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]

Dear Intel Support!

I love computers, so i love "messing" with game config files. I deleted the last generated shader cache file inside C:\Users\MyPC\AppData\LocalLow\Intel\ShaderCache, which belongs to Hunt: Showdown 1896.

After this, my FPS is back to normal, but i have to do this everytime before i start the game, to have a good performance. Please take my issue solved, but can you please take a look at what causing the shader cache to get damaged or corrupted? Thank you very much for your help! Maybe other Arc B580 have this problem too but they aren't into computers like me.

Have a nice weekend!

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for posting in Intel Communities.

To gain a clearer understanding of the issue and facilitate further investigation, please provide the following key information:

1. According to the SSU log file, the current driver version is 32.0.101.7026. Could you let us know which driver version(s) you've tested that exhibit the issue? Additionally, is there any driver version where the issue does not occur?
2. Where have you obtained the game, Hunt: Showdown 1896 (Steam, Yuplay, etc.)
3. Display/Monitor make and model.
4. PSU make and model.
5. Provide screenshots or describe the graphics settings used in-game. E.g. Ultra quality preset, video resolution, ray-tracing on, etc. etc.
6. Submit CapFrameX capture data (.json files) reproducing the issue. Capture data at least 3 times to define a good performance baseline.

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Dear Jeanette!

1. I've tested the game with the previous 4 drivers, all of them had this issue eventually. Now I have the latest driver installed and sadly this doesn't fix the issue.
2. I've obtained the game trough Steam.
3. I have a MSI MAG QHD 275QF
4. FSP 600W HyperM Bronze 80+
5. If you don't mind I would skip this, because the graphics settings doesn't matter, you can have the lowest settings to the highest, if you delete the shader cache file before you start the game again, than your performance will double no matter the graphics settings.
6. Please take my comment as a CapFrameX, if I don't delete the shader cache everytime before I start the game, my FPS isnt stable, and its much much lower than after deleting the shader cache. After I delete the shader cache, and start the game, my FPS will double immediately.

Since deleting the lastly generated Hunt Showdown's shaders inside the Intel cache folder solve this issue, I suspect a corrupted and damaged cache file generation by the driver software. I don't mind deleting this file before I start the game, but other Arc users might run into this issue, thats why I reported it. I would like to ask you to investigate this, try to reproducate the issue, and if it doesn't happen with you, than the issue lie in my system somewhere. Just to make sure its not a widespread problem with Intel Arc Drivers and the game's shader cache generation.

It might be on Crytek's side, maybe their engine (Cryengine) is not optimized for Arc GPUs, thats why the shader cache gets damaged everytime I shut down the game.

Please Jeanette, try to start the game with a Arc B580, check and monitor your FPS in the shooting range, than exit the game, and try starting it again. Enter the shooting range and you might see the issue im talking about. Your FPS might be halved. After this, exit the game, delete the lastly generated cache file inside Intel cache folder, and start the game. Your FPS should double by this method.

As I said earlier, I don't mind doing this trick everytime to get the performance back to where it should be, but other Arc users might have the same issue and not everyone wants to delete the shader cache file before starting the game again all the time. Deleting the shaders will lead to longer loading times and eventually more stutters in the first few matches.

If you need anything else, please tell me, i'm here to help you check this issue, and if its on driver side, I'll help you to solve this as much as I can.

Have a nice day and thank you for your assistance!

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for the detailed testing across multiple driver versions.

I understand the issue: Hunt Showdown's performance drops significantly after restarting the game but returns to normal when you delete the Intel shader cache files. This suggests shader cache corruption.

I'll proceed to check on this internally and update you once testing is complete. Your detailed report will help us determine if this is a widespread driver issue.

Thank you for your patience and thorough documentation.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hello JeanetteC!

Yes, thats right, i suspect a shader cache corruption. I don't know when does the file gets corrupted or damaged, maybe after i close the game or after i start it back again, it fails to load the shaders correctly, causing significant performance loss. 

Thank you very much for your help Jeanette! I'm really grateful for your help. And sorry for my bad english.

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for confirming the shader cache corruption issue. Your explanation clarifies that the performance loss likely occurs during shader loading when restarting the game. I'll investigate this internally to identify the root cause.

I appreciate your thorough feedback and cooperation with this investigation. Your English is perfectly clear, so there's no need to apologize!

I'll provide updates as our investigation progresses.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

I am still currently working on this issue. Since we have newly released driver, version 32.0.101.7028, please proceed with clean installation using DDU and let me know if this makes any difference.

 If the issue persists, please share the latest SSU log file.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hello Jeanette!

I saw that there is a new driver version available, I immediately tried to update my driver to that version. I used Intel's clean install option, which wiped out the previous driver remaining files. Sadly, this issue still persists, the shader cache still gets corrupted in Hunt: Showdown 1896.

After this, I tried to use DDU in safe mode, deleted Intel drivers and installed the latest driver, and sadly, the issue still persists.

Since its a non WHQL driver, I always aim for stability, so i used Intel's clean install option and reverted back to the latest WHQL version, because the new one didn't help sadly.

Hunt Showdown is the only game where this is happening. I try to find a solution or the root cause of the problem to help you out Jeanette. I tried to play with the VRAM usage target in the game itself, because I have learned that if a game has too much available VRAM, than the chance increases that the game's engine mess up the shader cache. Lowered it from 90% to 80%, sadly this didn't help, now i lowered it to 70% and I am going to test this now. I'm not sure this causes the shader cache corruption, i'm just trying to find what causes the file to get damaged and later on load incorrectly after restarting the game.

As of now, I think the root problem is between the driver itself and the game's engine. In the winter this year, an user reported an issue with Hunt Showdown with his Arc B580, (https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/B580-Performance-degradation-over-time-in-Hunt-Showdown-1896/td-p/1664966) sadly that case never got solved because the user didn't answer back, but he reported performance degradation overtime, and other Arc B580 users confirmed this in the comments. Maybe your driver development team managed to fix that performance degradation issue, but as the saying goes you fix something and something else gets broken.

Hunt's engine is a sensitive one, badly optimized so i wouldn't be surprised.

i attached the new SSU log, but keep in mind that i've reverted back to the WHQL driver for stability reasons, since the new driver didn't bring a solution to the damaged shader cache. As i said earlier, i have zero problems in other games, this card is a beast, and i'm really happy with it, this is one of the few problems i have encountered so far. 

Would you please try to replicate this issue? I know it takes time and its not an easy thing to do to start the game, check FPS, close the game, start it again, check FPS, than close the game, delete the shader cache and monitor FPS, it all takes time and effort, but i'm sure we can fix this together. 

Thank you very much Jeanette! Have a nice day!

Ákos

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thank you for the update. I checked your SSU and saw that the currently installed driver is the 32.0.101.7026 and I would like to inform you that the latest driver is now 32.0.101.7028. Please try to install the latest driver and monitor if the issue still persists.

I will try to replicate this issue however I would also like to obtain 3 CapFrameX log to thoroughly analyze the FPS performance. Kindly ensure that the game would run for a minimum of 3 minutes each.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NagyAkos512]

Hey ArchieD!

Yes, you are right, i'm using the latest WHQL driver which is 32.0.101.7026. I already mentioned before that i've tried the latest driver, but since that didn't solve this issue, i rolled back to the latest WHQL driver, which i'm using right now. I always aim for stability, and WHQL drivers are more stable from my experience. Again, the new driver did not help unfortunately. 

I recorded two separate CapFrameX log, one without deleting the shader cache, and one after deleting the shader cache. The results are clear, i have no stuttering, my average FPS is much higher, 1% lows are much better, the whole game feels really really fluid after deleting the shader cache. If i don't delete it, than my FPS drops dramatically when i aim, zoom in, turn around quickly, but you will see this in the logs. Both have been recorded at the same map, the shooting range, and i did the same stuff, jump around, run around, shoot the targets, quickly turn around etc.  Also, i locked the maximum FPS to 144, and when i delete the shader cache, i'm almost always at 144, so my average FPS could be better, but i don't need more FPS, stable 144 with few amount of dips to 120 is really good, but don't forget please, that its possible only when i delete the shader cache file, and start the game. 

I also attached three pictures of my current graphics settings. With these settings, the game runs really well, my FPS is locked at 144, and its even capped out most of the time with rare dips to 120 but i don't mind this. My problem is that i need to delete the shader cache file generated by Hunt all the time before i start the game again. Otherwise you will see from the log, that my average FPS is dramatically worse, the game stutters, and i have micro-stuttering. 

If you would like to, i can attach my shader cache file too, which causes this. Please tell me if you need it for further investigation. 

Thank you very much for your help, both of you, i'm really grateful for your help. We'll keep pushing, Team Arc.  

Ákos

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello NagyAkos512,

Thanks for supplying the detailed information and logs - these are very helpful for our investigation. I'll provide updates as soon as they're available.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician