Question Freezing on Elden Ring 3090 and 1070

[loyhardware]

I built a new pc and moved my ssd and hard drive from my old pc to the new one. I had been playing Elden ring on the old pc without any freezing/stuttering. When I moved my ssd and hard drive to the new pc I updated the drivers for all my components. For some reason on the new more powerful system the game freezes completely for about 3-5 seconds and then speeds up. This freezing happens pretty much every 30-40 seconds. I tried every solution I could find online and I'm not sure what to do anymore. It only happens with Elden ring. Today I moved my ssd and hardrive back to the old system ( without even updating the drivers ) and the freezing didn't happen at all. I've ran 3d mark time spy stress test ( on the new system ) and got a score of 98% twice. Also! Something strange that I noticed was that when the freezing happened ( I had geforce performance overlay open ) the cpu and gpu utilization would both go down to 0%. The thermals are fine, neither cpu or gpu go past 65c.

The case is reversed and the gpu is mounted upright like in this video. Not sure if that matters in anyway.

New system: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TkjrY9
Intel Core i9-12900K 3.2 GHz 16-Core Processor
Lian Li GALAHAD AIO 360 RGB UNI FAN SL120 EDITION 58.54 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Asus ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard
G.Skill Trident Z Neo 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory
Asus GeForce RTX 3090 24 GB ROG STRIX WHITE OC Video Card
Corsair HX1200 Platinum 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Lian Li Uni Fan AL 64.5 CFM 120 mm Fan
Lian Li UNI FAN AL360 64.5 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack
Lian Li UNI FAN AL360 64.5 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack
Lian-Li O11DE-2W Upright GPU Kit

old system:
i7 7700 (stock cooler)
16gb ddr4 2400 mhz
gtx 1070
500w evga psu

storage for both:
elden ring is on the ssd, but I also tried putting it on the hard drive and the issue persisted
primary( Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD ):
4tb seagate barracuda

 

[USAFRet]

I built a new pc and moved my ssd and hard drive from my old pc to the new one

Going from an i7-7700 to an i9-12900K....

May we assume you did not do a full OS wipe and reinstall?

If not, that is likely the root of your problems.

 

[loyhardware]

Going from an i7-7700 to an i9-12900K....

May we assume you did not do a full OS wipe and reinstall?

If not, that is likely the root of your problems.

I didn't do that. I didn't think that would be necessary. Will I lose all the files I have on my primary drive?

 

[USAFRet]

I didn't do that. Will I lose all the files I have on my primary drive?

Yes, but those need to be backed up anyway.
Full wipe and reinstall. (link below)

Any major change, you NEED a known good backup of anything you do not wish to lose.

Me personally, I don't turn the system on without a known good backup of everything.
Really.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[loyhardware]

Welp. The issue is still happening. I'm not sure what to do anymore. This sucks.

 

[Phaaze88]

Are you using cable extensions to the cpu and gpu? If so, remove them and test again.

 

[loyhardware]

These where psu cables I was using. ( link )I took them out and put in the stock psu cables. I also disconnected the fan hub and only kept the aio pump and fans connected directly into the motherboard. I set the settings to windowed borderless and I set the resolution to 1440p ( it was originally set to 1080p ). It stopped happening for a bit. But then it came back to plague me. I'm to the point that I'm just going return all the parts back to amazon and just go back to my old system.

 

[loyhardware]

I also tried switching out the gpu and ram from my old system and putting it on the new one. But I still have the issue. Maybe the motherboard is bad? I'm gonna replace it.

 

[Phaaze88]

Did you ever clean install Windows, as suggested by USAFRet?




-For some reason on the new more powerful system the game freezes completely for about 3-5 seconds and then speeds up. This freezing happens pretty much every 30-40 seconds.

-It only happens with Elden ring.

-I moved my ssd and hardrive back to the old system ( without even updating the drivers ) and the freezing didn't happen at all.

-I noticed was that when the freezing happened ( I had geforce performance overlay open ) the cpu and gpu utilization would both go down to 0%.

-elden ring is on the ssd, but I also tried putting it on the hard drive and the issue persisted.

It's not outright crashing, it just slows way the hell down.
Makes me think something is overheating - cpu and gpu cores aren't the only parts capable of that, mind you - or there's a driver/software battle happening on the new hardware increasing system latency(and surprisingly not crashing) that doesn't happen on the old stuff, because they don't use the same ones. I wouldn't know how to narrow the latter down... well, if there's software you use on the new build that you don't use on the old one, that would be a start. Drivers though, I wouldn't have a clue.

As far as I know(others will know more), cpu and gpu utilization of 0% happens for 2 reasons:
1)They're idle, or waiting on something. Not unusual at all for the gpu, but for the cpu, that should be impossible. It's always doing something - the OS can't even function without the cpu, and if the OS isn't functioning, then nothing works.
2)They're not receiving enough power, or none at all. I don't know how reliable Geforce Performance Overlay is. Maybe try HWINFO(sensors only) and see if it reports similar? You can double click on parameters to make a graph pop up.

 

[loyhardware]

Yes I did a clean windows install on a brand new SSD. Also I ran 3d mark time spy and the temps never passed 65c. On the new windows install all I installed was Firefox, steam, and elder ring. For every driver, I installed the driver, restarted the machine and then went on to the next. I really feel like it's the motherboard. Because I switched out the 3090 for the 1070 and I switched out the ram and I was still getting the same issue. So I think it's either Mobo or CPU issue.

Question: I noticed on task manager that some cores said parked and their utilization was not equal. On my old machine with the i7, all the cores had equal utilization. But on the i9 it was all over the place. Some more than others and some where parked. Not sure if not having equal utilization across all cores is an issue but just something I noticed.

Btw, thank you all for the help! Hopefully the issue will get resolved once I get the new Mobo. I will do a clean install of windows again. I'll report back.

 

[loyhardware]

CPU test: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/77965980?
GPU test: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/77966207?
Stress test: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/77967449?
Not sure if these help. Do you guys think it's a cpu issue? I've tried a different motherboard. And once again did another clean install of windows. Do you guys think 1200w psu is not enough? Everything seems fine on these tests. 😩

 

[Phaaze88]

Cpu score: 14732*
Timespy cpu average: around 18000 at the time of this post.
[I'm not 100% sure on this one, but the B-series board may not be allowing the 12900K's everlasting turbo like the Z-series was. The i9 is the only one among the 12th gen cpus with the infinity duration turbo. BUT! This doesn't affect the cpu's performance in game; they are constantly changing workloads, thus the turbo boost duration constantly resets before it has a chance to expire.]

Gpu score: 19946
Timespy gpu average: around 20000 at the time of this post.

The average changes as more and more people run benches, and are skewed by LN2 and bad overclocks, thermal/power throttled cpu/gpu, and the ram used.
There's no 'stock' operation to compare to.

Do you think 1200w psu is not enough?

With a transient power spike of around 650w(+/-) from the gpu, 100w(?) from the cpu, and whatever piddly bits of power being drawn by the rest of the hardware... some games may see a max of around 800w during one of those transients???
Corsair's HX series is pretty high up there in quality too.


How about trying Port Royal? Maybe it'll trigger the pauses? Unigine Superposition and Heaven.
Could you give userbenchmark a go too? Maybe it'll turn up something.

If the pausing can't be triggered in anything else other than Elden Ring, then it's got to be a driver, or some setting... do you have rebar enabled by any chance?

 

[loyhardware]

I don't know what rebar is. Here is a video of me going through this same area 3 times and getting the freezing once after passing the fountain on my left and a hard one after dropping down on to the little bridge. The freezing happens consistently on these two areas and I've been using this location to test. This doesn't happen at all in the old system.

I'll try the other benchmarks you mentioned. Do you think I should try a new cpu? Something less powerful but also more compatible with everything( appreciate any recommendations ). Maybe I should just get a 12th gen i7. Maybe i9 just doesn't work well with everything. Maybe switch to amd? This is all really baffling for me because in the new system I put in the 1070 and the ram from the old system and the issue persisted. So my only guess is that it's cpu related because that's the only thing I haven't tried changing.

I'll post the results using the asus board in a second.

 

[loyhardware]

time spy
time spy extreme
time spy stress test
time spy stress test 2

Thank you again for taking a look at this!

 

[Phaaze88]

I don't know what rebar is.

If you don't know what it is, then you've likely not enabled it - it's off by default.
Nvidia's current implementation of it doesn't always provide a boost to performance; sometimes it worsens it.

I'll try the other benchmarks you mentioned. Do you think I should try a new cpu? Something less powerful but also more compatible with everything( appreciate any recommendations ).

I don't believe you should add too many variables right now without more samples. The more samples you have, the better.
If you can't reproduce this in any other games or benchmarks with that hardware, it could very well be an Elden Ring optimization problem.

time spy
time spy extreme
time spy stress test
time spy stress test 2

Yep, nothing. They all look totally fine.

 

[Colif]

looks familiar

if its only in Elden Ring, its the game.

It seems removing Xbox Game bar from PC can help.

 

[Phaaze88]

^That looks like some promising news.

 

[loyhardware]

I had originally tried this and it didn't work. I tried this now on this brand new windows install and sadly it still didn't work. I think this issue is just happening with 12th gen processors. Since they were relesaed the same date that the game was released. Maybe there's something that 12th gen processors have that the game just dosen't work well with. I don't know. Seems like I'll just have to use the old system to play elden ring and the new system for everything else.

 

[loyhardware]

I found the solution. If you have a 12th gen intel cpu then disable e cores in your bios. With the motherbaord I have right now for this system (msi b660m ) I had the option to set it to only 1 e core. It was set to all by default. After a restart the freezing was gone! I ran through that area in the video 5 times and is ran smoooth! It was all thanks to this I found on reddit. Thank you all for your help. I'm going to get a z series motherboard so I can have the option of disabling all e cores.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I found the solution. If you have a 12th gen intel cpu then disable e cores in your bios. With the motherbaord I have right now for this system (msi b660m ) I had the option to set it to only 1 e core. It was set to all by default. After a restart the freezing was gone! I ran through that area in the video 5 times and is ran smoooth! It was all thanks to this I found on reddit. Thank you all for your help. I'm going to get a z series motherboard so I can have the option of disabling all e cores.

Since it seems they've yet to patch the game to not have performance issues with eCores enabled, I have to wonder if this is something that has to be hard coded into the game from the start. That seems hard to believe though since most games don't have this problem with 12th gen, and it's release has been likely within the middle of production of many of these games.