FPS drops & stutters after playing for a while, stops utilizing the Graphics Card?

[Xenonex]

I'm playing with the FAR mod and the GPUnity texture pack, with the recommended settings such as reduced Global Illumination, no AA, etc. and generally Medium-ish settings. The game seems to run just fine at 60 FPS whenever I first start it up, but then eventually after playing for a while, maybe 30 minutes or an hour or so, the framerate drops to 35-45 fps, and additionally there is a constant kind of "stuttering," or the game just looking very choppy in general. Restarting the game seems to make everything work fine again, at least for another 30 min ~ 1 hour, but this can be a problem when I'm in the middle of a quest, etc. Oddly, at no point do my CPUs / GPU ever start to overheat, though I sometimes get overheating playing some other games like Borderlands 3, etc.

When I display GPU stats, it seems to show that part of the problem is that when the performance problems appear, for some reason the game stops utilizing the Nvidia GPU much at all. Here are some screenshots of FAR's GPU stats overlay[imgur.com] showing the massive drop in GPU usage once the stuttering starts. This is despite the game being set to "Auto-Select: high performance Nvidia GPU" in the Nvidia Control Panel.

Now, I definitely read posts from several other users with this exact same issue (game suddenly starts performing poorly after 30 minutes ~ 1 hour of gameplay, stats reveal GPU stops being utilized at that time, restarting the game temporarily fixes it), but I don't remember them ever talking about a solution, and can't find those posts today either.

If anybody has any more insight into this issue, or can help point me to more info, I would greatly appreciate it! Am really looking forward to experiencing this game after hearing about it for so long, but the slowdown & stuttering is a big distraction.

System Specs:

Windows 10 64bit

Steam "Game of the YorHa" version

Only mods are FAR and GPUnity Texture pack

MSI GE72VR Apache laptop

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card

CPU: Intel i7-6700HQ

Memory: 16GB

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

Downgrade to an earlier version of FAR - people recommend that version 0.7.0.14 works best for them.

[Cyfarwydd]

yeah, 0.7.014works better, later version may casue other problems, like drop FPS in other games, like overwatch

[Xenonex]

Okay thanks for the recommendation. Are there any special things to be careful of when switching from the current version to the 0.7.0.14 version, or just run the SKIM64.exe and uninstall, then do a manual install of the older version? Would I need to re-verify Steam game cache or redo the GPUnity as well?

[Leia]

I didn't use skim64 when initially installing a long time ago and instead opted to manually install everything. it subsequently automatically updated so I've been having the same issue without realizing. Thanks to this thread I've rolled back to the recommended update. I uninstalled everything basically and just reinstalled all the mods.

Nothing really to do. Although, I had no common_redist folder. And I had a wallpaper folder which I think just comes with the GotY edition. So other than those things it was all normal. I verified game integrity anyway before uninstalling so you can do the same. Lauched the game and everything was all normal. Just finished ending B so not sure what to expect but everything else seemed on-point. Good luck, I'm sure everything will work out for you!

(what I mean by just finishing ending B is that I didn't start up the actual game since it would probably just be the long prologue sequence so I didn't bother lmao!)

[Xenonex]

Thanks for the info, would love to hear if that resolved the issue for you!

You also bring up a good point; is there something I need to do if I revert to 0.7.0.14 to prevent it from auto-updating, like some configuration file to disable auto-updates or something?

[Leia]

it prompts an auto-update on launch. you can just say no and set it to not remind you forever.

[Xenonex]

Thanks!

Unfortunately, even using the 0.7.0.14 version, I still get the slowdown & stuttering after a certain amount of playing...

Frequent saving and just restarting the game every time it happens is the best workaround for now, I guess :/

[Leia]

I'm sorry, bud.

It's doing the same for me. It's not a terribly big deal because I know I push it and keep Global Illumination on High when I could do with toning it down to medium, but I really push it for the fact I want the PC version to be worth it.

How are you installing it? I usually do manual but I think I'm gonna uninstall it and do an auto using the skim64 installer or w/e.

I'll report back. Been at work all day and I was just sitting for the morning thinking about how I can optimize this more lmao!

[Redd Knight]

Same issue. Just playing Automata with FAR and no other mods. Fine at first, 30-45 mins later, micro-stutter. Longer I play after that, worse the stutter gets. Is a bit of a concern given the way quicksave access is given in this game. If I'm not in an area I unlocked quicksave in, I gotta hope I can backtrack to, or find a place to save. If I can save and exit, and immediately pop back in game, it works perfectly fine again.

A shame, as I'm enjoying this, and aside from momentary stutter when I access different areas the game runs smooth until this issue pops up.

[Redd Knight]

Tried the setting core affinity trick recommended on another thread, didn't work. Tried alt-tabbing, no luck. Guess I'm gonna have to try FAR version 0.7.0.14 next. It's a shame. I'm having fun, but having to get to an access point to save, exit and restart when I start stuttering is a royal pain.

[Xenonex]

Originally posted by BasedSif:

I'm sorry, bud.

It's doing the same for me. It's not a terribly big deal because I know I push it and keep Global Illumination on High when I could do with toning it down to medium, but I really push it for the fact I want the PC version to be worth it.

How are you installing it? I usually do manual but I think I'm gonna uninstall it and do an auto using the skim64 installer or w/e.

I'll report back. Been at work all day and I was just sitting for the morning thinking about how I can optimize this more lmao!

Sorry to hear :(

I initially installed it automatically with SKIM64.exe, but then installed in manually in order to downgrade to the 0.7.0.14 version, both of them have the same issue, even with the "core affinity" trick, etc. Now I just restart the game whenever I notice it, or every hour or so.

[Leia]

I just decided to install the latest version of FAR and keep GI on medium.

0.7.0.14 if anything felt less stable for me.

[NekuSebas]

I think 0.7.0.14 FAR version worked for me. I'm not 100% sure but i just let the game like 1 hour on pascal town and no fps drops with this older version of the mod. Before in that same place after 30 min or so the game started to drop frames and microstutter very frequently

A special thank you for the people that came up with this solution.

[Kriel]

Hi guys. For people who are experiencing fps degradation over the time in game with massive stuttering on latest FAR version installed (& the 0.7.0.14 too). I found the issue & post a solution for this problem here on a similar thread :

https://steamcommunity.com/app/524220/discussions/0/3606765810637076434/

It's an horrible problem because i'm suspecting it affects a lot of people depending on Steam & FAR settings & it makes the game totally unplayable after 1hr in game which completely affects & deteriorates your game experience.

I need a lot of backup because it's a random problem so if my fix works for you please confirm it in this thread & share it a LOT to other ppl on similar thread because it's a huge problem in my opinion.

Thx to you guys & have a good game & fun.

[Redd Knight]

Originally posted by LittleJon:

Hi guys. For people who are experiencing fps degradation over the time in game with FAR installed. I found the issue & post a solution for this problem here on a similar thread :

https://steamcommunity.com/app/524220/discussions/0/3606765810637076434/

It's an horrible problem because i'm suspecting it affects a lot of people depending on Steam & FAR settings & it makes the game totally unplayable after 1hr in game which completely affects & deteriorates your game experience.

I need a lot of backup because it's a random problem so if my fix works for you please confirm it in this thread & share it a LOT to other ppl on similar thread because it's a huge problem in my opinion.

Thx to you guys & have a good game & fun.

Thank you for this. I actually just got back to playing Nier recently and having to constantly get to a save area to save, quit, exit and resume is getting annoying. I will give your method a try, I just need to track down v0.7.0.23 as I've been using the .14. I cannot thank you enough for the work put in. Reading your explanation there had to be a lot of work in both diagnosing and resolving it.

Edit: Nevermind, was already on 0.7.0.23...gonna try the rest of your suggested steps now.