[FIX GUIDE] Solve Shader-Related FPS Drops & Lag Spikes in Path of Exile 2 (PC)

Hey Exiles,

Its TwitchTvMaxlMantisGer with my first greater guide on how to fix lag problems in poe2.

Over the past few days, I’ve been struggling with heavy FPS drops and stuttering in Path of Exile 2, especially when encountering Breaches, Boxes, rare monsters or dense packs. Even outside of combat, the performance was inconsistent. After some deep digging and trial-and-error, I found a solution that significantly improved my performance — and hopefully, it helps some of you too.

🧪 How to Tell if You Have Shader-Related FPS Drops
Press F1 in-game to show the performance graph.

Go to Options → Graphics and set Graph Details to “All Graphs”.

Look at the Shader graph in the top right.
→ If you see constant spikes when engaging enemies or entering new areas, it’s likely the shader cache is your culprit.

✅ Step-by-Step Fix (NVIDIA, Windows 10/11) ((For AMD you have to do the steps with AMD settings))



1. Clear Shader Cache
Go to:
%APPDATA%\Path of Exile 2\

Delete any folders starting with:
ShaderCacheVulkan or ShaderCacheD3D.

2. Increase Shader Cache Size (NVIDIA)
Open NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings.

Scroll to Shader Cache Size and set it to 100 GB.

(Default is often too low and causes cache flushing.)

Click Apply.

3. Force High-Performance GPU in Windows
Search for "Graphics Settings" in the Windows Start Menu.

Under Graphics performance preference, choose “Desktop app”.

Click Browse, and add both:

PathOfExile.exe

PathOfExile_x64.exe
(Or whatever the PoE2 executables are named.)

After adding them, click on each entry → Options → set to High performance (should list your dedicated GPU, e.g., “NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super”).

🔁 Final Step: Restart PoE2
After doing all of the above, restart the game. In my case, shader spikes disappeared and the framerate became much more stable — even in hectic combat or large maps.

🧠 Optional Tips:
Update your graphics drivers (clean install if needed).

Avoid switching between Vulkan and DirectX3D unless necessary.

Use an SSD (preferably NVMe) for PoE2 — shader load stutters are worse on HDDs.

Disable background apps that may interfere (like Razer Cortex, overlays, etc.)

If this helped you, feel free to share your results or post any alternative fixes you’ve found for PoE2 stutters — let’s help the community enjoy smoother gameplay! 🙌

Add me on Twitch.tv/MaxlMantisGer to talk with me or share your experiences.

Stay sane,
Exile