Random FPS Drops - CPU utilization drops at same time

[Shipwreck_Jones]

My frame rate will randomly drop from the 30's to the low tens. Doesn't matter where I'm at, or what I'm looking at. In fact, I can sit and stare at the ground, and my frame rate will drop for a while, before recovering.

I've been doing the generic troubleshooting steps that I've found in various guides for improving Cyberpunk's framerate. However, while troubleshooting I noticed something interesting. When these frame rate issues occur, my CPU uitilization will drop by around 20%. And then it will recover as my frame rate recovers. I have no idea why this happens or what this means, but I feel like it's a clue. Anyway, I'm going to try to keep looking to see what I could find, but I was hoping that maybe someone could point me in the right direction.

• I found a bunch of links to the Ryzen SMT fix, but that didn't fix my particular issue.
• Did not have this problem on this same hardware configuration last year (had other problems, but not this one)
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (stock)
• GTX 1060
• HW monitor shows good temps and no thermal throttling
• GPU utilization is literally at 2% with my current graphics settings.
• GRAM utilization is almost topped out, but it is my understanding that there is a big difference between allocation and actual usage.
• Does not matter what area I'm in, or what I'm looking at. Can stare at the same spot and watch frame rates go up and down.
• Can go between 5 to 30 minutes or so with out issue. Problem will last for a minute or two.
• Used DDU, and then installed the latest version of my graphics driver
• Latest chipset and BIOS
• I am running mods. However, after I had problems, I uninstalled anything that touched graphics (i.e. weather, reshaders, more gore), and then verified my game files. I still have 9 other mods installed. I will, of course, uninstall those too if I have to, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any suggestions first.
• I have not tried doing a fresh install of the game yet. It's a 60 gig download, so I'm definitely hoping it won't come to that.

Oh, and if anyone stumbles across this thread that is looking for information about the SMT fix, check out this video. The guy did a good job of explaining things, and he has updated hex values in the pinned comment -apparently the hex values can change with subsequent versions, so that's why I was getting nada when searching for the hex code that other guides were telling me to search for. Anyway, his pinned comment was still working for up to v1.31 of the game. Unfortunately, I can't tell you if it was actually needed though. All cores certainly look like they're getting a work out now, but I didn't pay attention to individual core utilization before trying the fix. So, I dunno.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I'm not an expert but have you try the tips provide by CDPR ?
(I suppose yes, but I ask anyway).

Performance issues — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

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But even with "removing" mods, some "modified" datas/files could remains in the game files or even in save files. So if it come from mods, a whole reinstall could be the "only" solution, unfortunately (I hope not, but it's possible)

(Like I said, I'm not an expert (so maybe/probably I'm wrong), but GPU usage at 2% even with the lowest graphic settings, seem to be extremely low)

 

[Shipwreck_Jones]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at my GPU utilization in HW monitor, and it was hitting 100%. Turns out task manager was lying to me. Anyway, even when I turn my graphics settings all the way down (which is below what others with my card has recommended), my GPU utilization still ranges between 80-100%.

Guess, I'm just going to bite the bullet and do a fresh install. This time though, I'm not going to do any graphics mods, and I'll install the other ones one at a time just to make sure none of them are causing any problems.

Post automatically merged: Dec 18, 2021

Well, I did a fresh install and deleted the leftover files before reinstalling (probably should have used revo uninstaller). Still didn't help. Don't know why I'm getting worse performance than other users with my card (or me, the last time I tried playing).

Anyway, I turned on DLSS (or whatever it's called) and turned down my graphics settings pretty far, and that got me to a playable state. Not ideal, but it works.

 

[Oropher3]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at my GPU utilization in HW monitor, and it was hitting 100%. Turns out task manager was lying to me. Anyway, even when I turn my graphics settings all the way down (which is below what others with my card has recommended), my GPU utilization still ranges between 80-100%.

Guess, I'm just going to bite the bullet and do a fresh install. This time though, I'm not going to do any graphics mods, and I'll install the other ones one at a time just to make sure none of them are causing any problems.

Post automatically merged: Dec 18, 2021

Well, I did a fresh install and deleted the leftover files before reinstalling (probably should have used revo uninstaller). Still didn't help. Don't know why I'm getting worse performance than other users with my card (or me, the last time I tried playing).

Anyway, I turned on DLSS (or whatever it's called) and turned down my graphics settings pretty far, and that got me to a playable state. Not ideal, but it works.

How on earth can you turn on DLSS on a 1060 ?
That is simply not possible.

 

[SarahOM]

"I am running mods"

 

[backtron]

"I am running mods"

What's wrong with that though? It's first thing to easily rule out as probable cause, not a sin .

Anyway. I didn't see OP mentioning his full system specs.
* HDD or SSD, any other system parts on external HDD or sleeping secondary SSD (My Documents, GOG, etc)?
* What's your RAM? Ryzens are sensitive to this. Plenty space, fast? Do you run XMP? Overclock under stress can cause corruption and processing errors.
* What are your thermals? Throttling will cause CPU and GPU performance to drop.

Also sounds somewhat similar to https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/performance-bug-in-specific-area.11096923 Are you sure your drops are completely random and not linked to area you visit or something you do?