Game Freezing for 1-15 seconds multiple times per zone

Path of Exile 2 Freeze/Stutter Investigation Report

System Information

* CPU: Intel i7-8700K
* Motherboard: ASRock Z390 Extreme4
* BIOS: P1.60 (08/29/2018)
* GPU: ASUS Dual RTX 4070 OC
* RAM: 48 GB DDR4
* Storage: HP EX920 1TB NVMe SSD
* OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2
* Monitor: Acer H236HL (1920x1080, 60 Hz)

Issue Description

I experience intermittent freezes/stalls in Path of Exile 2. These are distinct from normal performance stutters caused by CPU load.

During these events:

* The game freezes completely for approximately 1-15 seconds.
* Audio freezes as well.
* When the game resumes, audio and game events "catch up" all at once.
* The server continues running while the client is frozen.
* The issue can occur during combat, menus, passive tree navigation, and general movement.
* Monster density increases the frequency of occurrence but is not required to trigger the issue.

Timeline

* The game was significantly smoother for me during early Path of Exile 2 access.
* The issue began a few weeks into the 0.2 cycle.
* The issue has persisted through multiple patches and leagues since then.

Performance Monitoring Findings

I monitored the issue using:

* In-game performance graphs
* Windows Task Manager
* HWiNFO64
* LatencyMon
* Resource Monitor

Observations:

* Some normal combat stutters correlate with CPU spikes and are expected.
* The major freeze events do NOT consistently correlate with CPU saturation.
* CPU, GPU, and network graphs often appear normal immediately after the freeze.
* Audio freezes during the event, indicating the entire client appears to stall rather than just rendering.
* GPU utilization is generally low when freezes occur.
* Temperatures are normal.
* No thermal throttling is occurring.
* No RAM exhaustion is occurring.
* NVMe storage is not saturated during the events.

Testing Performed

GPU / Driver Testing

* Originally experienced on GTX 1060.
* Upgraded to RTX 4070.
* Issue persisted unchanged.
* Performed clean NVIDIA driver installs.
* Tested multiple NVIDIA driver versions.
* No meaningful improvement.

Rendering Tests

* Tested DirectX 12.
* Tested Vulkan (lower FPS and freezes still occurred).
* Tested DLSS enabled and disabled.
* Tested VSync modes.
* Tested Borderless Windowed and Exclusive Fullscreen.
* Tested NVIDIA Reflex.
* Tested Triple Buffering.

Results:

* Triple Buffering OFF provided some improvement.
* All other rendering changes failed to eliminate the freezes.

Shader Testing

* Deleted shader cache and allowed shaders to rebuild.
* Revisited previously loaded zones after shader compilation.
* Freezes continued to occur even after assets had already been loaded.

Network Testing

* Network latency increases slightly during freezes but is not the primary graph spike.
* The issue does not appear to be caused by ordinary network lag.

Latency Testing

* LatencyMon reports the system is suitable for real-time audio.
* No significant DPC latency issues detected.
* No problematic drivers identified.

Current Assessment

I believe there may be a Path of Exile 2 client stall or engine-level issue affecting my system configuration.

Reasons:

* Issue began during the 0.2 cycle.
* Issue survives GPU upgrades and driver changes.
* Issue survives shader rebuilds.
* Issue affects menus and passive tree screens in addition to combat.
* Audio freezes together with the game client.
* Monitoring does not indicate traditional CPU, GPU, memory, storage, thermal, or network bottlenecks during the major freeze events.

I can provide screenshots of:

* In-game performance graphs
* Task Manager CPU monitoring
* HWiNFO sensor data
* LatencyMon results
* Resource Monitor activity

if needed.