Eu4 Lagging and Stuttering Despite a Good and Beefy PC

[Tiquerzius]

It might be helpful if you describe your lag better. How many FPS do you get when paused, and on speed 3, 4 and 5 in 1445(the first few months of the game have a lot more calculations, so letting it run till the middle of 1445 is a better test than 1444)?
I think it is important to note that a lag on speed 5 could have very different reasons than a lag on other speeds. On speed 5, the game tries to let the time pass as fast as your CPU allows and this might not leave enough CPU resources for a high FPS. I don't know how the eu4/clausewitz programmers implemented this, but I think there is a trade-off between FPS and how fast a day can pass and they might have opted to prioritize day passing above everything else.

@eddyr do you also have it in 1444/1445? Lag in 1550+ could be caused by other game bugs(e.g., there is a bug in the current version which causes several second freezes during AI colonial wars, but a mild version of that bug could manifest itself as more of a lag on fast systems).

I don't have any good ideas, but there are a few things you could try which might have an impact:

• switch between borderless fullscreen, normal fullscreen and windowed mode
• try borderless fullscreen with different refresh rate settings in the display settings of your OS(e.g. 60Hz, and whichever maximum your monitor supports). Unfortunately you can't really do this test with normal fullscreen, because then eu4 sets the refresh rate and always uses 60Hz no matter what you configure in the settings.txt
• look in the radeon software for settings which you can configure per game and test if they have an impact. For example radeon chill, radeon anti-lag and Surface Format Optimization.
• set multi-sampling to 0 in the eu4 video settings
• dismiss all notifications at the top of the screen
• deactivate the steam overlay and any other overlay which could be active(e.g. from the radeon software)
• try to start eu4.exe directly (will probably deactivate DLCs)

Disclaimer: I'm not working for Paradox. I'm just trying to help people.

I have around 30-40 FPS if paused, but camera movement is not smooth. Unpaused in the 1560s we are talking about less than 20 FPS.
1444 its around 100 FPS paused, but running (even on one speed) drops it below 30. Also in 1445 its already only 60 FPS paused.
Input lag is a thing every now and then but its somewhat ok most of the time, during later wars input lag was way worse.
Main menu is well in the hundrets of FPS btw, tho i doubt that means anything.

All solutions you mentioned have been tried by me. Some lead to minor impovements, but nothing above 10 FPS.

There has to be some kind of deeper problem but I cant put a finger on it.
An older PC of mine, which used to run it fine, with an AMD setup, is not running the game on super high FPS, but its stable 30-40.

Another thing different from the past is that i am using the subscription for the DLCs since Dominion.

 

[epicness7131]

It might be helpful if you describe your lag better. How many FPS do you get when paused, and on speed 3, 4 and 5 in 1445(the first few months of the game have a lot more calculations, so letting it run till the middle of 1445 is a better test than 1444)?
I think it is important to note that a lag on speed 5 could have very different reasons than a lag on other speeds. On speed 5, the game tries to let the time pass as fast as your CPU allows and this might not leave enough CPU resources for a high FPS. I don't know how the eu4/clausewitz programmers implemented this, but I think there is a trade-off between FPS and how fast a day can pass and they might have opted to prioritize day passing above everything else.

@eddyr do you also have it in 1444/1445? Lag in 1550+ could be caused by other game bugs(e.g., there is a bug in the current version which causes several second freezes during AI colonial wars, but a mild version of that bug could manifest itself as more of a lag on fast systems).

I don't have any good ideas, but there are a few things you could try which might have an impact:

• switch between borderless fullscreen, normal fullscreen and windowed mode
• try borderless fullscreen with different refresh rate settings in the display settings of your OS(e.g. 60Hz, and whichever maximum your monitor supports). Unfortunately you can't really do this test with normal fullscreen, because then eu4 sets the refresh rate and always uses 60Hz no matter what you configure in the settings.txt
• look in the radeon software for settings which you can configure per game and test if they have an impact. For example radeon chill, radeon anti-lag and Surface Format Optimization.
• set multi-sampling to 0 in the eu4 video settings
• dismiss all notifications at the top of the screen
• deactivate the steam overlay and any other overlay which could be active(e.g. from the radeon software)
• try to start eu4.exe directly (will probably deactivate DLCs)

Disclaimer: I'm not working for Paradox. I'm just trying to help people.

I will upload a video when I can of the lag I personally experience but it occurs whenever I unpause at any speed though more noticeable at higher speeds. when I downloaded MSI afterburner I noticed FPS in the 50s and lower and frame times spike when unpaused. On my old PC which did not even have a Dgpu I used mods like fast univeraslis ran better/no stuttering/low fps then it does on my beast of a PC

 

[epicness7131]

In your case I agree, it does seem like that, as all your problems are on games before Stellaris (so older Clausewitz versions). Why on this computer but not your older weaker one is also a mystery. Was it AMD CPU and GPU also?


However

this seems to be a completely different situation! If this was a general issue between all older Clausewitz games and AMD gear, say, you'd both get it on CK2 for instance.

I'm frankly stumped as to how to help either of you at this point, none of the usual things seem to have had any effect whatsoever.

@jpd @grotaclas I wonder if you good folks might have any further ideas for us please?

My older PC had a old intel i5 3570 I am pretty sure with integrated graphics using a 500 gig hard drive with 8 gigs of ddr3 ram. It was so old it used a VGA connection lol. The game speed was alot slower but there was no lagging or stuttering and I usually used mods like fast universals which I tried on my new PC it changes nothing.

 

[SpectaSilver991]

@Tiquerzius Have you tried using DXVK in your game? I faced similar issues, where my game did not run smooth, while also suffering issues with slow speed. DXVK fixed all of it for me​

1. Go to https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v2.2
2. Click on the dxvk-2.2.tar.gz
3. Extract using 7zip. You will need to extract it twice.
4. Finally, you will see a folder called dxvk-2.2. There you will find two folders, x32 and x64
5. Go to the x64 folder and copy d3d9.dll. Do not use x32 folder
6. Paste into the folder where your eu4.exe is located.
7. Now test it.

If the game crashes:

1. Ensure your GPU drivers are upto date. DXVK requires a Vulkan 1.3 capable driver, otherwise it will crash
2. Run the game on borderless fullscreen or windowed mode. DXVK has some trouble running Eu4's exclusive fullscreen mode.

@epicness7131 I understand you have tried DXVK for Eu4 already. Did you follow all steps as I listed here? And are you seeing the dxvk cache file being created as you play the game?​

Another thing I would like you both to test, is to create a text file in eu4 folder and paste d3d9.maxFrameLatency = 1 into it. Then save it as DXVK.conf

 

[Tiquerzius]

@SpectaSilver991


Unfortunatly yes, I did try. It brought minor improvement but nowhere near the level I am used to with both older games and EU4 years ago when i activly played it.

Big wars still cause input lag and 4 speed is still sub 30 FPS most of the time.
Paused the game seems to work somewhat normal, yet still not optimal.

Drivers are all up to date, I even updated the BIOS recently.

 

[Tiquerzius]

@epicness7131
I took the nuclear option and reinstalled windows. With a clean windows reinstall EU4 is working properly.
Over the next couple days ill reinstall my other games and software and potentially mess with the settings.
If anything of that chokes EU4 out I will let you know.

 

[Cernofile]

this might not help but for me it helped temporarily , just turn up the graphics

 

[Falconer? I just met her.]

@Tiquerzius Did you ever have any luck finding out what in Windows was not agreeing with EU4? I am having the same issue and my game is pretty much unenjoyable on a Ryzen 9 with a 4060. I am just trying to come back to play WoC for the first time and it's a stuttering mess right from 1444 on any speed. Even moving around the map is awful. Definitely was never like this before, I've been playing this game for like 10 years off and on and never had anything like this. I've tried all the troubleshooting from earlier in the thread.

 

[AndrewT]

@Tiquerzius Did you ever have any luck finding out what in Windows was not agreeing with EU4? I am having the same issue and my game is pretty much unenjoyable on a Ryzen 9 with a 4060. I am just trying to come back to play WoC for the first time and it's a stuttering mess right from 1444 on any speed. Even moving around the map is awful. Definitely was never like this before, I've been playing this game for like 10 years off and on and never had anything like this. I've tried all the troubleshooting from earlier in the thread.

As a Windows reinstall fixed it for them, it's unlikely they'll know what was wrong in their previous Windows installation to do this.

And of course your issue may not have the same cause as theirs, which is why it is generally best to start your own thread rather than "me too" someone else's.

But let me if you want to pursue this here and I'll see what I can do. I take it this doesn't affect CK2, HOI4 or Stellaris, just EU4?

 

[Falconer? I just met her.]

As a Windows reinstall fixed it for them, it's unlikely they'll know what was wrong in their previous Windows installation to do this.

And of course your issue may not have the same cause as theirs, which is why it is generally best to start your own thread rather than "me too" someone else's.

But let me if you want to pursue this here and I'll see what I can do. I take it this doesn't affect CK2, HOI4 or Stellaris, just EU4?

All I have installed on this computer is EU4 and CK3. CK3 runs like a dream, no problems at all. If there's one or 2 of the others that would be really worth a lot diagnostically I could install and try it.

 

[Falconer? I just met her.]

Here's another problem that is probably related: I can't run the game in fullscreen. So even if I tick the box to disable fullscreen optimizations and turn vsync off and set refresh to 60, when I start in fullscreen the icon opens on my taskbar, the music starts, but I can't go to the game. I just see my desktop and I'm unable to click anything. If I alt-tab I can get back to my desktop but I can't go to the EU4 tab - it's blank.

Does this mean something from Nvidia is overriding my settings in a way that breaks the game?

 

[grotaclas]

Here's another problem that is probably related: I can't run the game in fullscreen. So even if I tick the box to disable fullscreen optimizations and turn vsync off and set refresh to 60, when I start in fullscreen the icon opens on my taskbar, the music starts, but I can't go to the game. I just see my desktop and I'm unable to click anything. If I alt-tab I can get back to my desktop but I can't go to the EU4 tab - it's blank.

Does this mean something from Nvidia is overriding my settings in a way that breaks the game?

This is a common problem with eu4 on some nvidia systems. AFAIK the problem is that eu4 ignores the refresh rate setting and always sets the refresh rate to 60 Hz on fullscreen even if that is not available. And the nvidia drivers then seem to not update the screen at all.

Something which you could try would be to check the nvidia configuration for the game and try to disable any optimizations which it tries to apply. And if your screen is using g-sync or freesync, you could try to disable it and set a fixed refresh rate in the windows display settings and then run the game in borderless fullscreen so that it uses that refresh rate.

 

[Falconer? I just met her.]

Yeah, I'm not using G-Sync or anything. My refresh is 64 Hz and I always did run it in borderless, I just switched to fullscreen as part of troubleshooting. So I guess that doesn't give me any more clues. I've tried everything I could think of with Nvidia, up to and including just uninstalling Geforce Experience. Nothing seems to help. I wonder what happened between earlier this year and now that did this? It's a bummer.

 

[grotaclas]

My refresh is 64 Hz

That's an unusual refresh rate. Is this the only one which your screen supports? Otherwise you could try other ones to see if that helps

 

[Falconer? I just met her.]

That's an unusual refresh rate. Is this the only one which your screen supports? Otherwise you could try other ones to see if that helps

Got it. It was the only one my screen was supporting because my integrated graphics was disabled and had a bad driver. Fixed now and EU4 looks great and flies!

Sorry for hijacking this thread, it sounded like the same issue to me but obviously wasn't, I should have made my own. I am really glad you helped me out, though. I never would have thought to check that.

I really appreciate having my game back. Thank you!