Solved Frame rate stuck at 10 fps

[GoldenKay9]

Hello,

I've played Stardew Valley on this computer before, with no frame rate problems. I haven't played in a while tho, and when I came back to it today, it's stuck at 10 fps or lower.

My computer is actually a MacBook Pro 2019, but I use a Windows 10 partition. AMD Radeon Pro 5500m graphics card, and Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz 2.30 GHz processor.

I've gotten a new mouse (a Razer one), and I have Razer Cortex installed now, as opposed to the last time I played, but that hasn't caused a problem for any of my other games.

I've also tried both restarting the game and the computer, both with no change. I saw a similar thread (they were talking about random intermittent fps drops [60 fps to 30 or so], but my issue is constant), which had a reply that said to change the game's affinity in the task manager to not have a checkmark next to "CPU 0," but that made the game drop to 6 fps

Any help is appreciated, thanks

 

[Odin]

It may be worth seeing if the compatibility version of the game helps with your issue: https://www.stardewvalley.net/compatibility/.

 

[GoldenKay9]

It may be worth seeing if the compatibility version of the game helps with your issue: https://www.stardewvalley.net/compatibility/.

I actually wasn't sure this would solve it, but it totally did! Thank you so much! :>

 

[ZeroMeters]

I noticed you're running on a laptop that contains a dedicated GPU and an integrated GPU.

As of SDV 1.5.5, the game went from using DirectX 9c to OpenGL 2.0

From my experience with graphic programming, Windows OS on a Laptop running OpenGL is dubbed "the cursed trio".

I believe the reason you're experiencing frame rate issues is because Windows OS is attempting to utilize your iGPU (integrated GPU) and dGPU (Dedicated GPU) for the game at the same time for Stardew Valley, creating context switching. Usually this isn't an issue. But if your GPU drivers aren't great, problems like this can arise. Imagine a person who is attempting to read a story, but the story is split into two different books, with all the even pages in one book, and all the odd pages in the other. That person has to continuously switch back and forth between each book, as they're only able to hold one at a time.

You have two options to potentially fix this issue:

Option 1.) Inform Windows to only use the dGPU for SDV, rather than switching between dGPU and iGPU.
This is probably your best bet.

Step 1.) Hit Start, type "Graphics Settings". Click on the program with the corresponding name.

Step 2.) A window will pop up. The bottom portion will allow you to browse for a specific application and inform Windows how to run it graphically. Stardew Valley is located, typically, at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stardew Valley" if you installed it via Steam.

Step 3.) Stardew Valley should now be listed. Hit "Options", and check "High Performance". Note the GPU should differ between Power Saving and High performance.


Option 2.) Disabling the dGPU. (Try this if the above doesn't work)
By disabling your dGPU , which is the AMD Radeon Pro 5500m graphics card, you should be able to solve the underlying issue. To do this, you would go to device manager and disable it. In Start, type "Device Manager". A program with a matching name should pop up. Opening that will show a list of organized devices by type. Expand "Display Adapters". Right click and hit "disable device."

Note that your device will not be powered until you re-enable it. So if you're playing another game that requires it, you need to re-enable it. Try the above first.