CPU ms spikes, constant stutters

I have a problem that has haunted me for YEARS on several different systems , hardware parts , drivers etc.

the only thing that stays consistent is that i'm using Intel CPUs and Nvidia cards

Description:

For several years now i'm constantly having CPU ms spikes from 3 to 40+ that cause game to stutter ALL the time
it's not freezing , but it stutters a lot , just hurts my eyes

i've tried basicly EVERYTHING that i could try including:

Reinstalling Windows

Various drivers

Restricting CPU max in power plan

Clearing my cache

Switching between Vulkan and DirectX11 (though it helped me 2 years ago on one laptop that i had but does nothing on this new one )

Disabling Hyperthreading

Uninstalling the game completely and re-installing

Removing my client config files

Changing NVidia settings

The only solution that KINDA helped was disabling C states in BIOS, but the problem still comes back after some time of playing .
After a lot of research i noticed that stutters now (after disabling C states) happen after loading a new zone (it's a random zone every time they can start happening after 1 hour of play time , or 4 , or 15 minutes) and after they appear , the only way to remove them again is to reboot whole system , not just poe , whole PC

Another thing i noticed is that after stutters appear , they appear only on the NEW zones that i will load after CPU spikes start happening , going back to any previously loaded zone that didn't have stutters will remove them , but only for this zone and all others that previously didn't have stutters

My best guess is something bad happens with CPU logic after loading new zone, and the pnly fix is to unload whole memory e.g reboot

my specs are
Device name MSI
Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900H 2.60 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable)
GPU RTX 4080
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎4/‎21/‎2023
OS build 22621.1778
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22642.1000.0

It's an easy fix.
But you somehow managed to do the opposite of finding it.

"

didira wrote:

It's an easy fix.
But you somehow managed to do the opposite of finding it.

Umm... thanks for nothing i guess?

"

AlphaMagnetic wrote:

"

didira wrote:

It's an easy fix.
But you somehow managed to do the opposite of finding it.

Umm... thanks for nothing i guess?

Leave the nVidia driver at default but 'disable' (don't leave it on auto) 'Threaded Optimization' [to the pathofexile 64 profile in the nVidia program settings]

Set the Path of Exile game to 'Windowed' mode (the game client seems to do a good job of window mode locking itself to the native display resolution by anchoring it to the top [I guess locking the taskbar helps but not always].

You're going to be using DX12 (although on the latest nVidia drivers, it locks it to DX11 - manually set 'DirectX12' replacing it in the ini file located in your local game folder).

You need to restrict the cores Path of Exile x64 uses by setting its affinity to only to CPU0 and CPU2 leaving the others disabled (I'm guessing this is something you do normally for a lot of things).

I don't have Windows 11 but on Windows 10 the Game Mode should also be disabled.

---

With the previous nVidia driver I was using DX12 seemed to not initialize properly when using Windowed mode, so set it to Vulkan, let the game restart (it should do that) and then set it back to DX12 and windowed again (to which ever resolution you have is the closest).
But no, it's not going to be fullscreen.

You probably already know but when you want to install Windows again (at least with 10), type 'Reset' in the search bar, select 'Get Started' and then 'Keep My Files'.
Windows 10 Restoration points are incredibly buggy if you don't know what you're doing and shouldn't be relied upon. I'm sure it's great in Windows 11...

^ did this help you at all? im having the exact same issue with cpu spikes tried everything on this list but same issue

"

didira wrote:

Leave the nVidia driver at default but 'disable' (don't leave it on auto) 'Threaded Optimization' [to the pathofexile 64 profile in the nVidia program settings]

So, i tried that and looks like it was it , (i hope) i didn't do all of what you suggested , i started just with disabling threaded optimisation and forced game to run in dx12, i was always playing on borderless windowed and decided to try to leave it like that , played like 4-5 hours so far without CPU spikes.

will see in future , but huge thank you for help , you ended several years old suffering

"

NufPoD wrote:

^ did this help you at all? im having the exact same issue with cpu spikes tried everything on this list but same issue

Try it, so far looks like it really did help me , i only disabled threaded optimisation and forced game to dx12 through ini file