High fps but gameplay feels slow choppy players pixelated blocky
FC 26 PC — High FPS (130–140) but gameplay feels slow/choppy, players pixelated/blocky during movement only
**System specs:**
- Lenovo gaming laptop, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
- Resolution: 1920×1080, Refresh rate: 144Hz
- dGPU mode, Performance mode enabled, plugged in
- Latest NVIDIA driver installed (clean DDU reinstall performed)
**Symptom description:**
FC 26 gameplay feels noticeably slow and unsmooth during actual matches, even though the in-game FPS counter shows a steady 130–140 FPS. Players and the ball appear pixelated, blocky, or visually broken specifically during movement. Menus, cutscenes, and celebrations render smoothly with no issues — the problem only appears during live gameplay. This does not feel like standard low-FPS lag; frame time/pacing appears inconsistent despite the high reported average.
**Timeline:**
The issue began immediately after a similar (unrelated) glitch occurred in another game on the same laptop, which was then uninstalled. FC 26 had been running normally before that and has not run normally since, despite a full uninstall/reinstall through Steam.
**Troubleshooting already completed (issue persists through all of the below):**
- Clean driver reinstall via DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), fresh NVIDIA driver install
- Tested V-Sync on vs. off (off reduces severity but does not resolve it)
- Tested FPS capping at 120 via NVIDIA Control Panel (reduces severity but does not resolve it)
- Toggled Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) off — no change
- Switched Display Mode from Borderless to Fullscreen — no change
- Verified/reinstalled game files completely through Steam
- Deleted/reset local AppData settings folder for a fresh config — no change
- Tried the `-dx11` launch option — no observable change
- Closed all overlays (Discord, NVIDIA app, Steam, Xbox Game Bar, MSI Afterburner) — no change
- Ran `sfc /scannow` — no integrity violations found
- Ran a 10-minute FurMark GPU stress test with artifact scanner enabled — 0 artifacts detected, temps stable at 75–80°C, no visual corruption
- Tested a separate DX12 title (Warframe) on the same system — runs completely smoothly with no distortion, ruling out a general system/driver/GPU issue
**Conclusion:** Given a different DX12 game runs cleanly and GPU stability tests pass without issue, this appears to be specific to FC 26's rendering/frame-pacing behavior rather than a hardware or driver problem on my end.
**Video evidence attached** showing the distortion during live gameplay.
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Post this on the EA Forums FC 26 Technical Issues board, attach your video clip, and reply to it if EA staff or other players respond with follow-up questions.
