Severe FPS Drop / GPU Overload After Halftime Cutscenes in Online Modes

Platform: PC

Mode(s) Affected: Ultimate Team (and other online modes with halftime cutscenes)

Specs Commonly Affected: GPUs with 4GB–6GB VRAM (within EA’s listed minimum requirements)

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Issue Summary

During online matches, the game runs smoothly in the first half at 1080p / Medium settings (well within the recommended spec for 4GB+ GPUs). However, as soon as the halftime cutscene plays (subs warming up, camera pans, etc.), GPU usage spikes to 99% and FPS drops to 2–5 FPS, making the game unplayable.

Lowering resolution and graphics settings delays the issue slightly (allowing more matches to be played before VRAM overload), but does not fix it — the crash still occurs after a halftime cutscene.

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Evidence & Observations

1. Offline Kick-Off Mode works fine

Entire matches run smoothly without issue, even at mid-high settings.

Kick-Off halftime only shows highlights, not subs warming up.

2. Online Modes consistently trigger issue

First half plays normally.

Halftime cutscene loads new assets → VRAM spikes → GPU overload → FPS collapse to unplayable levels.

Problem is reproducible across multiple users with different 4–6GB GPUs.

3. Community confirmation

Many threads in EA FC26 Technical Issues forum report the exact same problem: severe FPS drops or freezes only after halftime cutscenes.

Some users temporarily reduce the problem by lowering texture quality or editing overrideAutodetect.lua to disable hair/cloth rendering during cutscenes — which strongly suggests it’s an asset/VRAM memory management issue.

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Why This Matters

EA’s published minimum spec lists 4GB VRAM GPUs as supported.

In reality, the game becomes unplayable in online modes on those GPUs due to how halftime cutscenes are handled.

This isn’t a performance “tuning” issue — it’s a technical flaw in asset streaming / VRAM management, since the same hardware runs offline matches without any issues.

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Suggested Fix Areas

Optimize or reduce VRAM usage for halftime cutscenes.

Give players the option to disable halftime cutscenes in online modes (similar to how replays can be skipped).

Investigate why assets are not being unloaded between halves, causing VRAM overflow.

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Conclusion

This is not just a “performance complaint.” It is a reproducible technical bug triggered specifically by online halftime cutscenes. Many players within minimum/recommended specs are unable to play Ultimate Team properly because of it.

A fix or at least acknowledgment would go a long way in helping the community.