After more troubleshooting and getting a bit of help from an AI assistant (more help than the EA support) I got to the following possible causes of the stuttering:
- Game-Specific Memory or VRAM Management Issue: It’s likely the game isn’t fully releasing memory or VRAM when closed, so restarting it leaves insufficient resources, causing stutters and frame drops.
- Shader Cache or Temporary File Issue: If the game uses a shader cache or temporary files that aren’t fully cleared upon exit, this could lead to degraded performance on subsequent launches.
- Driver/Game Compatibility Issue: There may be a driver-related compatibility issue specific to this game, which could worsen with repeated launches if certain resources aren’t managed correctly by the driver.
It would be great if someone of the developer team could look at this please!