GGG is ZERO help so let's get serious on why some players have major lags with Synthesis

Trolling for a fix

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For my older hardware:
1. Intel i7- 870 (OC'ed to 3.5 to 3.8 GHz 100% solid for 5+ years)
2. 8 GB DDR3-1600 G.Skill memory
3. Samsung 500 GB 840 SSD
4. Windows 7 Pro (optimized: < 20 core services)
5. Other memory used: Nod32 AV, Logitech G-series mouse and gaming keyboard drivers,
    Vivaldi broswer, Autohotkey32, Power ISO virtual driver.

In another thread someone stated that PoE does not use 8 cores properly. Since my Windows 7 seeing 8 cores is do to Intel HT and not 8 physical cores in my cpu I need to test this so I turned off hyper-threading (4C/4T only).

Windows 7 with HT disabled before running PoE:

28% memory used by Windows 7 + utils, negligible cpu usage.

A leisurely stroll up the Twilight Strand Beach:

I'm averaging 70 fps dropping down to mid 60s when running in the water with its wave physics, a promising start.

Next, a level 75 Elementalist build (SN + FP self-cast):
Starting in Oriath:


You can almost hear PoE suck up the memory, 72% memory used mid 30s fps (not so good).
52% avg. cpu load. All the processing of other players data + their mtx fx + pets, etc. is a very heavy cpu load. Turning off dynamic resolution keeps the quality up (no crappy low res) but then the fps drops down into the mid 20 fps.

Start of Atoll map:

81% memory used = 53% of memory used by PoE, 46 to 52 fps (better than with HT on).

Ran around killing a bunch of creatures (no lag yet), then a Cavas encounter:

87% memory used, upper 40s fps (not quite maxing out my 8 GB memory yet).

Entered the memory fragment:

Mid 50s fps. Ran the memory frag with noticeably less stuttering, mid 50s fps entire time. (so far so good). Came out and ran the the rest of the Atoll map and killed the totem boss (no stuttering to QQ about).

Didn't have another Atoll map so I switched to Desert:

Ran around killing things at 55 to 60 fps (QoP is looking better). Yay, I leveled up.

Lightning Warp takes its toll on the fps (but this is pretty normal).

Full cleared the map, and completed by killing the boss (minimal stuttering). LWing into the middle of mob packs and with Shock Nova one or two shotting the entire pack is much smoother now (there may still be some life left in my aging gaming rig hardware to continue playing Synthesis).


So the player that said PoE doesn't multi-task on 8 cores very well is right. Especially when 4 of them are just the Intel cpu HT voodoo tricking Windows into thinking I have an 8 core cpu when in truth it's only a 4 core cpu. Other players that have stated that PoE is more cpu and memory intensive than gpu or Internet bandwidth intensive seem to be correct. On my older Intel i7 (Haswell core) I am getting much better QoP running PoE with hyper-threading disabled. Of course on newer CPUs Intel has optimized HT better so there may not be the noticeable performance improvement I got by disabling HT. Definitely a faster cpu is better and I can tell my cpu is straining even in its 3.5 to 3.8 GHz overclock to keep up so a new cpu that clocks past 4 GHz is looking like a must upgrade + 16 MB ram before upgrading to a faster gpu. I'm able to confirm that this is true for my gaming rig hardware but your results may very.

One thing is clear, all the graphics settings have very little impact on my fps. My screen is 2560 x 1080 (ultra wide monitor) native resolution and running PoE at a lower res., windowed or non-windowed made 0 difference on stuttering. Disabling HT makes the most impact to reduce stuttering.

Only thing I didn't get to test is a syndicate encounter and preferably a Betrayal incursion. I'll continue to run with hyper-threading disabled and report back when I get syndicates in a map (I'll try to get useful data recorded without dieing).

I hope this info is of use and I'd like to hear what others with older hardware (limited finances so no new computer just to play PoE) are finding ways to squeeze out more fps in PoE.

Here's my start of PoE with patch 3.6.3d:



Starts out at 23 to 25 in Oriath, then when I go to my hideout I get upper 50s frame rates. Not the 100+ of older PoE versions but it is better than Synthesis start. My ideal target would be 1000 / 60 fps = 16.67 ms frame time but I'll take anything under 20 ms frame time (> 50 fps) with my current hardware. The near 4 second spike is the loading time going into my hideout. I know I will need a faster cpu to get any higher fps (i7 3.5 to 3.8 GHz 4C isn't enough power). PoE sure has a dog of a game engine (but we all know that).

I run win10 and I have 16GB ram.

https://streamable.com/3qd8p

Pay attention at how the freeze is gone when syndicate is out of sight.
My understanding - it is purely syndicate members problem. The lag is gone when syndicate is dead/gone out of sight.

I've been watching my graphs for a while to see what the problem really is. All I can say is that there is 100% a memory / vram leak going on some where. Endless people have reported how the game downgrades your fps as you play longer. Starting out with 300-200 at the beginning of mapping? Say hello to 50-90 fps max in about an hour of playing! It's actually gotten worse this league too... which is unbelievable. Back in Delve league your fps would still drop, but you could actually keep a stable 120-140 fps after long play sessions.
This just further proves that the issue causing this problem has been endlessly compounded through many years and numerous patches now. I have literally zero confidence in it getting fixed at this point. It was mentioned as far back as 2015! Wrap your head around that one.

The other things I noticed that may be a problem are definitely drivers. I was getting random blue screen related to a USB driver, so I uninstalled my asmedia controller and that was solved. But with this game, it could literally be ANY of your drivers causing game breaking issues with poe. Have fun figuring out which one it is!!

I have a 2TB HDD just for storing files plugged into my pc. Sometimes I've tabbed out and seen spikes on it in the task manager window. Considering getting rid of it soon and just getting an external 3.0 usb hd that I can easily remove. I honestly do think that this old 2tb hdd is probably on it's last leg and could possibly be causing random issues at times with stutter that appears like once every 2 hours or so.

Lastly I saw HUGE spikes all over my ethernet graph in the task manager. This was after having the game do it's lovely stutter, fps drops, and high frame times out of no where. This doesn't make sense to me though as my ping is extremely consistent at 40-55 at all times and any other game I play, does not show this happening in the performance graph. I think most people have done so much trouble shooting at this point that they're losing their minds and the real problem is STILL on GGG's end.

Specs:

gpu- gtx 1080ti tri fan gigabyte white

cpu- ryzen 7 2700x

ram- 2 x 8gb 3200 CL 16

ssd- WD 500gb 3D NAND

mobo- Asus Rog Strix x370-f mobo

cooler- Noctua NH-U14S

psu- Antec 750w gold+

os- windows 10

sometimes, when i go to town and go back to the map, it works...!

Ingame u see, that Frames Drop when there is a massive lag!

So, why are these lags in this season, the ENDGAME!!! is unplayable... i would cry, if i would play hardcore...

Ok for some of you saying its asset issue, how about this, I dont have any incursion/syndicate members spawning, infact syndicate member's spawning is alright, it causes fps to dip a little for me but still playable, however I get very random lag spikes over 1.8k ping, randomly, like literally it can happen on any occasion, I'm playing on predictive, sometimes everything else just frozes in place for upwards from 1min to 15mins and then I die because of desync. especially breaches, most of my breaches are wasted because 9 out of ten times, when I activate a breach, the circle will start expanding and then everything else will froze, while my character wanders in this lifeless poe world. It's like the server desync whenever I activate breach and struggle with sync back to my client or vice versa.

gtx 1050
i7-7700
8gb ddr3
poe stored on ssd

so is this still hardware issue??? I'm gonna say it is probably netcode, causing desync and stuff. or crappy server. But I stand corrected, I would love to be wrong that it might just because of me being out of memory. but look at all these other people that also most probably have the same issue as me.

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Exxxiled665 wrote:

this game runs fine for me and for the majority of players otherwise they would fix it,but there is nothing to be fixed. the problem is on your end. you can keep on raging on the forums or try and figure out what it is and fix it meanwhile i will enjoy this lag/freeze free game

edit- i guess you already fixed it,so why keep blaming the game when it was clearly on your end?

"

This is what I did and it STOPPED:

First method:

Uninstalled PoE, reinstalled via Steam. Put in --nopreload in Steam, it stops this fucking bs but it takes a LONG time to load every fucking map.

But yeah it will work. No more lag, no more deaths.

Second method (I believe this comes from Paldamus, if I'm wrong pls correct):

Launch Poe, no --nopreload or anything appended to shortcut. I did this through Steam but no reason think it has to be through Steam. Go into task manager, details, find Poe, and click on affinity. Turn off all processors except one, then go off and get a drink or pee or something.
Go back in and turn on all the processors again. Then set priority to High.

Wait a few seconds before you go into a map or something. Runs fine.

you are ignorant, look at the steamchart, it is not running fine for the "Vast majority". The player base has dropped significantly, why do you think theres such a huge dip in player base all of a sudden?

btw reinstalling does not guarantee it will work, I was fed up with steam version, so I downloaded the standalone version, same bullshit.

"

Paldamus wrote:

An arpg from 2013 requiring 16 gb of RAM, while Skyrim takes 1gb? Ok lol...

This is hilarious.

Just wanted to chime in and say that I have been having the same issues as others have described throughout the thread. Very discouraging as a new player (Synthesis is my first league). I basically just can't do endgame content as I am guaranteed to get wrecked by a lag spike at the most unfortunate times, watching helplessly as my character stands in place and gets mauled by hordes of enemies.

Edit: my specs in case anyone is curious - I5 6400 CPU, AMD RX480 8GB VRAM GPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Samsung 750 EVO 500 GB SSD, Windows 7 OS, all on a stable, wired ethernet connection. Not exactly a supercomputer, but should be more than capable of running any game thrown at it.