

[Astral]

Originally posted by AEP8FlyBoy:

Originally posted by AstralPhnx:

Oh... Oh there's no way to turn the framerate cap off in game isn't there?

Gimme a sec, gonna hit PCGamingWiki and see if we can co-opt a method used by another fromsoft game

Yeah, I personally found it odd that among the settings for 30, 60, 90 and 120, there wasn't an off selection. Since there are ways on the driver level to limit the frame rate yourself.

Yeah it's a bit strange but also Japanese game devs and not letting you unlock the FPS are two things that do kind of go hand in hand

[Kitsune]

RTX 2080ti / 32GB ddr4 @3600Mhz / i9 9900k / installed on separate Samsung Evo 980 nvme
Running on a 1440p screen 120hz with Gsync enabled. Game is chugging hard.
One second I get 100+ fps, the next I'm down to 35.

I'd say it's pretty much unplayable. Worse than Elden Ring's launch for me, which is a shame, because I quite like the gameplay.

[Rabidboxer]

After the studder fest that Elden ring was for me I upgraded to a to a I5 13600, 32 gb of ram & a Gforce 4070TI. I set the game to Maximum and turned on maximum ray tracing and I have not noticed any performance issues. So for those that have a similar setup you should be fine.

[steez battalion]

Disabling hyperthreading in BIOS fixed all stuttering/frametime issues for me. Makes the game actually playable.