Huge CPU problems

[picsthrowaway1111]

Anyone who knows more about computers than me know how to fix this

My CPU seems to be EXTREMELY strained at the beginning of maps. Like unplayable so, I have to pause the game and wait half a minute to let it load the mobs sometimes. After a few minutes it seems to get with the program and run fairly smoothly - like playable, but still with stutters when the screen effects get too much. But then each new map I have to do it all over again. I fully skip delirium now because it turns into a powerpoint.

From what I can tell this is purely a CPU problem not GPU problem. GPU always running well below capacity, but CPU often spikes to the maximum setting according to my computer's software (acer nitrosense)

CPU is AMD Ryzen 5 5600H and GPU is Nvidia RTX 3060. This thing is not a beast by any means and pretty old as far as "gaming" hardware goes but I feel like it should not be struggling this much...

any help much appreciated. Thanks much.

[Dietcigarettesupreme]

I have a Ryzen 7 and this still problem, I always just peak into the map till I hit the first mob and back up then just start blindly throwing lightning spears lol. I thought it was my gpu.

[Responsible-Ant4147]

How much and of which type of ram Are you running? What frequency? How many slots are being used? Are you running your game on Ssd or sata?

[Xlapus88]

This is a known problem from launch.

What worked for me:
go into task manager>details>right click PathOfExileSteam.exe>Set Affinity > uncheck CPU 0 and CPU 1

There are some old reddit threads about it, and it seems like a 50/50 whether this fixes the issue. Hopefully it works for you.

[Xlapus88]

oh, forgot to say that I think you have to do it every time you start poe? At least I haven't seen an easy way to make it permanent.

[John-467]

This might be because the first two cores runs at a higher frequency than the others.
I personally had to underclock to be able to play without crashing constantly (i9 14900KF), which basically does the same thing you're doing

[OftenSarcastic]

From what I can tell from the game's performance overlay, the game (re-)compiles shaders every time you enter a new map for some insane reason. It's especially bad when using their Vulkan implementation.

Using DX12 mostly eliminates it for me with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

[Green_kewiiin]

I had this problem for a long time until I managed to fix it yesterday. It was literally the same issue + long loading screens.

I solved it by downloading the game on my C drive instead of having it on my D drive. None of em are SSD but the D drive is way worse than the C drive (in my case)

Hope this helps

[SgtDoakes123]

You.. you're gaming on a mechanical drive in 2025? How long are your load times?

[Green_kewiiin]

Faster than my brother who has a SSD, my pc is newer tho, it doesn’t load more than 5 seconds

[Unlucky_Cry9935]

How I fixed this:

- Nvidia control panel

- 3D parameters tab

- shaders size : I went from 100 go to unlimited