I actually received an email back from them and this is what they have to say. I could have sworn I tried all of these such as switching between Vulcan to DX11 vice versa, lowering graphics and framerate cap to 60fps, et cetera and it still does it. I even verified the files and it's all good. My GPU drivers are all up to snuff et cetera. But I'll look through this some more to make sure, but I just can't understand the issue. My systems should handle it, especially with an RTX 3060 and Ryzen 5 5600 6-core, 32GB ram. This was their reply to me:
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Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before starting the game? Firewalls can cause conflicts (generally on startup or loading screens) and overlays from graphics tweaking/monitoring programs or chat programs can also cause issues.
In the launcher, try switching between DirectX 11 and Vulkan, as applicable, to see if that makes a difference.
Citrix Workspace, for example, has been reported to cause performance problems in various games, in particular with DirectX 11.
When lowering the graphics settings, did you also try lowering the resolution, or switching to Windowed or Fake Fullscreen display mode? If the monitor refresh rate is higher than 60, try setting an FPS cap in the game options for 60.
One person reported this issue when the Anti-aliasing option near the bottom of the Video settings was on TAA, but it was fine with SMAA.
Double check your monitor's refresh rate. One person reported that their monitor getting reset to a value lower than the game was configured to run caused performance problems, until they noticed the change and fixed the monitor's setting. That was a consistent issue, though.
Try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Files...' button.
With the GOG version, in the (optional) Galaxy client, select the game, then the settings icon at the top right (beside the Play button) and under Manage Installation select 'Verify / Repair'.
Try exiting out of the Steam client, and starting the game directly from the '..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin' folder, by right clicking the executable (bg3.exe for Vulkan, or bg3_dx11.exe) and running as administrator.
Try right clicking the executable, select Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab and check off the 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' option (set it to Application), run as administrator and disable fullscreen optimization, and maybe set a Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode. In Windows 7, check off the option to 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings', disable desktop composition and run as administrator.
Try browsing to the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3' folder and delete or rename the graphicSettings.lsx file, to get the game to recreate it the next time it is started, in case there is some kind of compatibility issue after the update. The easiest way to get there would be to copy the line below into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter.
%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\
Try browsing to the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache' folder and delete the contents. A corrupt file there can cause problems, and clearing the cache was reported to help with a patch 5 issue. The easiest way to get there would be to copy the line below into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter.
%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache
Check for updated graphics drivers, and Windows updates in general.
Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Click Start, or hit WinKey-R, type in msconfig and hit enter; in the General tab, click Selective Startup, uncheck Load startup items (if required) and leave Load system services and Use original boot configuration options checked. Next, click on the Services tab, check the box to Hide all Microsoft services, then click the Disable All button (maybe make a note of which are currently enabled/disabled), then click OK and reboot the computer.
Run msconfig again to switch back to the normal boot configuration.
Try creating a new Windows administrator user account, switch to that account and try starting the game from there, directly from the executable.
Try resetting your graphics driver's 3D settings to default (right click an open area of the desktop to start the nvidia Control Panel or AMD Radeon Software).
If you check the video options in-game, is the Nvidia / AMD card listed as the fullscreen display, rather than integrated graphics, if applicable, or the Microsoft Basic Renderer?
Make sure the Virtual Memory setting in Windows is set to automatic / system managed, rather than being disabled or set to a fixed size.
For Windows 10, you may be able to free up a noticeable amount of idle memory usage by opening the 'Notifications & actions' section of the system Settings (in the task bar search box start typing 'notifications'), unchecking options there (especially 'Get tips, tricks and suggestions as you use Windows' and 'Suggest ways I can finish setting up my device to get the most out of Windows') and reboot.
You could try a clean re-install of the graphic card drivers, or do a clean uninstall and try installing older drivers, to see if that makes a difference.
If you open the Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc or right click an open area of the Task Bar) and switch to the Performance tab, how is the CPU utilisation in general, and when the game freezes? At the bottom of the window there should be a link to 'Open Resource Monitor', which will show activity for each core, as well.
The Resource Monitor also has a separate tab to check disk activity.
Is the memory utilisation maxed out, or is there still some available when this happens?
How is the GPU utilisation? If it isn't shown by default, you should be able to add it in the Task Manager by right clicking any of the column headers in the Processes tab.
If that doesn't help, there will be various updates and optimisations in the full release which will hopefully help with this.
Regards,
Julian
