[macOS Critical] 3 FPS on M1 ULTRA (64GB RAM) @ 1080p - Severe Engine Failure

Hi GGG Support & Dev Team,

I am writing to report a catastrophic performance failure on the macOS client. This is NOT a low-spec hardware issue.

I am running the game on an Apple M1 Ultra with 64GB of Unified Memory, connected to a standard 1080p monitor. This machine handles 8K video editing and heavy 3D rendering effortlessly, yet Path of Exile runs like a slideshow.

The Evidence (See attached screenshots): While running a standard T16 Map with Blights/Hive:

1.FPS: Drops to 3 FPS.
2.CPU Frame Time: Spikes to 400ms (See graph). The CPU is essentially locking up processing frames.
3.GPU Utilization: Often reads "N/A" or shows minimal usage, indicating the game is severely CPU-bound or failing to utilize the M1 Ultra's GPU cores via Metal.
4.Settings: I am playing at 1080p.


My Hardware Specs:
Chip: Apple M1 Ultra (20-core CPU, 48/64-core GPU)
RAM: 64GB Unified Memory
Display: 1920x1080 (External)
OS: macOS Tahoe 26.1

The Issue: For a flagship chip like the M1 Ultra to perform worse than an integrated Intel graphics card from 2015 is unacceptable. The Mac client seems completely unoptimized for high-core-count Apple Silicon chips, potentially suffering from severe thread management issues or memory leaks (Game using 6.3GB+ RAM for one instance).

To add insult to injury, critical settings like "Dynamic Resolution" are missing from the UI, leaving us with no way to mitigate these engine stalls.



Regards.

"

ariyako#7104 wrote:

1.FPS: Drops to 3 FPS.

What does the FPS look like prior to that?

If you give the game long enough, does performance eventually recover? If you restart the game client, does the issue immediately re-emerge, or take time to be reproduced?

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ariyako#7104 wrote:

or memory leaks (Game using 6.3GB+ RAM for one instance)

There is nothing abnormal about that.

Over on Windows, GPUs have been sold with 8 GB VRAM buffers for a decade - and that's ignoring any system RAM also utilised by the game. Complaining about a total of ~7 GB of unified memory being used by the game and alleging a memory leak speaks to unreasonable expectations.

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Sarno#0493 wrote:

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ariyako#7104 wrote:

1.FPS: Drops to 3 FPS.

What does the FPS look like prior to that?

FPS prior to the drop: In my Hideout or an empty map section, the FPS is stable at 60 FPS (I have capped it to 60 in settings to be safe). The gameplay is smooth until a mechanic is triggered.


If you give the game long enough, does performance eventually recover? If you restart the game client, does the issue immediately re-emerge, or take time to be reproduced?

It only recovers after the mobs are dead or the encounter ends. While the mechanic is active (e.g., while the Blight mobs are spawned or Hive/Legion is active), the FPS stays at single digits (3-5 FPS) and does not improve by "waiting it out". It feels like the CPU is choking on the calculations rather than loading assets.