Square have broken FFXV’s performance on PC?

[sammykneen]

Something is seriously screwed up with this game’s performance now.

I’m using a GTX 1080 and an i7-8750h @ 4.1ghz with 32GB RAM, on a clean install of Windows and Drivers in High Performance mode with no background programs running, and just casually running around with nothing going on the framerate will drop to 10fps and then shoot back up to 60 which freezes the screen for up to 2 seconds. Locking to 30fps doesn’t solve this, and it happens regardless of low, average, or high settings at any resolution.

Fighting Necromancers/Mindflayers or being inflicted with Toad by the enemies in Insomnia tanks the framerate down to single digits and I can’t even see what’s going on.

Tried Special K but any combination of it’s settings don’t improve anything for me at all sadly.

I have no idea what they’ve done but it’s really sad because this game was finally starting to feel like a complete game and now it’s virtually broken.


PS: I play the PC version via my partner’s account which is why I don’t have a mouse icon, I’m strongly against piracy and am a huge Final Fantasy fan as you can see from my library.

[Tiapriestess]

Yeah, I'm at a loss too. It never used to crash. But I hadn't played since Feb 2017 and just got back into it a week and a half ago. Seems the more patches this game gets the worse it gets. I'll eventually nail it down, hopefully. Sad to see that the PC performance is suffering more now too though. But at least I'll know what I'm getting into with it. I know my 4770k isn't anywhere near top of the line now, but as I'll be playing in 1080p it should easily suffice since I have both a 1080 Ti to prop it up and 32 GB RAM as well.

[sammykneen]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

Originally posted by Tiapriestess:

can I safely assume this is now the norm on the PC version as well

No, it's never safe to assume that. It runs fine on my new rig at 4k/maxed out (even with all the nividaworks on, but I usually leave two of those off anyway) and (pre-patch) it always ran fine on my previous better than a potato but still pretty old rig.

But on PC the game has always had a checkered performance history, like many high graphic games or indeed any game can (have you checked the Sekiro or DMC5 forums, lol). How prevalent it truly is one can't really say (ppl on forums usually are here to report issues and thus it looks skewed). Just the nature of PC's and their bazillion possible combos of hardware and software to run that hardware.

I do think the recent patch may have increased/introduced issues for some tho. Just not "everyone."

I haven't tried/updated the PS4 Pro version in ages - it always ran "ok" in Lite before, sucks there seems to be a problem now. Wish I had a solution.

On PC I might go so far as to suggest to see if any of those Microsoft Visual C++ things like to install have updated versions one can install - I've had times where doing that helped for unknown reasons. But if the T.C. was using a clean/fresh install, that likely wouldn't be it for them. Based on the cpu they're using a higher-end laptop and I know little about troubleshooting them besides the usual basics.

You could try to go back to a really old nvidia driver, not just one or two versions, just as an experiment. Like all the way back to 390 or older.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did even try going back to Windows 1709 and using driver 388.71 because I was so desperate but the issues were the same.

I also installed the game on my old desktop to test it (GTX980ti and i7-4790K) and same issues there too...

The FFXV demo works perfectly fine without any major stutters on both the laptop and desktop, but the full game is just a stutter fest even at the same exact areas that the demo is fine. I think I’m just gonna have to go back to my PS4 version.

What are your specs by the way and do you get any mini freezes at all or major random framerate drops in combat?

[CatPerson]

New rig:

i9-9900k / evga 2080ti ftw3 / 32gb DDR4 3200, game installed on a 1TB NVMe Samsung 970 Pro. Latest nvidia driver. Built and Win10 installed about 3-4 weeks ago. Game runs in 4k with an average of 75fps. It does dip by 10fps or so in combats, varies, nothing extreme. Had no issues with Ardyn DLC which ran at a slightly higher average fps. No stutters.

Everything highest it will go except: Geomapping Off (don't like it). Filtering to Low, (don't like the soft-bloom effect it creates), and nvidia VXAO and Shadowlibs Off. If I turn both those nvidiaworks on, fps drops by about 10fps overall, graphic benefit not worth having them on.
===========
Old rig was/is an i7-920 / 980ti / 24 DDR3 1600 / 7200 HDD with Win7. Ran in 4k at 30-35fps with a mix of Average and Low (a few High), all nvidiaworks off. Some combats could drop it to 28fps but mostly stayed stable. If I ran it on 1080 monitor at 150% scaling fps bounced a lot more, between 75ish to 45ish in intense combats. Would sometimes get that quick micro-jerk when turning the camera suddenly or certain effects (like Gladio doing his "showtime" shield attack) but not always, guessed it was HDD or cpu.

[CatPerson]

I did have a brief discussion with someone that brought up the possibility/likelihood that the game has problems/doesn't like high hz monitors, maybe. All 3 of my monitors are still 60hz.

[sammykneen]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

New rig:

i9-9900k / evga 2080ti ftw3 / 32gb DDR4 3200, game installed on a 1TB NVMe Samsung 970 Pro. Latest nvidia driver. Built and Win10 installed about 3-4 weeks ago. Game runs in 4k with an average of 75fps. It does dip by 10fps or so in combats, varies, nothing extreme. Had no issues with Ardyn DLC which ran at a slightly higher average fps. No stutters.

Everything highest it will go except: Geomapping Off (don't like it). Filtering to Low, (don't like the soft-bloom effect it creates), and nvidia VXAO and Shadowlibs Off. If I turn both those nvidiaworks on, fps drops by about 10fps overall, graphic benefit not worth having them on.
===========
Old rig was/is an i7-920 / 980ti / 24 DDR3 1600 / 7200 HDD with Win7. Ran in 4k at 30-35fps with a mix of Average and Low (a few High), all nvidiaworks off. Some combats could drop it to 28fps but mostly stayed stable. If I ran it on 1080 monitor at 150% scaling fps bounced a lot more, between 75ish to 45ish in intense combats. Would sometimes get that quick micro-jerk when turning the camera suddenly or certain effects (like Gladio doing his "showtime" shield attack) but not always, guessed it was HDD or cpu.

Awesome rig!

The only thing I can think of is that they broke some compatibility with i7 processors when they released the update for certain AMD CPUs, because mine definitely isn't like this in the demo, and wasn't like it in the full game last year. Going to try reverting to an old version of the game through Steam to try a new save file on it. Will report back if the old version works as normal. Still won't be a definitive solution if it does work though since I won't be able to play Episode Ardyn etc.

My Laptop screen is a 144hz Gsync, but my desktop is plugged into a 60hz screen and I have the same issues on both (Both i7 CPUs), so it's definitely not a refresh rate problem unfortunately.

[F'heara Nya'kki]

Square has broken everything ffs, inc omrades infinite loadings after missions, enemies clipping through floor and not able to finish the mission, you aim the enemy and clip yourself too and fail the quest (well failed anyway) is 2019 SE wake up.

[sammykneen]

Ok so I I rolled back to an older update of the game (The one released on 12/03/18 that fixed the Summon FPS bug) using SteamDB, and the hitching and freezing issues do NOT happen on this version, it runs just like the demo with minor hitches when moving between areas but no 1-2 second freezes at all.

They borked the game with the updates :(

[TragicDelight]

Originally posted by sammykneen:

Something is seriously screwed up with this game’s performance now.

I’m using a GTX 1080 and an i7-8750h @ 4.1ghz with 32GB RAM, on a clean install of Windows and Drivers in High Performance mode with no background programs running, and just casually running around with nothing going on the framerate will drop to 10fps and then shoot back up to 60 which freezes the screen for up to 2 seconds. Locking to 30fps doesn’t solve this, and it happens regardless of low, average, or high settings at any resolution.

Fighting Necromancers/Mindflayers or being inflicted with Toad by the enemies in Insomnia tanks the framerate down to single digits and I can’t even see what’s going on.

Tried Special K but any combination of it’s settings don’t improve anything for me at all sadly.

I have no idea what they’ve done but it’s really sad because this game was finally starting to feel like a complete game and now it’s virtually broken.


PS: I play the PC version via my partner’s account which is why I don’t have a mouse icon, I’m strongly against piracy and am a huge Final Fantasy fan as you can see from my library.

you're running this on a laptop based on the 8750H so i'm gonna go out on a limb and say thermal throttling and also most likely current limit throttling both while under load and it's reducing you're stability and performance. try liquid metal repaste on both the gpu and cpu, it's a fun project and if you do well it reduces temps by 20C and increases performance by 15%

[AnyBodyNeedATruePickMeUp]

not only turning down all specs and borderless SELL all the unecisary items in your inventory that helped my game TRMENDUASLY nevermind the bad grammar but this actually helped my game after i already turned down specs and borderless and still having problems i tried selling all items i didnt need and its running smoother

[D_Winds]

Recent Windows Update has given me some system instability, so you could System Restore to the previous update (for me its around Apr 4).

Ensure the game runs off your GPU, and not CPU settings. I just open my Device Manager and disable the Intel driver.

[morgoth322]

I have worse performances too since the last update, the game sometimes freezes for 1 or 2 seconds with just by running on the map, no combats occurs upon those.

Those freezes were presents before but a lot shorter 0.5 sec or less.

I have a 5690x 32gb ram and 2080ti.

[Spectral]

I've given up on this and moved to playing on PS4. While general performance is lower as expected it doesn't have the really annoying freezing for a second or so at random that the PC version does at the moment.

[SeriousCCIE]

What resolution were you running at? Your original post doesn't even say what you were trying to make the game run at.

I hadn't played since May of 2018 and fired it up today after all sorts of updates and it worked mostly the same way. 45-60fps at 4k resolution most of the time, except in rain, at night, when in combat. Then it is more like Prompto's camera roll slide-show when camping.

The game doesn't like SLI too much and I have two 1080tis. I only keep it at 4k because I am in denial the game is graphically demanding enough that the 1080tis weren't enough to run it at max settings and the game came out somewhat future proofed. 2080tis now can run the game at 4k without the issues I have, but I am not about to upgrade to experience that myself. Instead I accept the choppiness that comes with perhaps setting the settings too high for what my system can do on average, for this game.

There is no other game in my library that generates quite as much heat as this game--this game taxes my system like no other. It uses all the available ram in the video card (11GB) and a good 8GB to 12GB of system ram too on occasion. The more ram available, the less it has to wait swapping stuff out of ram from "disk" or whatever is storing the game nowadays.

Running the game harder than the PC it's running on can comfortably run it... will cause problems.

On a console, usually the games are custom built for the hardware in the console. PCs are always as much art as it is science to get more out of the game than the PC can be expected to do when accepting wizard settings, so make sure to adjust the config and tweak it if you haven't already.

overclocking is probably good for anyone that can do it and I know my system sure benefits from it... the video cards, too. aggressive ocs can crash the game but almost never would cause slow performance, so it the game never crashes on you, it's very unlikely to be an OC causing you issues unless the video card drivers keep resetting or something. the nvidia control panel would flash up a message if that was the case, so I doubt that's it too.

which leads me back to my resolution question--try running it lower than you normally would, just to see what happens, and see if the game plays less poorly for you. if it does, then you may need to try tweaking your game settings or system config to get it where you will accept it.

I can understand if its frustrating to get to that point where the game is enjoyable on the system you are playing it on, but I doubt something was broken in the updates that affect SSDs or i7s or whatever. It's just a game that demands a lot of fast hardware to perform well.

[Xerazal]

Can I get a full system config? CPU, GPU, RAM (how many sticks, what capacity per stick, what speed), hard drives (whether SSD or HDD, if HDD then what drive speed), monitor resolution, things of that nature.

The reason I ask is because I run this game on a Ryzen 1700X, 16gb (2x8gb) DDR4 3200mhz RAM, and Vega 64 Undervolted with overclocked memory, OS installed on a Samsung NVME but game installed on a western digital black 4tb hdd. CPU & GPU are water cooled, and with the latest patches its been running better for me. I play the game at 2560x1440, usually hitting between 45-60fps. I do get random stutters, but having played this game on both PC and PS4 before (both on a pro and base) the stutters are just normal for this game. But a full spec list of your system could help figure it out.

[Spectral]

Originally posted by SeriousCCIE:

What resolution were you running at? Your original post doesn't even say what you were trying to make the game run at.

I hadn't played since May of 2018 and fired it up today after all sorts of updates and it worked mostly the same way. 45-60fps at 4k resolution most of the time, except in rain, at night, when in combat. Then it is more like Prompto's camera roll slide-show when camping.

The game doesn't like SLI too much and I have two 1080tis. I only keep it at 4k because I am in denial the game is graphically demanding enough that the 1080tis weren't enough to run it at max settings and the game came out somewhat future proofed. 2080tis now can run the game at 4k without the issues I have, but I am not about to upgrade to experience that myself. Instead I accept the choppiness that comes with perhaps setting the settings too high for what my system can do on average, for this game.

There is no other game in my library that generates quite as much heat as this game--this game taxes my system like no other. It uses all the available ram in the video card (11GB) and a good 8GB to 12GB of system ram too on occasion. The more ram available, the less it has to wait swapping stuff out of ram from "disk" or whatever is storing the game nowadays.

Running the game harder than the PC it's running on can comfortably run it... will cause problems.

On a console, usually the games are custom built for the hardware in the console. PCs are always as much art as it is science to get more out of the game than the PC can be expected to do when accepting wizard settings, so make sure to adjust the config and tweak it if you haven't already.

overclocking is probably good for anyone that can do it and I know my system sure benefits from it... the video cards, too. aggressive ocs can crash the game but almost never would cause slow performance, so it the game never crashes on you, it's very unlikely to be an OC causing you issues unless the video card drivers keep resetting or something. the nvidia control panel would flash up a message if that was the case, so I doubt that's it too.

which leads me back to my resolution question--try running it lower than you normally would, just to see what happens, and see if the game plays less poorly for you. if it does, then you may need to try tweaking your game settings or system config to get it where you will accept it.

I can understand if its frustrating to get to that point where the game is enjoyable on the system you are playing it on, but I doubt something was broken in the updates that affect SSDs or i7s or whatever. It's just a game that demands a lot of fast hardware to perform well.

But a lot of people posting had it running fine. It only started having issues after the update.

For me I have a GTX 1070, 6700K and 16GB of ram and installed to an SSD. Playing at 1080p on 60Hz display I was getting a solid 60fps, except at completely random intervals it freezes for around a second, then right back to 60. Tried from low to high as well as custom combinations and nothing fixed it. I've also tried various graphics drivers and driver settings, aswell as with and without special k installed. No other games are exhibiting issues.