Small FPS drops that make it pretty unplayable.

[gioXV]

Hey guys,

I'm having this issue that my fps drops randomly to 55-57 from 60, you may say this isn't bad but it causses the game to skip or "stutter" and dark souls 3 being the game that it is = alot more deaths.

Anyone have any ideas to help me?

Some extra information:

Specs:
CPU: I7 5820k @ 4.00 GHz
RAM: 16 GB DDR4 RAM @ 2133
GPU: GTX 970
SSD: Crucial 240 GB
HDD: ADATA 1 TB drive
PSU: Corsair 750W
OS: Windows 10

Things i already did and try:

Clean install windows 10 (because i came from 8.1, stil the same problem in 8.1 tho).
Tried older drivers for GPU none did anything, now i'm on 365.10.
NVIDIA setting: triple buffering "ON", maximum performance "ON", pre rendered frames = 1, threaded optimization "ON".

Temps are good: max temp on CPU: 46° and GPU: 70°

Max usage on CPU: 22%
Max usage on GPU: fluctuates 60-90%

[gackie]

3 fps below 60 causing you to die. I don't normally use the phrase "git gud". But...

[Saiche]

You must not have played the first dark souls on pc. 30 fps would drop down to 15 every now and then.

[gioXV]

Originally posted by Arch-Potatonoodle:

3 fps below 60 causing you to die. I don't normally use the phrase "git gud". But...

Well i never said i was good at dark souls 3 but the fps drops don't really help.

If i would die just because I'm playing bad i wouldn't have a problem with it. But when i'm doing good and dodging at the right time and then bam fps drops = boom 1/3 of my health gone and then close to it another one and yh then i'm dead.

[gackie]

Originally posted by gioXV:

Originally posted by Arch-Potatonoodle:

3 fps below 60 causing you to die. I don't normally use the phrase "git gud". But...

Well i never said i was good at dark souls 3 but the fps drops don't really help.

If i would die just because I'm playing bad i wouldn't have a problem with it. But when i'm doing good and dodging at the right time and then bam fps drops = boom 1/3 of my health gone and then close to it another one and yh then i'm dead.

Alot of peeps had to play PTDE with 30 fps, until durante's fix became usable. :P

[Kaiser Burgie]

I tried changing 3 settings in the Nvidia Control Panel, I turned on FXAA, turned off MFAA, and turned power management to maximum performance.

So far its running pretty smooth with the occasional stutter when it saves, however I've had times in the past where sometimes it would run fine and others it would be utter ♥♥♥♥ so im still testing this out.

[Kaiser Burgie]

Originally posted by ToastyMarmalade:

I tried changing 3 settings in the Nvidia Control Panel, I turned on FXAA, turned off MFAA, and turned power management to maximum performance.

So far its running pretty smooth with the occasional stutter when it saves, however I've had times in the past where sometimes it would run fine and others it would be utter ♥♥♥♥ so im still testing this out.

Actually been running smooth for the past 2 hours :D

[Jackal]

Originally posted by Orion1189:

Originally posted by Clayface:

Unfortunately, it isn't simply the fps drop, there is another component WHEN the fps drops, which is almost as if gpu/cpu acceleration of the game drops out entirely for a second or two, it won't register any input during these moments, and it will get you killed.

Same thing I've noticed. Runs perfectly, but get random stutters or hitches, and most of the time when they happen, I can look at my monitoring software on my second monitor and see that GPU suage drops to or near to 0% for the split second when the hitch occurred. Ran perfectly prior to 1.05, and then all this started as well as running into two crashes since the patch, which seemed to follow a hitch in both cases. Zero crashes or stutters (short of entering into new areas) in the 30-35 hours played before 1.05.

This has been my exact experience. I even hear my gpu fan cycle down, then back up once the usage shoots back up.

[jcb]

I have the same problem, although my H/W is different (290x + haswell i5). Normally 53 - 57 fps wouldn't be a big deal, but it feels like the lag is much worse than the 53 - 57 fps indicates. I also get the 48 fps in smoldering lake reported by another user.

It feels like the game / physics engine is lagging while the rendering is still doing fine, but this is speculation on my part. I get this hunch because it seems like the very same frame is being rendered multiple times over with no changes.

Anyway I don't think there's much you can do software or settings wise to solve it, but it has gotten better for me in several areas with the app 1.04 patch so they're hopefully working to improve the remaining problem areas.

I've read some reports saying that a very high-end CPU (recent i7 extreme etc) will get rid of the issue, but considering the rather simple mechanics of this game (sword hilts will clip through your cape etc) there's probably a lot of optimization and bugfixes remaining still.

[SenMithrarin85]

Originally posted by jcb:

I have the same problem, although my H/W is different (290x + haswell i5). Normally 53 - 57 fps wouldn't be a big deal, but it feels like the lag is much worse than the 53 - 57 fps indicates. I also get the 48 fps in smoldering lake reported by another user.

It feels like the game / physics engine is lagging while the rendering is still doing fine, but this is speculation on my part. I get this hunch because it seems like the very same frame is being rendered multiple times over with no changes.

Anyway I don't think there's much you can do software or settings wise to solve it, but it has gotten better for me in several areas with the app 1.04 patch so they're hopefully working to improve the remaining problem areas.

I've read some reports saying that a very high-end CPU (recent i7 extreme etc) will get rid of the issue, but considering the rather simple mechanics of this game (sword hilts will clip through your cape etc) there's probably a lot of optimization and bugfixes remaining still.

No cpu gets a constant 60fps. Not even the 6th gen i7s can pull it off according to durante.

[Terroriza]

Originally posted by SenMithrarin85:

The port is trash. Funnilly enough Arkham Knight was the same: rediculous recommended requirements and minimum updated at the last minute.

Ironically at least rocksteady tried to fix the performance in AK, Fromsoft have and will continue to leave this game to rot performance-wise.

Comparing this to AK is so far off from reality. AK was one of the worse ports possibly in the history of all ports. It was so far beyond horrible that there was not a word in existence to describe how horrific that port was. The neg reviews far far exceeded the positive whereas ds3 had only a smaller portion of players with issues.

DS3 maybe had 1 out of 3 people with issues at most whereas AK was closer to something like 3 or 4 out of 5. And now the game actually runs really great for most users and there were still tons who never had an issue from the start.

I'm not saying ds3 is perfect, I randomly get disconnected a few too many times and often get summoned into a host who kind of floats at first, but then it settles. It is definitely not a perfect game, but at the same time it is far superior of a port than AK ever thought about being.. AK was so horrible it was off the market for a long ass time. Also WB has a horrible history of doing this with almost ALL of their games. I remember them giving up on Guardians of middle earth years ago and then look at how mortal kombat worked out.

I think the bigger issues w/ ds3 are not performance related at all. It's things like why is poise turned off? Why are there so many bonfires? why do you move slow, but enemies move quick? why are normal enemies hard, but the bosses are easy? those are non port issues.

[SenMithrarin85]

Originally posted by Terroriza99:

Originally posted by SenMithrarin85:

The port is trash. Funnilly enough Arkham Knight was the same: rediculous recommended requirements and minimum updated at the last minute.

Ironically at least rocksteady tried to fix the performance in AK, Fromsoft have and will continue to leave this game to rot performance-wise.

Comparing this to AK is so far off from reality. AK was one of the worse ports possibly in the history of all ports. It was so far beyond horrible that there was not a word in existence to describe how horrific that port was. The neg reviews far far exceeded the positive whereas ds3 had only a smaller portion of players with issues.

DS3 maybe had 1 out of 3 people with issues at most whereas AK was closer to something like 3 or 4 out of 5. And now the game actually runs really great for most users and there were still tons who never had an issue from the start.

I'm not saying ds3 is perfect, I randomly get disconnected a few too many times and often get summoned into a host who kind of floats at first, but then it settles. It is definitely not a perfect game, but at the same time it is far superior of a port than AK ever thought about being.. AK was so horrible it was off the market for a long ass time. Also WB has a horrible history of doing this with almost ALL of their games. I remember them giving up on Guardians of middle earth years ago and then look at how mortal kombat worked out.

I think the bigger issues w/ ds3 are not performance related at all. It's things like why is poise turned off? Why are there so many bonfires? why do you move slow, but enemies move quick? why are normal enemies hard, but the bosses are easy? those are non port issues.

You've took what I said out of context a bit. I never said AK wasn't bad. I'm saying in terms of how the specs were set and technical support, the games have been similar They both suffer from an outdated engine that does not and cannot run the game the respective developers designed, correctly. And both games will always have issues because of this. Only difference is that WB did something (at great durress, granted) whilst From have done nothing to fix the techincal issues this game has almost a month on.

[gioXV]

Originally posted by Terroriza99:

Originally posted by SenMithrarin85:

The port is trash. Funnilly enough Arkham Knight was the same: rediculous recommended requirements and minimum updated at the last minute.

Ironically at least rocksteady tried to fix the performance in AK, Fromsoft have and will continue to leave this game to rot performance-wise.

Comparing this to AK is so far off from reality. AK was one of the worse ports possibly in the history of all ports. It was so far beyond horrible that there was not a word in existence to describe how horrific that port was. The neg reviews far far exceeded the positive whereas ds3 had only a smaller portion of players with issues.

DS3 maybe had 1 out of 3 people with issues at most whereas AK was closer to something like 3 or 4 out of 5. And now the game actually runs really great for most users and there were still tons who never had an issue from the start.

I'm not saying ds3 is perfect, I randomly get disconnected a few too many times and often get summoned into a host who kind of floats at first, but then it settles. It is definitely not a perfect game, but at the same time it is far superior of a port than AK ever thought about being.. AK was so horrible it was off the market for a long ass time. Also WB has a horrible history of doing this with almost ALL of their games. I remember them giving up on Guardians of middle earth years ago and then look at how mortal kombat worked out.

I think the bigger issues w/ ds3 are not performance related at all. It's things like why is poise turned off? Why are there so many bonfires? why do you move slow, but enemies move quick? why are normal enemies hard, but the bosses are easy? those are non port issues.

Yeah for people with no issues like that it's great and all and you can have these things that you find annoying in the game. While we don't actually get that chance to have those "problems" because we still have the other hurdle to go over.

That people with somewhat lower specs have performance issues I get but when i look it up alot of people with great systems are having issues and THAT isn't really right. Or when we ask for some help on the subject on the forums, we get this thrown at us "Well mine runs great, your hardware sucks/ is broken" when it actually doesn't apply (sometimes it does).

What i'm glad about is that i got alot of tips from people here, SO ALL of you thank you for your advice and ideas.

SO AGAIN THANK YOU GUYS.

[Terroriza]

Originally posted by gioXV:

Originally posted by Terroriza99:

Yeah for people with no issues like that it's great and all and you can have these things that you find annoying in the game. While we don't actually get that chance to have those "problems" because we still have the other hurdle to go over.

That people with somewhat lower specs have performance issues I get but when i look it up alot of people with great systems are having issues and THAT isn't really right. Or when we ask for some help on the subject on the forums, we get this thrown at us "Well mine runs great, your hardware sucks/ is broken" when it actually doesn't apply (sometimes it does).

What i'm glad about is that i got alot of tips from people here, SO ALL of you thank you for your advice and ideas.

SO AGAIN THANK YOU GUYS.

yeah your def right about the higher end systems. it was weird how a lot of 980s had issues when a 950 can run it at 60fps great and 960 can max it out.

Did you get it fixed at all? I think it might be tied to your buffering and vsync and locking fps to 57-58 w/ those off could help.. Ive seen a few games where that made a big difference for me with the problem your having.

have you tried turning optional settings off as well and seeing if it changes? if it does then you can end up figuring out which setting it is tied to. It could be a couple high requirement settings that are throwing the vsync off so when it can't hit 60fps it dips down for a second.

if you have done clean installs and everything then it's probably something tied to a weird setting. running on low with optional settings turned to off in 16x9 w/ fps capped at 58 and vsync off will let you know for sure if it's a setting or not.

If the game still dips down in the same way as you first described then it's something else deeper, possibly just the game. Those settings basically eliminate any setting from causing the problem and then if it runs fine just slowly turn them back up indivdually.

[gioXV]

Originally posted by Terroriza99:

Originally posted by gioXV:

Yeah for people with no issues like that it's great and all and you can have these things that you find annoying in the game. While we don't actually get that chance to have those "problems" because we still have the other hurdle to go over.

That people with somewhat lower specs have performance issues I get but when i look it up alot of people with great systems are having issues and THAT isn't really right. Or when we ask for some help on the subject on the forums, we get this thrown at us "Well mine runs great, your hardware sucks/ is broken" when it actually doesn't apply (sometimes it does).

What i'm glad about is that i got alot of tips from people here, SO ALL of you thank you for your advice and ideas.

SO AGAIN THANK YOU GUYS.

yeah your def right about the higher end systems. it was weird how a lot of 980s had issues when a 950 can run it at 60fps great and 960 can max it out.

Did you get it fixed at all? I think it might be tied to your buffering and vsync and locking fps to 57-58 w/ those off could help.. Ive seen a few games where that made a big difference for me with the problem your having.

have you tried turning optional settings off as well and seeing if it changes? if it does then you can end up figuring out which setting it is tied to. It could be a couple high requirement settings that are throwing the vsync off so when it can't hit 60fps it dips down for a second.

if you have done clean installs and everything then it's probably something tied to a weird setting. running on low with optional settings turned to off in 16x9 w/ fps capped at 58 and vsync off will let you know for sure if it's a setting or not.

If the game still dips down in the same way as you first described then it's something else deeper, possibly just the game. Those settings basically eliminate any setting from causing the problem and then if it runs fine just slowly turn them back up indivdually.

i'll try it tomorrow ddin't really have alot of time today :D

[Kaiser Burgie]

I love not being able to play a game I payed $90 for