Shaders/DirectX12 huge FPS drop.

EDIT 18.11.2025:
In an attempt to fix the problem, I deleted all the files in AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache. And guess what? After half an hour of playing PoE, not a single new file appeared in that folder. Could it be that PoE isn't using the NVIDIA cache at all?

Driver 566.36, if that matters.

And yes, the bug is still there.


EDIT 16.11.2025:
I decided to test other driver versions since GGG doesn't want to do anything.

566.36
576.28

No change, but the RAM isn't filling up as quickly and the game seems more stable. This just means the bug appears after 20-25 minutes, not 5-10. Could it be a memory leak? The problem is definitely on GGG's end.

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Original post:

I already created a thread, but support said I should post it here. People with more powerful PCs have the exact same problem.

CPU: i7-4790
GPU: 1050 2GB
RAM: 16GB DDR3
Windows 10, latest update.
Latest NVIDIA drivers (581.80), also tried 581.57.

Renderer: DirectX12
VSync: Adaptive
Triple-Buffering: Enabled
Antialiasing Quality: Off
Upscale Mode: NIS
Lighting: Shadows
Shadow Quality: Low
Sun Shadow Quality: Low
Number of Lights: Low
Bloom: 25%
Depth of Field: Disabled
Water Detail Level: Low
Texture Quality: Medium
Texture Filtering: 4x Anisotropic
Dynamic Culling: Enabled
Dynamic Resolution: Enabled
Multithreading: Enabled

Pre-3.27 is was more than playable, I don't remember my DPS ever dropping below 30-40, but wince 3.27 launch it's literally unplayable. I can play for 5-10 minutes and then suddenly textures become blurry, DRIVE graph shows 400-500 MB/s and my FPS drop from a stable 60 to <10.

Don't know why, but I can trigger this bug by opening inventory, Genesis Tree, Faustus, Stash, character menu (C) or alt-tabbing. See screenshot below.

I tried everything possible. Lowering my settings, delete cache, moving PoE cache folder on different SSD, setting High Performance for PoE in Windows. Literally zero changes.

Also for some reason, PoE uses all available (8GB instead of usual 5-6GB) RAM, but barely uses CPU and GPU. It starts from ~4GB and then goes up and up. This has never happened before.

Vulkan never worked properly on my PC. It had excellent performance, but after about five minutes, the screen would go black for a couple of seconds and I'd get an error and visual artifacts.

DirectX11 utilizes resources better in some ways, but it has major performance issues. What I mean is that the FPS drops with almost any interaction with mobs. Where DX12 shows 50-60 FPS, DX11 shows 20-30 FPS.

P.S. You can ignore VRAM:CRITICAL. The graph showed this in both 3.25 and 3.26, but there were no frame drops.

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you have shader issues. try clear the cache
%AppData%\Roaming\Path of Exile\ShaderCacheD3D12
change the cache size in Nvidia Control, settings, advanced, cache size (10GB)

start the app
enter to a map, wait for shader goes down
go

this worked for me on laptop

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MrOsi#2577 wrote:

you have shader issues. try clear the cache
%AppData%\Roaming\Path of Exile\ShaderCacheD3D12
change the cache size in Nvidia Control, settings, advanced, cache size (10GB)

start the app
enter to a map, wait for shader goes down
go

this worked for me on laptop

Did you read the post? I did all this on the first day.

Yes I've read your post and one step you forgot to do is changing the cache size which made a real difference for me.

But honestly, it's time to upgrade mate if you can afford it.
This games really requiers a better hardware.

I still have perfornace issues on my laptop (13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700H + NVidia RTX 4050)

increasing your cache size is not a very consistent fix, i assume someone with a higher end pc might get away with it but doesnt fix the underlying issue and will create a new one by putting your disk at risk of filling up

i get that this whole process of making a new thread and posting your specs is the procedure but anyone with eyes could simply just press F1 and look at the shader bar be full for 99% of play time to see the problem, really baffles me how we are almost 2 weeks into the league and this is the first acknowledgement ggg has given to this issue

i've been really heavily affected by this problem, have tried all the above fixes and increased my cache size and the problem persists, been monitoring forum posts and in the technical support section one in every five threads seems to be about this, i'm on a lower end pc but have played for years just fine. obviously fps do drop in the more heavy loaded content like blighted maps but 90% of the time i play at a pretty stable frame rate, ill post specs below just in case it helps get this fixed

GTX 1650 4GB
i5-9400F 2.9Ghz
16GB RAM DDR3
Windows 10
Latest NVidia Drivers (581.80)

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

bump

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

bump

What is the point of posting after the QA team have clocked out for the day at the end of the work week, and then proceeding to bump your thread twice within 24 hours?

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Sarno#0493 wrote:

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

bump

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

bump

What is the point of posting after the QA team have clocked out for the day at the end of the work week, and then proceeding to bump your thread twice within 24 hours?

If I want, I'll do it every hour. It's none of your business.

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

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Sarno#0493 wrote:

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

bump

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Deonix_#0855 wrote:

bump

What is the point of posting after the QA team have clocked out for the day at the end of the work week, and then proceeding to bump your thread twice within 24 hours?

If I want, I'll do it every hour. It's none of your business.

Baseg