My laptop is just a standard Dell G5 5587 with nothing added or changed in terms of hardware: 8 GB RAM (7.80 usable) [not the best amount of RAM, I'm aware] Intel i5-83000 @ 2.30GHz (I'm not really knowledgeable about computer innerworkings so I only have the vaguest idea of what this is or means) I know it's not the best laptop I could've gotten but I've had it since late 2018 along with Beam, and both ran great. I could play it on close to max setting and still get like 30 fps until 0.21 came out, which is when my fps would drop by about 15 every few seconds (again, I get 30 fps normally, and a little over 42 on a good day). I know 0.21 was a pretty hefty update but this performance drop is just kinda weird to me, especially since I haven't been able to find the cause for 3 months now. I've cleared a considerable amount of space, I frequently use a disk cleaner, but those seem to improve my fps by only the tiniest amount, and I've tried turning down my settings, but even with relatively low settings it's still lag spiking. I had to clean reinstall the game after 0.21 since I unfortunately got that bug where WCUSA's buildings wouldn't appear unless I was in Safe Mode. While the reinstall worked, I'm suspecting that it has something to do with the performance drop. As of right now, I only have 40 mods installed, and I've run the game much better with well over twice that amount before. So yeah if you have a solution or any advice at all, It would be greatly appreciated.
Try disassembling your laptop so you can clean out the heatsink. It sounds like a tall order but teardown guides are easily available online.
Ended up doing this finally and it's actually running close to perfect now, the dust was that bad, I'm getting upwards of 60fps again and no spikes besides the occasional stutter, thank you!
