Game is stuttering really badly recently.

Hello.
I've been regularly coming back to play PoE ever since beta. I've changed PC twice, i think, since the first time I've played the game. And i knew that PoE is not particularly great example of loading shaders on the fly - it was stuttering.
Seems to me that this issue is well-known by the developers since it was addressed in recent patches.

But here's the thing... It never was such big issue for me. Not until recently. For several days now stuttering became really bad. And today it was SO BAD that I had to stop playing because I was afraid that my HC character would just die while the game's chugging and trying to load new locations and effects.

I updated my graphics card drivers, just in case. And log in back in to the game to check if it made any difference... I went to my hideout and cast one of my auras. And the game froze for a second. And the same occurred for every other aura, spell and everything that I used. Every new player coming to the town freezes the game for a second. And in big encounters it freezes and stutters heavily.

My PC is reasonably powerful and it is crazy to think that PoE running as badly, if not worse, than on my old PC from 4 years ago.


Here's my PC specs and other information:
Intel Core i7-6700K 4.00 GHz
16 Gb RAM
AMD Radeon R9 390x 8Gb

DXdiag info: http://pastebin.com/nPHwURBn

I'm having issues too, even on the log in screen

You aren't the only one having "freeze" and "shuttering" issues!Strange.....just strange!

For the life of me I just can't figure this crap out! A year ago this game ran blazing smooth and fast on my current computer, now, after these expansions and bug fixes and upgrades the game is nearly unplaybale for me. Logging in is about 80% to 90% fine, nice, smooth and error free. But shortly after launching into the game and a couple minutes of game play my character gets stuck, freezes and about 4 to 8 seconds later there's motion on the screen again, but when the action resumes, it does so at fricking warp speed. It's like the game warps to try and catch up to itself some how.

This is very frustrating for me, because I feel like I'm kind of playing Russian Roulette with this game. For a while I'll keep my guard up awaiting the freeze problem and only attack small groups or single monsters. But when I drop my guard and go after the huge crowds, wouldn't you know it, the game says......"time to freeze up, be back in about 4 to 8 seconds"!

I've updated my Nvidia GeForce GTX 465 video card to the current drivers
I've upgraded my V.I.A. HD Audio Deck to the current drivers
I've upgraded my network adapter to the current drivers
I've run a very long and lengthly Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit update, no updates found.
I've upgraded my 2 Dell 24 inch monitors with the current drivers


Basic System Info...

Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit
Nvidia GeForce GTX 465 video card in a PCI-Express slot
8 Gig's of Patriot DDR-2 system RAM
Western Digital 500 Gig hard drive connected by way of SETA
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor @ 3.40 Gigs
Netgear A6210 WiFi USB-3.0 high speed network adapter
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit "User Experience Index" score of 5.9


I have no clue, I get going and start settling in playing, a couple minutes goes by, my mind thinks.....get ready....any moment now. I've made a lot of various changes with my video settings, thinking something about the video setting could have played a part in my current troubles, haven;t found a setting yet that keeps my game from freezing up! It's just a shame that this game once used to be smooth and fast and flawless, now, it's not! All my other on-line multiplayer games run perfectly, Call of Duty 4, World of Planes, World of Tanks, Star Trek Starfleet Command III and many more, all run perfect, it's only P.O.E. thats being the problem child.

These problems have now been well reported, these problems are being talked about within the games "Global chat" and nothing apparently is being done about them! But oh yeah, they want to show off "builds of the week", but their network issues, nope, not a word. This is by far the worst issue I've had to deal with in all the 3 years that I've been playing the game. My computer is "NOT" the issue, same computer, same setup and 3 years ago, 100% network/broadband speeds on my end, as it always has been. Just odd, 3 years ago, the game ran flawlessly, now, since all the "bells & whistles" the worst P.o.E. experience I've ever had. I'm almost afraid to jump in and play and lose any of little XP I have, for I've been struggling for nearly a year to get out of level 82 and become a level 83, now, I'm fearful and worried about losing it all. It's just sad, I totally love the game, ever since day one! I've invested both 100's and 100's and 100's of hours of my time and have even cracked open my wallet and invested money in the game. I just hope this gets fixed quick! If not, I'm possibly thinking about putting this game totally on the shelf and finding something new to play!

Yes, it's sad. I have only about 10-20% playable game and other 80% the game is totally unplayable:( Please fix performance! I supported this game, but now it's unplayable for me.