Stuttering on enemy\civs kills

[Psychosuicide]

Hi everyone, I've noticed an issue (not sure since which patch) where the game starts to stutter after killing an enemy or civ. At the start of a new game, there are no stutters, but as the playthrough progresses, they begin to appear, causing more noticeable FPS drops:

1. Around 15 hours in, it's barely noticeable (small spikes on the frametime graph).
2. By 30 hours, the stuttering becomes slightly noticeable even without the frametime graph.
3. At 60–70 hours, the stutters are clearly noticeable even without the frametime graph.

This issue only occurs after killing an enemy or civ and doesn’t seem to depend on hardware, drivers, or other factors.

I tested this twice on two fresh 2.21 playthroughs and also noticed similar behavior on an older save with 80 hours played (though the stuttering there isn’t too severe).

I found an example on YouTube showing how it looks around 70–80 hours into a playthrough:

Is there any fix or idea what might be causing these stutters?

Post automatically merged: Feb 22, 2025

Update: I’ve figured out that the issue started with patch 2.1. The character retains a state that causes stutters after kills, and the same thing happens with any new character — the stutters gradually get worse as the playthrough progresses.

 

[TransientResponse]

Show PresentMon graph. Just frametime graph is not sufficient.

 

[Bartinga2077]

"Stuttering on enemy\civs kills"​

If I were to guess, I'd say it's because the game needs a tad bit more computing resources for a sec to execute the "falling down" sequences of frames which are supposed to be scripted. Try blowing up a couple 'o cars in rapid succession as fast as you can.

 

[JackiesBasketball]

Try blowing up a couple 'o cars in rapid succession as fast as you can.​

I recommend doing this regardless as it can be fun. And we're all here for fun.

 

[Psychosuicide]

Show PresentMon graph. Just frametime graph is not sufficient.

bruh

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2025

"Stuttering on enemy\civs kills"​

If I were to guess, I'd say it's because the game needs a tad bit more computing resources for a sec to execute the "falling down" sequences of frames which are supposed to be scripted. Try blowing up a couple 'o cars in rapid succession as fast as you can.

I don’t think so. I have two saves with the game fully completed, both in the same location (H10). I shoot at civs in both saves, using the same hardware and within the same session:

1. Pre-patch 2.1 – smooth frametime, no FPS drops at all.
2. Patch 2.2 – stutters.

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2025

I recommend doing this regardless as it can be fun. And we're all here for fun.

This only happens when killing enemies or civs. It feels like something bugged is being saved into the save file.

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2025

"Stuttering on enemy\civs kills"​

If I were to guess, I'd say it's because the game needs a tad bit more computing resources for a sec to execute the "falling down" sequences of frames which are supposed to be scripted. Try blowing up a couple 'o cars in rapid succession as fast as you can.

This also happens when starting a new game (with or without the DLC). The frametime is smooth at first, but as the playthrough progresses, stutters start to appear.

It’s possible that the EMP weapon is causing the issue, as both of my test playthroughs used it, and in both cases, it triggered stutters. However, I also have a save without the EMP weapon, and there are still stutters there (though less severe).

As I mentioned before, everything is fine on pre-2.1 — I have two saves without any stutters at all.

 

[TransientResponse]

I have two saves

Share them, can check is this problem present.

 

[Psychosuicide]

Share them, can check is this problem present.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O30q9JaHBbxax_DpmI4Xb_d_gs9amR3z?usp=sharing - sure, why not.

Totally Fine - Pre 2.1 save (started the game i mean) - smooth frametime, no stutter at all, even if i kill 10 civs at once (Game full completed)
Broken - Latest Patch - stutter even at 1 kill. (Game almost completed, DLC remains)



Tested in same location - h10 tower.

Post automatically merged: Feb 25, 2025

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O30q9JaHBbxax_DpmI4Xb_d_gs9amR3z?usp=sharing - sure, why not.

I’ve uploaded a video from these saves with the frametime graph included.

 

[TransientResponse]

Totally Fine - Pre 2.1 save (started the game i mean) - smooth frametime, no stutter at all, even if i kill 10 civs at once (Game full completed)

Save corrupted or incompatible.

Broken - Latest Patch - stutter even at 1 kill. (Game almost completed, DLC remains)

Captured video (~330 MB, Matroska) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKLS2g8EKfteh3r5F_04bZd5YP-dZVaR/view?usp=sharing
UPD: PC specs: https://i.ibb.co/NgTjvxfG/pcspecs.png

UPD2:

Tested in same location - h10 tower.

Overlooked this. Will recommence tests tomorrow evening (GMT+3 time)

 

[Psychosuicide]

Captured video (~330 MB, Matroska) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKLS2g8EKfteh3r5F_04bZd5YP-dZVaR/view?usp=sharing

You can see them in your video, but at 60 FPS, they might not be as noticeable in-game. I've uploaded a comparison video of the two frametime graphs.

During kills, the graph should be relatively smooth, without spikes — this is clearly visible in my comparison.

 

[TransientResponse]

During kills, the graph should be relatively smooth, without spikes

Do you know that RTSS frametime monitoring uses non-linear scale? You can switch to linear and never see small diferencies. Those spikes you see is a negligible. That is why I asking about presentmon stats. On my video it is presentmon frametime not RTSS. Only spike I see when equiped mantis blade (and this due to my game installed on network-shared folder on mine home NAS).

 

[Psychosuicide]

Do you know that RTSS frametime monitoring uses non-linear scale? You can switch to linear and never see small diferencies. Those spikes you see is a negligible. That is why I asking about presentmon stats. On my video it is presentmon frametime not RTSS. Only spike I see when equiped mantis blade (and this due to my game installed on network-shared folder on mine home NAS).

Even if that’s the case, my videos clearly show the difference. In the first video, the graph remains smooth, even when I kill multiple targets at once. In the second video, you can see that stuttering gets worse when multiple targets are killed.

Post automatically merged: Feb 26, 2025

Do you know that RTSS frametime monitoring uses non-linear scale? You can switch to linear and never see small diferencies. Those spikes you see is a negligible. That is why I asking about presentmon stats. On my video it is presentmon frametime not RTSS. Only spike I see when equiped mantis blade (and this due to my game installed on network-shared folder on mine home NAS).

It’s not just about the graphs—I don’t really care what they show. The stutters are clearly noticeable, especially at 100+ FPS, and they ruin the gameplay. Based on my saves, this issue didn’t exist at all before patch 2.1.

Post automatically merged: Feb 26, 2025

Only spike I see when equiped mantis blade

This stutter has always been in the game—every time you equip the Mantis Blades, there’s a slight stutter. But it’s minor and not really an issue.

 

[TransientResponse]

The stutters are clearly noticeable, especially at 100+ FPS, and they ruin the gameplay.

Butter-smooth, your Quicksave-9, 1440p Ultra noRT (to maintain over 100fps on my RX 7900XTX without FSR, it less than 100 in 4k).
Megabuilding H10, spawned 30 enemies.

Two spikes on graph - mantis blades.

 

[Psychosuicide]

Your graph:

My graph:

It should be:

The screenshots were taken at the moment of unit kills. Stutters/microstutters are clearly present in two cases and absent in one.

Post automatically merged: Feb 26, 2025

Captured video (~330 MB, Matroska) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKLS2g8EKfteh3r5F_04bZd5YP-dZVaR/view?usp=sharing

Your graph was taken from here.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O30q9JaHBbxax_DpmI4Xb_d_gs9amR3z?usp=sharing - sure, why not.

Mine are from here—there are two videos with graphs and comparisons.

You’re definitely experiencing the same issue—it’s clear from the graphs. The problem is clearly tied to the save, and this shouldn’t be happening.

Post automatically merged: Feb 27, 2025

I progressed on the same save until playing as Kurt Hansen. Kills work perfectly there. This is definitely some weird issue with the character and the save.

 

[flyne1137]

I have same problem. I don't know what to do, I play in performance mode, but 90% of the time I see only 30 fps. I cleaned the cache, reinstalling the game and nothing helps. I remember that when I started playing, nothing lagged, I decided to roll back to a very old save and oh miracle I don't see any lags there. But as soon as I return to my save where I have almost completed all the tasks, I see it when I drive down the street, shoot and so on.

 

[Psychosuicide]

I have same problem. I don't know what to do, I play in performance mode, but 90% of the time I see only 30 fps. I cleaned the cache, reinstalling the game and nothing helps. I remember that when I started playing, nothing lagged, I decided to roll back to a very old save and oh miracle I don't see any lags there. But as soon as I return to my save where I have almost completed all the tasks, I see it when I drive down the street, shoot and so on.

Not sure if this is the same issue, mate. The stutters I’m experiencing only occur when killing units (any units, by any means, the stutter specifically happens at the moment of the unit's death (the red square appears at the kill)). I suspect the problem might be related to the EMP perk tree, but I can’t confirm it yet.

I tried starting a new playthrough, again using EMP weapons and perks. The stutters started appearing around the time I fully upgraded the EMP tree (about 15 hours in, with very minor stutters).

I’ll probably come back in a couple of months to play through the game with a different build and will report my findings then.

UPD: I suspect the EMP perks because I recently discovered that while playing "as Kurt Hansen" on the same bugged save, there were no stutters at all. This is likely because the game doesn’t account for my perks when playing as other characters. I’ve also encountered a similar problem in the EMP build before patch 2.1, but it was much worse back then—these weren’t micro stutters, but full-blown stutters. I thought it was fixed, but it turns out...

UPD 2: And no, the issue doesn’t go away when I reset the perks.

Post automatically merged: Mar 4, 2025

As I mentioned before, everything is fine on pre-2.1 — I have two saves without any stutters at all.

UPD: I made a mistake here—everything worked perfectly on patch 2.1. Some minor issues appeared in the playthrough after the patch that introduced FSR 3 (frame generation). I’m not sure what’s causing it. That playthrough also has a fully completed game, but there are slight fluctuations in the frame-time graph, which aren’t present in other saves. I wasn’t aware of them until I started comparing saves, as they’re not noticeable in gameplay. This is also why I’m not sure about the EMP perk theory, since it’s not used at all in that playthrough, and none of the related perks were upgraded.

Post automatically merged: Mar 4, 2025

 

[TransientResponse]

Some minor issues appeared in the playthrough after the patch that introduced FSR 3 (frame generation). I’m not sure what’s causing it.

Do you use that crap? Any upscaling method gaves aditional input-lag that feels by user and also it produces spike on some nvidia and intel gpu's. Hardware Unboxed and Igor's Lab made a bunch of video of that issue.

 

[Psychosuicide]

Do you use that crap? Any upscaling method gaves aditional input-lag that feels by user and also it produces spike on some nvidia and intel gpu's. Hardware Unboxed and Igor's Lab made a bunch of video of that issue.

Don’t use it, I have a 4090 – my FPS is more than enough. I mentioned FSR 3 because it was the last playthrough and the last update where potential issues appeared. And the stutter is tied to a specific in-game event—I can blow up five cars without a single spike in the frametime, but a single kill is enough to cause one. That shouldn't be happening

 

[Psychosuicide]

Thank you so much for the suggestion.

No problem, I just want to figure this out. I highly doubt that the FSR 3 patch completely broke the game, but something is definitely causing severe microstutters in the current patches. I’m still betting on EMP weapons.

 

[Notserious80]

No problem, I just want to figure this out. I highly doubt that the FSR 3 patch completely broke the game, but something is definitely causing severe microstutters in the current patches. I’m still betting on EMP weapons.

Mods? if not something is obviously wrong with the saves that causes the Ft spike What that is tho is way above my non paygrade .

 

[Psychosuicide]

Mods? if not something is obviously wrong with the saves that causes the Ft spike What that is tho is way above my non paygrade .

No mods, completely vanilla game.

Post automatically merged: Mar 7, 2025

I tested another case on the same save: the microstutter occurs specifically when a unit dies by the player's action. If units die to each other, there are no frame time spikes.