Will SSD fix my framerate issues? PLZ help

most of time game runs flawlessly - i have FPS capped artificially (via Radeon Pro) to 32 (i get strange high tearing on 30/40, thats why 32 - no tearing with that setting) and game runs with stable FPS even with 30+ mobs on sreeen and effects spam in typical combat (solo/2 ppl party but its ok - o sont play in bug parties). So no problem here.

BUT!

I have constant freezes and heavy stuttering (it really looks like HDD access type of FPS loss for me tbh... i always thinks that its radeon issue but atm im confused) in very specific circumstances, for example:

- first skill use after map loading (not all skills but most of them.. some bigger freeze, some barely noticeable)
- first skill use on blue/yellow mob hit (even 1 sec of TOTAL FREEZE with... Heavy Strike for example)
- monsters skill use (for example Chatters Glacial Strike = freeze first time he uses it, or Piaty/staues Cold Arrow.. but even Ligtning arrows frezes - but much less, Discharge mobs are 100% freeze always - rare ones much longer freeze)
- heavy stuttering on some types of blue/yellow mobs - whan i approach packs (some stutters like its background heavy loading, some not.. some auras stutters - nome not).
- same stuttering on bosses approaching and bosses first skill use and bosses/mobs that 'ememrge' or go from idle -> fight (for example bandidts stutters after fight starts or Piety Crematorium - very heavy there)

Overall - game goes crazy when rare mobs is near, espacially if he has exclusive skills that was not used before in map.

In 99% cases after short time (or one-two skill use) FPS spikes/freeze are gone and FPS is stable 32 until fight end (for example Piety may spam cold arrow all day and its perfectly fluid).

Will SSD fix this? Its look to me like HDD access issue... (i use rly old HDDs tbh) but tbh i dont know. Maybe its my Radeon card? But game runs perfect even in big zergs and in heavy shadowed areas (forests, etc...).
Is this some kind of preloading issue with game? I thought that they fixed this with game size cut and now game should preload all effects/shaders etc...

I tried creating RAMDISK for 'Shadercache' folder (i have 4GB of RAM only so i cant make RAMDISK for whole game) - its better but issue still is there.

Why i ask this when SSD is overall good PC upgrade? Because im bored with modern games and i play basically nothing but PoE and some old HNS games and old RPG and strategies (Heroes 3).
SO im happy with my rig and im happy with overall performance in other games i play.
I havent planned any upgrades to this rig ever.
But if SSD will fix PoE issues i will buy it. But if not i dont need it. Thats why im asking.
Also i read that SSD works wonders in POE.

Thx for help.

Its the card that i think PoE hates the most (hehe): (Gainward) Radeon HD4850 1GBDDR5.
I used 12.6, 13.1, 13.4 drivers - no differences. Also Catalyst settings have no effect on this specific issues (i can get lower/faster overall framerate with for example Catalyst AI or Flip Queue Size settings but freezes persist no matter what).

Thats why im not sure its GPU or old crappy HDD. But card looks more than capable to run this game tbh (in pure computing power)... i have perfect (32c apped) FPS with Max textures, max shadows, medium FSAA and 16 anizo + postprocessing enabled most of the time. If i go to lowest settings i can get even 100+ FPS in crowded fights. Its old card but its capable to run PoE in my resolution (1400*900)

Like i say these freezes are very specific and confusing.

Also my load times are long (especially initial boot screen) so maybe its HDD/preloading issue after all...


PS. I just do quick run in Wastern Forest - most of the time perfect stable 32 fps but... FIRST exploding mob effect - 1 second freeze (game just STOPS), next ones (no matter how much at once) - perfectly stable and fuild.
Alira - first corpse explosion - game stips for 1 sec, next ones are fluid.


Srsly.. this is so weird. I think game have serious loading issues (it looks like loading new effect to RAM just STOPS everything else including rendering etc..). Funniest thing is that some skiills are unnafected. Its just a mess and i dont think that even 6 SSDs will fix my case :(. MAybe its CPU related? Its AMD too... Athlon x64 2x3,0Ghz. Also i think it shoubl be more than capable of running this game.

This issues happens before (for example discharge or ice shot lags always since implementation) but tbh i dont remember that they are so strong. I would not spend 115USD on this game if they are so strong before. :/


Cant you just change that game preloads everything when map is loaded? It will help a lot i think.

May i also add: remove --nopreload command line argument from client.exe shortcut (if it's there)

Technically, this "--nopreload" launches the game without any "memorized" graphical effects, and all this stutterings happens (as i can read from OP post; and as i know from my experience of using this "--nopreload") when anything is "used" for the first time.
This may be the issue. Removed argument - game runs perfectly.

It wont fix ur FPS.
Doesnt matter what You running at , 2x Titans + 2 Xeons etc.
Doesnt matter if its 5400RPM HDD or M.2.
The only difference is the loading times from zone to zone, nothing else.

"

r3fLuX wrote:

The only difference is the loading times from zone to zone, nothing else.

Not quite true, the game loads assets on the fly, to do so it needs to access your HDD and load it to ram when the assets are needed.
Changing to a SSD or M.2 drive will reduce the duration of any asset loading freezes.

The game also freezes when it is suffering from latency or packet loss though.

Depending on how long the freeze is you can tell the difference visually, check the build of the week videos, the still but moving images at the start of them, if that is what the game dose for you then it's a latency problem, if everything has stopped then it's asset loading.

Anyway you are replying to a thread that is 3+ years old and the game has undergone many changes in the way it loads assets.

SSD will help frame rate stuttering only if your current drive is defective. SSD offers no FPS benefits even over a 5400RPM HDD.

Loading times will be close to instant but besides that you won't notice any difference