Game stutters with sudden FPS drops

[hymmeli]

Hello, I've been encountering an issue with the game suddenly stuttering for a few days now.

I'm on a new laptop that I've been using for at least 2 weeks now. Week 1 it had lag and issues that I googled and seemingly that fixed it, but the other day it started to have these weird moments where the FPS randomly drops and I get a moments of stutter in between just completely normal gameplay.

Directx is enabled, I have all the graphics settings fixed up as nicely as I can for playing on the laptop, and the issue hasn't fixed itself.





-=-=-=-=-=-=- FFXIV Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

MyDocument C:\Users\18083\Documents
FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix
FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn Language 1 Region 2
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FFXIVLauncher
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[Mieleoneis]

Greetings hymmeli,

Thanks for providing us with a system report. I'm sorry to hear that you're having stuttering issues while playing FINAL FANTASY XIV. May I ask what troubleshooting steps or fixes have been taken so far to try and alleviate this issue? Have you tried updating and/or doing a full reinstall of your graphics drivers? When do these FPS drops occur? Are you noticing any patterns (in areas of high population/density, during instances, etc.)?

Hope we can help out with this! Thanks for posting in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Technical Support Forums.

[Final-Fantasy]

I would check the Display settings, Configuration > System Configuration > Display > Make sure it says ~display. AMD Radeon(TM) RX 6500M as the graphics card.
On the same tab, I would set the Resolution to 1920X1080 at 60Hz from the drop down menu, it looks like you have it set to 144Hz, which means by default the game is going to set FPS to 144.
You could leave it at 144Hz and at the bottom of screen tab, set FPS to 72, that should stop stutter.

If not, set it to 60Hz in drop down menu, that will limit it to 60 FPS which should not stutter with that graphics card. Also check the FPS isn't set to Unlimited after any resolution changes, that will stutter.

[hymmeli]

Greetings hymmeli,

Thanks for providing us with a system report. I'm sorry to hear that you're having stuttering issues while playing FINAL FANTASY XIV. May I ask what troubleshooting steps or fixes have been taken so far to try and alleviate this issue? Have you tried updating and/or doing a full reinstall of your graphics drivers? When do these FPS drops occur? Are you noticing any patterns (in areas of high population/density, during instances, etc.)?

Hope we can help out with this! Thanks for posting in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Technical Support Forums.

I don't know what counts as troubleshooting, but I've tried graphic updates of my driver though I haven't tried re-installing it. The FPS drops seem to happen when there's a lot going on in the screen mostly in dungeons and instances. A good example of when it happens would be like in World of Darkness in the last boss fight where the clouds appear.

I would check the Display settings, Configuration > System Configuration > Display > Make sure it says ~display. AMD Radeon(TM) RX 6500M as the graphics card.
On the same tab, I would set the Resolution to 1920X1080 at 60Hz from the drop down menu, it looks like you have it set to 144Hz, which means by default the game is going to set FPS to 144.
You could leave it at 144Hz and at the bottom of screen tab, set FPS to 72, that should stop stutter.

If not, set it to 60Hz in drop down menu, that will limit it to 60 FPS which should not stutter with that graphics card. Also check the FPS isn't set to Unlimited after any resolution changes, that will stutter.

To be honest, this is where I show how I am not very knowledgeable about certain computer terminology and stuff since I don't know what Hz means. I did a google search and if you're talking about resolutions, I have the resolution on standard right now and I don't see 1920x1080 as an option (there's 1728x972, 2304x1296, 3456x1944 as options, though.) But FPS is set at 72.

[Final-Fantasy]

I don't know what counts as troubleshooting, but I've tried graphic updates of my driver though I haven't tried re-installing it. The FPS drops seem to happen when there's a lot going on in the screen mostly in dungeons and instances. A good example of when it happens would be like in World of Darkness in the last boss fight where the clouds appear.



To be honest, this is where I show how I am not very knowledgeable about certain computer terminology and stuff since I don't know what Hz means. I did a google search and if you're talking about resolutions, I have the resolution on standard right now and I don't see 1920x1080 as an option (there's 1728x972, 2304x1296, 3456x1944 as options, though.) But FPS is set at 72.

The option won't show if its already set to that resolution usually, on your above post it shows your screen is set to 1920x1080 at 144Hz, 144Hz is the refresh rate of the screen, usually it can be set to 60Hz minimum, if it can be, on the Display tab you'll see options for "Window mode" which I wouldn't use with this game as it causes stutter, "Borderless window" also causes stutter, and "Fullscreen" you should try this option if you aren't, it is the best option for performance.

Which mode is it set to out of the 3 I listed?

Try Fullscreen, then once its set, change the resolution if its above 1920x1080 to 1920, check the fps is 72 and test it, if it still stutters, change to 1920x1080 at 60Hz instead of 144, and fps to 60, it will only usually show 60Hz if its set to Fullscreen.

[hymmeli]

The option won't show if its already set to that resolution usually, on your above post it shows your screen is set to 1920x1080 at 144Hz, 144Hz is the refresh rate of the screen, usually it can be set to 60Hz minimum, if it can be, on the Display tab you'll see options for "Window mode" which I wouldn't use with this game as it causes stutter, "Borderless window" also causes stutter, and "Fullscreen" you should try this option if you aren't, it is the best option for performance.

Which mode is it set to out of the 3 I listed?

Try Fullscreen, then once its set, change the resolution if its above 1920x1080 to 1920, check the fps is 72 and test it, if it still stutters, change to 1920x1080 at 60Hz instead of 144, and fps to 60, it will only usually show 60Hz if its set to Fullscreen.

I see, I've always played in borderless because fullscreen didn't work well with my old laptop. I hopped on for a bit just now and tried fullscreen (60Hz, 60FPS), did a trust run and did a trial roulette and normal raid roulette, trust run had basically no stutter but trial roulette and normal raid did stutter once during them but it was much better than before where it happened every other minute or so. I'll try alliance tomorrow, since that's where it was at its worst, and see how that goes.

[Final-Fantasy]

You can try lowering the Effects for Party members which also helps with Raids as well, by default its set to maximum and will have a performance hit.

Find these settings here: Menu > Character Configuration > Control > Character > Set "Battle Effects Settings" for Own / Party / Others to lower settings like "Show limited" or None.

I would try it on Show Limited for Party and leave the rest at the default and test it out in Roulette and a Raid, it should help, if it doesn't or not enough then put Others to None and maybe Own to Limited and test.

Also just in case, in this menu here that I post in the image below, what does it say in your* menu, where mine has "NVIDIA_Geforce_RTX_2060//"

[hymmeli]

Okay, I played for an extended amount of time today and everything is so much smoother now! Thank you so much for the help.

[Ransu]

Do you have a gsync or freesync monitor? If its running smoother in full screen its probably a windows setting. I had to turn these off and my random stuttering and frame drops went away and the game runs the way it should now in borderless windows.