ME1 Framerate Weirdly Cratered?

Could you post a dxdiag file? https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

There have been instances in the past where certain quest triggers can cause a severe framerate drop, though as far as I know, those should have been patched by now. Could you load an older save file to see if it happens there as well? 

Also, make sure to double check that the display is plugged into the graphics card instead of the motherboard. Just covering all bases. 😛

There's my dxdiag.

No older save files for the one I was trying to play, but it's consistent across all save files and from new game. Almost as if any time it's trying to render anything, it immediately breaks down.

And yeah, everything is plugged in proper. This is the only game that's giving me trouble.

Did a bit more poking. Switched it to Windowed, turned off all the in-game graphics settings, and started cycling through resolutions. Game seemed okay up until 1280x720. Anything after that would drop the framerate down to about 30-40fps. And switching back to borderless windowed would tank the framerate down to 35fps minimum, regardless of resolution chosen.

I also thought it might be my replay software, but I disabled it and it did nothing.

I also checked my Nvidia Control Panel to make sure both my OpenGL rendering GPU global default and the default for Legendary Edition was my 2070S. Nada.

Still not sure what's going on. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to try!

This is a bit of a mystery to me, especially because it's only ME1 and not the other 2.

You could try a clean boot to make sure no third party software is interfering.

Okay, wow, even a clean boot didn't work.

I'm... gonna try something. Last time I had weirdly selective FPS issues, it was because of Nvidia drivers. I'm gonna acquire and install the drivers I was using when the game came out. If that doesn't do it... I'm honestly, truly stumped.

Nope! Even the game ready drivers for this game that worked on launch day do nothing to fix the problem!

EDIT - I did... just notice that despite disabling Origin Overlay both in the general Origin settings and for Legendary Edition's game-specific settings, it's still active in "R&D Mode". I investigated it and attempted a fix, and while it's no longer active, the framerate is still tanked. NOW I'm stumped for good.

EDIT 2 - As a combination of a last-ditch effort, as well as a culmination of months of micro-frustrations, I decided I'd spend today resetting my OS. Just waiting on LE to reinstall, I'll hit back once I've got results. Hopefully there was just something really, really, REALLY bizarre bottlenecking the game's performance, and starting with a purged slate gets things back in working order.

Eleven hours of waiting for the game to redownload later, on a completely factory reset operating system... no headway. It's still busted. To just keep track of everything I've attempted:

- Disabling in-game overlays

- Disabling my replay software

- Turning off all graphics settings, as well as toggling all resolution options

- Unplugging peripherals

- Verifying cache integrity

- Reinstalling the game

- Making sure things are plugged in correctly

- Double-checking my Nvidia control panel to make sure it wasn't trying to run off my motherboard GPU

- Running a clean boot with zero active services aside from Steam and Origin

- Rolling back to the April Game-Ready Nvidia drivers that I ran the game on in the first place

- Factory resetting my OS and running the game off a completely clean install

I don't know what happened. I don't know what more I can do to diagnose the game. Guess I just don't get to play the game anymore unless a fix gets discovered and pushed. Sigh.