ServiceHost;SysMain caused massive fps drops(disabled and solved;or not)

Ok. Let me try to describe the issue I am having…it started with one of the updates since Frontiers.
It starts like this:
Everything is fine. I am working on my settlement so I have it highlighted in my Log. The on-screen prompt displays, X amount of time till completed, on my building project.
Then, and I am not 100% certain on this, when the current project finishes its current building phase, the on-screen prompt will tell me it is complete. At that point, (I believe this is consistently so) my on-screen prompt begins to flash. On-off-on-off…my game also begins to stutter. Move-stop-move-stop.
I can change to another Log mission and that on-screen prompt does NOT flash. Only the settlement mission. The game continues to stutter no matter what.
I can restart and everything is okay.
Periodically, since Frontiers, I also can suddenly experience massive framerate drop. Running along fine at 50fps then suddenly I plunge to 8fps and have to restart.
Maybe this is because I am using AMD, I don’t know. In general, my PC no longer runs NMS as well as it once did but still, not sure why this is happening. Any insight is appreciated.

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If you press ctrl-shift-o it should bring up lots of numbers, e.g. fps, gpu usage, ram usage etc. (AMD only). When NMS goes wrong just read the top of the display to see if it gives any pointers. Keep an eye out for 100% usage of anything. GPU usage will probably be close to 100% most of the time anyway, but if it slows down to 8fps and still 100% usage…that’d be strange. Also tab out to task manager and click on the performance tab to see gpu, memory and disk usage.

Sudden fps drops that don’t get better without restart - could be running out of ram and having to resort to virtual memory. Try turning textures down one step just to see if it helps - this will also help if using more vram than that is available, though I doubt you’d be able to run NMS for very long without noticing this.

Do you have it on a SSD or HDD? Could be struggling. Try moving to another disk if possible and see if it makes any difference. All this just to elimante the possible problems with computer, not that I’m saying there is anything wrong with it. Anti virus starting up? Microsoft update running suddenly?

That settlement problems seems a bit weird though. Haven’t had that problem, but then don’t really do the settlement thing since the first time. I have AMD drivers 20.4.2.

Sorry a bit vague, but that’s all I can suggest.

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Ok. Will put that to use and report back. I am hoping something is not dieing on me…not really wanting to rebuild right now

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Nah, I’m sure nothing serious is dying. Gpus go glitchy before dying (spikes, artefacts, colour changes). Cpus - well they don’t die, but probably lots of blue screens and system hangs. Hdd problems cause slowness, but you’d notice it in windows.

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So RAM UTIL is 8.3GB and I have 16 so good there. GPU UTIL is hanging out around 97 -100%, FPS around 50, CPU UTIL just scratching 35%. In task manager CPU around 35% and GPU around 62%. Memory 8.2/15.9GB
Interesting thing happened. I was building another landing pad in my settlement. It was nearing completion on the first step so I was watching as the countdown clock reached 0:00. When my on screen prompt changed to the next phase of building, it blinked a couple of times but then stopped. (It did not last so I could not check the stats) So there is some kind of issue with the building phases in my settlement. Had the blinking of the on screen prompt continued, I am sure my framerates would have dropped and horrible stuttering would have begun.
I will monitor this further. Thanks so much for the help!
UPDATE
played for a couple of hours. Completed several buildings. No issues. Not sure what is happening. Will keep watching for it again. It has happened on several different occasions.

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Ok, well next time it happens, switch the info on and see if it’s any different.

Try a new settlement. Settlements always seem to be buggy. Ha, NMS is rather buggy. How many times do missions not quite work and you have to restart to fix, or fly to another planet/system and then fly back to fix it. Playing the new metal mission and it didn’t trigger, so warp out and warp back again fixed it.

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Both a friend of mine and I have seen this on PS4, but only once each. Both times we had started the first settlement in our save and it was one of the first construction projects after starting. It may have been just after starting the Laylaps missions, we both started that right after establishing the settlement. After a little playing around to try to clear the problem we both restarted game and the flashing went away. The flashing has never reappeared but now I’ve jinxed it. :slight_smile:

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Well, it happened again today. I was in another system looking for upgrades for my new ship. The on screen settlement prompt did not tell me the current building phase was done but did tell me to use the teleporter to return to my settlement. I warped back to my home system and when I entered it, the on screen prompt then told me the next phase of the building was ready and it immediately began to blink. However, my framerate did not drop this time. I did get the major stuttering though. It seems like the game is working, not working…I move forward with the blinking of the prompt. Move, stop, move, stop. My specs seemed to be fine except that the CPU and GPU usage numbers were dropping then surging I assume because the game was working, not working…
Laylaps was turned off so it is not the issue. I wondered because it was out before. But something has gone screwy with settlement building since the last update. I feel I should report it but I am not at all sure how to word it.
restart and built 2 more buildings with no issues…

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That’s a tough one, how to reproduce and report it… I would still report it, maybe the developer who implemented the popup can think of a condition where it would blink like that and that is a clue that we here would not ask about?

If you had backed up save files from before and after an incident that could also be helpful… If the devs can’t reproduce it with your file, then we know it’s your system.

When it happened the first times, did you keep on walking (loading more), whereas now, you stop in your tracks and tab out to a monitoring tool (not loading any more)? Maybe you‘re not tipping it over the edge anymore by reacting differently. :person_shrugging:

You can quickly record game clips with the built-in game bar, Windows-Alt-R and Windows-Alt-G.

Include as much info as you can, assume that nothing is obvious. Hardware, OS, resolution, graphic and video settings.
Is this a year-old old save with all of HG’s accumulated glitches in it, or new? Is it one of the “first gen/day one” villages (started before the patches), or from after the patches? Do you typically stay in the same places and build, or travel and generate a lot of new content? Do you reload a lot (save scumming for ships), or do you leave the game open for hours? Etc. Players have different extreme behaviour that they don’t think of mentioning but that has an impact on e.g. memory use. The report form also asks Multi/singleplayer so that seems to be a factor as well, solo or lots of other bases eating memory?

(For example I had a visual bug once that happened only in first person with a certain backpack that had a light effect on it, because the camera got positioned behind the effect… Nobody else got it. you would not expect players to mention their backpacks when reporting visual bugs… I assume the devs recognised their effect in a screenshot and that gave them a clue… in any case, bug hunting is tough) :smile:

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Thanks for all of that. The more thought I put into it, the more I believe I am having 2 different problems. The framerate crash which is very rare and seems to happen only on flora/fauna rich planets under certain circumstances and then the isuue with building phases in the settlement triggering ‘the blinks’. The first is obviously a problem with my pc. Will try to trigger it again soon. The second issue, ‘the blinks’ is a problem in the game. Especially since playstation players have also experienced this.
As for my save file, this is a save I have had since NEXT. So I realize I may need to let it go and move on with my new save. Once this settlement is complete, I plan on doing just that.

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Update: My service host sysmain is maxing out my Disk. I believe this is a windows issue? That is what is causing my game to suddenly drop fps and nearly crash. My RAM util jumped to 13GB then calmed down but my fps stayed at 8 and I had to quit the game.
I used to have a shader cache issue that did something similar but that was supposed to be done away with when they went to Vulcan…I don’t know. Maybe someone else does.

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Ok. Wanted time to test it but, it seems that disabling ServiceHost;SysMain (formerly known as PreFetch) has ended this issue

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Well done! :+1:
That must be a relief.

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Ok. I am still having issues. NMS is killing my PC. None of my other games do this and I run some fairly intense programs like Planet Zoo.
This has become much worse since the last update. Game runs fine and then suddenly it freezes and massive frame rate drops. Sometimes the frames remain fine but the game just can’t run. If I can get to Task Manager, it shows NMS GPU at 100% and System at 100%…memory at about 50%…I really cannot build a new PC at this time… :tired_face: At least graphic cards are dropping in price…
System being at 100% is very much likely to be windows itself. I am really sick of windows…Linux is looking more appealing by the day but, I just can’t get NMS to look as good on linux… :face_with_diagonal_mouth: otherwise I need to get to win11 but cannot get a tpm for my motherboard so again, building a new pc…
I do have a linux drive that needs to be updated…

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Hmm strange, I see no discernible difference between visual quality in Linux and Windows. It might be due to my undercorrected myopia though.

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:smile: well, it has been a while since I tried. I do really need to reconnect that drive and dive in.

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Have you tried just nuking windows and reinstalling? A pain if you use the pc for anything but steam, but maybe just install windows again to another partition. Yes, you’ll be able to choose which one at startup.

You’ll have to make a blank partition, by shrinking your current partition down (tip:shrink, restart windows, then shrink again and repeat until enough room), then just install windows (or linux) on this fresh/blank partition.

Easy…unless I’ve missed out the difficult bit which I’ve erased from my memory due to the trauma. Make a backup and don’t leave the pc alone while it’s doing it, cross fingers, pray to gods etc

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:rofl: yes indeed. I have a ton of stuff on my pc but all backed up on external so I may try that too

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Don’t forget to make a backup of %APPDATA%, some games hide their save files there. :slight_smile:

Speaking of shrinking partitions, may I ask for advice? I had partitioned my startup SSD to for Windows and Ubuntu. One day a Windows update erased the boot loader and forced me to auto boot Windows again… :roll_eyes: But honestly, none of my Linux apps needs an SSD. It would be easiest to reinstall Linux on another drive.
What’s a tool called in Windows that can “merge” the Linux partition, or, make it accessible to Windows … ? If I lose the content of the Linux partition, that’s fine. I would just prefer not to have to redownload all games.

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I have 2 seperate drives and windows is always forcing me to load windows. It refuses to allow me choose so, I remove the side of my tower and manually unplug the windows drive…real pain.
The other issue I may have here is the type of drive I am using for windows…my current pc was cobbled together with parts from my previous one. I am not sure what type of drive I have…really need to check that out…actually I have 3 drives…my win7 drive is still in there…guess I really should let that one go

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