Serious stuttering & low FPS on The Last of Us Part I – RTX 3090 Ti / Ryzen 9 7900X3D | Need help diagnosing
Firstly, apologies for yet another PC game performance post...
Just picked up the game and I'm running into significant performance issues that don't match what I'd expect from my hardware. I'm trying to figure out whether this is a known optimisation problem with the port, a configuration issue on my end, or misaligned expectations. I've read plenty of similar posts and researched this a bunch over the last two days. I know I am not alone sadly.
System Specs
OS: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.22631
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D (12-core)
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (24 GB GDDR6X)
Driver: Game Ready 596.21 (April 16, 2026)
DirectX: DX12 / Direct3D Feature Level 12_1
Resizable BAR: Enabled
Display: Acer XB271HU — 2560×1440 @ 144 Hz, G-SYNC (x2)
Storage: SSD 1TB Sabrent
Current In-Game Settings (minimum needed for usability)
The game auto-configured everything to Ultra based on my specs. Nvidia App also recommended Ultra. I am currently running on Medium settings and had to significantly reduce further to the following settings to get the game playable:
Anti-Aliasing: AMD FSR 3.1 Native AA (required for Frame Generation)
Frame Generation: On — unplayable without this, regardless of other settings
Directional Shadow Resolution: Medium
Directional Shadow Distance: Medium
Spotlight Shadow Resolution: Medium
Point Light Shadow Resolution: Medium
I also have V-Sync on, FPS capped at 140 (Monitor refresh is 144Hz, tried it lower, made no difference)
In-game performance (overlay)
FPS: 40–50 in-game (62 in main menu)
GPU FPS: 30–35
GPU Utilisation: >95% consistently, including in the menu
CPU Utilisation: <5%, even in dense/combat areas
VRAM Usage: ~8 GB / 24 GB (~35%) — even on Ultra stays under 50%
I wonder about the following:
- The GPU stays maxed out, while CPU is mostly idle across all 12 cores. I'm not sure if this is expected behaviour for this game??
- Frame Generation is not optional - without it, the game is unplayable at any quality preset including all-Low. I fell like this is where the real issue is hiding, feels like a poor fix.
- I am not constrained on VRAM, even on this highest presets.
- GPU FPS vs FPS : what's the difference in this context? I'm seeing FPS 40–50 but GPU FPS 30–35. Is this related to Frame Generation inflating the display FPS?
Any help diagnosing this, whether it's a known port issue, a setting I'm missing, or something in my config, is genuinely appreciated. Free counselling also accepted :)