Product: Battlefield 2042
Platform:PC
Please specify your platform model. PC
AMD or Nvidia Model Number CPU: AMD 5950x GPU: AMD 6900xt
Enter RAM memory size in GB 32GB
Are you using any software with an overlay? No
Which part of the game is the issue happening in? Multiplayer
Which part of the mode? Conquest
Please select your region North America
On which server did this happen? All
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm)
Summarize your bug Cache in D:\Users\XXXX\Documents\Battlefield 2042\Cache is causing stutter. When this directory is emptied, stuttering goes away until cache is rebuilt.
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Clear the cache folder.
What happens when the bug occurs? When playing... all throughout play.
What should be happening instead? No stutter.
Oddly, the game is MUCH smoother when the cache directory is empty.
This seems counterintuitive to the purpose of the cache, but it's true.
Some more details:
Battlefield is installed to a G drive which consists of a Patriot VPN100 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe 1.3 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) VPN100-1TBM28H.
Windows 10 is installed on a C drive which consists of a Patriot VPN100 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe 1.3 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) VPN100-1TBM28H
However, my Users dir exists on a D drive which consists of a Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-76E2T0B/AM). This is where the Battlefield 2042 cache directory resides.
Test 1
As a test, I created a symbolic link to move the D:\Users\XXXX\Documents\Battlefield 2042\Cache dir to the G drive.
Tested, stutter still existed.
Test 2
Created a 4GB RAM drive. Created a symbolic link to move D:\Users\XXXX\Documents\Battlefield 2042\Cache to the RAM drive.
Tested, stutter still existed.
WHAT FIXES IT?
Clear cache directory, stutter is gone temporarily, but returns the next play session. To work around this, I would delete the contents of the cache dir before playing. This proved to be tedious, and consequently, was creating unnecessary writes to the disk.
MY TEMPORARLY SOLUTION
Deny all access to the cache folder. (By changing folder permissions to Deny for "authenticated users") Writes stop occurring, stutter goes away, no need to clear directory. It's a win/win/win situation.
