Anyone noticing U41 FPS issues? Unstable frame rates? Stuttering? (Possibly due to Windows patch...)

UnseenCat · March 14

Is anyone else experiencing stuttering or general instability in frame rates with Update 41?

Most of the time, I'm seeing my framerates just bounce around by 2-5 FPS difference while moving or looking around. Previously they were rock-solid other than in certain areas of the map which have always had predictable FPS drops. I don't use a variable-refresh monitor, so it's very noticeable when FPS drops from 60FPS VSYNC.

I use an Xbox controller most of the time, and I tested both wired and with Bluetooth; there was no difference in behavior -- so it doesn't seem to be tied to the PlayStation gamepad issue described in the issues tracker (unless there's a bigger gamepad issue going on...). Add-ons on or off, makes no difference.

I can make it behave marginally better by disabling VSYNC in the game and turning it on instead in the Nvidia control panel; the best setting seems to be Nvidia VSYNC set to "Fast" and the frame rate limit set slightly above VSYNC rate; 62 FPS or so. This slightly changes how the driver is handling FPS capping versus VSYNC; it's usually not as good as pure VSYNC but in this case it's a minor improvement. I'm using an RTX 2080 Super GPU.

And here's a particularly odd thing -- I normally run in DLAA mode with subsampling set to High. I tried lowering subsampling to Medium in case something more demanding was going on with render scaling -- but going to Medium made things worse with even more noticeable stuttering while moving/running. Completely counter-intuitive.

Anybody else with similar issues?

ZOS_Phoenix · March 14

@UnseenCat

We would recommend trying any steps in this article that you may not have tried, such as updating your drivers or repairing your client. Please let us know how they affect the issue!

TaSheen · March 14

Nope. Nothing like that - though I don't use controller on PC, just KB+M. Actually everything in game was very stable today, both PC NA and EU. I haven't had to mess with any settings at all.

UnseenCat · March 14

I'm running the latest Nvidia driver.
Ran the repair option from the launcher -- no real difference. Swinging the view around with the controller or the mouse caused a consistent, repeatable significant skip/stutter and FPS loss on the in-game FPS counter.
Dumped the ShaderCache.cooked file, then ran the repair option again. No significant change.

The only other thing changed on the computer is that it took a Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft yesterday. So I uninstalled the update -- KB5035853 for Windows 11.

Went back into the game. Visually, everything is much smoother than it was. Swinging the view around with the mouse or the controller can still cause the in-game FPS counter to drop by 3-5 FPS very consistently, yet the image seems stable, more like before the issue began.

So -- tentatively -- it might be a Microsoft patch problem that could be impacting the game, the graphics driver, or both.

Not a fun thing to run down if others start seeing anything like it.

EDIT -- Updated the title to reflect possibility that a Windows patch could be at the root of it.

TaSheen · March 14

I'm still on the latest win 10 pro update. So my experience most likely hasn't a thing to do with the issue you're experiencing. Sorry, I'd help if I could.

I don't ever update to the latest nvidia drivers though. My GPU was released about 10 years ago, and my machine is 9 years old. So I do much better with older nvidia drivers....

Sakiri · March 14

Nothing of the sort here, except I'm on Linux.

Just the random odd hard lock the day after the patch.

ADarklore · March 14

The only FPS issues I had were when I was using DS4Windows with my Playstation controller. Since U41 added native support, it isn't playing nice with third party controller software. So I had to stop using DS4Windows, and since then, the FPS issue has gone away. I still hope they manage to find a way to get the game to work with third party software again, because I like being able to program keyboard 'keys' into my controller- so that for simple menus, decon, etc... I can just use controller with mouse and not have to touch the keyboard.

g0thiCiCecReaM · March 14

My performance actually improved drastically with the update running on Ultra settings.

UnseenCat · March 14

I noticed that despite the overall issue, performance was higher on predominantly high/ultra settings as well. I really don't know why issues became more apparent at lower settings, particularly for DLAA. It's not what would normally be expected. On the other hand, it suggests a focus on optimizing for higher settings, which can't hurt!

Anyhow, now is a good time for Nvidia users to update their drivers. In all but the worst edge cases, the newest drivers are finally doing better than the several-months-long string of poor performance and bugs.

I took some time today and added exclusions in the Exploit Protection options in Windows for eso64.exe. That seems to have cleaned things up more. At some point I'll turn them on one by one on in groups until they match my computer's defaults, and see if any particular setting is causing the issue. Most likely one of the more aggressive memory randomization or inspection routines is a contributor. They're great for security, but games don't necessarily like them. Some anti-cheat systems positively hate them.

Unfortunately, these are settings that really shouldn't be messed about with if you don't know what you're doing. They're not even easily accessible in Windows settings navigation. And best left alone for the global settings; only change the per-program settings.

It's the fun of Windows updates and security versus staying out of the way of applications -- games in particular. So many places for things to go off the rails.

jasonleitch1_ESO · March 14

To add to this issue after some testing: Turning, in particular, seems to be "jumpy" and not smooth. It almost feels like VR snap turning. I did go into the camera setting and turn on smooth turning which had no noticable results.

I did a few tests last night but one in particular caught my attention. With the map open, moving my mouse horizontally resulted in "jumpy" behavior across the screen. I was able to repeat this over and over. Almost as if mouse smoothing is missing. (This mouse behavior does not exist outside of the game.) This "jumpy" behavior of the mouse may be causing issues when turning or looking around.

The sudden "jumpy" camera changes can cause eye strain. Prolonged playing may lead to headaches and nausea for some players. This really needs to be addressed or a solution provided if on our end.

I also noticed that under settings just clicking on the camera setting changes your camera perspective; all other settings you click use the same camera perspective, only the camera setting changes that perspective.

(For additional information: I am using a Logitech g440 mousepad - hard pad and just cleaned - with a Logitech g502 lightspeed mouse at 1800 dpi - skates are in great condition and sensor is clean.)

moo_2021 · March 14

A bit of stuttering.

FPS meter does not change. I use gamepad mode.

There was no stuttering before U41.

Belegnole · March 14

Their performance tuning, ruined my performance.

MCBIZZLE300 · March 14

I have this exact problem, crazy fps drops where as before the update it was smooth af. I also use controller but ps5 one. I've tried absolutely everything to fix it but nothing works.

ZOS_Hadeostry · March 14

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's troubleshooting for the PC platform.

Thank you for your understanding

MCBIZZLE300 · March 14

It's to do with controller, when I use mk the frames are fine.

jasonleitch1_ESO · March 14

A possible fix for KB+M: Windows mouse properties, pointer options >>> uncheck "enhance pointer precision".

I only did a very brief test for a few minutes in Deshaan. So far the turning is much more smooth for me with no sudden jumpiness.

This possible fix is for the issue of "jumpy" camera behavior particularly when turning. Not certain if it is tied into the FPS drop issues.

Note: OS: Windows 11 Home; Latest nvidia drivers installed.

Ashnarug · March 14

since update 41 my game freezes and sometimes goes dark for a few seconds. Other times trying to move around the game runs poorly as if I had a PC with less than 8 GB, when I have 32 GB. That happens in both servers.

When I look at Win11 Home 23H2 Task Manager ESO64 shows running at "below normal", I have to update it to "High" but it doesn't change anything on the freezing and stuttering.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700F CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz
NVidia GeForce RTX2060
Latest NVidia drivers March 5, 2024 installed.

WhosTheFancyOneNow · March 14

i play with a gamepad and an nvidia card -gtx 1650 - and i have had issue with stuttering and losing gamepad conntrol with the game frozen except for my toon sliding off the left side of the screen and then suddenly snap back to where i swas b4 i started sliding left. lots of desyncs too. probably some is my internet but not all of it is.

ZOS_Bill · March 15

@UnseenCat

In your first post you've mentioned using an Xbox controller when playing ESO. Since Update 41, we are aware of a performance issue when in gamepad mode. You can see the current known issues here. Check and disable any 3rd party controller support applications that might be running.

UnseenCat · March 15

@ZOS_Bill

I saw that. I don't use any 3rd party controller software -- Just an Xbox controller connected to the PC. Steam controller options are set to "Use default settings"

UnseenCat · March 15

The current state of my game is similar to what @jasonleitch1_ESO is seeing. Hitching/jumpiness when swinging the camera around with the controller or the mouse. It's worse with the mouse, since its speed is relatively unconstrained. With the controller, the camera movement speed is subject to more "damping" on its acceleration and has an upper limit on its speed. But it's still a repeatable source of uneven visual FPS.

ZOS_Bill · March 20

@UnseenCat

Thank you for the update. If you've not done so yet, please go ahead and start a ticket with customer support for further assistance.

UnseenCat · March 24

Update: It appears to be resolved under Nvidia driver 551.86 (Latest as of this week.) The rolled-back Windows update has also been re-installed, and the behavior is gone.

My educated guess (as a Windows server admin in my working life), is that something was amiss between the latest Windows cumulative update for March versus the Nvidia driver until 551.58 came out. The problems were reduced by rolling back the latest Windows update, showed no improvements between running either of the previous two Nvidia drivers, and now the issue appears to be gone when both the latest monthly Windows patch and the recently-released Nvidia driver is present. That tends to indicate Nvidia probably remedied something that Windows patching introduced which wasn't playing nice with their prior drivers.

ZOS_Bill · March 26

Thank you for the update!

With this issue now resolved under the latest Nvidia drivers, we will go ahead and close the thread going forward.