Insane FPS drops

[ReLaxative]

So, every time I run Sekiro, it runs as usual for 15-30 seconds. Then I notice FPS dropping to 50, then soon after to 40 and 30. But this is where the fun begins!
For no apparent reason, my FPS then drops 8-10 for a few seconds, then goes back up for a few, rinse and repeat a few times, until it starts dropping to 8-10 more frequently and for longer periods of time.

Things I have noticed:
1. It does not matter whether you are in a menu or in-game, no matter what I'm doing, so I assume it's not a rendering issue.
2. My GPU load is 100% whenever this happens;

Things I've tried as a fix:
1. Lowering or otherwise changing graphics settings does nothing;
2. Verifying files in Steam did nothing;
3. Updating drivers (including BIOS) did nothing;
4. Re-install does not work;
5. Using a second monitor does not work;
6. Changing refresh rate of the monitor does not work;
7. Changing Nvidia settings (max pre-rendered frames to 1, force V-Sync off/on, etc.);

My rig specs are:

GTX 1060 6GB;
i7-7700HQ;
16GB 2133Mhz RAM;
1TB HDD 7200RPM (370 GB free space);
Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Editon (VN7-593G model)

I have seen many posts saying it overloads their CPU, but for me it's the GPU that's under constant load. I have tried quite a few things, and it started happening right before the last boss.. not fun.

I will try to download and install older Nvidia driver, but I don't have any hopes up. If you people have any more ideas, they are definitely welcome. Otherwise, I'd say FromSoftware must fix this.

In any case, I do hope the list of what I've tried helps some of you save time. You're welcome.

[隻狼]

Do these steps:

Method 1)
Open Nvidia Control Panel
Click on Manage 3D settings on the left bar
Click on the Program Settings tab
Locate Sekiro Shadows Die Twice from the drop down menu under “Select a program to customize”
If you cannot find it on the list then you need to add the .exe file manually
Click on Add
Locate the folder where you have installed Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Select the executable file or the .exe file which in this case should be ssdt.exe
Once added the program settings will now be available for Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Set Max Pre-Rendered Frames to 1
Set Monitor Technology to G-Snyc (if available)
Enable Threaded Optimization
Set Power Management to Highest Performance
Set Multi-Display/Mixed GPU Acceleration to Single display performance mode.

Method 2)

Start Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Now Alt+Tab out of the game
Open Task Manager by right clicking on the taskbar or by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Del
Click on Details tab
Search for the process or executable of Sekiro Shadows Die Twice from the list.
Right click on the process and Set Priority to High

If you already did these steps (unsure if you did all of these), we need to find the culprit somewhere else, so its best you report back.

[Prophet]

Alright, so I've also been having performance issues, and my story is a little bit more... peculiar..

I had purchased the game at the beginning of April, and had managed to play the vast majority of it with no issues, no frame drops or chugging of any kind. Got to the end game, was about to start fighting the Demon of Hatred and Sword Saint. This is when things started to get... strange. I think these issues popped up around Friday of last week, so around the 19th or thereabouts.

For no notable reason the frame rate would dip for about a second or two. Framerate counter that shows in the bottom right corner (thanks GEForce Experience) shows it going down to mid 40s, but my ingame experience is a very noticeable chug.

This is using a i7 9700k and a RTX 2080

Also for what it is worth, I tried the steps that Thief Avatar suggested, with no change in game performance.

[隻狼]

Originally posted by Prophet:

Alright, so I've also been having performance issues, and my story is a little bit more... peculiar..

I had purchased the game at the beginning of April, and had managed to play the vast majority of it with no issues, no frame drops or chugging of any kind. Got to the end game, was about to start fighting the Demon of Hatred and Sword Saint. This is when things started to get... strange. I think these issues popped up around Friday of last week, so around the 19th or thereabouts.

For no notable reason the frame rate would dip for about a second or two. Framerate counter that shows in the bottom right corner (thanks GEForce Experience) shows it going down to mid 40s, but my ingame experience is a very noticeable chug.

This is using a i7 9700k and a RTX 2080

Also for what it is worth, I tried the steps that Thief Avatar suggested, with no change in game performance.

Users reported to solve this issue to unplug Wifi Connections and play offline.
Try that and see if there is a difference.
As with everything, problems that seem random, still have an issue somewhere and demand research (try and error)
That is why its important to do these steps one by one and see if that changes something.

[ReLaxative]

Originally posted by 隻狼:

Do these steps:

Method 1)
Open Nvidia Control Panel
Click on Manage 3D settings on the left bar
Click on the Program Settings tab
Locate Sekiro Shadows Die Twice from the drop down menu under “Select a program to customize”
If you cannot find it on the list then you need to add the .exe file manually
Click on Add
Locate the folder where you have installed Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Select the executable file or the .exe file which in this case should be ssdt.exe
Once added the program settings will now be available for Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Set Max Pre-Rendered Frames to 1
Set Monitor Technology to G-Snyc (if available)
Enable Threaded Optimization
Set Power Management to Highest Performance
Set Multi-Display/Mixed GPU Acceleration to Single display performance mode.

Method 2)

Start Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Now Alt+Tab out of the game
Open Task Manager by right clicking on the taskbar or by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Del
Click on Details tab
Search for the process or executable of Sekiro Shadows Die Twice from the list.
Right click on the process and Set Priority to High

If you already did these steps (unsure if you did all of these), we need to find the culprit somewhere else, so its best you report back.

I did those as well. Did not help. I can't, regretfully, remember if these stutters started to happen after a certain update or some other change I made. It's always best to start from where it messed up.

[ReLaxative]

Originally posted by Prophet:

I had purchased the game at the beginning of April, and had managed to play the vast majority of it with no issues, no frame drops or chugging of any kind. Got to the end game, was about to start fighting the Demon of Hatred and Sword Saint. This is when things started to get... strange. I think these issues popped up around Friday of last week, so around the 19th or thereabouts.

It started just a few days ago for me, I'll see when the game and Nvidia were updated.

Update: apparently the update went live on 23rd, around the same time this started to happen. So I'm pretty sure this is the culprit. Now, whether it can be fixed by us or does it need another patch to patch this patch is another question. I hope it's the former.

[ReLaxative]

Originally posted by 隻狼:

Users reported to solve this issue to unplug Wifi Connections and play offline.
Try that and see if there is a difference.
As with everything, problems that seem random, still have an issue somewhere and demand research (try and error)
That is why its important to do these steps one by one and see if that changes something.

Well, tried that just now. Steam offline, then Wifi, doesn't change a thing. Was worth a shot, though. And yes, as painful as it is, I do it step by step.

[Prophet]

Originally posted by v3n0m:

Originally posted by 隻狼:

Users reported to solve this issue to unplug Wifi Connections and play offline.
Try that and see if there is a difference.
As with everything, problems that seem random, still have an issue somewhere and demand research (try and error)
That is why its important to do these steps one by one and see if that changes something.

Well, tried that just now. Steam offline, then Wifi, doesn't change a thing. Was worth a shot, though. And yes, as painful as it is, I do it step by step.

That really is the only way to diagnose issues.. I remember back in late december I built a computer from scratch and it would freeze within 3 hours of boot - reliably. Identifying which part was faulty was a headache and a half. As it turns out, was a single ram stick. Keep at it, either whatever is happening will get fixed up and go away or you'll identify the issue and fix it yourself (or give up, you know, one of those 3 things)

[隻狼]

Originally posted by v3n0m:

Originally posted by 隻狼:

Users reported to solve this issue to unplug Wifi Connections and play offline.
Try that and see if there is a difference.
As with everything, problems that seem random, still have an issue somewhere and demand research (try and error)
That is why its important to do these steps one by one and see if that changes something.

Well, tried that just now. Steam offline, then Wifi, doesn't change a thing. Was worth a shot, though. And yes, as painful as it is, I do it step by step.

Originally posted by v3n0m:

Originally posted by Prophet:

I had purchased the game at the beginning of April, and had managed to play the vast majority of it with no issues, no frame drops or chugging of any kind. Got to the end game, was about to start fighting the Demon of Hatred and Sword Saint. This is when things started to get... strange. I think these issues popped up around Friday of last week, so around the 19th or thereabouts.

It started just a few days ago for me, I'll see when the game and Nvidia were updated.

Update: apparently the update went live on 23rd, around the same time this started to happen. So I'm pretty sure this is the culprit. Now, whether it can be fixed by us or does it need another patch to patch this patch is another question. I hope it's the former.

Thanks for your reply.
Okay as it seems your problem lies with the new update then.
Everything worked fine under update 1.02, is that correct?
If that is the case you can try something:

I run the game with the following modifications:

a) Widescreen Mod and b) Texture Removal Mod (you dont have the colour blocks in the corners when in stealth or wounded)

As weird as this might sound as you probably dont have a widescreen i like you to test the previous version. Its just to make sure that you have no problems under 1.02.
This version is the modified 1.02 exe.
Make sure that you copy your sekiro.exe beforhand, replace it by this one and start the game.
Look if this changes something.
If not, you can replace your copied sekiro.exe back into the folder and we see what we can do from there.

Here is the direct link from Widescreen Forum:
http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=33066&hilit=sekiro&start=50

Here is the exe you should try:
www.wsgf.org/f/u/contrib/dr/29717/hacks/sekiro_v3.7z

[ARES]

1060 is not op enough. that's why you got low fps.
time to upgrade to rtx 2060 or gtx 1080 , no worries about fps in 1080p.
solved :)
you no need to do anything except change a gpu :)))
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sekiro+shadows+die+twice+rtx+2060

[HighLanderPony]

I get silky smooth perfomance aside from some occasional hiccups (which only came after some update) on a gtx 970. So you definitely don't need a 1060 minimum.

[ReLaxative]

Originally posted by HighLanderPony:

I get silky smooth perfomance aside from some occasional hiccups (which only came after some update) on a gtx 970. So you definitely don't need a 1060 minimum.

Agreed, I have been playing on max settings before with no problems. So that's definitely not the issue

[Zarjinn]

I still get fps drops (from 60 to 45) only in certain places, like ashina's castle or in fountainhead palace, or when I go underwater. CPU and GPU only reach 60% of usage max, so that's not a bottleneck I suppose. Unfortunately, I've tried everything (from Intel Turbo Boost disabling on bios, to Kaldaien's SK) but nothing solved my problem. In other areas I don't have so much drops, framerate is usually stable, 60 to 58 fps.

[Lurk]

You can go underwater?!?

[Zarjinn]

Originally posted by Lurk:

You can go underwater?!?

woops, sorry for the spoiler, didn't think was a big thing

[Prophet]

Alright, so maybe here would be an alright place to ask, since people are already trying to offer help..

It seems my problems are not isolated to Sekiro, and while I only notice it in games, it might be happening in other programs as well. It seems that periodically my machine kind of stutters or chugs for a moment and then smooths out for a bit. I've turned Sekiro settings to minimum, still happens. I just opened Resident Evil 2 and left it on the menu (happened there as well), and also in a Visual Novel. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could go about identifying the problem?