Hunt: Showdown 1896 low FPS after starting the game for the second time

[NagyAkos512]

Dear Intel Support Team!

I would like to report a bug, which occurs in Hunt: Showdown 1896. The bug is that if i reinstall the driver, or do a DDU, or install the newest driver, and start the game, my FPS is above 130. But when i close the game, and start the game right again, at the same place in the shooting range, my FPS barely reaches 100, and the game runs much much worse, stutters much more and the FPS drops are more frequent. 

I have tried to completely unninstall the game, delete the shader cache folder too, also tried to play with the settings, unfortunately didn't help. I'm playing on 1440p, and everything set to lowest possible option except for global illumination which is set to medium. At the first start, the game runs really good, but the second time i start it, it runs bad. Sadly the only thing that helped is to completely DDU the driver or update to a new one and do a clean install. This fixed the FPS issue, but only for one session, the next time i try to start the game, my FPS is almost halved. 

I think is just a bug with the driver, i also took pictures of my FPS and the same location inside the game, and took picture of the Intel Graphics Software performance tab too. Looks like my GPU power consumption is much much lower, after starting the game for a second time. 

All of my other games run fine performance wise, never had any performance issues with this card, i really love my Arc B580, but this problem in Hunt: Showdown 1896 is a huge headache, because in this game you need stable FPS, and sadly this bug makes the game almost unplayable. 

I would like to ask you to reproducate this issue with starting the game, get into the shooting range, check the FPS. Than close the game, start it right back up, and go to the shooting range, and check your FPS in the same spot. Mine was 130+, now goes below 100 and have stuttering issues. 

I attach pictures of the problem, and the SSU log too. 

Thank you very much for your help! If you need any more data or anything, tell me, i'm here to help to solve this together!

Ákos

[NagyAkos512]

Hi VonM!

I would like to ask for a little additional delay, i need a little bit more time to do the testing with the driver you mentioned, and record the CapFrameX logs. I'm very sorry for the delay, i apologise, sadly this weekend went so fast, and i couldn't finish my studies. I'll be able to test and record the logs tomorrow after school, i'll attach the requested files here as soon as possible. 

Thank you very much for your help, and i'm really grateful for your patience, first few weeks of school are always chaotic, but i'll make sure i attach the requested files tomorrow. We will fix this together Arc team! 

Best regards,

Ákos

[NagyAkos512]

Hi VonM!

I'm very sorry for this second letter in the last 1 hour, but i managed to finish my studies early, so i can test and attach the files Jeanette and yourself requested. 

I attached the CapFrameX files, unfortunately i cannot change the names of the files, but it will be obvious which one is the good performance and which one is the bad. The good one was recorded right after starting the game after a fresh driver install (6970), because the shader cache files were deleted upon DDU. Without the generated shader cache which i talked about earlier, my performance is superb. However, as you will see from the second CapFrameX files, right after starting the game for the second time, my FPS is almost 50-70% lower sometimes, and it stutters, lags, and my FPS drops dramatically when i zoom out. I can solve this by deleting the shader cache everytime before i start the game, but since i delete this cache, the game will stutter for the next few matches which is kinda frustrating. I don't mind deleting this shader cache file inside Intel's folder, but other B580 users might have this issue and they may don't know that deleting that file everytime before they start the game, means 50% more performance atleast. 

I also attached my SSU log, so that you can see that i'm actually using the 6970 driver right now. The performance with this driver feels good, but only without the shader cache file, once its inside the Intel shader cache folder, my performance is really bad. 

I'm quite a bit relieved that your team found compatibility issues with the Arc driver and the game, so its not just my software/hardware messing up something with the game's shader cache file. VonM, may i ask you to take a look at the shader cache file i attached earlier? Maybe you find something suspicious inside that folder. I tried to open it, but notepad isn't enough for this kind of file haha. 

Once again, i'm very grateful for your help and i'm very sorry for the delay. I wish you a pleasent day.

Best regards,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for the follow-up and for completing your testing so promptly after your studies. No need to apologize for the timing – I appreciate your thoroughness.

Thank you for providing the CapFrameX files and SSU log. The performance difference you've documented (50-70% FPS reduction with shader cache present) is very helpful for our investigation. I understand the frustration with having to delete the shader cache before each gaming session to maintain optimal performance.

I will review all the files you've submitted, including the shader cache file from your earlier message. This data will be valuable as we work to resolve the compatibility issues between the Arc driver and the game's shader cache system.

I'll provide you with an update once I analyzed the files and determined the next steps.

Thank you for your patience and detailed reporting – it's helping us better understand this issue.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette!

No worries, im here to help you to solve this compatibility issues between the Arc drivers and the game's shader cache system. If theres anything more I can help with, tell me and I will try my best to assist your investigation. I'm glad we already managed to found that this is a driver level compatibility issue with the game, but i'm sure we will be able to fix this together!

Please notify me if theres anything more I can assist with, or if there is a solution / update coming which hopefully solves this issue.

Thank you very much for your help, all of you!

Best regards,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Based on our testing with Intel Arc B580 using the steps you've cited, and the setting used - i.e. testing done on the shooting range, the performance issue is not reproduceable 

See testing results of the 32.0.101.7029 (Latest)

 

I also tested the old graphics driver 32.0.101.6790 WHQL Certified to double check if the issue is present on the older drivers but could not recreate the issue. 

 

Based on my testing with our competitor GPU with their latest graphics driver: 32.0.15.8129, the B580 is working at par with the competitor GPU

 

Kindly note that I even tried to clear the shader cache of the GPU to further isolate the issue.

At this point it appears that the issue is isolated on your system. To further investigate the issue, I would like to ask you to do following steps:

1. I noticed that your PC's BIOS is outdated from the SSU scan - please proceed with updating your motherboard's latest version: 7B86vHO released last 2025-09-11. It is best contacting your motherboard manufacturer for further assistance
2. Based on the SSU, we also found that you are on Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (10.0.22631 Build 22631.5768), this is an older version of Windows 11. Can you update it from Windows 11 to Windows 11 24H2 (Build 26100.6584)? You may reach out to Microsoft's support for further assistance.
3. Have you tried to verify your game or re-install the game to check if the issue persists?
4. Aside from Fort Carmick, does the issue happen on other maps as well?

Please share a copy of a new SSU log file after updating the BIOS and OS.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette!

Thank you very much for trying to reproducate the issue, I am reall grateful for your efforts trough these testings and investigation, also thank you for checking the SSU log so deeply!

I'll update my Windows 11 version to the latest possible, to be honest I didn't even know its an old version, Windows didn't even gave me a notification or anything. I prefered Windows 10, but Microsoft basically force users to update to 11 now basically. I'll update to the latest version, I read that 24h2 have improved a lot of things and fixed many.

I'll also update my BIOS to the latest version as soon as possible, its a recent version so hopefully it also helps.

On the other hand, I found something really interesting. An nVidia user reported exactly the same issue I am having, she even made a video about the issue. She experienced the same performance issue. She temporarily fixed it by reinstalling her nVidia driver everytime before she played. I told her to don't reinstall the whole driver, delete the nVidia shader cache file generated by the game, and it also worked for her! Yuhuu! A little help for our competitors haha! I may report this issue to Crytek, maybe the issue is on their side, but their customer support is awful, it took them 2 months to answer to my request last time.

Also I talked with my game developer friend who works as a lighting effect developer for Unity engine based games, and he told me a few tips and tricks. He told me that I should try to change my graphics settings to whatever, and this may force the shader cache to be loaded correctly, and restart the pipeline process. Well, this worked, but only once out of nowhere, I'll further investigate this, maybe I will be able to find the setting that helps on this issue.

Here is the video which I talked about earlier, nVidia user reported same issue: https://youtu.be/xFajySyT_WU?si=r7qryYt_boTe7v-o

I'll proceed with updating my OS and BIOS, Jeanette. First I will begin with the OS update, if that does not fix the issue I'll update my BIOS too. I'll keep you updated, I would kindly ask for your patience because at this weekend I wont be at home, I'll try my best to test and further investigate today and tomorrow.

For your question, yes I tried different places / maps other than Fort Carmick, sadly the issue persists on other maps too with the broken shader cache related issues.

Thank you very much for your help Jeanette! I'm really grateful! I'll keep you updated soon!

Best regards,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for the update and sharing your findings.

The shader cache connection you discovered is very interesting and could help other users with similar issues. Your plan to update Windows 11 and BIOS sounds good. Take your time with testing - no rush, especially with your weekend away.

Thanks for confirming the issue happens on other maps too. I look forward to hearing your results after the updates.

Feel free to reach out if you need any help.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

NagyAkos512,

I wanted to follow up to see how the testing went after your updates. Were you able to resolve the issue that was occurring across multiple maps? Please share your results when you have a chance - whether the updates helped or if you're still experiencing the same problems.

If you need any further assistance or have additional questions, feel free to reach out.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette!

I'm very sorry for the very late reply, i had a very busy and chaotic weekend. I had to spend 100% of my time on study, and i barely had any time to further test the game and the issue. However, i managed to update my Windows 11 version to the latest 24H2, which sadly, didn't solve this issue, but instead of loosing 50-70% FPS, i lost like 30-40%, so its an improvement, but still i have to delete the shader cache everytime before i start the game to get superb performance. 

I continued, and tried to update my BIOS, which i failed to achieve, because whenever the installation reaches 60-70%, it stops the process, quits and the PC enter back to the BIOS. Its a known bug with MSI GAMING PLUS MAX, a fix is on the way as far as i know. So sadly, as of now i don't know if the BIOS update would fix this issue, i'm not certain. 

With a little bit of more testing, i saw that when i have low FPS (not deleting the shader cache before starting the game), the GPU utilization is 50-60%, and the power consumpion barely reaches 80W. When i delete the shader cache before start, my GPU utilization is 100%, and the consumption is 120W. I think this part is really important. 

If you would like to, i can attach you my SSU log, but its nothing new except for the new Windows version inside there. 

Again Jeanette, i'm very sorry for the late reply, i didn't have any free time in the past like 5-6 days, i'll make sure i spend more time on helping you to find a solution for this, for myself, and i'm really really grateful for your help, i'm really thankful for your efforts. 

Would you Jeanette please check the shader cache file i sent you before? Maybe if you insert that file to your folder, and use that, the issue might occur. 

If i have an update, i'll reply immediately Jeanette, please if you have any other tip or trick, that would be amazing!

Thank you very much Jeanette! I apologize for the delay. 

Best regards,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for the update, and no need to apologize for the delay - I completely understand that studies come first.

Your findings are very helpful:

The Windows 11 24H2 update showing improvement (from 50-70% FPS loss to 30-40%) is encouraging progress. Your GPU utilization observations are particularly valuable:

• Without shader cache deletion: 50-60% GPU usage, 80W power consumption
• With shader cache deletion: 100% GPU usage, 120W power consumption

This clearly indicates the shader cache is causing performance throttling. However, since we were unable to recreate the issue on our end, I recommend contacting your motherboard support regarding the failed BIOS update so they can provide further assistance. Meanwhile, I'll continue reviewing the shader cache file you previously sent for additional analysis. Please share a new SSU log file once the BIOS update is successfully completed.

Thank you for your thorough testing and patience!

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

I'm still awaiting an update on this issue. Please share the new SSU log file after you've completed the BIOS firmware update so I can continue my investigation.

Looking forward to your response.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette!

I didn't reply here because i'm not able to update my BIOS. I already reached out to MSI but they still didn't even say a single word on how to fix this bug. Whenever the installation progress reaches 60-70%, stops there and than the whole process close and re-open the BIOS and nothing happens, I still have the same BIOS version. I have no idea what to do, I already updated like 20 times BIOS versions in my life never faced this issue. So as of now, I cannot do what you asked because simply i'm not able to update the BIOS because of this bug. I'm sorry Jeanette but looks like I cannot try the game with new BIOS as of now.

However, I proceeded, and spent time on further investigating what could cause the low GPU utilization when the shader cache file is not deleted. I tried different graphics settings, and if I set the settings to the highest, I have the same amount of FPS so the GPU does not get more load, the utilization stays around 60% percent, this answers why my FPS is very low compared to when I delete the shader cache file. When I delete it, GPU power consumption and utilization is in perfect range.

To be honest, i'm really fed up with Hunt: Showdown, because this is literally the only game where I have performance issues and bugs related to Arc GPU or its software. All of my games run superb, including this too but only if i delete the shader cache file. I already tried to reachout to Crytek, the developers of Hunt, but their customer support is horrible, they literally didn't even want to help me, they said before that they don't even test on Arc GPUs. Not an acceptable behaviour from them. Anyway, I delete the shader cache before every game and I can still play the game, I just wanted to fix this somehow but this one really gave you and me a headache so far haha.

I know its a very weird issue Jeanette and i'm really sorry for not answering before but I don't have any updates and I could not update my BIOS because of a bug or I don't know what. I tried with a different pendrive but still no success. If I have any updates I'll tell you here, don't worry.

Thank you very much for your help and efforts Jeanette, please if you have any other idea or tips, share them with me, hopefully we can find a permanent fix.

Best regards,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for the update. I understand your frustration with both issues.

I know the manual cache deletion isn't ideal, but it's working for now. Keep me posted on any progress with the BIOS update or other solutions while I check internally for additional options. I'll update you once more information is available.

Thank you for your patience and thorough testing.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette!

Thank you very much for your quick reply! I apologize for wasting your time on this, while this is clearly a game issue and compatibility with Arc drivers. After Hunt's new engine update, several AMD and Intel Arc users had graphics issues such as no shadows and illumination glitches. Crytek said that the issue is on the driver side on AMD (Radeon) and Intel Arc. 3 weeks later they introduced a patch that fixed these issues, so it was clearly their engine's fault not the GPU softwares fault. Unfortunately there are few game developers who don't want to or don't know how to optimize for Intel and sometimes even AMD. These devs are responsible for nVidia's monopoly, and the huge GPU prices. I would like to take the opportunity and say that myself and thosuands of Arc users are really grateful for your efforts Jeanette and the whole Arc department. You made a superb GPU, and most importantly and affordable one. May you continue this amazing work, keep it up, bright future is ahead of you and Arc. Thankfully 99.9% of the game devs nowadays optimize their games for Intel Arc very well, but there are a few exceptions such as Hunt: Showdown, but hopefully we will find together a fix. I'm really grateful for your efforts Jeanette!

I'll keep you updated, I'll try to update my BIOS tomorrow with my friend's CPU, hopefully that helps us get around this bug. I'll inform you if I have succeeded or not. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for further investigating this internally Jeanette!

I wish you a pleasent day!

Best regards,

Ákos

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette! 

Just a quick update on my end, i tried to update my BIOS with my friend's CPU, and we were unable to do so. I'm going to reach out to MSI on a deeper level, hopefully they have an idea whats wrong, but its a known issue, and have been reported to MSI. 

I'll keep you updated Jeanette!

Thank you for your patience and efforts!

Best wishes,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback about Intel Arc and your patience with this situation! Your support means a lot as we continue enhancing our drivers.

You're spot-on about the optimization challenges across different GPU vendors. Your insights are extremely valuable for our ongoing driver development and partnerships with game developers.

We've conducted additional testing with both our B580 and RTX 4060 systems but obtained the same results as before. Since you mentioned improvement after your Windows update, this suggests the issue may be system-specific rather than hardware-related.

Additionally, since similar performance issues have been reported by users across different graphics card brands in Hunt: Showdown community forums, confirming this appears to be a broader game optimization issue rather than something specific to Arc graphics.

For the BIOS update challenge, contacting MSI directly is definitely the right approach given their specific motherboard expertise. For the Hunt: Showdown performance issues, I'd recommend reaching out to the game developers as well, since they're best positioned to address game-specific optimization concerns.

Please keep me updated on your progress with both MSI and any Hunt: Showdown developments. Your real-world feedback continues to help us prioritize our efforts.

Thank you for being such a dedicated Arc community supporter. Hoping both MSI and the game developers can provide helpful solutions!

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hi Jeanette!

Thank you very much for your kind words, means a lot to me!

Unfortunately, when it comes to MSI or even worse, Crytek (Hunt devs) customer support, well, let's say its not like yours sadly. It takes them weeks to answer back, and even if they does answer back, its the standard "Please reinstall your drivers" or "Reinstall the game". But fingers crossed, hopefully both MSI and Crytek have a solution for these.

In the meantime, I wouldn't want to take your time and energy on monitoring this thread, so if you would like to, close this thread, and if I have an update I'll write a new post and maybe tag you there. If thats OK for you of course.

Thank you very much for your efforts and help and also, your understanding and kindness. Thank you to you and the whole team for testing this issue, and finding out that it happens only on my system, it helps to narrow down this issue and easier investigation in the future. I am grateful for your assistance Jeanette and all of you!

I'll write a new thread if I have a major update on this situation!

Best wishes,

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for your kind words and patience!

I'll close this thread now. Feel free to create a new post and tag me if you get updates from MSI or Crytek, since this thread won't be monitored anymore.

Our testing helped narrow down the issue for future troubleshooting. Good luck with vendor support and reach out if you need help.

Thanks for working with us!

Sincerely,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician