Severe FPS Drops When Targeting NPCs

SainguinKrist

For the last week I have noticed massive FPS drops in certain areas. This issue only happens in areas with groups of humanoid NPCs. Whenever I target NPCs in these areas I drop from my capped 40FPS to below 20. This isn't an issue anywhere else in the game.

I'm wondering if anyone else has ran into this?

I've disabled addons, messed with every settings, etc, etc. But it just keeps happening.

Ongoing list of Areas/NPCs where this issue arises, as I find them:

Grimfield, Betnikh - Only Bloodthorn Zombies cause the FPS drop.

Saintsport, Stros M'kai - Drake Brigands/Cutthroats, Sentries do not effect FPS.

No Shira Citadel, Hew's Bane - Iron Wheel Ravagers/Sentinels.

EDIT: I have now ran around a couple areas and found that it doesn't seem to matter if it's a big area with a ton of NPCs. It actually seems to only happen in small areas with a few groups of NPCs.

For example: The issues strikes me when targeting the NPCs in Grimfield, Betnikh. However, I can run around the much larger area of Cath Bedraud, Glenumbra. Cath has more NPCs, structures, etc. Yet no FPS drops when targeting any of the humanoid NPCs in this area. I'll test more areas and see what turns up. A response from ZoS on this would be really nice.

EDIT2: I have narrowed it down even further. The Bloodthorn Zombies in Grimfield cause the FPS drop. No other NPC in that area has the same effect on the game's performance.

I have also found another area that this occurs in, along with the NPCs causing it. The area is Saintsport, Stros M'kai. The NPCs causing the issue are Drake Cutthroats and Brigands.

Another thing I've learned about this issue is it clear up once you/anyone starts fighting the NPCs, but only during combat. Once you break combat and target the NPCs again the frames drop.

Shadowshire

@SainguinKrist

Those are interesting observations. In my own experience, the only time that I see FPS 60/sec.* and Latency 100 ms. is while my character is standing still in an empty space, such as a room or a delve tunnel devoid of "objects" or NPCs. After I press a key -- just about any key will do, if it changes the HUD -- the FPS drops to some amount between 2 - 55/sec., and the Latency increases to some amount between 110 - 130 ms. if it doesn't go into three red digits instead. Go figure.

It seems likely to me that a response from ZOS in this discussion will be a surprise.

____________________
* The display device cabled to the video graphics output card is a Samsung LED TV which has a "native" output rate of 60 FPS for HDMI/2 DVI input.

SainguinKrist

It's a pretty crazy issue that I've never had before. I've playing for quite a while and this is something I definitely would of noticed. Especially with it being tied to starter/DLC areas I've mostly done before. I even have some of these areas completed, so I know this wasn't issue the first time I was there.

I really hope for a response from ZoS because this is a really weird issue and I don't see this being resolved without them.

SainguinKrist

Bump, this needs to be looked at.

I've done a full re-install of ESO, W10, and all of my drivers. This is not an issue on my end. This is very clearly an issue from ZoS.

Someone needs to reply to this.

Apponyons

I'm have this issue too and it is completely weird because if i put my crosshair in the direction of a human enemy ( only get this on blackheart haven though) my fps gets to 20 from 60

SainguinKrist

I have this in Blackheart Haven as well. I need to add that. If you can go there and make sure it's all NPCs or just specific ones I would greatly appreciate your help.

Also, could you try the areas I've listed in my original post? If someone else is having trouble at those spots it could lend some evidence that it's client side.

EDIT: If you're new to ESO or don't know the world to well, I can help you get to those areas.

Apponyons

Since i'm starting cadwell's gold (DC Areas for me) now, i realize that i got this FPS drop on Stros M'Kai in Saintsport as you said,. Also i discover a new location that gets my FPS to drop when targeting npcs, Nortwhind Mine in The Rift. I'll try those other locations you talked about , and i'm pretty sure i'll get fps drop too.

Apponyons

Well, i think i fixed it, i'm not having those issues anymore.

I followed some solutions on reddit for FPS drop on ESO, those solutions are from 2 years ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/4b93fl/fps_issue_i_cant_figure_out/d175dhx/

i followed the steps 4,5,7 and 11.
Also followed the "Enable large page file sizes" link from a answer in the same post.

In the step 7 i just unnistalled my Adobe Flash Player instead of reinstalling it.
And i installed the Bug Catcher Addon.

That's everything i did, i'm not having this issue anymore, i'm not sure what exactly fixed it so i just put everything.

SainguinKrist

I've also noticed not a complete lack of the issue, but it's not nearly as bad. I went and checked some areas and instead of dropping from 45fps to 20, it drops from 45 to about 32. It's not nearly as noticable or jarring to my eyes, but it's still an issue.

Let me know if you notice anything similar or if you've actually fixed it.

Cause I've also changed some settings, and done some "community" tweaks. For instance I disabled Fullscreen Optimizations and changed the high DPI scaling to System Enhanced.

I really do appreciate your replies, I thought it was just me for a while and was honestly worried my system was about to die.

EDIT: I noticed you said you did tweak #11 on that post, please be very careful with that setting. It's been known to cause massive load screens, worse performance, and crashing. It basically disables multi-threading.