Game performance. Bad frame hitches

I bought the game after the free weekend because I thought it was a lot of fun, but unfortunately I've been getting really bad performance. The game seems to run fine for about 10 minutes, but then after that the stuttering begins. I'm not sure what causes the stutters but it seems to happen when an event in the game happens such as an explosion or gunfire or even if a character appears on screen. I have a good video of this occuring.
Youtube Video

Here are my in-game settings
https://imgur.com/rL5Qnt1
https://imgur.com/ALRdLzz

I tried doing 1 tweak in Nvidia control panel by changing 'Maximum pre-rendered frames' to 2, which seemed to have no effect. I also added -USEALLAVAILABLECORES to my launch options.
After I tweaked all of these settings, it did seem to improve my FPS, but the stuttering still occurs.

And here are my system specs
-Intel i7-4790k 4.0 GHz
-Asus z97 Pro Gamer LGA 1150 motherboard
-EVGA Supernova 750 80+ Gold power supply
-G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (4 x 4GB)
-Samsung 860 EVA Series 2.5'' 500gb Sata III SSD
-EVGA Geforce GTX 980 4GB

If you could let me know anything I would greatly appreciate it. I really want to enjoy playing this game!

last edited by knups

@knups This isn't microstutter, it's a slideshow.

@kanneltaja72 said in Game performance - micro stuttering:

@knups This isn't microstutter, it's a slideshow.

Lol yea I realized that after making the post... "probably shouldn't of called that micro stuttering"

I am guessing you are hitting max VRAM usage. Try changing texture streaming settings.

last edited by Grave

@GSG_9_LIGHTNING
@Grave
I tried both of your suggestions and I'm still getting freezes. Not quiet sure what else to do. Game is on potato settings but still hitches. Seems to be at its worst when I have a close encounter with an enemy such as in the video.

i face this all the time. whenever i see an enemy i stutter when ever explosions happen i stutter even slight differences in ping makes me stutter so much that i cant play. most of the time i just exit game because of these stutters

If a dev or someone else needs more information, please let me know. I'd be willing to test specifics so we can track this down. Seems to be affecting a decent amount of people.

@knups Did you try setting 'frame limiter' to 144 or lower (depending on what kind of FPS you normally get) . Leave 'frame rate smoothing' OFF.

Hello @knups,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Regarding the performance issue, did it happen on every map?
Can you also upload your DxDiag here, please?

Thanks in advance.

I've got a rig similar to you, I change my 970 for a 1070 and its a lot better.
Your GPU is too low for this game and you're VRAM sature this is why u get freezes.

You can try :

  • PHISYX set to CPU (reswitch to GPU if no better)in Nvidia control panel
  • Textures High/MED
  • Shadow LOW
  • Foliage LOW/MED
  • Effects LOW/MED
  • Ambient Occlusion OFF
  • Super Sampling OFF
  • Motion BLUR OFF
  • FRAME RATE SMOOTHER OFF
  • FRAME Limit to 90
  • Textures streaming pool High/Low but certainly not OFF(no limit VRAM usage)

The GTX 980 is literally the recommended setting on the steam page, so it really shouldn't be the GPU. I have a Ryzen 2600 and an RX 480 and the CPU limits my FPS on the settings I play on. For you it might be the same since your CPU is starting to get pretty old.

@ham-cucumber said in Game performance. Bad frame hitches:

The GTX 980 is literally the recommended setting on the steam page, so it really shouldn't be the GPU. I have a Ryzen 2600 and an RX 480 and the CPU limits my FPS on the settings I play on. For you it might be the same since your CPU is starting to get pretty old.

Dude, my CPU is even older than his and I manage to run the game fine with no sutters/freezes. I spend a lot of time trying to optimize this game and the last updates are the best for now. And yes this game is very CPU demanding but it got also a poor VRAM management.

@knups You juste have to find the good settings for you, its a balance problem for old rigs.

@knups I have i5 4690k at 4.8ghz and it will run game at 144+ fps. I put the frame limiter to 144 because I was getting the same kind of hitching as you and it helped. I still get the stuttering but no longer game breakingly bad. Also your cpu should get to 4.5-4.6 easily with slight overclock (obviously with decent cooling).

I used to have gtx 980ti and upgrade made virtually no diff on low graphics settings.

last edited by gprologitech