Alt-Tab FPS Drop - A Detailed Analysis

Hey all.

There are some threads floating around on FPS drops occuring in PoE when using Alt-Tab and going back to the game. I have the same problem. Similarly to other people experiencing this problem, going to town and back fixes the issue until I Alt-Tab again.

The main problem I have with this issue is that some Maps also see serious FPS drops after Alt-Tab. Sometimes I want to look up Boss fights or look up items I have up for trade on the forum. The issue causes me to loose a Map Portal, because some Maps are difficult enough as it is and this issue makes it even harder as I am sometimes lagging a lot more.

Here are two screenshots, the first when I have loaded up the game and go straight to Lunaris Temple level 2, the second when I Alt-Tab, then go back to PoE by clicking the PoE Icon on the Taskbar.







I decided to test it more thoroughly. Some additional details on the issue:


1. My system specifications:




2. The issue does not occur in all locations. I first noticed it in the forest zones in Act 2 and Lunaris Temple in Act 3, because it cut my FPS a lot (see Lunaris Temple screenshots above). Here is a list of all changes in all locations before and after Alt-Tab (Frame Time/FPS/Latency; before Alt-Tab values were obtained by going back to town first; values represent averages over 10 seconds while standing on the waypoint with no other players or mobs around; Bold locations indicate locations where FPS is ~50% lower or less after Alt-Tab; Underlined locations indicate locations where no noticeable FPS drops occured after Alt-Tab):





The worst location by far was The Blackwood in Act 2 (from 210 to 33 FPS before and after Alt-Tab). Act 3 contained the most locations with FPS drop issues. Surprisingly, The City of Sarn actually showed slightly increased FPS values, but this may be an artefact of less stable values after Alt-Tab.


3. I have tried to solve the issue by:




None of the above things worked, except the last. However, playing in Full Screen windowed mode causes my GPU to be 5-10 degrees higher continuously, even when I Alt-Tab (and the fan noise is quite loud as it is), so this is not an acceptable solution for me. Some efforts reduced the issue relatively (e.g. enabling Vertical Sync simply lowers my original FPS), but the issue always persisted in Fullscreen Mode.

The numbers could be a coincidence, but on first sight it looks like my FPS drops by a factor 3 in Lunaris Temple, while my latency and frame time increase by a factor 3. To me -as a total newbie on server architecture- this sounds like my PC is sending more information to the PoE servers after Alt-Tab, much like when you launch a second copy of the game. When I am Alt-Tabbed, the FPS drop is even worse for a moment as can be seen from the FPS line when I was Alt-Tabbed in The Blackwood (<20 FPS). When I return to the game, my FPS simply does not go back to earlier values, but returns to ~30 FPS instead of 200 FPS before Alt-Tab. Below screenshot shows these 3 situations as 1/3 of the graph in The Blackwood (after being in town; during Alt-Tab; returning to game from Alt-Tab).





I realize that moving around and testing all locations, memory gets filled up and emptied, which may affect the results seen, but this analysis is still detailed enough to hopefully shed some more light on the issue. I know GGG is working on fixing it, but perhaps players could join this quest :).


Thanks in advance!

Bump for justice.

Another bump to hopefully get some new insights.

have this problem too and it so annoying

WIN 8.1 x64

An easier way to reproduce the FPS-drops: Run game in window mode (fullscreen) and change your desktop resolution. Change resolution back to what it was before. FPS drop occurs. Zone anywhere. FPS drop is gone. Just an FYI.

I run in fullscreen windowed, and I get these FPS drops too...somewhat randomly although I am pretty sure they are related to me doing stuff outside of the PoE window. As I said I am fullscreen window mode, so I dont need to use alt tab (I have 2 monitors). But i will literally have to keep switching from my browser screen to PoE and back just to fix the FPS drops. Any ideas?

Hello,

we are 3 playing the game and we have this exact same problem. When ALT Tabbing, we randomly drop to 50 FPS constant. Windows 7 and AMD 7950 / 7970 cards.

Is there a fix somewhere?
Thx

I'm having the same issue. If I ALT+TAB (I was checking my GPU's temps) and resume the game, my FPS gets cut in half.

I thought it was my GPU at first, but now I know it isn't. Fix, please.. I just started playing :(
edit:
GPU=GTX 550 Ti (OC)
CPU=Athlon x4 750k (OC)
RAM=2x2GB, dual channel, 1866MHz
OS=Win7, 64bit.

Check CPU usage when those FPS drops occur. I bet you will be surprised.

Fix pls! :)