Suddenly Horrible Video Stuttering/FPS when Paused and Unpaused.

[Gui11otine]

For some reason, a couple of weeks ago, my frame rate in both EU4 and HOI4, for lack of better term, died. Both games now run on an FPS of about ~20, and it persists whether paused or unpaused, lowest setting to highest settings. The same thing does not happen for me in Stellaris or CK3, so I don't think it is a problem with my computer. It is now impossible for me to play the games without trying to zoom out and waiting up to 10 seconds for the game to register it, or having to have the game stop and start again as I throw my cursor to the edge of the screen.

When playing either of the games, task manager does not report any part of the computer doing more than it needs to, and the memory and CPU are never being fully used. The GPU also does not seem to get very high in temperature.

Thank you in advance for any possible help.

 

[AndrewT]

Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-EU4
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/EU4 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4 folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add EU4.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam EU4 or Documents EU4 locations, before installing again.


IF that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log .


Please report the temperatures of your CPU and video (GPU)
1/ before starting the game up and
2/ after say 10 minutes' play.
If your PC's vendor has given you no way of reading temperatures, install
SPEEDFAN http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[Gui11otine]

Sorry for the (very) late reply, the first solution didn't work, so I have the other information here.

The temperature before opening the game was 53C for the GPU and 43-49C for all CPU cores. After playing for 10 minutes the GPU was 64C and the CPU ranged from 60C - 64C.

 

[Gui11otine]

I forgot DXDiag for a second.

 

[AndrewT]

That system.log shows that only a refresh rate of 144hz is available on any resolution. I've never seen that before! How odd; perhaps an nVidia issue?

Right click on eu4.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" there, untick every other box. Apply and exit.

Then run the game in fullScreen mode from the launcher. Is that any better?

 

[Gui11otine]

I can't actually run the game in fullscreen with fullScreen optimization ticked or unticked. It creates a blank, transparent tab that doesn't respond, and I have to use Ctrl Alt Del to use the computer again, as it blocks me from interacting with any other program.

 

[AndrewT]

I can't actually run the game in fullscreen with fullScreen optimization ticked or unticked. It creates a blank, transparent tab that doesn't respond, and I have to use Ctrl Alt Del to use the computer again, as it blocks me from interacting with any other program.

Well that's weird, I've also not see that before!

Whether this is an unusual build of (or a problem with!) the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 card I'm not sure. Did this coincide with the latest nVidia driver installation perhaps? The timeline looks about right.

 

[Gui11otine]

I think I've had this issue since a couple of months after getting my computer, which would be about a year and a half ago. Also, I looked through some of the sytem logs for EU4 and it seemed to recognize my OS as Windows 8, but I have 10.

 

[AndrewT]

EU4 was first written before Win10 existed so has no way of recognising it, it shows the latest version it knows about. Everyone's system.log shows that.

It seems clear you have two unrelated problems, with fullScreen not working for 18 months and the performance for the last two weeks.

Do you have an option to swap in another video card, for the sake of a test?