Game drops to 2-5fps after 15-30 minutes of playing. Repeatable each session and does not recover.

[AngelOfPassion]

Does anyone else experience this? My game runs ok on DX12, a bit of stuttering but otherwise playable at least with RTX on but every session after a random amount of time the game just drops to 2-5fps and I need to force close and restart the game to fix. Happens in White Orchard, Velen, Kaer Morhen... does not seem to be location dependent. Anyone know of a fix or anything I can try?

I have tried:
-Updating Nvidia Drivers
-Switching to DLSS 2.5.0 dlls
-Uninstalling the game, deleting all game folders and graphics settings files and reinstalling the game
-Applying the new Hotfix
-Disabling full screen optimizations in compatibility and running the exe as admin
-Lowering the graphics settings and switching DLSS off
-Turning GOG/Steam overlay off

Nothing is working, I still get the same freezing after 15-30 minutes every time I play.

System Specs:
AMD Ryzen 5800x3D
RTX 3080
32GB DDR4 RAM at 3600mhz
Corsair MP600 1TB m.2 SSD

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by Eclipse:

check your CPU and GPU Temps!

when a game get worse in 15-20 minutes its usually caused by thermalling.

this game runs HOTTER than any other game out afaik, even hotter than Star Citizen.

a few people have already reported these exact same symptoms and through helping them and them communicating back there own tests, each time it has been CPU or GPU temps.

I just ran a new session for about 20 minutes and recorded temps the whole time, they honestly don't seem very bad. And the current values you see in my screenshot are at the time of the FPS drop and they are lower than the max temps I was seeing during the session.

CPU seems to be running around 50-60c and GPU seems to be running around 55-65c. The GPU memory did get up to 90c at one point but at the time of the crash in FPS was only at about 74c. Seems pretty low to be experiencing any throttling.

https://i.imgur.com/MYpU8kw.png

[Windows11]

It seems the game uses too much memory, if RT on.
occurs more frequently when other programs are running.
increase virtual memory or close other programs.

but i haven't experienced this in other AAA titles even with 16gb ram.

[Doranvel]

It's possible you're running out of memory. RTX seems to really chew away at it. With DLSS enabled I wouldn't see that being an issue though at least not that fast....

When I play dying light 2/cyberpunk with ray tracing & dlss for a while I may run into this if I turn off dlss even for a second.

The resolution you're running this at would also have a large part in this.

[Livid_Fox]

Same here

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by Windows10:

It seems the game uses too much memory, if RT on.
occurs more frequently when other programs are running.
increase virtual memory or close other programs.

but i haven't experienced this in other AAA titles even with 16gb ram.

Originally posted by Doranvel:

It's possible you're running out of memory. RTX seems to really chew away at it. With DLSS enabled I wouldn't see that being an issue though at least not that fast....

When I play dying light 2/cyberpunk with ray tracing & dlss for a while I may run into this if I turn off dlss even for a second.

The resolution you're running this at would also have a large part in this.

Interesting. Maybe I can test adding some more virtual memory and/or lowering some settings that might increase RAM usage. I might turn the number of background characters down a bit, that might lower RAM. I'll try it and report back.

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by andrew.w.wolfe1:

Same here

Glad I am not the only one, tried searching for this issue and wasn't seeing anyone else having this problem.

[SquelchyCupcakez]

Yes it's absolutely an issue if RT is enabled. There's some sort of video memory leak related to it. for me it starts around 7500GB with RT at my resolution. creeps it's way up until all the VRAM is eaten then the frame-rate begins to crumble.

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by Windows10:

It seems the game uses too much memory, if RT on.
occurs more frequently when other programs are running.
increase virtual memory or close other programs.

but i haven't experienced this in other AAA titles even with 16gb ram.

Originally posted by Doranvel:

It's possible you're running out of memory. RTX seems to really chew away at it. With DLSS enabled I wouldn't see that being an issue though at least not that fast....

When I play dying light 2/cyberpunk with ray tracing & dlss for a while I may run into this if I turn off dlss even for a second.

The resolution you're running this at would also have a large part in this.

Originally posted by SquelchyCupcakez:

Yes it's absolutely an issue if RT is enabled. There's some sort of video memory leak related to it. for me it starts around 7500GB with RT at my resolution. creeps it's way up until all the VRAM is eaten then the frame-rate begins to crumble.

Just did another session and was monitoring memory until the freezing started to happen. GPU memory was only at 90-95% usage and system memory was only at 47% usage when the freezing started. However my GPU 3D rendering usage in task manager jumped to 100% and video encode jumped to ~90%. These values were way lower before the freezing started during gameplay. Something is causing these two GPU tasks to get overloaded as 3D jumped from like 20% to 100% right when the game slowed down: https://i.imgur.com/IjmhqK6.png

This is how the GPU performance tab looks with me just walking through Oxenfurt and the slowdown has not yet happened: https://i.imgur.com/a0Vn0dg.png

[AngelOfPassion]

Did a few more play sessions on lower settings to see if lower VRAM usage affected the freezing and it did not. Even using only 7-8GB of VRAM and after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay would experience the drop in FPS to 2 and game would not recover. Observed the same GPU utilization symptoms. 3D and Video Encode would jump from around 20-30% utilization to pinned at 100% as soon as the freezing started.

[Tech Enthusiast]

I don't see the game run out of memory. Neither gpu memory, nor system memory.
Both are actually quite tame for the visuals being offered.

GPU seems to max out at around 13gb ish and System at around 21gb ish.
Fluctuates at those levels. Maybe jump by a gig and return back down after that.

I Wonder if the X3D CPU is the cuprint here actually, since the specs certainly don't seem to be an issue here. But that CPU is kind of special in how it works. Maybe it is running into an edge case.

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

I don't see the game run out of memory. Neither gpu memory, nor system memory.
Both are actually quite tame for the visuals being offered.

GPU seems to max out at around 13gb ish and System at around 21gb ish.
Fluctuates at those levels. Maybe jump by a gig and return back down after that.

I Wonder if the X3D CPU is the cuprint here actually, since the specs certainly don't seem to be an issue here. But that CPU is kind of special in how it works. Maybe it is running into an edge case.

I have wondered this as well. Even though the symptoms appear GPU related, it could have something to do with the x3D. I don't have a way of putting my old chip in to test though.

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by andrew.w.wolfe1:

Same here

Do you happen to also have a 5800x3D by chance? Since you were also having this issue.

[Hexenkessel]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

I don't see the game run out of memory. Neither gpu memory, nor system memory.
Both are actually quite tame for the visuals being offered.

GPU seems to max out at around 13gb ish and System at around 21gb ish.
Fluctuates at those levels. Maybe jump by a gig and return back down after that.

I Wonder if the X3D CPU is the cuprint here actually, since the specs certainly don't seem to be an issue here. But that CPU is kind of special in how it works. Maybe it is running into an edge case.

"Both are actually quite tame for the visuals being offered."

Definitely not. For the last time, this game has a lof of problems with VRAM and CPU in DX12 even with RT OFF. The same places in DX11 give us 20-30 more fps.

[AngelOfPassion]

Originally posted by Hexenkessel:

"Both are actually quite tame for the visuals being offered."

Definitely not. For the last time, this game has a lof of problems with VRAM and CPU in DX12 even with RT OFF. The same places in DX11 give us 20-30 more fps.

I think he just means that 8-9GB of VRAM usage really shouldn't be causing this problem. I am fine with the FPS I am getting under normal gameplay in dx12. It is just that every 15 minutes it drops to a 1-2 FPS slideshow and never recovers, or just crashes a few seconds into the slideshow.

Normal gameplay is "fine" even if really more taxing than it should be in dx12, but the game is unplayable with this issue and is causing me to have to constantly close and re-open the game every 10-15 minutes.

[Poop King]

Google how to change page file, make it the same capacity as your ram on a fast drive.