Updated performance guide for 2021 (standalone client)
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Tala Moana, Exile.
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Please note that as I got fed up with GGG/Tencent and the way they are devolving their product, I no longer both play and pay attention to replies in my threads (including this one).
In this comprehensive tutorial, I will provide as many possible solutions to improving game stability and FPS increases as possible. The last guide on the forums dates back to 2018, and I have to admit it is "a tad" outdated. I have checked every corner of the game, GPU and OS settings to ensure maximum performance, and today I have finally had a 100% smooth endgame map run with a still decent-looking and sounding game. Why sounding, you may ask? We'll get that later in the guide.
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The below guide is based upon the following system specs and what I was able to achieve with it:
OS: Win 10 Pro CPU: Ryzen 7 2700x, non-OC GPU: GF GTX 1070 RAM: 16GB 3000 mHz CL15 SSD: M.2 Samsung EVO 970 PLUS With the below changes, I achieved smooth gameplay at stable 60 FPS. This does not include party play, so be aware of that fact. Please note that this guide is aimed at Windows 10 users. I have no way of checking or even remembering how some of the options looked like or where they were located on Win 7. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1: Game Settings a) In-game video settings:
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Depending on your rig, you may or may not want to run the highest settings. However, for best performance, just set everything on low / lowest possible.
Mid-2020 update: Of course enable Dynamic Culling to reduce skill effect clutter and try using Vulkan renderer to see if it helps out. In my case, Vulkan runs worse than DX11 at the moment. For me the below settings work best while still maintaining a relatively pretty-looking game: Mode: Fullscreen VSync: Enabled Lighting: Shadows Shadow quality: Low Sun shadow quality: High Number of lights: Medium Post processing: Enabled Water detail level: Low Texture quality: High Texture processing: Trilinear Dynamic Resolution: Enabled Target framerate: 60 FPS Engine multithreading: Enabled NEW: Reduce bloom to minimum Enable effect culling b) Audio settings (config file)
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Some time ago, exiles discovered that audio is one of the biggest foes of achieving maximum performance and stable FPS. It appears that the audio engine is really poorly optimized, and a lot of the sound processing job is done by the actual CPU and not the audio chip.
With the current state of the game, where there's a lot happening on the screen audio-wise (there are way more monsters in packs than e.g. in 2013: new sounds, MORE sounds; you name it). To increase the performance: 1. locate your production_Config file in C:\Users\Your PC name\Documents\My Games\Path of Exile 2. Open the config file; by default it will be opened in notepad 3. Locate the [SOUND] section 4. set: channel_count=medium or channel_count=low music_volume2=false reverb_enabled2=false ambient_sound_volume2=false dialogue_sound_volume2=false Keep volume on its specific number for master_volume2, filter and chat notifications, as well as sound effects. What this does is allowing the game to actually generate sounds and to be processed (master volume), but disabling just the specific sounds from being processed. This greatly reduces your CPU usage and improves your general performance. WARNING: Entering the audio settings in game will reset your config file changes you've just made! The biggest boost is, however, reducing the channel count. The game sounds really clunky on low, but medium seems to work generally well. To squeeze out the most performance, however, set it to low. While you are in your config file, also make sure that directx_version is set to 11 if your GPU supports it. c) Shortcut and .exe settings
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Make sure that your desktop shortcut uses the x64 bit .exe file as the default app to run the game. I honestly assume everyone has a 64-bit CPU by now.
The path should end with: "(...)\Path of Exile\PathOfExile_x64.exe" With the actual x64 client, go to the noted above game directory and edit the _x64 executable. Right click on it, go to properties -> compatibility: 1. Run this program as administrator 2. Disable fullscreen optimizations 3. Change high DPI settings -> override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by: Application Section 2: GPU Settings
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No matter which GPU you are running, always make sure your performance options are set to Maximum Performance, and are NOT controlled by the application. For Radeon users, this option will be called Override App. Settings.
This includes any instance of antialiasing (should be OFF) and power consumption modes set to High Performance. You can make a separate profile for the x64 application we talked about earlier, but for general use, just change the global settings. You can always revert them back to default. Section 3: CPU / Windows Settings: a) CPU settings
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1. Go to Windows' Power Options 2. Make sure you have selected High-performance plan 3. Go to Change plan settings 4. Locate Processor power management 5. Make sure both min and max values are set to 100%. This will ensure POE will always utilize your CPU to the fullest, even if the app thinks it is not necessary. We all know it is. b) Windows "Game Mode" (game bar)
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This is one of the most ridiculous features added to Windows in one of the recent releases. It does not benefit the game's performance at all, but it utilizes our CPU and RAM. Thus being said, it needs to be disabled.
1. Go to regedit (Windows + R -> type regedit) 2. Type in the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar 3. Locate registry entry called AllowAutoGameMode and double click on it 4. Set Value to 0 (make sure base is set to Hexidecimal) c) Adjusting Windows Performance Options
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Go to your start menu and type in adjust the appearance and performance of windows Disable whatever you deem is not necessary for your everyday PC usage and click Apply The above will ensure Windows doesn't use your CPU/GPU to render pointless stuff. Remember Windows Vista? Yeah, that thing had some power-hungry visuals. d) Enabling hidden "Ultimate Performance" power plan for Win 10 Pro
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This hidden power plan allows to better utilize power consumption to feed your hardware the necessary juices. 1. Open the Start menu and type cmd in the search bar. Right-click on the Command Prompt app and select Run as Administrator to proceed. 2. Type the command below in the Command Prompt window and press Enter. powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61 3. The system will display the Power Scheme GUID and this would confirm that the changes have been successfully made. Now the Ultimate Performance power plan can be selected from the Power Options menu under the Show additional plans tab. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 4: Miscellaneous Settings and Optimizations
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1. Set your POE client to High Priority - Go to Task Manager via ctrl + shift + esc - Go to Details - Right click your POE client process -> Set Priority -> High Advanced users may create a .bat file that will do it for them automatically when exe file is started. I will not provide a guide for that as I do not want to be held responsible for any damage. If you'll experience downgrade in performance, restart your client or change it back to normal settings. 2. Trim your SSD regularly. If your game is not running off an SSD, you should install it on one. Read times are extremely important, and SSDs, especially nVMEs are vastly superior to HDDs. 3. Shut down your browser, or at least tabs that run POE-related websites like poe.trade, poelab and poedb. Those sites seem to try to constantly load new ads, even though your adblockers are disabling them. It will increase your CPU and RAM load each and every time. Not by much, but it counts. poelab is also notorious for high traffic usage; so it may also affect your ping. This is by no means an anti-ad for these websites. I love those tools and I understand that majority of money to uphold the domain name and web hosting comes from running ads. 4. Shut doown any unnecessary process that is high on the RAM and CPU usage. This can be done via Task Manager. 5. Disable Superfetch (SysMain) - Press WINDOWS + R - Type in services.msc - locate SysMain and double click on it - set Startup type to Disabled 6. Restart your game from time to time Unfortunately the game is suffering from major RAM leakage as of patch 3.9. The longer your game runs, the higher RAM it will consume. It was never as bad as of this game version. A full client restart will purge your RAM and return it to a playable state. The guide seems to still be valid in 2021. Sitting in HO spamming alts for 4 hours straight is peak PoE gameplay. Thanks, Chris. Last edited by Ydoum on Dec 17, 2021, 6:46:55 AM Last bumped on Apr 2, 2024, 1:41:49 PM
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Thanks mate, very nice guide.
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" You're most welcome. Unfortunately 3.10 did not fix most of the issues that we're suffering from since 3.9 (e.g. massive RAM leak). Sitting in HO spamming alts for 4 hours straight is peak PoE gameplay. Thanks, Chris.
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Most earlier guides I've seen suggest using one or several launch options as well. Most commonly --noasync for example.
Surprised to not see anything about these in your post. Did you not look into this approach or do you have evidence of these not providing improvements? | |
" I tried --noasync on my setup and it did not improve the performance at all. In fact, it vastly increased loading times and didn't affect FPS at all. Sitting in HO spamming alts for 4 hours straight is peak PoE gameplay. Thanks, Chris.
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my DX version is on "auto"
what should i put there to make it DX11(just in case)? d:-D*
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" i think --noasync etc only really helps people with hard disks and really slow cpu's(dual-core). for me it also didnt help with the near-freezes that i get everytime i pop a legion... i also get same beheivor on some random packs on a random map, like i can do 3 maps without a hitch and then just hit that 5-15FPS "mark" oddly enough i can do most breaches and blights unless the map has beyond active. d:-D*
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What's the point in disabled ambient and dialogue when sound effects coming from skills/hits etc are the most cpu consuming ones? Might as well leave it as it is.
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" Because the less sounds the CPU has to process, the better the end result. It's that simple. Sitting in HO spamming alts for 4 hours straight is peak PoE gameplay. Thanks, Chris.
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" You should be able to prevent this by setting the file to read only after you've got it edited how you want. Or that could just cause you to crash upon entering the audio menu....but setting config files to read only worked great at trying to get RDR2 to stop messing up its own settings. I'll test this for sure when I get home... Last edited by Gravedancer on Apr 9, 2020, 4:57:24 AM
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