Major stuttering, FPS drops, and GPU usage drops (4080 Super)

[TechManMax]

Any fix for this? GPU usage just tanks to 70% or below…actually seen it drop to the 50s…and the frame time graph goes mental and stuttering becomes very unplayable. If I leave the area it will go back to normal but there seems to be no predicting what the problematic areas are. One minute everything’s fine the next it’s awful. Anyone found any sort of solution for this? I’m running the game ready driver 560.94 with RTX 4080 super paired with i7 13700KF and 32GB DDR5 6000 CL30 at 1440p (DLSS on Quality) with cinematic settings and full RT on. When the GPU is properly being used the performance is great but when it tanks down to as low as 50s my god it’s virtually unplayable.

[🌠Deusgo]

You shouldn’t be getting that with a 1000 bucks worth of computing components. Have a look at some benchmarks, is ray tracing enabled? Maybe this game just runs poorly on your system for some reason

[TechManMax]

Originally posted by Deusgo:

You shouldn’t be getting that with a 1000 bucks worth of computing components. Have a look at some benchmarks, is ray tracing enabled? Maybe this game just runs poorly on your system for some reason

Currently in the very first area (the forest after the first cinematic). Less than an hour into the game so far so I cannot speak (yet) for areas later on. But my benchmark test (in game benchmark) was brilliant. And when the GPU is properly being utilised the fps is smooth and performance is great! I just cannot explain these random drops in GPU usage…

[redhongkong]

does this has something to do with 13th gen cpu?

[TechManMax]

Originally posted by redhongkong:

does this has something to do with 13th gen cpu?

No I was never affected by the instability issues (caused by voltages spiking to above 1.5V). Highest I’ve ever seen mine was 1.4V but I’m running the latest 0x129 microcode anyway. I also have no issues compiling shaders or “out of video memory” errors that were common problems for degraded chips. I think this is (probably) either a game optimisation issue or an NVIDIA driver issue though I cannot say for sure. Right now I just fought the Wandering Wraith (first boss?) and my GPU was properly being utilised and the performance was great! But I notice that it seems to be certain specific areas in the game where this happens (and leaving those areas returns performance to normal). Like I said in my previous reply I’m still very early into the game but I’ve noticed it a few times so far in a few different areas.

[TTV/Flow_Phoenix]

I am having something somewhat similar in that fact that the game will be fine for like 1 minute then out of nowhere major stuttering and freezing, frames drop and it becomes almost unplayable. I have managed to get to the second chapter of the game where the world is even more open and that's where I am really feeling the stuttering. I am running a RTX 3060 with a ryzen 7 5800x 8 core 16GB RAM. Don't get me wrong it is nothing compared to your setup but it is still a good one and I feel like it shouldn't be struggling this much.

[Kashra Fall]

4080 super
12900kf 5.2 ghz (OC)
32 gb DDR 5
NVME.2 SSD 4th gen

1440p, cinematic quality, ray tracing on max, Vsync on (so 60) game stays at 60 for the most part, but have seen it dip down to 55 or so. I did have a cutscene in act 4 where it dropped to 37 for the entire thing, which was odd, because when I gained control, it went right back to where it was supposed to be. Usage sits at around 72% the entire way through, while CPU lingers at around 52%.

[arvan]

Dont have that issues with my 4080 Super + 5800X3D. No stuttering, running at Raytracing Medium and Cinematic Settings, but with DLSS3 and FG enabled. Also on driver 560.94
Game is very demanding, if you dont want FG on, you definitely need to lower settings and Raytracing.

[Shirakani]

Not sure what's going on with your setup... I have a 12th Gen i9-12900K and a 4080 super and FPS remains over 100 consistently.

That being said, I have had rare occasions where the game seemingly chokes on something and performance literally slideshows for a few seconds. When that happens I hit pause, wait for it to 'catch up'... then unpause and its back to normal. I've had this happen maybe 3 times or so only so its not that often.

[TechManMax]

Originally posted by Shirakani:

Not sure what's going on with your setup... I have a 12th Gen i9-12900K and a 4080 super and FPS remains over 100 consistently.

That being said, I have had rare occasions where the game seemingly chokes on something and performance literally slideshows for a few seconds. When that happens I hit pause, wait for it to 'catch up'... then unpause and its back to normal. I've had this happen maybe 3 times or so only so its not that often.

That “choke” you mentioned is pretty much what I’m describing. I’m using MSI afterburner overlay to monitor performance so can see the GPU usage, temps, etc and when it happens I notice the GPU usage dropping significantly. It does fix itself either by waiting a bit or leaving the area but if it happens during a fight in said area, for example, it can be very distracting.

[Touvez]

Did you check your temp ? Maybe a component is overheating and will slow down to protect it . Maybe you could check if it needs some cleaning .

[TechManMax]

Originally posted by Touvez:

Did you check your temp ? Maybe a component is overheating and will slow down to protect it . Maybe you could check if it needs some cleaning .

Definitely not a temp issue. My temps are perfectly fine (both GPU and CPU are below 70 degrees).

[Blacksmith77K]

Originally posted by TechManMax:

Any fix for this? GPU usage just tanks to 70% or below…actually seen it drop to the 50s…and the frame time graph goes mental and stuttering becomes very unplayable. If I leave the area it will go back to normal but there seems to be no predicting what the problematic areas are. One minute everything’s fine the next it’s awful. Anyone found any sort of solution for this? I’m running the game ready driver 560.94 with RTX 4080 super paired with i7 13700KF and 32GB DDR5 6000 CL30 at 1440p (DLSS on Quality) with cinematic settings and full RT on. When the GPU is properly being used the performance is great but when it tanks down to as low as 50s my god it’s virtually unplayable.

Try the following:

1. Disable Cuda System Fallback in your nVidia controlpanel
2. Increase your pagefile.sys to the amount of your physical DDR5
3. refresh ALL your vc_redist

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/visual-c-redistributable-runtime-package-all-in-one/

[RodroG]

That's common in many Unreal Engine 4/5 (DX12) games when developers use it as default/stock. GPU usage may drop and CPU core(s) usage spikes leading to stuttering/hitching and FPS drops during the following situations:

- Garbage collection during world traversal when leaving/approaching/entering new-level areas.

- Assets & texture streaming during world traversal when leaving/approaching/entering new level areas.

- Remanent/pending (if a shader pre-compilation process is built-in) shader compilation workloads on the fly during gameplay, when triggering some game events/cinematics, loading new levels, or during world traversal when leaving/approaching/entering new level areas.

Unfortunately, many studios don't tweak or customize the engine source code (this requires hiring specialized and expert C++ engineers) to adapt it to their game project needs, and this is mostly mandatory when making large-instanced and sized semi-open or open-world games using Unreal Engine, if you don't want to have to deal with these issues.

[TechManMax]

Been playing for another hour so far and haven’t (yet) seen a repeat of the above behaviour (so far performance is brilliant). I wonder if it’s certain specific unoptimised areas of the game? Hard to say really.

[RodroG]

Originally posted by TechManMax:

Been playing for another hour so far and haven’t (yet) seen a repeat of the above behaviour (so far performance is brilliant). I wonder if it’s certain specific unoptimised areas of the game? Hard to say really.

Keep playing it and you will see. The game is good despite some technical flaws (nothing that ruins it), but you will likely notice the same issue later on in some situations and locations. What you experienced is due to reasons I explained and listed in my previous comment. Only the devs can resolve or mitigate it and optimize it.

Sadly, there is no sign of ongoing post-launch game support, as you can monitor from here: https://steamdb.info/app/2358720/depots/