Max foreground FPS is not working properly

At this time setting it to 60 causes my game to, seemingly, run at 30. Disabling it fixes the problem.

I hope there will be a fix in the future.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/max-foreground-fps-set-150fps-in-game-always-struck-at-63-fps

known issue, but Blizzā€™ isnā€™t able to fix it.

1 Like

Well, thatā€™s a shame. :frowning:

Indeed a shame, and the original thread has been locked so thatā€™s fun too. I usually take a break for a few seasons then come back and play one but I guess Iā€™m skipping this one also.

1 Like

Hi, i was able to work around this issue. the issue, and its VERY FIXABLE, is that your video card is not detecting enough load to switch to performance mode.

I personally use an nvidia card, and i can watch the card with GPU-Z and see that its in performance mode ā€œidleā€ while playing the game with VSYNC enabled.

If I go into Nvidia Control Panel, then to Manage 3D settings, Then to Program Settings, Find or add ā€œDiablo III (diablo III64.exe)ā€
scroll down a bit to ā€œPower Management Modeā€ and change it to ā€œPrefer Maximum Performanceā€. Click apply when it shows up.

as long as i keep VSYNC off and this setting set, the card goes from ā€œidleā€ to performance mode, and clocks up another 500mhz to handle the game properly.

here you can see the game went to idle:
~imgur.~com/8Rlagg4

and here you can see when it goes back to full speed once i get into a rift with vsync off:
~imgur.~com/I3DEo4M

1 Like

I gave that a try and it didnā€™t change anything for me unfortunately. May I ask which nvidia driver version youā€™re on?

1 Like

457.30, released nov 9th if i recall.

make sure you dont have a frame rate cap set in game either. your card needs to work hard enough to flip modes.
you can check with GPU-Z and see if your perfcap shows idle.

1 Like

Well the issue is that we want to set an FPS cap, and it isnā€™t working properly. When I set the FPS cap to 150, it idles around 67fps. When I set it to 200, it fluctuates between 70-110. When I donā€™t have it capped, Iā€™m anywhere between 250 - 500 fps depending on the area. Iā€™m not looking to max out my hardware to play this.

This is the same hardware I used a couple seasons ago and it was never an issue.

For reference:
i9-9900k @ 5.00ghz all cores
msi 2080 Ti
Installed on my 1TB Samsung 970 Pro m.2 nvme drive

Iā€™ll load up GPU-z though next time Iā€™m in game and see if it for some reason idles it though.

1 Like

Yeah Iā€™m not sure that has anything to do with my issue unfortunately. With the FPS cap off, my PerfCap shows idle and iā€™m hitting 300+ fps.

Thanks for the replies though!

1 Like

that literally is the issue Ayo. if your video card is not in perf mode, its making many parts of itself idle. meaning that when you want to do something like throw a bunch of graphics on the screen at once, its not ready to handle that load. and its not detecting that it needs to be ready to handle that load.

in your case, try setting the global setting instead to prefer max performance and see if the gameplay is any smoother.

this wasnt an FPS issue, my card kept me at 75 almost all the time, but those times when it didnt, the FPS went to absolute garbage, only to pick up again a few seconds later.

its like having a sports car at the track, but leaving it in sunday driver mode.

1 Like

Got this issue as well.
If leave the framerate uncapped in-game, I run 300-500fps, with the occasional drop to 80 or so (which is real odd, honestly) and performance is just insanely bad.
Thought I might as well cap it to 120, but noticed the cap not working as intended (no matter what I put it at), which made it run even worse.

I kinda just want my system (that has run this game for many seasons previously, without this issue) to not ā€œramp upā€ when itā€™s really not neededā€¦

The thread that was linked earlier here, suggests (from Blizz support) it being some other framerate monitor issue; but thatā€™s not the case for me. Just recently re-install Windows, so I have absolutely nothing of the sorts installed (never had before either).

1 Like

Thanks for your reply but the global setting was set to performance mode before my first post on this thread. I canā€™t see how Idle is a factor when itā€™s idle even when uncapped and even running at 300+ fps. Itā€™s never not ā€˜idleā€™, even when running well.

1 Like

I re-installed windows recently as well. Itā€™s a new install since the last time I played. Wonder if thatā€™s a factor in any way or just a coincidence.

I also donā€™t use any overlays or anything like msi afterburner. People have mentioned this issue a few times on the diablo subreddits too so it sounds like a known issue that maintenance mode blizzard probably doesnā€™t care too much about.

1 Like

same here. Not working. Windows 20h2! Newest drivers etc, rtx 2070! Run fine the last time i played.

1 Like

There seem to be several issues with 2004/20h2. Even with the foreground slider disabled and setting vsync, which should get me 144 fps, i get 170 fps instead, so totally not working! the only new graphic feature introduced in 2004 and later was the gpu scheduler! Maybe that is the problem?
Btw the performance is horrible, plays not like an old game. While i get 177 where nothing happens i have huge fps drops and lags while playing. Its the same pc, no problems the last time i played before the windows update. Everything else is working fine.

1 Like

Just coincidence. I had the issues before I upgraded my setup as well (re-install when I got my new parts - went from an i7-6700K to a R7 5800X, so upgraded mobo and RAM as well - kept the GTX1080 I was using, for now).

1 Like

Also the performance itself seems much less stable than it used to be. Sometimes I experience drops from 65-67 (capped at 110) to 30-35 for a few seconds absolutely randomly.

Nothing like this has ever happened before, and Iā€™ve been playing for a very long time.

I wish they would fix this running windows 21h2 9700k 2070 super 32 gigs of ram