Rocket League stuttering and limiting its FPS even when I tell it not to

[Mr. Sandman]

I've been driving myself mad trying to fix FPS limitations and stuttering in Rocket League for the last week. Very rarely this issue seems to vanish on it's own, only to be back the next day.

For context, I have an i7 9700k, an EVGA 3090 XC3 Ultra, and 16GB CL14 3200Mhz memory, and a 4k 120hz g-sync monitor. I'm pretty sure even if both my CPU and GPU throttled to half their clocks, I should still be seeing more FPS than I am (and changing resolution would actually make a difference)

No matter what in-game graphical settings I change, including my resolution, the in game FPS graphs show it hovering loosely around 120fps, with a fair amount of stuttering and variance. This usually wouldn't be an issue, but it comes with a lot of perceptible in-game stuttering that's starting to drive me nuts, especially because I know my system can easily push over 240fps in this game. I'm leaving the in-game FPS cap set at 240, but changing that doesn't change anything either (unless I set it to <120fps, in which case it behaves as expected)

If I switch from Borderless to Fullscreen, the stuttering is decreased slightly, but the game still locks itself around 120fps

If I move my mouse on the screen, FPS absolutely tanks (as shown in one of the screenshots)
If I have RL running in the background, whether in Fullscreen or Borderless mode, FPS quickly jumps up to the cap, but focusing on the window causes it to drop right back down to 120 (shown in the other screenshot)

I've messed around with the TASystemSettings.ini file. Setting perframesleep and perframeyeild to False nets an increase of about 40ish FPS, but at the cost of much more massive swings in FPS. I'm not even sure this means anything, because the Geforce Experience FPS HUD counter shows a solid 120, even though I know that can count higher than my refresh rate

I've looked through both the EVGA Precision X1 utility, as well as the Nvidia Control Panel, to verify that there are no limits on FPS, and the only thing I found that could possibly be limiting was "Preferred Refresh Rate (monitor name)" which was set to highest available. I went into the individual program settings, and set Rocket Leagues "Preferred Refresh Rate (monitor name)" to "Application Controlled", but that still didn't make a difference on max frame rates

This behaviour also shows itself in other games (I tested Civilization Beyond Earth, as well as Borderlands 3 with minimum graphics settings), but stuttering is almost a non-issue in those games when I play them  

Honestly, if it wasn't for the stuttering, I wouldn't even be bothering with all of this trouble, but knowing that my system is capable of a smooth >240fps and instead gives me this is frustrating to figure out. I feel like this is a combination of factors. The FPS limitation seems to be something system related, since other games demonstrate an identical FPS limit, but there also seems to be something within Rocket League causing its own instability/limitations, and I can't figure it out

[izz]

update graphics drivers, this fixed it for me

otherwise reinstall/clear cache?

also people have reported that the epic version is smoother than steam

 

[Mr. Sandman]

9 minutes ago, iIzzTheWiz said:

update graphics drivers, this fixed it for me

otherwise reinstall/clear cache?

also people have reported that the epic version is smoother than steam

 

I'm updating my drivers now, never understood how that helps but fingers crossed

What cache would need to be reinstalled or cleared? I'm not sure I get that

[izz]

18 hours ago, Mr. Sandman said:

I'm updating my drivers now, never understood how that helps but fingers crossed

What cache would need to be reinstalled or cleared? I'm not sure I get that

Here is how to clear cache in RL: https://support.rocketleague.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054169394-How-do-I-Delete-the-Rocket-League-Cache-on-a-PC-

Also, nice name "Mr. Sandman"

[dkegel]

I have a similar story.   I have an older system (CPU: i5-4570, 16GB RAM; os Win10; new el cheapo EVGA W3 450 watt power supply).

 

With a gtx-1050ti, performance is fine, stable at 60fps with medium settings.

Pop a gtx-1060 (Asus PH-GTX1060-3G) in, though, and Bad Things Start Happening after a few minutes.  I couldn't see the problem with single player practice, but switching to the "play in a 3x3 game with 5 NPCs" mode triggered the problem after a few minutes.

 

Here's a snapshot of the problem kicking in; you can see the 60fps followed by utter shite 10-25fps for minutes...

Driver version doesn't seem to matter, nor does closing all other apps and disabling overlays.

 

It's kind of feeling like a thermal problem, but I haven't checked yet.

 

The graph from my system looks different from yours, though; in mine, the GPU goes way up.  In yours, "Game" goes way up.  (Could it be you have apps going in the background that suddenly start using a lot of cpu?  Given your cpu, they'd have to be pretty beefy apps...)  But your GPU trace does go up some...

[jabo5779]

If you are running RL out of Steam - ditch it.

 

There is absolutely a Steam version issue.  Try installing the Epic Games Launcher, install Rocket League in a new location, and launch it from there.  You can keep the Steam version installed and compare.  All your settings should be there and you can switch back and forth to test.

 

The Epic Games version runs perfectly for me, no stuttering.  The Steam version runs like trash in multiplayer or single player and my performance graph is very similar to the above at various moments during gameplay.  They had this issue before in 2020, but going offline in Steam does not fix it as it used to.  5 to 10 micro stutters a game that are not caused by network issues and are during the most critical moments, usually when the action around you is close.  I am on the latest nvidia drivers and Windows versions.  I have cleared cache and rolled back drivers as well - nothing fixes this right now.  

 

This is not just an Epic Games version is "smoother", the Steam version is broken and I believe it could be a combo of new drivers/windows updates/RL updates.  Either way, I'll run the Epic Games version for now - and make sure you quit Steam completely when you run the other version.  Let me know if you test it out.  

[Grammar Nerd]

The Steam version is unplayable at the moment; it stutters way too much according to many users. However, the Epic Games version runs smoothly with no issues at all, so you can play and enjoy there. I've contacted RL's tech support regarding this issue, but they don't seem to recognize yet.

 

If anyone finds out about a fix to the Steam version, please let us know.

[Larz128]

As a FYI to anyone that is having the same issue. I found that my stutter was related to the discord overlay. When I turned that off, everything was back to normal with the steam version. They might be fighting each other?