Major skipping.

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.70 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

I haven't been able to play this game for many years now. I recently "upgraded" my 14 year old pc, and unfortunately, it hasn't changed anything.

My framerate is just awful. It randomly skips constantly even in the very first zone with no enemies on screen. God forbid more than a few enemies show up.

I don't get how it can be this bad. And nothing seems to help. I've tried everything in the settings.

I just recently switched from a mechanical hard drive to a solid state drive, and upgraded my graphics card from bad to at least better than it was.

I can play Diablo 4 just fine. But I haven't been able to play this game ever since nightmare and hell were removed and the full 10 acts were implemented. I don't remember what date that started. It wasn't completely bad at first. I'd be able to complete the game and only have issues in certain areas with lots of enemies, meaning maps. I couldn't do maps after completing the 10 acts, so I just stopped playing. Now I can't even get past the first zone without major frame drops/skipping. The game is completely unplayable.

What can I possibly do to help my situation? What piece of hardware do I need to buy?

It seems to be the CPU that is the problem. It spikes. IDK how to fix it.

did you try dx12 ?