Technical assistance requested: Performance issues and inquiry about optimization

Hello GGG,

I originally sent an email to support, but I was redirected here to report my issue on the forum. I am truly seeking your help as I've exhausted all other options.

I am writing to you because I am exhausted and truly need your help. Since the start of the 3rd league (The Third Edict), Path of Exile has become incredibly difficult to play due to frequent crashes to the desktop and severe performance drops. These issues occur everywhere: from the campaign acts to high-tier maps and the Vaal Temple.

I have already exhausted every known solution:

Clean installation of the latest GPU drivers.

Full game reinstallation and clearing shader caches.

Testing all available renderers (DX11, DX12, and Vulkan).

Implementing various launch parameters recommended by Reddit users.

Despite having a powerful PC, nothing has helped. This is devastating for me because I spend over 12 hours a day in the game and I don’t want to stop playing due to technical hurdles I cannot fix myself. Please, look at my game logs—you will see how many times I crash. My system becomes overloaded, the PC freezes, the game closes, and I have to restart over and over again.

In the community (forums, Steam, in-game chat), many players mention a third-party optimization tool (the so-called "smoother") that removes certain effects and corpse models to stabilize performance.

My question is: Am I allowed to use such a third-party tool if it is used exclusively for performance optimization and provides no competitive advantage?

I really need your help to find a way to improve performance so I can play without constant fear and anxiety. I want to enjoy the game without breaking your rules and, most importantly, without crashes. I decided to contact you directly for assistance in resolving these issues.

Thank you in advance for your time and for any help you can provide.

I see people post they have powerful pc's all the time, when in reality they mean a 5600x/16gb 3200mhz ram/8gb gpu. It would be helpful if you actually told people what your setup is. The game can easily get over 8gb vram depending on settings, so be mindful of that.