Dark Souls 3 Stuttering and Mini-Freezes issue

[BANISHED SON]

Hello. I've been playing DS3 pretty much since the release and have had a blast. For some reason though a couple months ago it started having this stuttering issue which I hear is pretty common. I have been trying to fix it for months, does anyone have any suggestions? Any help is very appreciated!

[Jonathan]

Been trying myself. I have nothing that works so I think it's something only From can patch

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Jonathan:

Been trying myself. I have nothing that works so I think it's something only From can patch

Who knows how long that's gonna be :(

[Mirtilo]

I though was a problem with my computer! I'm playing since march and this is happening for a couple weeks.

[Herbalacious]

This happened to me too on a brand new PC at the time anyway. Would also crash my game occasionally too.

For me this only happend with the Xbox One controller on wireless. When playing wired it was fine, mostly... sometimes would crash. Reinstalling drivers normally doesn't help.

In the power settings in control panel, there's an option for usb devices to control power. It basically allows usb devices to enter a sort of 'sleep mode'. I turned this off. Eventually found the specific cab file from Microsoft database for the xbox one drivers. Downloaded and installed it and have been playing wireless ever since with no problems. All my other drivers (graphics, etc) are all up to date. Game runs perfect at 60fps no stutters/crashes/etc.

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Herbalacious:

This happened to me too on a brand new PC at the time anyway. Would also crash my game occasionally too.

For me this only happend with the Xbox One controller on wireless. When playing wired it was fine, mostly... sometimes would crash. Reinstalling drivers normally doesn't help.

In the power settings in control panel, there's an option for usb devices to control power. It basically allows usb devices to enter a sort of 'sleep mode'. I turned this off. Eventually found the specific cab file from Microsoft database for the xbox one drivers. Downloaded and installed it and have been playing wireless ever since with no problems. All my other drivers (graphics, etc) are all up to date. Game runs perfect at 60fps no stutters/crashes/etc.

Well my game never crashes... I am using a wired xbox 360 controller but I experience the problem with or without it.

[Xengre]

See if it occurs with mouse and keyboard. If it is such a frequent issue then it shouldn't take much effort to confirm if it occurs with controllers unplugged.

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Xengre:

See if it occurs with mouse and keyboard. If it is such a frequent issue then it shouldn't take much effort to confirm if it occurs with controllers unplugged.

It does happen without a controller.

[Herbalacious]

Originally posted by Xengre:

See if it occurs with mouse and keyboard. If it is such a frequent issue then it shouldn't take much effort to confirm if it occurs with controllers unplugged.

Yea..he mentioned he happens with or without his controller being used so I dunno. This was the solution to my problem tho. Game was unplayable with the constant random stutters. I still got occasional stutters when it was plugged in but it was mostly playable. While wireless tho every few seconds I had issues. Anyways good luck and hope you find a fix.

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Herbalacious:

Originally posted by Xengre:

See if it occurs with mouse and keyboard. If it is such a frequent issue then it shouldn't take much effort to confirm if it occurs with controllers unplugged.

Yea..he mentioned he happens with or without his controller being used so I dunno. This was the solution to my problem tho. Game was unplayable with the constant random stutters. I still got occasional stutters when it was plugged in but it was mostly playable. While wireless tho every few seconds I had issues. Anyways good luck and hope you find a fix.

Thanks, I'm starting to lose hope at this point.

[Herbalacious]

To be sure, go into your Device Manager, check out the controllers and see if you have multiple usb devices that are the same. You can make sure by checking driver versions. They are all your controller if so. If this is there, then my fix will help you.

You can just disable the extra ones don't uninstall cus you'll have to just go back in there to uninstall them later probably.

Here's a reddit that claims it fixes the stuttering too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/58u3nk/i_finally_fixed_my_stuttering_issue_on_pc_and/

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Herbalacious:

To be sure, go into your Device Manager, check out the controllers and see if you have multiple usb devices that are the same. They are all your controller if so. If this is there, then my fix will help you.

where do I see the controllers in device manager?

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Herbalacious:

Originally posted by Xengre:

See if it occurs with mouse and keyboard. If it is such a frequent issue then it shouldn't take much effort to confirm if it occurs with controllers unplugged.

Yea..he mentioned he happens with or without his controller being used so I dunno. This was the solution to my problem tho. Game was unplayable with the constant random stutters. I still got occasional stutters when it was plugged in but it was mostly playable. While wireless tho every few seconds I had issues. Anyways good luck and hope you find a fix.

Was trying to clarify it needs to be unplugged in case there was the assumption simply not using it was enough (really the drivers should be uninstalled as well).

OP could try older drivers, make sure onboard graphics aren't being used rather than dedicated GPU, make sure it isn't throttling to save power (power management options), make sure thermal throttling is not occuring, make sure the issue does not persist in other games as of currently (post issue appearing), try disabling various drivers/background tasks to see if issue vanishes, try unplugging keyboard and mouse while in-game and controller and see if it suffers performance issue (may have to use a macro to get enough movement if it isn't particularly visible while not moving (tho a few good spots like the dragon on high wall might be enough to test this while not using any input). Test with antivirus completely disabled and shut down to see if it isn't causing issues. Make sure you aren't fairly full in memory and data is being stored on pagefile (a very possible cause) that is much slower than RAM (note it can use pagefile even when RAM isn't full, too). Try lowering settings to lowest and maybe even lowering resolution a bit to see if issue resolves. Out of suggestions off top of my head.

[Herbalacious]

Human Interface Devices. Click it and it'll show your xbox controller in there somewhere. If you have a ton of things in there are they are all using the same driver under different names like HID compliant device, etc....then yea it's probably that.

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Herbalacious:

Human Interface Devices. Click it and it'll show your xbox controller in there somewhere. If you have a ton of things in there are they are all using the same driver under different names like HID compliant device, etc....then yea it's probably that.

"HID-compliant vender-defined device" and "USB Input Device" both appear 4 times but my controller isnt even plugged in and doesnt show up.

[BANISHED SON]

Originally posted by Xengre:

Originally posted by Herbalacious:

Yea..he mentioned he happens with or without his controller being used so I dunno. This was the solution to my problem tho. Game was unplayable with the constant random stutters. I still got occasional stutters when it was plugged in but it was mostly playable. While wireless tho every few seconds I had issues. Anyways good luck and hope you find a fix.

Was trying to clarify it needs to be unplugged in case there was the assumption simply not using it was enough (really the drivers should be uninstalled as well).

OP could try older drivers, make sure onboard graphics aren't being used rather than dedicated GPU, make sure it isn't throttling to save power (power management options), make sure thermal throttling is not occuring, make sure the issue does not persist in other games as of currently (post issue appearing), try disabling various drivers/background tasks to see if issue vanishes, try unplugging keyboard and mouse while in-game and controller and see if it suffers performance issue (may have to use a macro to get enough movement if it isn't particularly visible while not moving (tho a few good spots like the dragon on high wall might be enough to test this while not using any input). Test with antivirus completely disabled and shut down to see if it isn't causing issues. Make sure you aren't fairly full in memory and data is being stored on pagefile (a very possible cause) that is much slower than RAM (note it can use pagefile even when RAM isn't full, too). Try lowering settings to lowest and maybe even lowering resolution a bit to see if issue resolves. Out of suggestions off top of my head.

thanks for all the suggestons, but I know that its not a performance issue because I have been playing this game in max graphics at 60fps aside from the stuttering issue, and changing the graphics settings doesnt solve it. Plus I play other games in max settings as well and dont have this issue (for instance bf4 in 1080p on high graphics at 75fps).