Inconsistent Performance

[HungryPolarBear]

GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16Core Processor
RAM: 32GB
RES: 3440x1440, 165hz

The performance for my Dark Ages experience has little consistency from session to session other than being quite poor.

My device defaults to Medium settings across the board and whether running TAA or FSR it defaults to a choppy 60 FPS. The performance *used to* improve to around 80 FPS when I put it on FSR Ultra Performance, but this no longer occurs. I have spent HOURS cycling through the various graphics settings available in-game and outside the game via my AMD Software and while this may occasionally grant a positive fluctuation to performance, the next time that I launch the game will see it back to the same choppy 60 FPS that I started with.

On Saturday 5/17 I was using the FSR Performance Mode and FSR FrameGen and the AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1 and getting a choppy 100 FPS, which was much higher than I typically got. I was researching the discussion as I do every single time I play this game for any hope of improving the performance, and saw the suggestion that "Framegen sucks and makes the game run worse." So I turned off Framegen and lo and behold the game was running really smoothly at 120 FPS! So, I then turned of Fluid Motion Frames and the game was still running at 120 FPS with no input lag and it was smooth and not choppy and just exactly what I expect when a game is running properly. I was even able to change FSR to quality instead of performance and was still experiencing greater than 120 frames! I was extremely excited that I found the perfect combination of settings to make it run well. Nevermind that I had used these exact settings numerous times before with only marginal FPS improvements, but THIS TIME it was WORKING!

I launched Dark Ages later that same day and without changing any settings at all it was back to 60 choppy FPS. I have not been able to get the game to run over 100 FPS without Fluid Motion Frames and even then it is choppy, there is input lag, and it does not look as good as the one day that the game ran at 120 FPS with only FSR.

There have been no AMD updates since the game came out, and none of the game updates have targeted my performance. I have spent more time combing the discussions and researching ways to improve the performance than I actually have playing the game.

I have tried overclocking my CPU as well as my GPU. I have disconnected my second monitor. I have disabled my integrated graphics. I have tested the game with a smaller monitor, 1920x1080, and the same exact performance issues exist regardless of the screen resolution. The default FPS are just a little higher than the 60 I experience with my 3440x1440 monitor, but it's still extremely choppy and never reaches the unbroken smoothness that I experienced for a single session on 5/17 using only FSR upscaling.

What am I missing here? Is anybody else experiencing something like this with their AMD GPU? I don't care if the settings are the lowest of the low I just want a smooth and unbroken image. I have only achieved this once, and it is impossible to replicate with the same settings. id hear my cry.

[ChefDeCuisinart]

I also had similar issues. Only thing that worked for me was disabling all but 1 display, or running the game in windowed mode.

Do you also see spiky GPU usage when the game is running?

[HungryPolarBear]

I just tried Windowed mode. The image is smoother and no longer has the same level of choppiness that full screen displays, and this bumped my FPS to 70 from 60. A minor improvement, but still so far away from that smooth 120 FPS I managed once.

My GPU usage stays solidly 90%+ while running.