Stuttering, Freezing, FPS drop - FIX

Battlefield 4 PC
1

Hello,

After a lot of spent time trying to figure out this problem I finally found a way to fix my Stuttering problem and get smooth gameplay.
I tested this for more than 24 hours and I been able to play BF4 smoothly without any problems (Servers are still crashing, so count on seeing server side issues).
I also tested in different game modes, and high/low populated servers, fix is working in each case.
I been playing on Ultra details in 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 with High or Ultra (set to Custom) settings with 2x Antialiasing.

ISSUE:

BF4 Stuttering, freezing, dropping FPS during gameplay.
Problem would often suddenly appear after several minutes of gameplay or after a map change.
Further stuttering would continue even after restart of BF4 application. Only way to resolve a problem was fully restart the PC and play again, where after some time stuttering came back and I had to repeat whole reboot process again.

My Hardware:

Windows 8 x64 Pro - fully patched
2x Intel Xeon 5150 CPUs
Intel 5000 series chipset based motherboard
EVGA Geforce GTX 660 superclocked - using 331.65 drivers
8GB RAM
OZC Agility 3 SSD - used for OS and BF4 install
Realtek HD Audio
BF4 - 64bit with latest client patch.

FIX:

Empty Standby Memory in Windows, this can be done during gameplay, no restart needed.
I have also disabled pagefile, prefetch and superfetch as described further below.
I have tested this only on 8GB ram. Please make sure that you read the full post before making any changes.

  • Download RAMMAP from microsoft http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/ff700229.aspx [technet.microsoft.com]
  • Start Task Manager and go to Memory Section, Notice memory composition. It may look like you have plenty of memory free however the free memory is used by standby data in this case BF4 cached content (This is only visible once you start BF4) You can see this from details in RAMMap.
  • Run RAMMap which you downloaded from Microsoft.
  • Start BF4.
  • Once your game starts freezing after map change or during gameplay do following
  • Alt + Tab to switch from BF4 to RAMMap. Click “Empty” on the top of the RAMMap menu
  • Click Empty Standby List (You can also verify in Task Manager that you Standby Memory usage is none or very low)
  • Now press Atl + Tab to switch back to the game and enjoy smooth gameplay without any freezes or stuttering.

Here is full description on what I’ve done on my PC to fix stuttering problem from default Windows 8 installation.

STEP A - Only do this if you have more than 4GB of RAM. We had people confirming BF4 requires a page file if you have 4GB of less.
Thanks to “EGY-Moustafa” for testing and confirming this.

  1. Disable Page File
  • Go to System
  • Go to Advance System Settings
  • In Performance section click on Settings and click Advanced tab.
  • In Virtual memory section click on Change… button
  • Select each disk enabled with Paging and set setting to No Paging file and hit Set button
  • Now all your listed disk should show Paging File Size as “None”
  • Press OK button to exist from the menu
  • We will reboot pc later once we change more settings, there is no need to restart the PC now.
  1. Disable Superfetch
  • Open run and type services.msc from run or win8 start screen (make sure applications on right menu is selected) or open services console by other means.
  • Find Superfetch service, right click it and go to properties
  • In General tab select startup type as disabled.
  • We will reboot pc later once we change more settings, there is no need to restart the PC now.
  1. Disable Prefetch
  • Open registry editor, type regedit (You need to have admin rights)
  • Navigate to following key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\
  • Right click and select Modify on “EnablePrefetcher” and set Value data: to “0” click ok
  • Right click and select Modify on “EnableSuperfetch” and set Value data: to “0” click ok
  1. Restart your PC.

Notes: I found that my PC was stuttering, freezing every time my disk usage on SSD jumped to almost 100% utilization.
100% utilization have been caused by paging BF4 content. Why is system constantly paging with when I have 8GB of memory?
My memory was hardly utilized I got 8GB and BF4.exe only used 1.2 - 2 GB in processes yet still it was paging.
I decided to get rid of page file to minimize disk usage.

After I minimized my disk usage I noticed game would still freeze after several minutes or when map changes, so I analysed memory composition and found
a problem with Standby Memory. You will have to empty standby memory whenever your PC starts freezing.

STEP B

  1. Empty Standby Memory in Windows (this can be done during gameplay no restart of PC necessary)
  • Download RAMMAP from Microsoft http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/ff700229.aspx [technet.microsoft.com]
  • Start Task Manager and go to Memory Section, Notice memory composition. It may look like you have plenty of memory free however, free memory is used by standby data
  • Run RAMMap which you downloaded from Microsoft.
  • Start BF4.
  • Once you game starts stuttering after map change or during gameplay do following
  • Alt + Tab to switch from BF4 to RAMMap. Go to Empty on the top of the menu
  • Click Empty Standby List
  • Now press Atl + Tab to switch back to game and enjoy smooth gameplay without any freezes or stuttering.

Notes: I was watching memory usage and memory composition and noticed that even windows is reporting I have 5GB of memory available during BF4 game, the Free memory was actually only 256MB.

After some time the free memory reached 0 and standby memory was fully used. This is completely normal with Windows 7 or Windows 8.
Windows will assume that your standby memory is free to use and is available to system at any time, it is always reported as free memory.
BF4 however is using standby memory to cache up a lot of assets, textures, objects.
After each test my stuttering started shortly or after my standby memory reached maximum amount. As soon as I emptied standby memory, BF4 re-cached only required content leaving some free memory and stuttering stopped.

I have not yet found automated way to empty standby memory and also this cannot be disabled in OS.
I seen some 3rd party exe files or utilities which can empty standby memory from cmd. You could possibly automate this and create scheduled task or batch script to execute and empty standby memory on the PC at certain time intervals.
This would save you trouble from switching from BF4 to RAMMap and back each time.
I have not tested these 3rd party files and cannot guarantee if they are trustworthy or safe to use
If I find any way to automate process I will post update.

It would be great if you could post feedback whether this is working for you or if you get any different results.
I have tested this so far only on mine PC. If you need help let me know, if this works for more people we can make better tutorial or look further to automatic this task.

London Citizen

2

not having any stuttering or freezing but ill keep this mind if i do.

3

its the game why fk with settings once fixed more settings adjusted

4

Thanks for sharing!

5

Indeed this needs to be addressed by DICE and game needs to be fixed, however if you are keen to play and having same trouble as me this could get you going until there is a new patch out.

6

yep thx 4 the info..:smiley:

7

Will give it a try. Thx for sharing!

8

Dice asks for some time for more time to polish the game

Here comes ea’s boot

9

Good job!

10

There been just several weeks left between Public beta and Official release date, hardly anytime to fix anything serious. I wonder who chose such timeframes or what went on in closed alpha/beta test stages, such problems must have been evident, unless code have been changed on last minute without proper re-testing.

11

This I really a work-around for the issue with your SSD not being able to keep up with running BF4 and Windows simultaneously.

You’re better off skipping allof this and moving your page file to a different drive. This way your read/write times aren’t being bogged down n-game by a constant write to the page file.

The game writes to the page file essentially to cache things it needs to access on a temporary basis as a type of temporary local storage. The page file method is used because Windows has features in place to optimized access of a page file vs. using a standard temp file.

You may also be better off installing BF4 on a standard HDD and only running the OS on the SSD. If you want SSD speeds on such a resource-intensive game, you’re really going to need a 2nd SSD for running games from.

The page file is constantly accessed and so an SSD will prioritize this over game files, resulting in the stuttering you’re seeing.

Last, I’d strongly suggest replacing that OCZ drive. They’re crap in comparison to a Samsung EVO.

Last-last, if you’re only running an SSD and no HDD (I see no mention of this) you’re doing it wrong.

12

Hello Super GhostMaster,

I had same issue when I ran game of 2nd hdd (non SSD) and also if I moved my page file to 2nd disk.
I have 1 SSD and other 3 normal disks. Whatever I done have not made any difference apart from disabling paging and clearing out standby memory.

I doubt that switching to different SSD disk manufacturer would make this game run smooth,

The work around this stuttering is to clean your standby memory not really disable paging, however it is something I chose to do anyway to minimize any use of additional resources.

Game shouldn’t really need to page every few seconds your BF4 if you have 8GB of Ram, game should load up all the content into memory at startup loading process.

13

Tried it. Keep getting directX error. :frowning:

14

How much RAM do you have?
I never had a direct X error on my system, the game was just freezing all the time I doubt this could fix a direct X error, you might need to try different fix.

Have you been able to run the game previously at all?

If you have 4 GB of RAM try not to disable paging, instead just clear your standby memory during the game as in step B.
I suspect you may run our of memory if you have 4GB of RAM and disable paging.

15

If you’re getting a DX error, it’s usually either a corrupt driver or corrupt DX.

  1. If it’s a corrupt driver for Nvidia, download the latest driver and make sure to check the option for a “Clean install” - this will remove old drivers.

  2. If it’s a corrupt driver for AMD, use the AMD cleanup tool (free on their site) - this will remove ALL AMD software and allow you to install fresh. *A restart is REQUIRED after this completes to allow it to work properly. Note: the remove tool works in the back ground, so it may appear nothing is happening for a while. Give it up to ~20min to complete. Reinstall the latest driver.

  3. If it’s AMD instead of the latest driver, you may want to install the 13.11 beta 1. Yes, beta 1. This has overall been the most stable driver release as of late. Beta 2 and up have seemed to create new issues.

  4. If it’s corrupt DX, you can’t remove DX, but you can redownload DX from Microsoft and run the install again. If there is a corrupt file, this will repair it. If this doesn’t work, you’ll need to check MS site for suggestions on resolving DX errors.

Note: You can run dxdiag under the Run menu to check for actual issues w/the DirectX install - it will run automatically when you run dxdiag - notice the progress bar on the bottom of the window - this is checking for errors and latest version. If you have a 64bit system installed, there is a button on the dxdiag window that says “Run 64-bit DxDiag”. Do this as well.

Knowing the DX error code would be very useful. Please post back w/that if you can’t solve this.

  1. It is also possible that your .Net installation is bad/corrupt/out of date. You can uninstall from Control Panel, restart and reinstall to fix this.
  2. Last, you want to be sure that the version of MS Visual C++ is correct and not corrupt. You can install all versions of VC++ 2012 from Control Panel, restart and reinstall using the dowloaded files from BF4 to be sure you have the correct version.

That folder is here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Battlefield 4__Installer\vc\vc2012Update3\redist

Note that other games may use Visual C++. They may use different versions. Different versions/distributions do NOT cause conflicts - don’t uninstall versions that are not 2012.

Post back and let us know what happens.

Also, don’t disable your page file like this guy says. The core of his problem is his SSD and configuration.

16

Dude read my previous post. I replicated same problem using different configurations with and without SSD with pagefile enabled or disabled. Changing SSD or moving pagefile to another disk does not make any difference. Also I reinstalled game several times on different disks and this does not make any difference.
Therefor my problem is not caused by SSD configuration as you said. You need to go educate yourself, as it seems all you can do is install or reinstall same software again.

17

The page file is NOT the issue. The speed of your DRIVE is the issue. It’s certainly possible the BF4 is not making the most optimal use of the page file and as a result is slowing the game, but turning off the page file and forcing Windows/game to use RAM in place of it tells the whole story: access time to RAM will be much lower that simultaneous read/writes on the same drive (like when accessing the Page file). If this fixes your issue (which it won’t if you only have 4GB or less) then the problem is your drive speed.

This could be the result of a slow HDD, too many simultaneous read/writes on an SSD or improper configuration of an SSD/HDD combo.

Just saying “I have 1 SSD and 3 normal disks” doesn’t tell much. Are they in a RAID configuration? Where is the OS installed? Where is the Page file? Where is the game installed? Is the game being forced to access a Page file on the SSD when the game is on an HDD? Has the game been installed on the SSD w/Windows and had the Page file moved to an HDD? Has the game been installed on an HDD and had the Page file on the SSD w/Windows? What is the speed of the HDD drives? Cache? RPM? Disk space? SATA speed? CPU speed? (yes, this effects your read/write speeds on an HDD) RAM speed?

How about Device Manager Disk Drive configuration? Are you using a the write-caching policy selection on the HDDs? On the SSD (you shouldn’t, as it manages this itself)? Do you have Quick Removal or Better Performance selected? (better performance for internal drives is the best option)

There is a lot of missing information here that is needed to see if this is really related to a drive speed/configuration issue or actually the Page file.

There are also ways to optimize usage of the Page file, however, I’ve NEVER seen a case where not using a Page file at all *INcreased performance.

If you follow your “Step A” until you reach the Page File settings, you’ll see an option for letting Windows manage the Page file for all drives. Windows should only manage the Page file for the drive it’s installed on under many conditions.

For example, if you run your OS on the SSD, but install the game on an HDD, you should pick a reasonable page file size and let the drive manage this (usually about 1.7GB for every 100GB on the drive). This will prevent unnecessary read/writes from the SSD to the HDD while the game is running (resulting in horrible performance issues if you DON’T do this).

Another alternative is to try no Page file on other drives and only have a Page file on the Windows drive. I would ONLY do this if a) You’re using the HDDs for file storage only (like media, documents, etc.) and b) You have the game installed on the SSD, too.

You can act all high-and-mighty about your computer knowledge, or we can work together and try to solve an issue the right way for users having this problem

18

Guys, enough with this bullshit fix.

It’s from the game and DICE need to fix it, stop touching stuff. It’s not from our computers, it’s their fault.

19

There is no fix. The problem isn’t user end. Ultimately only dice can fix the crashing if they can be bothered.

20

This completely ignores the fact that some users have very specific problems that CAN be computer-related. There is indeed problems with the game. However, there are also system-related issues.

If you want to pretend there isn’t and never resolve them, you’re likely to continue to have issues even when the game is 100% stable.