After starting DCS, there is one minute with periodic stuttering since 2.9.15. Visible on graph.

[Gryzor]

After updating DCS World to version 2.9.15, I’ve been experiencing intermittent stuttering that lasts for about one minute aprox. after the sim has started.. I’m attaching screenshots of main menu with graph stutter, and the log file.

After 1 minute, those "spikes" disappears. I did rollback to 2.9.14 and seeing those stutterings didn´t appear, so its completely related to the last update.

Anyone has noticed it? (my specs, 5090, 32gb, 7800x3d, W10)

dcs.log

[BJ55]

Same here, high CPU usage when idle, but it's been like this since 2.9.8

Edited April 18 by BJ55

[T24_Martin]

Same with my setup.

[Dginn69]

I am having stutters & freezing but not on the main screen. Its in game & unflyable.

[Mr_sukebe]

Please take a scan here:

 

[BJ55]

Good guide, but the DCS performance has been problematic since last year, now I'm rolling back to 2.9.14.8394 because 2.9.15.9408 is even worse. It's not a user/HW/OS/SW issue, all of your suggestions were already applied long before installing DCS years ago (except for MSI AB for fan control, wich tests revealed that causes no issues on my rig).

Edited April 18 by BJ55

[Qcumber]

I am seeing this too. I have done all the usual things but it still persists. The good news is is stops after about a minute or so. I just updated to the Nvidia 276 driver so it might be related to that!? 

Edited April 26 by Qcumber

[Gryzor]

44 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

I am seeing this too. I have done all the usual things but it still persists. The good news is is stops after about a minute or so. I just updated to the Nvidia 276 ft very so it might be related to that!? 

Exactly, lasts about 1 minute. With 2.9.14 I don´t have any initially Spiking. Same config.

It looks like some sort of precache just after initial sim loading.

[Qcumber]

4 minutes ago, Gryzor said:

Exactly, lasts about 1 minute. With 2.9.14 I don´t have any initially Spiking. Same config.

It looks like some sort of precache just after initial sim loading.

Yes. It's very regular. My first thought that it was some monitoring software. I turned everything off but it still happens then gradually stops. Annoying but I don't think it has any real impact. 

[SmirkingGerbil]

Similar, same - posting to keep track of this thread.

Prior to this update, running smooth as silk at capped FPS of 90, System is 32GB of RAM, 3080 w/10GB VRAM, Ryzen 5 5600 AMD, Asus mobo X570-PRO and DCS on NvME SSD stick.

I could run 200 FPS theoretical, now barely able to maintain decent at Capped 60 FPS.

[YoYo]

I have a similar impression, before 2 patches it was ok, now additionally:

- not always but sometimes there are slight hangs at the beginning (kind of small microstutter, like loading shaders everytime), which completely disappear after 2-4 minutes in the game ( strat from the menu), at the same time stutter is also in the sound, very visible in VR, but its present not alwayst
- longer mission loading
- no progress bar in VR (and it was) of loading mission, just black screen
- longer mission save in the editor (now it takes a dozen or so seconds)
- longer closing of DCS, sometimes even a minute

(btw. DCS has disabled antivirus, cores are unparked)

Something is wrong now.

Edited April 26 by YoYo

[MoleUK]

Also seeing significant freezes on menu's at times, and far worse than usual freezing on server select screen.

I am getting much bigger issues elsewhere (CTD's during load, freezing on coalition select on several MP servers) so i'm unsure if they are related or not.

The load times for instant action (when they aren't CTDing on me) are all over the place, sometimes very quick as usual but sometimes freezing up for long periods and recovering.

I hadn't really played since Febuary, where I wasn't getting any such problems. Tried reinstalling DCS entirely, and running on a fresh Win 11 install.

ETA: Looks like I was last really playing late feb-early March, no later than March 8th. So 2.9.13.6818.2 was fine.

Edited April 26 by MoleUK

[Ace5]

I'm having the same issue in the menu and ingame and Its Completely Unplayable once again...

[scommander2]

I am wondering few things:

1. some people are okay with the newer patches, but others are not.

2. some people have rolled back to 2.9.14 and others stay 2.9.15.

I assume that we have our system with the "fine" tune in order to run DCS, and some people have felt the stuttering in 2.9.15 (not sure the percentage). If the issue is still consistently, ED has taken an action already, but not.

No sure that it is applied to the VR users or/and non-VR users.

What is the root cause for this, or there is none?  

Edited May 5 by scommander2

[Qcumber]

The OP is that there is intermittent stutter with frame time spikes, which disappear after about a minute. I still see this (frame time spikes about every 5-10s for about 1 minute after startup) but it does not reoccur or affect any missions. It is annoying but does not otherwise affect gameplay. It looks like other posts might relate to different issues. 

[Czar66]

19 minutes ago, scommander2 said:

1. some people are okay with the newer patches, but others are not.

I've been reading about this issue for a few days now when it pops up on the forum.

If it is worth mentioning, I haven't experienced any of the issues cited on this whole thread. I update DCS as soon as the patch is out or a day later.
I have no idea how to help either, so I can't comment on how to fix it.

DCS at locked 40fps, theoretical double or more higher but some scenes will cause dips so I kept in a FPS value that will never drop bellow so I won't be distracted by frame time spikes and irregular framerate. 1080p. DLAA only.

i5 12600k, RTX 3060 12gb, 64gb Ram DDR4, DCS on a NVME SSD, no paid campaigns installed. Windows 11: HAGS OFF, Gamemode On.
Mods: A-4, CH russian assets.
Tacview exporting enabled.

Background app: Lean system. Voicemeeter standard, Libre Hardware Monitor (latest on github), Track IR app, Gigabyte control center, nVidia app.
Windows Defender exclusions set on DCS root folder + DCS 'saved games' folder.

Edited May 5 by Czar66

[Rebel28]

Chased this same problem for a few days. This only showed up in VR and online. Amd 5800x3d and 5090 card with a Pimax headset. After many days trying everything I could find on this problem I found my fix.

In the Nvidia control panel turn Vsync to OFF that was the only setting that worked. You will still see spikes when players enter and exit the server but other than those it is now a smooth graph

[scommander2]

1 hour ago, Rebel28 said:

still see spikes when players enter and exit the server

I guess that CPU/GPU bound switching

[Qcumber]

45 minutes ago, scommander2 said:

I guess that CPU/GPU bound switching

I'm not sure about that. This occurs on the home screen so CPU and GPU use are minimal. What I have seen is a periodic spike in GPU frametimes every few seconds. I'll try to record a track. 

[MoleUK]

14 hours ago, Rebel28 said:

Chased this same problem for a few days. This only showed up in VR and online. Amd 5800x3d and 5090 card with a Pimax headset. After many days trying everything I could find on this problem I found my fix.

In the Nvidia control panel turn Vsync to OFF that was the only setting that worked. You will still see spikes when players enter and exit the server but other than those it is now a smooth graph

Spikes when players connect, disconnect and reslot is a problem with the slot system.

On servers that only use dynamic slots, it stops happening. Doesn't take many non-dynamic slots to be active for it to start being a problem either. The same spikes happen but much more severely if you have role select open when the players join/disconnect/reslot. They won't happen when the dynamic slots page is open though.

That's not something you can fix on the client side afaik.

Edited May 7 by MoleUK

[Sunbather]

I had zero issues with DCS since I started playing 6 months ago. Now I got this...

Out of the blue, loadup takes three times as long now and then I have to wait around in the menu for another 3 minutes until the stuttering subsided. I've already tried to delete all mods but that didn't help. Checked file integrity via Steam, no use. Only yesterday the whole thing ran completely fine.

Any fix for this? It is insanely annoying.

Edited May 18 by Sunbather

[YoYo]

On 5/18/2025 at 8:42 PM, Sunbather said:

Any fix for this? It is insanely annoying.

Unfortunately not. This problem is very visible not only in the image but also in the sound. After about a minute it actually stops completely. We are still waiting for a solution to this problem from ED side, something is wrong with the CPU management currently (most likely), although it looks a bit like something is being loaded few times during the first 1-2 minutes..

[Sunbather]

vor 20 Stunden schrieb YoYo:

Unfortunately not. This problem is very visible not only in the image but also in the sound. After about a minute it actually stops completely. We are still waiting for a solution to this problem from ED side, something is wrong with the CPU management currently (most likely), although it looks a bit like something is being loaded few times during the first 1-2 minutes..

Yes, the sound drives me crazy!

I just find it superweird that I just encountered the issue this Sunday while quite apparently you guys had the problem much longer already. Maybe a postponed Windows update was the culprit for me but I am not aware of any updates between Saturday (game ran fine) and Sunday (stuttering in main menu began to occur).

EDIT: Yeah, <profanity> me. The problem is still there. I had hopes it just magically fixed itself over the past 2 days... And it takes an insane amount for Steam to even open the Launcher, like almost a minute while it opened almost instantly before.

Edited May 20 by Sunbather

[YoYo]

45 minutes ago, Sunbather said:

Yes, the sound drives me crazy!

I just find it superweird that I just encountered the issue this Sunday while quite apparently you guys had the problem much longer already. Maybe a postponed Windows update was the culprit for me but I am not aware of any updates between Saturday (game ran fine) and Sunday (stuttering in main menu began to occur).

EDIT: Yeah, <profanity> me. The problem is still there. I had hopes it just magically fixed itself over the past 2 days... And it takes an insane amount for Steam to even open the Launcher, like almost a minute while it opened almost instantly before.

The problem with this is that sometimes everything is fine, and sometimes you take the same map, situation and stutter is visible, when it wasn't there before. I have no idea what it depends on. It's worth giving yourself a few days to see if it shows up or not. Unfortunately, it's been visible for 3 patches.

[Sunbather]

Problem still persisting after yesterday's patch...

Why is no official person responding to this thread? I've just spend another 150€ on DCS during the last Steam sale and now I am stuck with ~7 to 10 minute long boot times...

Edited May 22 by Sunbather