FPS in game constantly jumps between stable 120 and stable 60.

Hello there.

So here's the issue - when I launch the game, it's in stable 120 FPS, same as my monitor refresh rate.

After about a minute, the game randomly starts dropping that to 60 FPS - also very stable - without any particular reasons. It happens at random and lasts 1-15 seconds, usually, going back to 120 FPS after that.

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9NKeHFSRgE&feature=youtu.be

This is what I've tried:

- A completely fresh Windows install - that includes only installing audio drivers (since basic Windows 10 install doesn't have any default drivers for Creative cards), while keeping the default nVidia driver provided
- A fresh Windows install with updating all important drivers to their latest versions
- Same, while also using DDU for clean installation of the nVidia driver after full deinstallation of the windows default one
- Various combinations of Power Options for PC itself and the graphics adapter - starting with the default 'Optimal power' for both, and going all the way to 'Max performance' for both
- Playing around with W10 settings after the fresh install, turning off a lot of useless stuff

And many other things. These seem to be the most common suggestions, so I wanted to cover them first.

//EDIT: It seems I should've mentioned this earlier:

- With VSync off, the uncapped FPS never goes below 170, let alone 120
- Playing with VSync off is not an option


Please HELP.


//EDIT 2:

FINALLY FOUND THE CULPRIT. IF ANYONE HAS A SIMILAR ISSUE, HERE'S THE FIX THAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU.

As expected, this has nothing to do with PC not being able to maintain a stable 120 FPS; this also has nothing to do with game's settings.

The culprit is this particular setting added in one of the latest builds of W10:




All other settings in 'Gaming' section of control panel do not affect this in any way - only the one circled on the screenshot. Turning it off results in the issue described in the OP post - as soon as you turn it off and re-launch the game, these weird drops to framerate from 120 to 60 start occuring. Turning it on again (and re-launching the game) fixes the issue.

Now, for the important part: why the hell does this happen?

Turn off Vertical Sync.

"

Sarno wrote:

Turn off Vertical Sync.

That's not really an option. While this way the FPS is jumping around 170-250 without dipping below 120, it still produces noticeable tearing.

I'm certain that it's not vsync's function to randomly jump between 60 and 120 FPS - if anything, it should've been capped at either of those and simply be capped there.

"

LaplaceNoMa wrote:

I'm certain that it's not vsync's function to randomly jump between 60 and 120 FPS - if anything, it should've been capped at either of those and simply be capped there.

Your monitor's refresh rate is 120 FPS, which Vertical Sync caps your FPS at. If your system is incapable of 120 FPS, it will cap your framerate at half of the monitor's refresh rate.

This is how Vertical Sync works. You'll need adaptive sync (G-Sync or FreeSync) to change that.

Lowering your settings may enable your computer to maintain 120 FPS.

"

Sarno wrote:

Your monitor's refresh rate is 120 FPS, which Vertical Sync caps your FPS at. If your system is incapable of 120 FPS, it will cap your framerate at half of the monitor's refresh rate.

If that was the case, turning off VSync would result in my FPS hovering around 120 FPS, sometimes dipping lower, which is not the case. With VSync off, the FPS never goes below 170 FPS, hovering around 220-250 most of the time, so it definitely has nothing to do with whether or not my system can maintain stable 120 FPS. Those 60 FPS drops are completely independent of whatever's happening on the screen and also have nothing to do with the load.

"

LaplaceNoMa wrote:

If that was the case, turning off VSync would result in my FPS hovering around 120 FPS, sometimes dipping lower, which is not the case.

It doesn't say anything at all about what your FPS would be like with Vertical Sync disabled.

"

LaplaceNoMa wrote:

With VSync off, the FPS never goes below 170 FPS, hovering around 220-250 most of the time, so it definitely has nothing to do with whether or not my system can maintain stable 120 FPS.

No technology is perfect; I would assume Vertical Sync makes guesses based off of frametime, which can naturally vary from one frame to the next. I'm not trying to claim that Vertical Sync is a perfect technology. There's a reason both AMD and nVidia created alternatives to it.

Let's think about this logically;

• I guessed Vertical Sync was active.
• Vertical Sync caps your FPS at your monitor's refresh rate, halved if not maintainable.
• You are reporting your FPS alternates between your monitor's refresh rate and half of it.

You have to admit that it's a bit convenient I knew you were using Vertical Sync. You also have to admit that it's also convenient that Vertical Sync is responsible for literally the exact behaviour that you are reporting. If you've an alternative explanation, I'm all ears.

While waiting for someone else to respond, you're welcome to create threads elsewhere, tell them the same thing, and see what people think. There's a few subreddits which would be appropriate, and the Tom's Hardware forum is never a bad place to try. Feel free to link us to any responses posted externally from the forum featuring an alternative explanation.

Path of Exile is an indie game which doesn't use a commercial game engine. I'm a fan of GGG, but the fact is Path of Exile's FPS tends to wobble for no discernible reason. I've seen variances in the region of 40 FPS while standing still with just my golem wandering around me.

Play in borderless fullscreen to prevent screen tear and use something to lock your framerate to 120 like msi afterburner, also you could try with adaptive vsync option from nvidia control panel.

"

Sarno wrote:

It doesn't say anything at all about what your FPS would be like with Vertical Sync disabled.

It does, in fact. If your uncapped FPS is constantly, 100% of time above the target locked-fps (refresh rate), you are guaranteed a 100% smooth stutter-free vsync gameplay even without the use of tripple buffering.

"

Sarno wrote:

I guessed Vertical Sync was active.

Is that really such a 'guess' when the video and the topic title clearly mention the vsync cap numbers?

"

Sarno wrote:

Vertical Sync caps your FPS at your monitor's refresh rate, halved if not maintainable.

This is something that I have never encountered, by the way. Every single game I played with vsync, if it ever had issues keeping the target (120 fps) rate, it resulted in stuttering, not drops to 60 fps. That includes both the very latest projects, as well as older ones.

"

Sarno wrote:

You are reporting your FPS alternates between your monitor's refresh rate and half of it.

Yes, and I'm positive that it's a bug in the game itself.

"

Sarno wrote:

You have to admit that it's a bit convenient I knew you were using Vertical Sync.

As I already mentioned above, that was literally stated in the topic title and obvious from the video.

"

Sarno wrote:

You also have to admit that it's also convenient that Vertical Sync is responsible for literally the exact behaviour that you are reporting. If you've an alternative explanation, I'm all ears.

That's mixing correlation and causation. There is no causation here, only correlation, and that means quite nothing.


As I already mentioned above, the FPS doesn't go below 170 FPS when uncapped. If it worked like you imply it does, there would be direct connection between the lengths of those '60 FPS' periods. If you watched the video, you can see that it doesn't just drop to 60 FPS for periods of 1 second only; there are also periods of 10+ seconds of stable 60 FPS. For that to happen, it won't be enough for the FPS to 'dip' below 120 FPS for a second, it should've stayed there for such long periods of time. And if you want to counter that with 'it stays at 60 FPS for some time after dipping', that would leave those shorter ~1 sec dips from 120 to 60 unexplained.

"

Oloferno wrote:

Play in borderless fullscreen to prevent screen tear and use something to lock your framerate to 120 like msi afterburner, also you could try with adaptive vsync option from nvidia control panel.

Tried that, nvidia's new 'fast' vsync seems to be a band-aid solution for now; still, not very convenient, unfortunately. Also, it didn't happen before FoO, which makes me think that one of the newer options like dynamic resolution might be the culprit, even when turned off.

FINALLY FOUND THE CULPRIT. IF ANYONE HAS A SIMILAR ISSUE, HERE'S THE FIX THAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU.

As expected, this has nothing to do with PC not being able to maintain a stable 120 FPS; this also has nothing to do with game's settings.

The culprit is this particular setting added in one of the latest builds of W10:




All other settings in 'Gaming' section of control panel do not affect this in any way - only the one circled on the screenshot. Turning it off results in the issue described in the OP post - as soon as you turn it off and re-launch the game, these weird drops to framerate from 120 to 60 start occuring. Turning it on again (and re-launching the game) fixes the issue.

Now, for the important part: why the hell does this happen?

Nah, I am running a high mid range computer and getting horrible fps spikes

Ryzen r7 liquid cooled
R9 290x 4 gb liquid cooled
16 gb rams
SSD Drive

The game bar and game mode is on