How do I fix random frame-rate dips causing fps capping in FFXIV?

[Fawx]

Hello, I play this game on the official launcher and I'd like some help with this issue I've been having since around February of this year. I've found no help online with anyone who has had similar issues. This game (and a few others, notably Mordhau) will every few minutes start buffering.

When it starts buffering, it seems to start frame capping the game lower and lower. At first it only lowers it to 60 for about 2 minutes every 1-2 minutes, then it does it again to 50 for half a minute every half a minute after it stops, then about 30 fps full 2 minutes, etc. until I'm frame-rate capped at 5-10 fps for half an hour to a full hour, then it runs smoothly for maybe 4-5 minutes, then the same 5-10 fps for half an hour to a full hour.

This persists through both computer restart and game restart and I've only been able to reset it by switching to direct-x 9 (which doesn't load the game properly) then switching back to direct-x 11.

This issue doesn't just affect visual performance but gameplay as well. Inputs don't go through when they should, sometimes I hit a button but because the framerate cap is going it just doesn't go through. Basically imagine the inputs like what happens in Minecraft when you set off an inconceivable amount of TNT and light it in a singleplayer world, but its like that for a full hour, only having about 1/4th of the working input frames every second.

The game should be good to run the game at 110-120 fps or more and it does run really smoothly when its not arbitrarily capped, but something is causing it to dip to 5-10 fps and stay there even in an empty FC room where nothing should be causing frame-rate dips. I don't know if its an issue with some Windows 11 update having problems with direct-x 11 but it only happens in some games. It may be tied to CPU/GPU usage but other CPU/GPU heavy games don't always seem to have this problem.

Changing resolution/windowed mode doesn't seem to help either. I have tried in all different kinds of resolutions, even ones that you need NVIDIA to access, doesn't fix this issue only the baseline FPS. I have tried in all 3 windowed modes and it doesn't change anything about this issue.

From Device:
Chip Type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super with Max-Q Design
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Display Device
Approx. Total Memory: 24265 MB
Display Memory (VRAM): 8001 MB
Shared Memory: 16264 MB
Current Display Mode: 2880 x 1620 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
HDR: Not Supported

From DxDiag:
OS: Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22621)
System Model: Alienware m15 R3
BIOS: 1.24.0
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10875H CPU @ 2.30GHz (16 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 23768MB RAM
Page file: 16065MB used, 21327MB available
DirectDraw Acceleration: Enabled
Direct3D Acceleration: Enabled
AGP Texture Acceleration: Enabled
DirectX 12 Ultimate: Enabled

My Drivers are the up-to-date current drivers from NVIDIA.

[Alternity]

Sounds like thermal throttling. Check your temperatures when that happens. Alienware is not the best at cooling.

[Fawx]

Originally posted by Alternity:

Sounds like thermal throttling. Check your temperatures when that happens. Alienware is not the best at cooling.

I believe it was, because Alienware Command Center was having issues with a Windows OS Update which stopped it from monitoring and overclocking systems. I turned off the feature that was blocking it and set the fans to max speed and now they run the game at 80-100 fps smooth as butter. Thank you. :)