Game Stutters since todays update

Downloaded a small update today on steam client and ever since, the game has been stuttering like crazy. I've updated gpu drivers and re-installed the client and the issue still persists.

I am also unable to change any display settings in game. changing any display setting results in a crash to desktop.

it is not network lag. i have a solid 15-16ms latency. the in-game metrics graph shows my shader cache maxed out. every other game, PoE 1 included is running fine.

this issue only started happening today after steam installed a small update. the game was running damn near perfect yesterday.

is anyone else experiencing this?

Happening to many people in pc and consoles. Not sure what triggers it but likely on GGG's end. For me it started around hotfix 9. I can't play the game either.