20 FPS Max, FPS Drop and shader bar maxed all the time POE 2

The problem and the solutions tried are as follows:

- Game runs exactly at 25–26 FPS, never above, even in hideout or login screen. FPS drops and CPU overload even in the log in screen
- Shader bar in F1 debug overlay is always full.
- GPU runs at 100%, clock ~1950MHz, but FPS is stuck.
- Switching to DX12: same issue (FPS locked, shader bar full).


Steps to Reproduce:
- Launch PoE2 using Vulkan or DX12 (standalone version)
- Observe FPS lock at 25 and shader bar pinned full
- GPU-Z shows normal GPU performance (not throttled)
- Other games like PUBG, Last Epoch run at full performance

Already Tried (No improvement):
- DDU + reinstall driver (tried 537.42, 546.17, 572.83)
- Full OS reinstall (Windows reset with clean driver install)
- Deleting shader caches (NVIDIA + PoE2)
- DISM + SFC to repair system files
- Ensuring no overlays or background software
- Disabling G-Sync, V-Sync, HDR, DLSS, Dynamic Resolution
- Forcing shader preloading with --waitforpreload
- Checked GPU P-State, VBIOS, temps, and power — all normal
- Game is not running in compatibility mode
- NVIDIA inspector, deleting Poe 1 profile, etc
-Setting shader to 100 Gb in NVIDIA config

No idea what kind of specs your PC/laptop has, but stuck at certain FPS could be caused by PoE2 using integrated graphic card.


Windows settings:

Start menu > settings > system > display > (scroll down) graphic settings > browse to PoE2 installation folder > add Pathofexile.exe and Pathofexilex64.exe (different if playing through Steam) > left click on added .exe files in graphic settings > "options" > choose "high performance" <ur stronger GPU>

Same thing can be done in Nvidia Control Panel (sometimes it can select integrated card by default).

I'd delete shader caches after that (no idea how if necessary).


Since other games work fine, I guess it's not caused by GPU being connected to lower performance slot.

Man, I solved this problem in the most absurd way possible. I simply removed my video card (RX7600) and put it back in. And the fps returned to normal, both in Vulkan, DX12, and DX11.

Thanks man, my friend's Cyberpunk was also playing the game Frizz, in PoE 2 there was 20 fps in the menu, my friend decided to test your theory just for fun. He has a 4070 by the way

If work, tell to us