Forum Discussion

SaroopOwO's avatar
12 months ago

Stuttering/freezes and skiping shader cache


I am writing to seek assistance with a persistent issue I have been experiencing while playing Apex Legends.

Previously, at the start of the game, the shader caches would load, and there would be a brief stutter which subsequently fixed all in-game stuttering issues. However, this process seems to be skipping on my GPU now. My GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce MX130 and my CPU is an Intel Core i5-7200U. Since this change, I am facing massive stuttering and freezing issues during gameplay. The initial stutter that used to occur before the match no longer happens, but instead, the game stutters consistently during play, significantly impacting my experience.

I would like to mention that the game used to run smoothly on my system without these issues. However, the performance has deteriorated significantly recently.

I have tried several troubleshooting steps, including updating my GPU drivers and adjusting in-game settings, but the problem persists. I would greatly appreciate any guidance or solutions you can provide to help resolve this issue.

9 Replies

  • Not exactly the same symptoms... but I recently encountered similar problems.

    It started with the mid 21 season "Quad games" update.

    Before that i had long shaders compilation on start screen each time there was a new game update or a new nvidia driver.

    I had brief stutters on the lobby at each map change (seem the game was loading shaders from the new map maybe ?).

    but after that, once in game... everything was fine.

    Since that "quads game" update. The shader compilation screen (when starting the game) is always fast... but my in-game experience became awful.

    I got frequent stutters.... and my fps drop very low as soon there are enemies around.

    my fps often drop to around 15 during fights, which makes the game impossible to play.

    I strongly hoped the problem would be fixed with season 22 update... but it didn't change anything.

    I'm a long-time Apex player and this is honestly the first time I consider giving up the game for good... not been able anymore to play it normally.

    my config :

    i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40GHz

    16 Go Ram
    windows 10
    Geforce RTX 3060 12Go

    game installed on SSD.

    last nvidia driver.

    Sorry i can't help you SaroopOwO :/ I hope you (we) 'll find a fix.

  • @Mootos exactly after the squads update my game started to out perform i have been playin apex from season 4 now i decided to quit
  • Mootos's avatar
    Mootos
    12 months ago

    one more piece of information (in case it helps)...I tried once more to play Apex yesterday evening and i realised something :

    the terrible fps drop slowly improves with each game and fight. It's a bit like the game keeps on loading (compiling?) shaders as we encounter each 'new' 3D element.
    The first few games (especially the fights) are unplayable but after .... I don't know... 5? 6 games? the stutters diminish and the game becomes more or less playable again.

    Until this problem is fixed, I think i can still play Apex for "long" sessions, knowing that the first 5 games will only be used to load the shaders :D
    It's pathetic... but it's better than nothing.

    We'll see how it goes over time, but as this problem appeared since some time now (the famous quads update)... I'm afraid Respawn just decided it wasn't worth the trouble to try and fix it... since players with recent (powerful) machines apparently don't have it.I hope i'm wrong.

  • I feel like this aswell, they don't really acknowledge any performance issues even though there's been a lot of reports after quads update in season 21. 

    Got same issues here - even though my system is rather old (i7 3770k + rx 580), I used to comfortably run the game at around 110-120 fps which was just enough for me, but after that update, my game has been constantly stuttering and showing me starvation errors all the time. and fps dropping down to 50. I really hope someone could reply to our reports so we know we aren't talking to walls, even if they just tell us that it's normal that game has became more demanding and we should just upgrade.

    I was hoping this season's DX12 update would help, but the game doesn't even want to turn on with the DX12 launch option. 

  • zeno_182's avatar
    zeno_182
    Rising Traveler
    12 months ago

    platform: PS4

    version: s22 first release (6th august 2024) [can't remember the v.XX.XXX]

    problem:

    in the main menu of the lobby (battle pass, legends, weapons, shop, etc.), mostly during scrolling up-down and left-right, the game freezes for few seconds and then resumes... it's quite annoying.

  • Mootos's avatar
    Mootos
    12 months ago

    I got some news !

    Yesterday there was a new nvidia driver to install so it was a good time to look at how the game behaves wth new shaders compilation.
    It was the same as what i explained in my last post above :

    - 1st game : huge freezes and the game didn't succed to launch. I had an error before seen the team screen.

    - 2nd game : same but with an error just before the map appeared... and...

    I finally appeared still with my team !... but with terrible stutters (like 0.5 fps in fights).. making the game totally unplayable.

    ...

    game after game it became less jerky, just as if the game was slowly memorising the graphics (shaders ?) of the 3D elements i went around.
    Around the 6th game I was able to play "near to" normally again.

    and today...

    BIG NEWS (for me) !...


    I don't really know what happened today... i see 2 possibilities :
    - There was a fix update yesterday evening or today ?
    - Or the shaders that seemed to be compiled in the game and caused stuttering... are compiled "once and for all" on the hard drive/SSD ? (until the next new nvidia or Apex update).

    But I've just played with a friend... and had very few stutters. the fights was "near to normal" from the very first game we played.

    I still don't have great fps but it's still a very good improvement after these last weeks nearly not able at all to play Apex.

    I hope it'll be the same for you all around that got the same problem as me since this damned Quad update.