Time Nudge (TN) issue Megathread

Hello!
     I've been dealing with issues relating to Time Nudge spikes (can manifest either as high lag or "slow-motion") and high consistent Time Nudge since about Battlefield 2042 update #3.0.0, and these issues have persisted into the BF6 beta, keeping me from pulling the $70 trigger on BF6. I've done research on the causes and "fixes" (though none of them are complete fixes) of the issues caused by Time Nudge, which I'll outline below.

Cause:

    Time nudge, in most cases, appears to be introduced when the CPU can't keep up with the traffic from the server. Time nudge itself is a buffer that waits for the CPU to either process the packets sent by the server or re-sync with the tick speed of the server. This does not, however, mean more powerful CPUs don't have this issue and less powerful ones do - it seems to be almost random which devices have issues with time nudge and which don't: even some consoles have had issues with time nudge in Battlefield 2042.

     As for it being an internet, location, or router-related issue, I've eliminated those factors by:
1. Changing my ISP and router (for a different reason, but the issue persisted)
2. Using both Wi-Fi and Ethernet (it didn't matter)
3. Even though I live in a major server city, I took my computer traveling out east and still had no dice with fixing the issue on hotel Wi-Fi.

     The issue is often found in systems whose CPUs have high utilization or are throttling (as is expected), but I've run 2042 and the BF6 beta on 60% CPU utilization well under 80 degrees C with the issue persisting. Your system not getting enough airflow could be an issue causing Time Nudge spikes. From what I've seen, the issue appears both on Intel and AMD chips across multiple generations, including mobile and desktop chips, and across multiple motherboard models as well.  It's likely a slight mismatch with something in certain specific CPUs and the Netcode that causes the issues to appear.

    The issue is not GPU-related: it persists on integrated graphics and both graphics cards I own, and changing graphics settings or turning on DLSS does not majorly affect how severe the issue is. This has been consistent throughout my research into the topic. Additionally, the games usually run with very high framerate and high GPU overhead even when the issue occurs.

     The issue could be RAM-related in some cases. Tweaking some RAM-related settings in BIOS can relieve some issues relating to Time Nudge.

Solutions:

     The issue can be relieved partially for some devices by lowering the max framerate in the game settings below what it normally . This may give some overhead for the CPU to run network-related processes and

      Additionally, user-created .cfg files have been circulating that limit CPU usage for the game to only about half of what it would use otherwise. These haven't worked at all for me, but seem to have had some effect in other users' issues. Note that this fix -- pretty much universally -- has been said to not completely solve the issue, but rather alleviate it a bit.

     For those who have the option, enabling an XMP profile for RAM in your bios could alleviate the issue. Alternatively, adding more RAM to your system could eliminate any issues in the CPU failing to communicate with memory, and give the CPU enough overhead to perform other tasks.

     Resetting your BIOS or re-installing your OS or game is not a valid way of alleviating this issue, from my attempts at doing all three and anecdotal evidence from other threads.

    Something I read relating to Time Nudge that seems important to note: "It's an issue with no clear cause and no solution." Everybody's case will be different, and the issue is probably not solvable either on your end or EA's end. As far as I can tell, the only way to completely solve the issue would be to swap to a different CPU, including using a potentially older one. If you have a laptop or a system with a soldered-on CPU, getting a new device to play the game on may be your only option if the fixes I've listed and the ones in the comments don't work.

    If I missed any solutions (I definitely did), feel free to drop them in the comments.

Conclusion:

     I'm writing this in part to get the attention of EA staff, of whom only one has responded to any time-nudge related thread before (2 years ago). This is an issue that is preventing a not insignificant amount of players from enjoying your game, and one that needs to be solved. This is not an issue for me in any  Battlefield game other than 2042 and 6, and not in any other multiplayer game either.

Edit 10/25/2025:

Just gonna leave an update here - consensus among quite a few posts (here and elsewhere) has shown that if you're having Time Nudge issues on the 60hz servers, playing on the 30hz Community servers is an option. The 60hz servers are just more difficult for the CPU to juggle network traffic with, so a slower tick rate server should alleviate the issue a little. I've bought BF6 and will post the results of me trying those 30hz Community / Portal servers. 

Something about those servers to note: there has been community pushback against DICE for their decision to make those servers 30hz. While this is a reasonable criticism from a gameplay perspective, a switch to all-60hz servers could end a way for us experiencing this Time Nudge issue to play the game. Due to that community pushback, and assuming the TN issue isn't addressed in a near-future update, you can expect that method of playing the game to vanish after some time.

Another thing to note for some users, especially with portable devices: changing power plan settings to not throttle (pick High Performance mode in "Choose a power plan" in Windows search) has had some effect in mitigating this issue with some users I've seen online, especially those with laptops or handheld devices. I will note, however, that altering this did not work for me in 2042 with my laptop.