Fixed: Forza Horizon 4 experiencing significant performance issues following an NVMe drive installation.
Fixed: Forza Horizon 4 experiencing significant performance issues following an NVMe drive installation.
Greetings.
From the moment I updated my operating system drive to an NVMe drive and installed Forza Horizon 4 on it, the game runs smoothly for approximately five minutes before experiencing a consistent two-minute period of just eight frames per second with only twenty percent GPU utilization. (My typical maximum frame rate at 1440p, using optimal settings, is between seventy and ninety frames). The terrain fails to load, resulting in disconnection from online play. During this period, I observed in Task Manager that my GPU usage drops to thirty to forty percent while my CPU usage spikes to one hundred percent. I am playing the game at maximum settings with an RTX 2070, which previously operated flawlessly for extended durations on the same hardware. It shouldn't cause my CPU to reach one hundred percent, considering it functioned perfectly before this NVMe drive change. Do you have any suggestions? I'm currently preparing a video for YouTube demonstrating Task Manager and this issue with various vehicle configurations, which will take approximately fifty minutes to complete. My system specifications are: a dual-socket Xeon X5675 processor, sixty-eight gigabytes of RAM, an RTX 2070 (not overclocked—I tested this as well), and a PCIe to NVMe adapter. This appears to be a unique problem with Forza Horizon 4, as all other games I’ve benchmarked have performed without issues. Red Dead Redemption 2, also installed on the NVMe drive and utilizing maximum settings, runs perfectly with no texture popping or loading delays. I initially considered swapping the PCIe adapter to another slot, which I did without any improvement. Thank you in advance for your assistance. After the video is uploaded, I will attach it.
The game’s primary process operates with the highest importance, compelling Windows to suspend background operations until it concludes. While this occurs within a game context, the primary process doesn't complete its work until the game is closed. Consequently, because the main thread requires data from secondary tasks to proceed, various problems arise—including extended loading durations, absent textures, and jerky performance or lags.
This video demonstrates the issue. I apologize for the poor quality of the recording because my OBS software hasn't been completely configured to maintain a consistent frame rate. You can observe the problems beginning by examining the audio and the frames per second counter located in the upper right corner.
The game’s primary process operates with the highest importance, compelling Windows to suspend other operations until completion. While this occurs within a game context, the primary process doesn’t conclude until you close the application. Consequently, because this core thread requires data from secondary processes to proceed, various problems arise – including extended loading periods, texture deficiencies, and performance dips.
Observe this video; the behavior you describe manifests at 0:40, to a point where enemy AI behaviors become unresponsive. Solutions are presented afterward.
Given it’s an online game, altering the game's settings could result in account suspension or a ban. Proceed with caution.
View: https://youtu.be/fPJ_Lsf8tFY?t=40
I’m not entirely sure how this began. Prior to switching to an NVMe drive, I was able to play the game for extended periods, consistently exceeding 400kmh with no issues. It appears the problem started after my SATA SSD was swapped out for an NVMe drive.
Microsoft Windows represents a careful equilibrium; potentially, the NVMe drive’s driver requires slightly elevated or reduced processing capabilities, which could disrupt this established harmony. However, it undeniably accelerates data transfer to games, and this might be the root cause of the issue.