Terrible Performance since a few days

Hello,

I´m running on Windows 8.1 x64 on a Intel i5 655k@4.2GHz, 8 GB RAM and a NVidia GTX 460. I play PoE since open Beta, always smooth as silk (with VSync on capped at 60 FPS). The only time when my graphics card got a bit louder was on the Dominus fights, but I never had frame rate issues.

Now I did not play for 2 weeks or so now. But yesterday when I picked up the game again I found that in the Act 3 town my Frames did go down, especially when standing a few steps right of the chest. My frames fluctuated between 30 and 60 all the time. When I walked a bit to the outer areas of the town the frames went up to 60 again.
I did not care much about it, but then I started playing in the sewers. Depending on where I walked around the same thing happened. Sometimes it was silky smooth at 60, and sometimes frames just fluctuated between 30 and 60. It makes not difference if there are a lot of mobs or not, nor can I make out that it has something to do with some fancy visual effects.

But then it got worse. I left the sewers for the market place and there it started with 25-30 fps, just to go down a few seconds later to 10 fps. And it stayed there. Many mobs, no mobs. No difference. Windowed or Full Screen: No difference. Back to the Sewers: 60 fps. Back to the Marketplace: 25-30 and soon back to 10.

I cannot make out any problems on the other games I play, so I wonder if there were changes in one of the last one or 2 updates I may have missed which could lead to these problems?

Does somebody have any Ideas? I did not try to play on the PC of my wife yet. Usually we play together and she was an integrated Intel HD4000 which works surprisingly well. But I fear we can stop playing if she gets the same problem, because then her frames would be down to 1-5 probably when I compare the performance level on my PC at the moment :-(

Any help is appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!

Looks like nobody has an idea? I did some more testing, maybe it helps.
Even when I enter an area which runs with 60fps for me, when I go to the options and turn off vSync it goes down to 10-15 and even stays there when I turn vSync on again. Until I leave the area and enter the area again. Then it runs with 60 fps again.

When I´m running around in an anrea where the FPS are fluctuating or even staying at or below 30, no matter what I change in the graphics settings: It has no effect (apart from the even more massive drop when I turn off vSync).

I tried a lot of other games today also on the same HDD. And they all run as before. So I can only suppose that my Graphics card is still OK and not in the process of dying.
I even uninstalled PoE today and reinstalled it, but the problem persists. But I´m also not sure if I wiped out all the PoE settings (I only removed the PoE directory, but maybe there´s something stored in the registry or somewhere else on the HDD which would make sense to delete also?).

Thank you very much for your suggestions Yeran!

I did what you recommended. I used the --softwareaudio and then the --nosound. This makes no difference. I also looked in the NVidia Control Panel, but there´s not entry for Path of Exile. To be sure I downloaded the NVidia Inspector which also shows me the existing profiles to double check. No PoE in the list at all.

I also downloaded the Standalone installer from the PoE Website (I´m using the Steam Version usually) to rule out that Steam is causing problems. Same results.

Then I found out that the PoE settings are stored under My Documents\My Games. So I renamed that Directory which made PoE start with default settings (Windowed, 1024x768 etc.). Unfortunately it´s still the same.

Then I fired up the PC from my Wife (i3 with HD4000). She did not play for a few weeks, so I had to download the latest patches. Fired up the game and it runs as always. Of course she has lower settings than me, but it runs pretty stable at 60 fps as always (apart from the rainy areas). So no change on her side. For me, however, no matter what I tried improved performance. I can lower the graphics settings and resolution and get exactly the same FPS.

What I don´t understand at all is that I go down into the 10 / even single digit Frame rates from ~30 when I turn OFF vSync. It even stays there when I turn vSync on again and just gets better when I leave the area and come back again.
And all this does not happen in all areas and. The sewers for example does not seem to be a problem at all.

I know I cannot blame PoE alone! Because as I can see (with 2 PCs here in the house) that it only affects my game. But it also seems to affect only PoE on my PC and no other game. Since I also removed the PoE settings directory now and let it rebuild, I slowly run out of Ideas.
Next thing I could try not is to check if there´s a newer version for my graphics drivers. Maybe this will wipe out that single setting "somewhere" which is causing my problems.

If you have any more suggestions, no matter if they sound much logical or not, I´m willing to test it out (apart from reinstalling my OS at this moment) ;-)
Any ideas are appreciated, because I want to raceeee :-)

OK, I updated my Drivers now. The last ones I had where from April 2014. The new ones offered to me are from July 2014. I installed them and rebootet. And now in the nVidia Control panel there´s an entry for Path of Exile (Steam Version). I was confident that this will change something and it did.

It runs even worse. Now in Act 3 Town I cannot get more than 30 fps. If I go to the sewers, I can still get my 60 fps. Then I turn off vSync and I´m down to around 20-30. I leave the Sewers and go back to the Sewers: 80-90 fps. Turn vSync on again, 20-30 fps. Leave the sewers, access the sewers, steady 60 fps again.

But in town and Marketplace I´m happy to get 30 :-(

I don´t want to reinstall my whole OS, since there were not changes made since the last time PoE ran like everything else. So any Ideas what else I can "wipe" or "clean" which could affect the graphics performance of POE, especially in some areas?

I reverted back to the previous drivers now, since with the ones I downloaded with Windows Update (July Drivers), all other games had worse performance than before. So I reverted back to the old ones. Performance for all Games is great again, except PoE.

BUT! I played with the Shadow Quality again. Up to now I only set it to Low and High, but never to off. Low and High makes no difference at all (it should if it´s a GPU bottle neck, right?). But when I turn off the Shadows, I go back up to 60 fps again.

This means: When I lower the graphics settings to the same as on the PC of my wife with an HD4000 graphics, I get the same performance... with my GTX460. Yikes!

This vSync behaviour is still valid:

"

If I go to the sewers, I can still get my 60 fps. Then I turn off vSync and I´m down to around 20-30. I leave the Sewers and go back to the Sewers: 80-90 fps. Turn vSync on again, 20-30 fps. Leave the sewers, access the sewers, steady 60 fps again.

This behaviour clearly shows that something is fishy.

As you can see with the Graphics Drivers, I did not change anything for a long time. The only things which happen in my OS are the Patch Tuesdays and installing / uninstalling of some games (the latter one did not happen for quite a while).

I also keep an Eye on the nVidia inspector while running the game and I can see that the CPU clock is going up to max (as with every other Game too), so it switches from "low power Desktop mode" to "high power 3D Mode". Something which could be an issue, but it´s working as intended.


Did in one of the last PoE Updates something change in the rendering part? How Shadows are generated or something similar?

OK guys, next try then.
This morning I picked up a new HDD, so I don´t have to kill my current Windows Installation.
I made a brand new Windows 8 Installation with the latest NVidia Drivers for my GTX460 directly from the NVidia Homepage. I installed Steam + PoE and that´s it. Fresh System, new Graphics Drivers and nothing else installed than Steam and PoE.

It is still exactly the same. No change :-(

Can someone recommend a good Graphics Benchmark Tool which allows me to compare the performance of my GPU with others who have the same GPU? So I can check if it´s not my GPU slowly dying here (although Performance for all other Games is still great)?