3.22.0 Hotfix 4

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POPTOP wrote:

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POPTOP wrote:

Added a bug report: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3408867
but ill add it here too just in case.

Laptop with:
- Intel core i7 6700HQ 2.60GHz
- RAM 16GB Dual-channel DDR4 1064MHz
- 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, (also has Intel HD Graphics 530, this is not used for poe)
- 500GB SSD
- Windows 10 Home 64-bit

I have tried all recommended solutions:
- Pack check
- Updating windows
- Updating GPU drivers using GeForce Experience
- Full fresh reinstall of the game
- Deleting config file.
- Checked Im within minimum requirements, which i am. Heck GPU is better than minimum when compared to requirements from https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3072628
- GPU comparison: https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-GTX-650-Ti-vs-GeForce-GTX-960M
- Tested various combinations of graphical settings:
____- Everything on low
____- Dx11, Vulkan, Dx12(this gives the best performance, but has occasional spikes to 100% GPU out of nowhere, so something is making it Unstable)
____- Capped fore and back ground fps to 30
____- Windowed mode with 1280x720
____- and more, and etc, and fiddling continues endlessly

Problem Description:
Prior to the first of the series of patches leading up to 3.21.2b, I had managed to fiddle the game settings low enough to where by gpu was running at a stable 34% usage on the GPU, with the expected spikes during combat.

After patch, the GPU usage is unstable, and significantly increased. Average usage is 50% on the GPU, with spikes going to 95% when using a single skill in the wrong spot in hideout. (See Test Below)

Additionally the CPU spikes to 80-100% when loading areas, which ill asume is a different problem all together. Switching to dx11/vulkan/dx12 has some effect on this loading

POE Particle/lighting Performance Test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPkdf6oFf4

Conclusion: Game is in an unplayable state on a machine that is above minimum requirements, with a build that speficially is optimised for low end, and while using lower resolution than recommended for minimum specs. This is due to the exessive strain put on the GPU.

The Poe2 lighting/particle effects appear to be the main culprite, as the more of any effect on screen is displayed the exponentially worse the GPU's performance becomes as seen in test above.

This issue cannot be resolved from the player side.

P.S.
Came back to poe after quitting the game in 2020, about 1 week before this shitshow, fiddled the pc to work, got back into buildplanning, and made it to level 7 the sunday before the first patch. FeelsBadMan.

Ill asume heist league was the first time poe2 particle shitstem was introduced, as the current problem is pretty much the same issue that made me quit back in 2020. Had a good 3 weeks of fun back then on self cast desecrate+ detonate dead before heist league, and then after the desecrate effect got changed, the skill became unusage due to its new terrible performance(which seems to never have been fixed btw).

I optimistically wish you the best of luck fixing this, which you will surely need, given Exilecon showed the poe backend being a hardcoded spaghetti ball, and Visual effects guy from day 2 (https://youtu.be/XE3MAFGDzWw?t=3633) explaining how the more cascades he does the cheaper they get, which sounds cool and is probably true, but when put to practise clearlymakes the GPU shit the bed.

Lastly, coming back made me consider getting some of the new specialised stashtabs... but why bother when the game doesnt work.

The issues detailed in my previous post remains unresolved in patch 3.21.2c

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Ok, don't know if it is exactly related, who knows with this darn patch, but since I had all the worst parts of that bloody gamebreaking update from a month ago, and now got a visible improvement, I am gonna share all I know.

Spoiler

First of all, that patch broke the game for me. Was running solid 60FPS most maps before it, after it it was rollercoaster frames from 30 to 50 anywhere, anytime.
At first the shaders thing did not work properly, they seem like they were reset at every game start, because I spent two hours Blood Aqueduct farming, and no matter what, the shader bar would go full for one minute everytime I went there after quitting the game. Also did all campaign areas and that did nothing. The game would also not show any skill or mobs at first appearence.
I tried everything known and shared in the forum. Deleted temps folders then moved the shader one on second SSD. No graphical option changed anything in the performance, except DX12 which made it worst. Also all dynamic options stopped working after that patch (and still don't work).
I then played ALL areas in the campaign to rebuild the shaders. Seem to work as the green bar did't show up anymore. Still absolutely terrible performance. No area was getting anything else than an accordeon of 30 to 55 fps. I gave up after wasting about 5-6 hours of shader building.
Then the new league started and it was even worst. Some areas would build shaders and the game went smooth until it was done, then back to horrendous yo-yo fps. When I stopped moving, the game went even even worst going from 20 to 40 fps with the most insane amount of spikes on the CPU.
I am now at Act 9 after 11 hours and you know what, the game is finally smooth. No more spikes. I still have all options to low or off (I'll try and move up those) and I regularly get a small spike when the game gets very intense.
So it seems that the game needs about 15-20 hours to build up the shaders, and then when it seems like no more shader bar appears, it still needs a lot of hours to smooth everything.

To resume, my game needed a termination of all temp folders, then creating/moving them on another SSD, lowering all options, and about 15-20 hours of gameplay to rebuild the shaders. On my Win 10 Pro, I7-4790K 4.0 GHz, GeForce GTX 1080 8.0 Go, 24 Go RAM.

So far so good. But good luck flaming your CPU for 20 hours of the most frustrating and un-enjoyable experience you'll ever have in this game.

Thanks GGG for never addressing this issue and never telling us the amount of work and patience needed to fix this problem that hundreds of players have.

Also I would not say fixed yet, need to map for days first to be sure it's stable.

Cheers, good luck