Massive CPU Spikes Making Game Unplayablle

[ArchmageQuinn]

So I've been experiencing insane spikes in CPU usage lately, it only started a few days ago and it only seems to be happening on my primary save file on which I'm level 47. The CPU baseline used to hover around 30-40% but it's gone up to 70-75% lately and every couple of seconds it spikes up to 100% and freezes my computer entirely. This didn't coincide with any new mods, because I've been using about the same load order over the past two or so months.

 

I have NVSR and NVAC, as well as the ENBoost patch. I've also used the 4GB patcher for the game but since I use the NVSE launcher I'm not 100% certain it functions properly.

 

I'm really at a total loss here because I still have quite a bit to play through on this file, but the ungodly amounts of freezing and stuttering have made it literally unplayable, and I'm at a total loss as to fixing it.

 

 

[dubiousintent]

In general, if you haven't changed anything about your game and it suddenly stops working correctly you need to look to other causes: such as software updates to Windows, programming libraries such as ".Net", or hardware drivers. Older games eventually get dropped from product testing. It is also possible you are having problems with your hard drive. It never hurts to run "chkdsk".

Re: Stuttering or "micro-stutters". All visual stuttering problems are caused by the video stream having to wait for the "art assets" required to render the display OR the game writing something to disk (such as a save game file or logging). Mostly these are due to the hard disk drive being orders of magnitude slower than VRAM, with System RAM (e.g. "ENBoost") and "solid state drives" (SSDs) being in between. Keep in mind that this game was designed for older PC and XBox console systems, and it is now possible for your new "latest and greatest" gaming machine to be faster than it can handle. There are internal design choices that cannot be overcome. The "video pipeline" has always been prone to problems.

 

The following are "mitigations" that have been found to help some people.

 

Please see the following entries under the 'Solutions to Performance problems' section in the wiki Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide if you haven't already.
* 'Issue: "Full screen mode" exhibits CTDs and stutters or micro-stutters'
* 'Issue: Lag or "micro stutters" even with "New Vegas Stutter Remover" installed'
* 'Issue: Win10 Screen tearing in "Borderless Windowed Mode"'
* 'Issue: CTD without warning, "Out of Memory error", or stops responding after the Main Menu' for other settings that can indirectly affect micro-stutter.
* There are also some NVSR configuration suggestions under the 'Issue: Game in slow motion' and entries. (These will not help with the "Tick Fix" alternative mod, but the author of NVSR now has a suggested configuration for Win10 linked there.)
* The 'Issue: What's with these Solid Green billboard signs in the distance (LOD)?' entry under the 'Solutions to Mesh (Red "!" icon) or Texture (solid color) problems' section can also help if your problems started after you installed VWD/LOD texture packages.

 

Probably reasons for spiking to 100% CPU:

* If you are using CASM or some similar "auto-save" mod to manage your save game files (recommended), try increasing the "time between saves" set in the "save frequency"; and reducing the number of occasions it saves to the minimum (e.g. disable most "Autosave Events" in CASM) and see how that impacts the game seeming to freeze temporarily.
* If you have "NVSE logging" enabled (see the 'Checklist Item #4' entry in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide), disable it until actually needed.

Reading from or writing to disk for any reason is the slowest thing the game does.

The size of your image files also has an impact. Larger/higher resolution is not always "better". Please see the wiki "Display resolution versus Image Size" article.

The 'Issue: What INI edits seem to be most beneficial to performance' entry of the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide) may also be some help. However, the above mitigations are more likely to have a fundamental beneficial effect with or without any INI adjustments, so consider them as the last resort.

As you can see, there are a number of things that can underlie your problem. If one of these doesn't fix it, I would be interested to hear about any eventual solution that does.

Re: the 4GB Patcher. It will automatically detect and launch NVSE if installed, so you should only need to launch the game exe (FalloutNV.exe).

 

How can you tell if the 4GB Patch (for Steam) is working? (DO NOT use it with the GOG version, which is already patched. Applying the patch will break it. Revert to the backup copy created if you did run it.)

 

The JIP LN NVSE Plugin has a function which can be run from the console: "GetIsLAA" (not case sensitive).
Possible return codes:
* 0=patch is not applied
* 1=patch was applied to the executable, but extra memory is not being allocated
* 2=successfully allocated extra memory from the patch and is fully working.
If "GetIsLAA" is returning code "1", try running the game from a "local administrator" account. If that is succesfull, you need to move the game install location out of the "C:\Program Files" folder tree, or correct the "permissions" on the folder you moved it to, as you are going to have other problems down the road. Please see the wiki "Installing Games on Windows Vista+" article for details.
Alternatively: if the Windows "Task Manager" indicates the "FalloutNV.exe" program has more than 2GB (2,000,000KB) of "Memory (Private Working Set)", then the 4GB Patcher is in effect. However, to the contrary: less does not mean it is not working. The game simply hasn't needed that much memory as yet.

-Dubious-

[ArchmageQuinn]

In general, if you haven't changed anything about your game and it suddenly stops working correctly you need to look to other causes: such as software updates to Windows, programming libraries such as ".Net", or hardware drivers. Older games eventually get dropped from product testing. It is also possible you are having problems with your hard drive. It never hurts to run "chkdsk".

 

Re: Stuttering or "micro-stutters". All visual stuttering problems are caused by the video stream having to wait for the "art assets" required to render the display OR the game writing something to disk (such as a save game file or logging). Mostly these are due to the hard disk drive being orders of magnitude slower than VRAM, with System RAM (e.g. "ENBoost") and "solid state drives" (SSDs) being in between. Keep in mind that this game was designed for older PC and XBox console systems, and it is now possible for your new "latest and greatest" gaming machine to be faster than it can handle. There are internal design choices that cannot be overcome. The "video pipeline" has always been prone to problems.

 

The following are "mitigations" that have been found to help some people.

 

Please see the following entries under the 'Solutions to Performance problems' section in the wiki Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide if you haven't already.

* 'Issue: "Full screen mode" exhibits CTDs and stutters or micro-stutters'

* 'Issue: Lag or "micro stutters" even with "New Vegas Stutter Remover" installed'

* 'Issue: Win10 Screen tearing in "Borderless Windowed Mode"'

* 'Issue: CTD without warning, "Out of Memory error", or stops responding after the Main Menu' for other settings that can indirectly affect micro-stutter.

* There are also some NVSR configuration suggestions under the 'Issue: Game in slow motion' and entries. (These will not help with the "Tick Fix" alternative mod, but the author of NVSR now has a suggested configuration for Win10 linked there.)

* The 'Issue: What's with these Solid Green billboard signs in the distance (LOD)?' entry under the 'Solutions to Mesh (Red "!" icon) or Texture (solid color) problems' section can also help if your problems started after you installed VWD/LOD texture packages.

 

Probably reasons for spiking to 100% CPU:

* If you are using CASM or some similar "auto-save" mod to manage your save game files (recommended), try increasing the "time between saves" set in the "save frequency"; and reducing the number of occasions it saves to the minimum (e.g. disable most "Autosave Events" in CASM) and see how that impacts the game seeming to freeze temporarily.

* If you have "NVSE logging" enabled (see the 'Checklist Item #4' entry in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide), disable it until actually needed.

 

Reading from or writing to disk for any reason is the slowest thing the game does.

 

The size of your image files also has an impact. Larger/higher resolution is not always "better". Please see the wiki "Display resolution versus Image Size" article.

 

The 'Issue: What INI edits seem to be most beneficial to performance' entry of the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide) may also be some help. However, the above mitigations are more likely to have a fundamental beneficial effect with or without any INI adjustments, so consider them as the last resort.

 

As you can see, there are a number of things that can underlie your problem. If one of these doesn't fix it, I would be interested to hear about any eventual solution that does.

 

Re: the 4GB Patcher. It will automatically detect and launch NVSE if installed, so you should only need to launch the game exe (FalloutNV.exe).

 

How can you tell if the 4GB Patch (for Steam) is working? (DO NOT use it with the GOG version, which is already patched. Applying the patch will break it. Revert to the backup copy created if you did run it.)

 

The JIP LN NVSE Plugin has a function which can be run from the console: "GetIsLAA" (not case sensitive).

Possible return codes:

* 0=patch is not applied

* 1=patch was applied to the executable, but extra memory is not being allocated

* 2=successfully allocated extra memory from the patch and is fully working.

If "GetIsLAA" is returning code "1", try running the game from a "local administrator" account. If that is succesfull, you need to move the game install location out of the "C:\Program Files" folder tree, or correct the "permissions" on the folder you moved it to, as you are going to have other problems down the road. Please see the wiki "Installing Games on Windows Vista+" article for details.

Alternatively: if the Windows "Task Manager" indicates the "FalloutNV.exe" program has more than 2GB (2,000,000KB) of "Memory (Private Working Set)", then the 4GB Patcher is in effect. However, to the contrary: less does not mean it is not working. The game simply hasn't needed that much memory as yet.

 

-Dubious-

Thank you very much, I'll look into those! Disabling NVSE logging seems to have helped a bit and has given me a couple of hours before the lag starts up again. Thanks!

[ArchmageQuinn]

Updated for anyone who might be coming here to look for a solution: Setting bHookLightCriticalSections in New Vegas Stutter Remover from 1 to 0 resolved the problem for me.