(Honest) How are you guys playing this?

[Shiven]

I would love too, but it's so broken. I've spent half my time of 8 hours played trying to correct FPS drops from pressing M to view the map, and upon returning my FPS is 5. Or going to the menu only to have 5FPS again when I return to my character. It doesn't matter if I use Vulkan or DX11. And if I somehow do get lucky and get decent performance after restarting, the game randomly closes to the desktop, Or it's back to 5 FPS after I view my inventory in the menu.

Additionally, every single attempt (14 tries so far) I have made to run out of the cave base to start one of the first missions, half way through the tunnel it lags and my FPS is 5 again until I restart the game. I had seccuss once resetting video settings where it raised my FPS from 5 to 15.

I've tried launching from Ubi directly. I've reinstalled. I've watch far too many incorrect "Fix it" videos that are either entirely unrelated to the issue (task manger process affinity and priority to changing your DNS addresses). Tried all the Nvidia Control panel suggestions, they make no difference. It's the game engine doing completely trashy random things, so people are just guessing and when it works they think they have it figured out.

My specs exceed what is recommended. And after restarting and reconnecting I'm at static 180 FPS and smooth as butter - until I open the menu, map, or my game closes.

Anyone have anything else that has worked for them? Aside from refunding the game?

[Shiven]

I will add that I just rebooted, my 4th time in the past 2 days of trying to play. And after a reboot things do seem a lot better before whatever is being cached and causing the game engine issue.

[Shiven]

Was able to run into and clear one area. Opened my map and after that my FPS is cut in half.

[Oby47]

Don't know for sure but I think it's related to the servers. My performance has been hit or miss for days since they (Ubisoft) has had issues.. It's good right now so I'm not closing the game till later 2027.

[Shiven]

I don't think it's the servers if you enter the map and upon exiting it the engine has borked itself.

Just tested disabling all in-game Ubisoft overlays. I get about 10 min in, and then menu interactions cause the FPS drop. I got anew gun, equipped it and that was that - back to 5 fps.

[Shiven]

Also no matter the option or running only the GRB.exe, the GRB_vulkan.exe is always the executable initiated. I suspect that's my issue here.

[Shiven]

So I think Vulkan is needed for Windows 11 unfortunately. And since the game doesn't support DX12, Vulkan it is. I've had some good luck turning the settings all the way down. I've gone nuts on the menu, inventory, and transitions without a FPS hitch.

Going to go one by one until I get the FPS hitch issue again and will report back.

[Shiven]

Ok. Progress!

Subsurface Scattering (on Any setting)
&
Volumetric Fog (on Ultimate)

These two settings if enabled or set above ultimate (for me) seems to cause the FPS hitch. I've enabled them, and immediately get it. If I leave them on and restart the game, FPS is great until a few minutes it will bug out and stick at 5 FPS.

I'm still testing the other range of settings for those two just to see. But I hope this helps someone else. It may help just to set everything low/disabled and start enabling one at a time as it may be different for others.

My specs:
Windows 11 Pro
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
32GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus

[Oby47]

Originally posted by Shiven:

Also no matter the option or running only the GRB.exe, the GRB_vulkan.exe is always the executable initiated. I suspect that's my issue here.

You could rename GRB_Vulcan.exe to GRB_VulcanOriginal.exe. Then copy GRB.exe and rename it to GRB_Vulcan.exe. This was no matter what starts you always get the DX version. But if you can get Vulcan to work you are better off.

[Jaevwyn]

Your Specs are extremely similar to mine, im running it on mostly ultra settings at 1440p and maintaining an fps of over 100, usually around 115-120. I am running it with Vulcan and use HDR as my display supports it.
I dont have any technical solution for you, but do wish you the best of luck with those issues... happy to compare settings if it helps troubleshoot.

[Nex]

Originally posted by Shiven:

Ok. Progress!

Subsurface Scattering (on Any setting)
&
Volumetric Fog (on Ultimate)

These two settings if enabled or set above ultimate (for me) seems to cause the FPS hitch. I've enabled them, and immediately get it. If I leave them on and restart the game, FPS is great until a few minutes it will bug out and stick at 5 FPS.

I'm still testing the other range of settings for those two just to see. But I hope this helps someone else. It may help just to set everything low/disabled and start enabling one at a time as it may be different for others.

My specs:
Windows 11 Pro
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
32GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus

I have all the same specs except my card is 3070, running windows 10 and I have an m.2.

I am running it in 4k max settings without any issues. Makes me think it is something to do with windows 11.

[Nex]

Oh yeah, I did crash when I was running it in Vulkan. I started using Directx 11 and haven't crashed since.

[Jaevwyn]

Originally posted by Nex:

Oh yeah, I did crash when I was running it in Vulkan. I started using Directx 11 and haven't crashed since.

oddly enough i have just crashed 3 times in 15mins just now, havent had any crashes in the 10 hours prior, think its contagious

[PaPa Grits]

Just from my experiance, I had some of these problems when i 1st started playing. The main reason for my crashes was MSI afterburner was running even though I was never over clocking. Some developer look at this software as a unfair advantage and block it causing your PC to crash. I uninstalled it and haven't had a problem since. I also was having studdering and lag when using Vulcan. I switched to DX11 and no more problems and I am running Windows 11. Hope any of this helps out. I also should say I had no idea MSI afterburner was even installed on my machine untill I searched for it. And found it in one of my running processes

[Shiven]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't see AfterBurner or similar for my GPU installed. I've had pretty good luck with the settings mentioned above so far. I had two more FPS hitches, one I fixed just by going into settings and adjusting the Clothing physics, and upon applying it went back to normal. The other I was forced to close the game to correct.

I do get a FPS drop in PVP while people are loading in, but seems to go back to normal once people are all loaded in. I Suspect the FPS drops may be that it's stuck loading something - and very random (aside from the cave tunnel that's like 90% chance to cause the fps hitch requiring a restart.)

[Oby47]

From the task manager try setting the priority to high.