Stuttering with active Vsync

[Cowboy280576]

Hi,

it´s a little bit strange, the FPS are okay (60 FPS), but I have “stuttering” all 0,5 - 1 s, the screen does little “jumps”, it really feels annoying… Without VSync it´s better and smoother, but I have tearing and it looks less clear.

Does anyone else have the same problem?

Suggestions for a solution?

System: i9900k, RTX2080, Windows 10, Drivers all up to date.

[vapourfire]

Hey…

Are you still having this issue?

If you are, a few things;

1. Make sure the game files are verified if you are using Steam
2. Use foreground framerate limiting instead of vsync - there does seem to be something odd with vsync in certain setups.
3. Make sure that everything is updated, patched and you are definitely running the latest drivers for everything… not just graphics.
4. Disable any overlays or stop using anything else while playing to see if one of them is causing the issue.
5. Try temporariliy setting your in-game settings to 1080p, 60fps framerate limited, everything to very low or disabled… Test again to see if the same stuttering is still happening… If its gone, then up each setting and test between changes… start with resolution, then framerate limits and finally with the graphics quality settings…

Without any more info from your side that about all I can suggest…

[Bobcat]

you’re describing almost the exact same problems / symptoms I’ve been having,

and before I found a solution that worked for me,
I also tried the usual suggestions that unfortunately wouldn’t do the trick for me:

…limiting fps ingame,
…disabling/enabling vsnych in there,
…lowering resolution and settings to minimum,
…verifying game files / reinstalling, using standalone client etc…

it all didn’t really work.

• I could either play with ‘high’ fps like 100-140 and terrible tearing on a simple 60Hz 4K Monitor,
• with fps limited to let’s say 120, 90, 61, 60, 59 fps or whatever > gives you micro stutter / jitter constantly, as soon as you start moving your character, being even worse on the entrance/exit or ‘border’ of zones )
• or enable vsynch ingame, which gave me ‘rock solid’ 60 fps but even more micro stutter than with the fps limiter on )

I was clueless ‘why’ it would always ‘stutter / jitter’ even with high fps,
and by accident I found a very simple solution, wish I had thought of it or read about it elsewhere a lot earlier,
cause that constant stuttering / jittering even with high fps was almost driving me nuts in the end ^^ :

I found out this - and it helped a lot:

1. ingame, disable vsnych and the fps limiter, activate the fps counter and check your ‘average’ fps.

2. try finding a setup for all other gfx detail settings,
   that allow for significantly more fps than your monitors native refresh rate ( in my case just 60Hz ) ,
   or in other words. try finding the best resolution / gfx detail settings where you would never see the fps counter dropping below your monior’s native refresh rate.
   (I believe in your case you could aim for 1440p)

3. then, open up the nvidia control panel, and check ‘global 3d-settings’ …
   vsnych will most likely be set to ‘use 3d app setting’ by default.
   open up the ‘program specific’ panel,
   add Last Epochs game exe, and set an ‘exception rule’ by setting vsynch to ‘on’

this will override the game’s vsynch setting.

4. exit and restart the game client.
   hopefully you should now see a stable, buttery smooth constant 60 fps, vsynched,
   with most or even all ’ micro stuttering / jitter ’ gone.

System: Windows 10 20H2 19042.985 (hotfixed KB5001330) , intel i5 11400F , RTX 3060 Ti @ driver 461.51, Last Epoch was latest 0.8.1(x) version,
before the recent 0.8.2 patches went live (have had no time to check if it’s still working now)

other things I’ve noticed:
CPU get’s very little to do, overall usage here is very low, like 5-12% distributed evenly between all 12 threads except for 2 threads that are utilized a little bit more…
no matter how stressed out the gpu gets (~40-60% gpu load when capped @ 60fps = cpu load closer to 5% . or with gpu load 90-100% when fps are unlocked , cpu load is closer to 12%… GPU Ram ‘committment/usage’ is always close to the max of 8 GB that my card has, I’m not sure how much Last Epoch is really ‘using’ I would have to switch monitoring tools for that I guess )