Constant FPS degradation with time during a gameplay session

Hello,

I have faced a very strange performance problem: my FPS constantly degrades with time from ~100 on a fresh game start to ~30 after a hour or so of gameplay.

Most embarrassing thing is that CPU/GPU (F1) time does not change at all and both are around 3-7 ms. The network time is also very stable and does not change with time too.

No CPU/GPU overheat.

Tried Vulkan and DX12 - no diffs.

I use Default graphics settings, but I have tried to change the graphics settings - no diffs at all as well.

Tried to change servers, just in case - no diffs.

The performance on fresh game start:


And the performance 1.5 hours later:


My PC information:
OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU (Driver: GeForce Game Ready Driver 581.15)
RAM: 16 Gb

Is it a known issue ? Any workarounds ?

Thanks in advance!

My older post

"

I'm using RTX 3050Ti (laptop). I had issues with FPS degrading over time while playing PoE1 and PoE2 (from 144/100 FPS to 60/40 while in hideout after doing few maps/instances).

For me it was caused by NVIDIA Driver 577.00, 580.88, 580.97 and 581.15 (clean install through DDU)


I did not test 581.08 since I'm not interested in re-installing drivers another time).

Currently I'm using 576.88 (clean install through DDU) and both PoE1 and PoE2 no longer have problems with FPS degrading.


"Detected out-of-date GPU driver. Please update to latest version" message while launching PoE2 - ignore it, it works fine.

I suggest removing all PoE1 / PoE2 shader cache after clean installing new driver. Nvidia shader cache are automatically deleted upon using DDU. First maps/instances always will be laggy, since shaders are rebuilding.

That's highly peculiar.

When I hear "FPS gradually degrades", I think first both "overheating" and "memory leak." According to PoE's own metrics there's no memory leak - but I've love to see an independent source for what's going on in terms of both system RAM & your RTX 3060's VRAM.

One of the reasons I'm asking for that is I just... don't quite know whether I actually believe what it's trying to tell you. Your (sincerely very helpful, btw) screenshots appear to show the same character in the same place. Over the course of ~90 minutes, system memory usage has apparently changed from 4.2 GB to 1.6 GB. I mean; that's possible, but... why would that be the case?

---

Three other things come to mind;

• Is this while the laptop is plugged in or running on battery?
• Which Power Plan is configured in the Windows Control Panel?
• Is there any """helpful""" OEM software running which could be gradually making tweaks in the background to extend battery life? Does this persist in a Clean Boot?

"

Tortorion#2713 wrote:

My older post

"

I'm using RTX 3050Ti (laptop). I had issues with FPS degrading over time while playing PoE1 and PoE2 (from 144/100 FPS to 60/40 while in hideout after doing few maps/instances).

For me it was caused by NVIDIA Driver 577.00, 580.88, 580.97 and 581.15 (clean install through DDU)


I did not test 581.08 since I'm not interested in re-installing drivers another time).

Currently I'm using 576.88 (clean install through DDU) and both PoE1 and PoE2 no longer have problems with FPS degrading.


"Detected out-of-date GPU driver. Please update to latest version" message while launching PoE2 - ignore it, it works fine.

I suggest removing all PoE1 / PoE2 shader cache after clean installing new driver. Nvidia shader cache are automatically deleted upon using DDU. First maps/instances always will be laggy, since shaders are rebuilding.

Thank you very mush for sharing this! Much appreciated!

So, yes, I'm using the driver you listed as affected (581.15) and it could be the very same issue as your. Interesting enough, my desktop is not affected with the same driver version (though GPU is different - RTX 4080 Super). Taking into account that desktop is okay with same driver, I'm curious, is it possible to configure NVIDIA 3D settings/game graphics on laptop to get rid of this issue ?

"

Sarno#0493 wrote:

Over the course of ~90 minutes, system memory usage has apparently changed from 4.2 GB to 1.6 GB. I mean; that's possible, but... why would that be the case?

This is most likely just due to how game engine works. I don't know much about their engine but I do believe we just observed some kind of garbage collection in action.

I have just tested it and every fresh game start shows ~4.2 RAM usage right after character is loaded (I have used different characters in different locations).

As to the RAM/VRAM usage - I have Steam overlay with performance metrics enabled (Steam does not render it when taking screenshots, so it does not visible on my screenshots). According to these metrics, there were nothing unusual during the gameplay.

"

Sarno#0493 wrote:

Three other things come to mind;

• Is this while the laptop is plugged in or running on battery?
• Which Power Plan is configured in the Windows Control Panel?
• Is there any """helpful""" OEM software running which could be gradually making tweaks in the background to extend battery life? Does this persist in a Clean Boot?

* Laptop is always plugged
* Power plan is "Performance"
* No "helpful" software - I always do as much clean Windows setup as possible. The problem manifest itself even with a completely fresh boot.

This looks like the very same issue as Tortorion#2713 mentioned. The only things is that my desktop is not affected, while the very same driver version is used on both desktop and laptop.

I'm also affected by this, when I restart my game the fps its at 80 but it slowly drops to 20 after a map or two, after which I have to restart the game again. I'm on a laptop and also using 581.15

"

RVTenor#3443 wrote:

I'm also affected by this, when I restart my game the fps its at 80 but it slowly drops to 20 after a map or two, after which I have to restart the game again. I'm on a laptop and also using 581.15

So, it seems many players are affected. Would be nice to hear some feedback from GGG about this issue then. I have no problem with other games on this laptop, so ... it still could be a case that, at least partially, the problem is on the GGG side (not only due to the bad (?) driver)

BTW, RVTenor#3443, could you please share what GPU do you have ? I'm wondering if it is the RTX 3000 series issue ...

Anybody with laptop RTX 4000/5000 series card ? Do you have the issue ? Thanks in advance!

Same situation with i9-13900HX+RTX4080Laptop :(
Tried Vulkan and DX12 - no diffs.
Windows 11 64bit
Nvidia - 581.15

it's a 2070 card on a laptop