Tom Clancy's The Division gives huge fps drops while using recommended hardware

[cheezix]

When playing The Division I experience huge fps drops (down to 2 fps) usually when playing with other people doing missions in crowded areas and big chaotic fights.

Recently I updated my GPU, since Can I Run That showed that the shader version of my GTX 780 was outdated and Afterburner told me my GPU was at a constant 100% usage. Therefor I upgraded to a GTX 970 and now Can I Run That tells me the following:

Congratulations, your system passes the Recommended requirements! You should have a great experience running this product.

My specs are:

• 
  GeForce GTX 970
  AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor
  16GB DDR3 RAM
  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit

Afterburner also tells me my 8 CPU cores are often at 100% usage in a repetitive pattern, while my AMD FX 8350 is listed as recommended CPU for this game.

I updated my GPU drivers and even tried CPU core unparking, but I doubt that it will help significantly.

The only thing I can think of now is DX12, which only runs in Windows 10. Might that be the problem here?

Anyone has an idea? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Btw it doesn't matter the game quality I select. Both on low and high settings I have this issue and I've played around with the settings already.

 

[Guest]

What're the temps of the stuff? Sometimes when it says you can play it, it means you can play it, but that doesn't mean extremely good fps. That's usually why I don't rely too much on those requirements.

 

[toshibitsu]

If it's at 100% usage, it's struggling to keep up with your current game settings. It's also possible you could have other things running in the background that are consuming CPU/GPU/Mem. Have you made sure to close any other apps you don't need running? Have you done a malware/virus scan lately?

 

[cheezix]

What's the temps of the stuff? Sometimes when it says you can play it, it means you can play it, but that doesn't mean extremely good fps.

You mean the temperatures? They're not really bothering imo. About 80 degrees Celsius for the GPU and I use the Scythe Mugen 4 CPU cooler which works really well.

Also, 2 fps is really unplayable and unacceptable while using recommended hardware don't you think?

 

[cheezix]

If it's at 100% usage, it's struggling to keep up with your current game settings. It's also possible you could have other things running in the background that are consuming CPU/GPU/Mem. Have you made sure to close any other apps you don't need running? Have you done a malware/virus scan lately?

Yes, I try to keep my pc focused on only gaming when I play. So no unnecessary programs running in the background. And I regularly check my pc for virus or malware.

 

[Guest]

What's the temps of the stuff? Sometimes when it says you can play it, it means you can play it, but that doesn't mean extremely good fps.

You mean the temperatures? They're not really bothering imo. About 80 degrees Celsius for the GPU and I use the Scythe Mugen 4 CPU cooler which works really well.

Also, 2 fps is really unplayable and unacceptable while using recommended hardware don't you think?

80 degrees for me at least is when I worry about why it's so high. Safe I'd say, just a bit worried. Also have you checked the temps on the CPU just to make sure? What website did you grab these recommended specs from? I'm looking at game-debate and your CPU seems to be just a tad bit weaker than the Adjusted requirements. Again, just because they say it is doesn't mean it really is.
This youtube video might help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgfPi7hFwwM

 

[toshibitsu]

If the game is optimized for DX12, then the suggested course would be to switch to Windows 10(depending on how important the game is to you).

Also, there's no Windows updates running in the background are there? Are you sure the hard drive is good(how old is it, tested it lately?)

 

[cheezix]

80 degrees for me at least is when I worry about why it's so high. Safe I'd say, just a bit worried. Also have you checked the temps on the CPU just to make sure? What website did you grab these recommended specs from? I'm looking at game-debate and your CPU seems to be just a tad bit weaker than the Adjusted requirements. Again, just because they say it is doesn't mean it really is.
This youtube video might help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgfPi7hFwwM

On Steam where I bought The Division it says for recommended system requirements (bold is what I have):

Recommended:

OS: Windows® 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 | AMD FX-8350, or better
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 | AMD Radeon R9 290, or better - See supported List*
DirectX: Version 11



Temperature of my CPU is usually between 50 and 70.

Thanks for the video, I will check it out.

 

[cheezix]

If the game is optimized for DX12, then the suggested course would be to switch to Windows 10(depending on how important the game is to you).

Also, there's no Windows updates running in the background are there? Are you sure the hard drive is good(how old is it, tested it lately?)

The game was optimized for DX 11 in the first place, but they've added a DX12 option later I think.

No Windows Updates, or I get these annoying popups that minimize my game so i would definitely notice these. I have this issue always and under specific circumstances as explained in my first post.

My 480GB SSD runs other games smoothly and loading screens are nice and short. No problems there as far as I know.

 

[Guest]

80 degrees for me at least is when I worry about why it's so high. Safe I'd say, just a bit worried. Also have you checked the temps on the CPU just to make sure? What website did you grab these recommended specs from? I'm looking at game-debate and your CPU seems to be just a tad bit weaker than the Adjusted requirements. Again, just because they say it is doesn't mean it really is.
This youtube video might help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgfPi7hFwwM

On Steam where I bought The Division it says for recommended system requirements (bold is what I have):

Recommended:

OS: Windows® 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 | AMD FX-8350, or better
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 | AMD Radeon R9 290, or better - See supported List*
DirectX: Version 11



Temperature of my CPU is usually between 50 and 70.

Thanks for the video, I will check it out.

Ok. But again, don't rely completely on the requirements for something because just because they say it is doesn't mean it'll actually get really good fps. When your usage spikes to 100% that shows why.

 

[cheezix]

Ok. But again, don't rely completely on the requirements for something because just because they say it is doesn't mean it'll actually get really good fps. When your usage spikes to 100% that shows why.

Well, I'm also comparing to the setup of my game friends. One of them uses the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, which is in every aspect worse than my FX 8350, while he does not have my issues. He also runs the same GPU (GTX 970), so I just don't accept my extreme fps drops when he is having no problems. I really want to find out what is wrong and 100% CPU spikes don't seem normal in this case. He has Windows 10 btw and I have Windows 7, so I wonder if that makes a huge difference with DX12 enabled.

 

[cheezix]

Thinking also of overclocking my CPU and installing Windows 10 first to see if that makes the difference...