Brief, significant FPS drops and stutters after FX changes included in Empyrean updates

[Fran_Bow_Dagenhart]

One of the patches during December/January changed some FX. I've noticed that over-bright FX do not create black spots on the screen anymore; throwing knifes are now mostly transparent instead of glowing, and many other FX changes. However, some of these new effects are terribly optimized. Before December I've never have the game drop below 55 FPS in any situation.

 

With increasing number of effects on screen, my FPS will stay at 60 until a certain point is reached. When more effects appear beyond this point, my game FPS will instantly snap to 30 for a brief moment until effect count drops down again. It's very disorienting. Certain effects are brickwalling my FPS.

 

I have not managed to reproduce this issue in solo mode by any means. Effects that trigger when FPS drops occur are:

Full squad

Tipedo Prime, viral FX, 192% attack speed + 1x Arcane Strike. 

Wisp electric mote with high enemy count

Volt 4

Eidolon FX

 

Spec:

Windows 10

i7-6820HK

Nvidia GTX980M

16GB DDR4 RAM

EVO860 SATA SSD

Latest drivers

Newly applied Arctic MX-4 with confirmed performance improvement compared to past benchmarks.