FPS sometimes 20, sometimes 60

Hey guys, I'm having a recurring issue where the FPS sticks at either 20 or 30. Sometimes I will start it up and get 60 no problem for hours, but lately more than half the time I can't get above 30 even on the regular grid levels. It's not the CPU because it doesn't go back up when I pause the physics. To be clear, I'm not talking about it dropping down from 60 to 20 in the middle of a session - it's more like one day I'll get 60 and the next I get 20, even though I always close everything except Steam and NVIDIA Inspector when I play.

This intermittent problem started with Version 4.0 and has gotten worse since then. Here's what I'm running:

- Acer laptop
- NVIDIA GTX 860M, slightly OC'd
- Intel i7-4710 @ 2.50
- 16G RAM

When I first bought the game in February I had an issue with it running off the integrated graphics even though it said it was using the NVIDIA card, and I had to correct it by going into the control panel and changing the default setting to run everything off the card instead of auto-selecting. That got me a pretty stable 60 for months, but hasn't worked this time around. It really feels like it's still not running off the card for some reason but I don't know what to do. Any tips? Thanks for reading!

 

It's weird. According to NVIDIA Inspector my GPU % load is pretty high, but the temperatures aren't as high as they used to be, so I feel like it's not actually using the card. I'm more sure of this now because I just ran it using the integrated graphics and the framerate was the same, low 30s on GridMap and 10-15 on East Coast. Yet I have every setting in the NVIDIA's control panel set to run the game using the card. This can't be the limit, right?

 

Yep, doesn't make a difference. Also deleting the settings folder made things worse, as everything reverted to medium-high and got me 12 FPS on GridMap. So that's gotta be the integrated graphics despite all assurances that it's running on the card. Maybe I should completely reinstall?

 

Me too . I use no FPS limiter , and i get about 75FPS (smallgrid) but then i checked back and it became 21.8 .

 

The obligatory stupid question: Are you 100% sure power options are set to "High Performance"? And are you absolutely, positively certain there is no other programme trying to "save" your energy? The last thing I wanna ask is whether the laptop being plugged in makes a difference. I know mine has less performance when not plugged in.

If all that fails, you could try disabling your integrated gfx card completely (in BIOS).

 

Thanks for all the tips. I will check everything out over the next couple of days and get back to you. Really appreciate the help.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, I'm on High Performance and I'm always plugged in while gaming. I don't think there's any energy-saving program at work in the background - everything in the graphics control panel and "Experience" UI is set to max performance. That last step I will definitely try. Thanks for responding!

 

Just a quick update: I tried the steps in that link to the Just Cause 2 problem and it worked like a charm. Sitting at a stable 60 except for occasional CPU throttling, but there's nothing I can do about that. Thanks for helping me out!!

 

I went straight to that solution. I will revert and test the Intel theory over the next couple of days.

 

I used to have the same problem as the TS when the video card settings refused to change to NVidia (causing lags and low FPS), but the NVidia Inspector works like a charm.

Thanks for the tip, tho.

 

I tried reverting but with the latest update it seems to be running off the card problem-free. I updated my Intel driver as well.