Re: Dragon Age Veilguard PC (serious stutter and frame drops every 5 seconds)

Hi @EA_Illium,

I wasn't even aware there were any mods available except reshades and character saves...

No, I do not have any mod installed. (Only the regedit thing, which basically is the same as setting the games performance priority to high in the Task Manager)

Forgive me if I sound  rude, but that list of troubleshooting steps is as generic as it gets. 

As I wrote before multiple times, I did a a lot of troubleshooting before, which contained pretty much all of the steps mentioned. Even chatted twice with EA support.

And my results are pretty obvious. Only thing that fixed it for me was restarting the PC or setting the Shader Cache limit to 100GB (as mentioned above).

 FYI for anyone who is interested and has the time to read a very long text - When informing my AI assistant about my findings they answer:

"The improvement after increasing the Shader Cache Limit suggests the issue likely involves how the game handles shader caching. Here’s the updated diagnosis based on this finding:

1. Shader Cache Limit: By increasing the cache limit, you’ve allowed more space for the game to store shaders, which prevents it from overwriting cached shaders too frequently or struggling to access needed resources. The stuttering and frame drops likely resulted from the game repeatedly loading shaders that couldn’t stay cached due to the previous, smaller limit.

2. Game-Specific Resource Management Issue: While shader caching seems to be the main factor, it’s still possible the game isn’t efficiently managing other resources (like VRAM) when launched repeatedly. Increasing the cache limit likely eased this strain by reducing the need to reload shaders.

3. Driver/Game Optimization: This could still be a minor factor, as some games don’t handle shader caching optimally. Keeping the cache limit high is a good workaround, but future driver or game updates might further improve this.

Increasing the shader cache limit appears to be the key solution here, so if it’s working, you’re likely set! This will let the game run smoother by minimizing redundant shader loading on each launch." 

If I tell them about the other possible fix about underclocking/undervolting the CPU they say: 

"That could actually make sense in certain situations. Undervolting and underclocking the CPU can help if the CPU is experiencing thermal throttling or instability under load, which may cause stutters or frame drops in games. Here’s why it could be effective:

1. Thermal Throttling Prevention: If the CPU gets too hot, it may throttle its performance to cool down, leading to inconsistent frame rates and stuttering. Undervolting and underclocking reduce heat generation, which can prevent throttling, allowing the CPU to maintain stable performance over time.

2. Stabilizing Power Delivery: In some cases, the power supply or motherboard VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) may struggle to handle high CPU power demands consistently, especially in demanding games. Lowering the CPU’s voltage and clock speed can reduce these demands, which may improve stability and reduce stuttering.

3. Reducing Background Interference: A slightly undervolted and underclocked CPU can run more smoothly with lower power and thermal demands, which might prevent brief performance dips due to background tasks or fluctuating CPU utilization.

This approach wouldn’t directly solve shader caching issues, but it could still reduce overall system strain, leading to a smoother experience. It’s especially helpful if the CPU is pushing its thermal or power limits with the current configuration. If you’re comfortable with undervolting, it could be worth trying to see if it makes a further improvement."

Minor setback: The frame drops and stuttering are back when the PC goes to sleep and wakes up again...

My last suggestion what might cause this is a 

VRAM and RAM Reinitialization Issue. 

I will try hibernation instead of sleep the next session. 

Otherwise not letting the PC sleep at all or restarting is my only solution (in tandem with the shader cache limit)

The first patch has already been announced if I am not mistaken. Hopefully EA / Bioware will also provide Performance and Stability fixes !!!

Interested to see if this gets a fix... I bought the game last night (I have a top end pc, use Radeon 7900 xtx just for the extra info) and game was running buttery smooth until about 15 minutes in. All of the sudden I started to experience a crazy amount of stuttering and FPS drop. Textures and quality dropped significantly and I could see diagonal lines of pixels running through every texture and color in the world. Trying to find a fix for this but seem to be stuck in the same situation. 

Interesting enough, whatever DATV did to my gpu and pc carried on to Black Ops 6. I tried to run BO6 to see if the issue was contained to DATV and my quality (which at this point had never had an issue) in BO6 was also struggling. I reset my pc and updated GPU software and BO6 was back to normal but no fix within DATV.

Hey Everyone, 

I just wanted to give a brief update, we have based this on to the team to be aware of. 

The team has also announced a patch is on the way, while I do not have information on what will be in the patch. I can post here once it's live to have everyone test. 

If you have changed any settings or messed with specific hardware components, we might want to test on default settings once the patch is out. 

Cheers!