Severe cyclical lag and audio stuttering.

For the past week or so, Ive started getting really bad fps drops during EW dungeons, MSQ cutscenes and EW zones. Last night, the issue reached its worst as i was constantly getting lagged to a standstill and then it would go back to normal for a second before slowly descending back to 1fps. The first trial of EW was unplayable. And now every zone descends slowly into low FPS and then resets to normal and then does it again. All the while my audio is stuttering and stopping right along with it.

things I've tried:

updating video and audio drivers
closed any uneccesary programs
virus and malware checks
Turning graphical settings to their lowest.
turning off all audio seemed to work for only a moment.

I have noticed that the program does not even approach the limits of my pc. Before EW, I never had lag like this. maybe drop to 30fps in big cities, but thats it.

Some DXdiag:

Quote:

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Time of this report: 12/14/2021, 16:58:01
Machine name: LAPTOP-GQSNC3MN
Machine Id: {3E11534D-62FB-4409-A15F-69BCA7EA3246}
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 19042) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Nitro AN515-51
BIOS: V1.13 (type: UEFI)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8076MB RAM
Page File: 4193MB used, 5161MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
System DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: UnKnown
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Supported
DirectX Database Version: 1.3.2
DxDiag Version: 10.00.19041.0928 64bit Unicode

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1C8C&SUBSYS_118B1025&REV_A1
Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER]
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Driver Problem Code: Unknown
Display Memory: 8056 MB
Dedicated Memory: 4019 MB
Shared Memory: 4037 MB
Current Mode: Unknown
HDR Support: Unknown
Display Topology: Unknown
Display Color Space: Unknown
Color Primaries: Unknown
Display Luminance: Unknown
Driver Name: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvaci.inf_amd64_30e446a72214201b\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvaci.inf_amd64_30e446a72214201b\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvaci.inf_amd64_30e446a72214201b\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvaci.inf_amd64_30e446a72214201b\nvldumdx.dll
Driver File Version: 30.00.0014.9709

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Greetings fellow Eorzean!

We apologize for the inconvenience you are having with lag and sound related problems on Final Fantasy XIV. For the lag issue, please respond with the following information:

Does the lag only happen to one character or all characters?
Does the issue happen at a specific time frame or day?
Wired or wireless connection:

Note that the sound issues may be related to a current reported issue with the audio driver for the game itself as stated in this article here:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...d6d790145bcf41

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

I only have one active character. So if only happens to the one. It happens at any time of day. Before it wasn't affecting the character screen. Now it is. I've tried both wired and wireless and it does not change the issue. It seems that the issue is getting worse and spreading to more areas of the game. Instead of just being during a cs, it happens even on the title screen. If I'm in a dungeon or trial, I seem to be the only one affected if that's what you mean.

The lag for me has been weird. Is the game holding some cache or something I'm unaware of cause it starts fine then slowly gets worst as time goes on to the point of pausing the game completely as if loading.
If I click a bunch during the loading, the game might just close completely. No error message.

During this, trying to load into an instance causes it to freeze/unfreeze and then when i load in, the boss isn't loaded in. I can still target them and attack them and everything runs fine... But they're just not there.

It seems to me that by turning off the audio in settings the problem has minimized substantially. But if I turn the audio back on, it immediately starts to snowball the lag. Turning the audio off does not solve the issue right away, but after a few minutes, the game becomes more stable.

Spoilers for lvl 84 msq. https://youtu.be/rqPsiRowdds

A video if the issue. As you can see, at 23 seconds, the lag just stops. I can't imagine the graphical load has changed. It not only happens in cs. It also often happens in EW zone 4 just walking around. I do not think it's a graphical thing as much as being in fixed increments of time.

I'm thinking that new surround sound feature they added in broke somehow because there was no issues before that was implemented.

When did they implement it? Was it during 6.0 patch?