Resolution change and FPS with Necrom update

Norgaerth · June 2023

I run an M1 iMac and after Necrom my FPS has gone from 35-45 down to 15-19. The in game dialog screens now are a lot smaller, like all of a sudden my resolution in game has been cranked up. I play 'Windowed" - always have, this hasn't changed. The other graphics settings are what they used to be as well. I tried switching to Fullscreen and that seemed to restore my FPS, but from past forum posts, 'fullscreen' comes with its own host of issues. And while my FPS is better, all the in game dialogs are still way smaller than they used to be. Has anyone else seen this behavior with the new release?

Midni · June 2023

I also play on an M1 MacBook and the interface text while I'm in the game is way smaller than it used to be. On the bright side, I no longer need to do the workaround with changing the screen resolution on my Mac before launching the game from the client. It would be great however if there's something that can be done about the interface while in the game, so that it's not so tiny.

Gnesnig · June 2023

They turned off UI scaling. Turn it back on.

The FPS is the bigger problem. On my 2019 Macbook Pro with i9, I no longer can play reliably. The CPU spikes heavily for minutes then calms down a bit, all the while the CPU and GPU are being throttled to the max, so FPS is 2. Even when eso is not the front window and normally would idle to 20% CPU it now does anywhere from 35 to 50% and down throttling takes ages.

Aetnaria · June 2023

Looks like they started using the resolution-independent method for launching the game. Turn on UI scaling (Settings > Video > Interface > Use Custom Scale > On) and increase it until you are back to a comfortable size.

Ditto, Midni - this actually seems like a workaround for the auto-crash issue many of us we ran into if we don't play the game hooked up to an external monitor or maximize the resolution on our single screen prior to hitting Play. I used to crash, consistently, unless I maxed out resolution before launching ESO.

Your other option is to switch to Fullscreen (Settings > Video > Display > Display Mode > Fullscreen), then select a lower Resolution to get back to decent performance. That may return you to crash territory though, depending on what issues fullscreen brings you.

karpok · June 2023

Switching to full screen and modify the resolution is not a solution. Actually it does not apply the specified resolution but scale to the highest available one.

ZOS_Bill · June 2023

For anyone experiencing these issues with their resolution and framerate, please go ahead and open a ticket with customer support to help us look into these issues further.

karpok · June 2023

Hmm looks like the ticket I opened yesterday had vanished.
I just submitted a new one : 230606-003068

AyeshaBelladonna · June 2023

turning custom scale back on fixed the scaling for me for me. thankfully. but yeah, FR is cut in half

Norgaerth · June 2023

Thank you for the pointer on the UI scaling! I can see again.

Doing nothing more than switching from Windowed to Full Screen results in the huge FPS drop (bottom left corner). Windowed, of course, does not allow you to adjust the resolution, but as shown, you can adjust it in Full Screen. If I adjust the Full Screen resolution higher, I can get a comparable FPS drop as I see in Windowed. So it's like Windowed is now running at a higher resolution than it did before the Necromancy update.

At this point Full Screen is not causing me any crashes or other ill behavior. Whether this will stay that way with future patches remains to be seen.

Per @ZOS_Bill I did submit a support ticket 230609-001582

karpok · June 2023

I confirm Window or Window Full Screen is unplayable by now because of the fps drop. Until Necrom Window had the best performance on the contrary.
After deleting my User Settings file, I can now switch to FullScreen and get a more decent fps.

Norgaerth · June 2023

Update: Per my support ticket, as I am on Apple silicon, the software is unsupported. They did offer a few hints based on what other people reported helped them (mostly modifying MacOS graphics settings), though with the caveat that none of these offering were supported either. At least they had something to offer, and not just 'too bad'. None of the other suggestions were better than what I'm doing now, so I'll live with it until the next time they change it.