Major FPS Drops After Lag Spikes (Locked Below 8~ FPS)

(Unsure if this should go here of in "Computer Hardware")
At some rate, I'm expecting this to be a laptop issue, but I guess I should ask anyway.

I use traffic pretty often, and that understandably means I'll have some load on the computer, but I know my game can handle 8-10 vehicles in total on a well-sized map with a comfortable (for me) framerate.

The most consistent ways of getting a lag spike for me is often: Changing into World Editor, Resetting my vehicle, sometimes loading a vehicle, and using Alt+Enter.
The issue is that like, 80% of the time when I get a lag spike of a noticable amount, my game suddenly gets throttled down to about 8FPS. Only if I'm lucky, will aiming the camera at the sky resolve my issue and make the game run normal again.

Here are my pc specs:


(out of 16.0 total)

Here's how my computer usually runs when playing Beam, atleast the session I was in. The memory usually goes from 80%-90%, and the GPU only lowers when the game is unfocused.



What would be the easiest way to fix this? I think my issue is ram, and I believe that my laptop's ram may be replaceable. Just thought I'd ask here first since this is triggered by lag spikes on larger maps.

 

I couldn't replicate the issue on Italy nor West Coast USA (which 8 vehicles in total ran at a just fine 30-40 FPS on both maps btw)
Since I couldn't replicate the issue with everything deactivated, I activated exclusively Midnight Run (aka C1 Loop, Shuto Expressway) active. (The map I've been having the most issues with).
I was going to send a Support ID for this instance, but even with the most intensive I could make the experience without changing my settings, I also couldn't replicate my issue.

I closed and re-opened the game and reactivated all of my mods. (about 160) and went back on Midnight Run. It took a bit longer than expected, but as soon as I tabbed to another vehicle, the lag started. Unfortunately I didn't do this any other time. Here's the Support ID for this:
140462

 

That is really unusual. I have worse specs than you (but higher ram) and it runs fine for me.

 

Exactly. I literally used your specs as a contender against mine and it already confused me, glad you pointed it out. That's the main reason why I was suspecting it to be a ram issue, even though I'd think it should happen on other maps like Italy more often.

 

I have only 4GB more

 

sighs of pain
I made the backup folder, started the new game, and since it's the map centered around the issue, put in only Midnight Run and started swapping vehicles at a normal pace, and the lag started again.

I just re-opened the fresh game and went onto Italy. To be clear, I've been tweaking the PostFX settings and also tweaking the sunsky settings because of shaders I have (although they aren't in the fresh game right now, just doing this for consistency sakes). I loaded in the traffic and tried switching to them, even as fast as I could and I still couldn't get my game to lag badly like it does on the map. I even have reflections on, with high settings.

I don't know much about how things get rendered, but both of the maps I mainly am having this issue with are large in size. Just as a theory, maybe it's something with how the game renders large meshes that make the game throttle suddenly when a lag spike happens? I'd imagine that all the things I do to trigger it (Alt+Enter, World Editor, swapping vehicles) does something with the camera. Although I should mention that once a bit ago, while trying to figure out the issue, I even got eh game to start lagging by just toggling the FPS with Ctrl+F, so could even be a UI thing?

As a sidenote, this also can happen on Kirbyguy's Nurburgring Nordschleife although much, much less often, hence me guessing it was an issue with large models being rendered, since both Shuto and Nurburgring are very large ports.

 

Sorry for the late reply, haven't played much recently. I did not check my temperatures, nor do I exactly know how to. Yet I have a hard time seeing it being an overheating issue since it's a clear trigger aswell as being so sudden. I admittedly don't quite know how temperatures rise, but I don't think it happened more often the longer I was ingame for. I also believe I've been in situations with more of a load and the throttling didn't happen, but don't quote me on those times being much more intensive.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I have a feeling it does have to do with how much is on the map + the size of the map/single model since it took yours many switches to start lagging. Maps like Nordschleife and Midnight Run are still large, but also much more complex than Grid Small Pure, so probably takes less agitation to get started. The connection is honestly the only reason I feel like map size is a factor, especially if GSP caused it for someone else. I definitely would have no idea on if there's a fix for this, let alone if this is technically a game issue. Although there probably is a tie to Ram in some fashion, I wouldn't expect it to make this much of an issue on weird circumstances.