CPU usage fluctuates and causes massive FPS drops

[Kazamezo]

Normally I get somewhere around 70-120 FPS in most areas. Maybe it dips down to ~55 in Diamond City, but overall the game plays well enough.

But recently my framerate would just randomly drop to 17 FPS for no reason. The only "fix" I found was to be patient and wait for it to go back to normal.

It happens in random intervals, and lasts 3-10 minutes on average. I can either just stand still and wait, or just keep playing with low fps. It eventually goes back to normal, but it will just keep happening every 20-50 minutes.

I decided to open my task manager on my second monitor to see what was going on, and I found out there was a correlation between those massive FPS drops and my CPU usage.
In normal conditions CPU utilization would be 55%, and when the FPS drops, CPU usage goes down to around 12-15%. GPU utilization is always at 100% so it can't be the issue.

Does anyone know a solution to this? It's seriously annoying when this happens, especially since there is no clear reason for it. It just happens in any area, at any time without warning.

Here are my specs for reference:
GPU: RTX 2070
CPU: i7-10750H 2.60 GHz
RAM: 24GB
And I'm playing on an NVME SSD with hundreds of Gigabytes of free space.

Please help me.

UPDATE: I downloaded msi afterburner to get a closer look at what's really happening. And it turns out my PC was seriously overheating, with temps reaching up to 100C. That's why the FPS kept dropping occasionally. The CPU was thermal throttling.

I repasted my CPU, and undervolted it. And that completely fixed the issue. I can play for hours just fine, and It's maxing out at 75C now.

Also I didn't see any performance drops after undervolting, so it's definitely worth looking into.

[cheshirm]

might possibly be some other process using the card. some things in this article may help:

https://www.technewstoday.com/how-to-check-gpu-usage/

I did not know there were 17 processes using my nvidia card.

[wtiger27]

Other background processes can cause what you are experiencing. Also, got to ask, are you using any mods?

[Kazamezo]

Originally posted by cheshirm:

might possibly be some other process using the card. some things in this article may help:

https://www.technewstoday.com/how-to-check-gpu-usage/

I did not know there were 17 processes using my nvidia card.

I don't think it's a GPU issue. I made sure that Fallout 4, or whatever game I'm playing is the only process using my GPU. The guide in the article you sent confirmed this for me.

I tried playing other games to check if this was exclusive to Fallout 4, and it was. So that narrows it down I think.

[Kazamezo]

Originally posted by wtiger27:

Other background processes can cause what you are experiencing. Also, got to ask, are you using any mods?

I've been playing this game with more than a dozen chrome tabs open for 20+ hours on my save, and never had this happen till now. Turning off all processes but Steam and Fallout 4 didn't help at all.

And yes, I'm using mods. I have all the stability mods installed too, Buffout 4, Xse plugin loader, the High FPS physics fix, etc.

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by Kazamezo:

Originally posted by wtiger27:

Other background processes can cause what you are experiencing. Also, got to ask, are you using any mods?

I've been playing this game with more than a dozen chrome tabs open for 20+ hours on my save, and never had this happen till now. Turning off all processes but Steam and Fallout 4 didn't help at all.

And yes, I'm using mods. I have all the stability mods installed too, Buffout 4, Xse plugin loader, the High FPS physics fix, etc.

Then I think you have a mod issue. I use none and have never had your issue. Ether on my older I7 4770 system or my newer I7 11700KF system.

I get no slow downs at all anywhere in the game on my newer system. And even the old system the slow downs where mainly in one area of downtown Boston. All graphic settings maxed except Godrays on Med.

[hawkeye]

Gpu utilization of 100% means that the gpu is where the bottleneck is. It isn't desirable, especially in a laptop.

A laptop 2070 is about 70% as good as a desktop 2070. Plus the cpu and gpu are probably hard-wired together so any gpu performance issue is going to impact the cpu.

Cpu % figures do not indicate performance. FO4 is single-threaded with 3 main threads. It will never rise higher than about 50% cpu usage on a 6 core cpu. And that is when the cpu isn't bottlenecked by the gpu.

As the game proceeds, more and more data is stored in save files, which means memory. So that can contribute to small performance loss.

Windows modes tell the pc to let the game compete with other running applications like chrome, discord, tv, youtube etc. So use the task manager to see what is happening when the poor performance occurs.

Heat is another issue for laptops. The gpu might be overheating. Run hwinfo64 in the background in sensors mode. It will display problems in red in its output.

Overall your system is about the same as an average desktop from 2014. I would try turning down the graphics settings.

[Kazamezo]

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Gpu utilization of 100% means that the gpu is where the bottleneck is. It isn't desirable, especially in a laptop.

A laptop 2070 is about 70% as good as a desktop 2070. Plus the cpu and gpu are probably hard-wired together so any gpu performance issue is going to impact the cpu.

Cpu % figures do not indicate performance. FO4 is single-threaded with 3 main threads. It will never rise higher than about 50% cpu usage on a 6 core cpu. And that is with a cpu that isn't that great to start with.

As the game proceeds, more and more data is stored in save files, which means memory. So that can contribute to small performance loss.

Windows modes tell the pc to let the game compete with other running applications like chrome, discord, tv, youtube etc. So use the task manager to see what is happening when the poor performance occurs.

Overall your system is about the same as an average desktop from 2014. I would try turning down the graphics settings.

Maybe I didn't explain it well enough in the original post.
Normally -when the framerate is good- CPU usage is around 50% like you said. But then in the same exact area with no changes in the environment, or where I'm looking, or how many NPCs there are, or how fast I'm moving. It suddenly drops to 17 FPS regardless of where I am in the game. Interiors, exteriors, it doesn't matter. It just drops to 17 FPS. And when that happens, I see that my CPU usage is down to ~15%. Then minutes later, in the same exact place with no changes in the environment, where I'm looking, etc etc. It jumps back to my usual framerate and the CPU usage goes back up to ~50%

My performance is fine with the current graphics settings. Specs are fine. in some interiors I get a smooth 144FPS.

It's not a graphics settings issue. I already played a lot of hours with no problems until now. I tried a new save, and the issue happened in the pre-war section of the game, so it's not a matter of data stored in the save file either.

And I tried restarting the computer, updating my drivers, and launching the game with no other process than steam running. And that unsurprisingly didn't fix it. As I use these programs while playing all the time with no issue.

I'm gonna try to generate new ini files, and verify the integrity of the game and see if that works.

[hawkeye]

Originally posted by Kazamezo:

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Gpu utilization of 100% means that the gpu is where the bottleneck is. It isn't desirable, especially in a laptop.

A laptop 2070 is about 70% as good as a desktop 2070. Plus the cpu and gpu are probably hard-wired together so any gpu performance issue is going to impact the cpu.

Cpu % figures do not indicate performance. FO4 is single-threaded with 3 main threads. It will never rise higher than about 50% cpu usage on a 6 core cpu. And that is with a cpu that isn't that great to start with.

As the game proceeds, more and more data is stored in save files, which means memory. So that can contribute to small performance loss.

Windows modes tell the pc to let the game compete with other running applications like chrome, discord, tv, youtube etc. So use the task manager to see what is happening when the poor performance occurs.

Overall your system is about the same as an average desktop from 2014. I would try turning down the graphics settings.

Maybe I didn't explain it well enough in the original post.
Normally -when the framerate is good- CPU usage is around 50% like you said. But then in the same exact area with no changes in the environment, or where I'm looking, or how many NPCs there are, or how fast I'm moving. It suddenly drops to 17 FPS regardless of where I am in the game. Interiors, exteriors, it doesn't matter. It just drops to 17 FPS. And when that happens, I see that my CPU usage is down to ~15%. Then minutes later, in the same exact place with no changes in the environment, where I'm looking, etc etc. It jumps back to my usual framerate and the CPU usage goes back up to ~50%

My performance is fine with the current graphics settings. Specs are fine. in some interiors I get a smooth 144FPS.

It's not a graphics settings issue. I already played a lot of hours with no problems until now. I tried a new save, and the issue happened in the pre-war section of the game, so it's not a matter of data stored in the save file either.

And I tried restarting the computer, updating my drivers, and launching the game with no other process than steam running. And that unsurprisingly didn't fix it. As I use these programs while playing all the time with no issue.

I'm gonna try to generate new ini files, and verify the integrity of the game and see if that works.

Good luck with that.