Ok, it´s definitelly the CPU handing in Windows, not game, unless devs harcoded something exotic in the latest releases. I found the problem is the allocation of “P cores” on CPU, at least in the case of my i9-12900ks.
Setting CPU policy as follows completely removes those periodic freezes and brings back a steady and consistent CPU utlization, like the one we had in the older game versions and without drops to 0% CPU utilization:
- Long threads: assign them always to “P cores”
- Short threads: you can use “prefer E cores” or assign them always to “E cores”
Problem appears to be on long threads, which are the most demanding and the ones lasting more time active. Those are the ones game will use most of the time. Short threads could basically use any configuration but I don´t think it´s a good idea to force “P cores” there as they normally drive secondary tasks. In case you still want to use P cores there I think the best option would be to use “prefer P cores”, not forcing “P cores”.
If you are familiar with Bitsum tools you can use their free ParkControl tool to change the CPU policy with few clicks as follows, but many other similar tools can also do that:
Can anyone else having the issue and with a CPU with P+E cores confirm if this works well in other systems too?
Please note that game itself still produces some freezes (panning camera, loading cinematics, etc). Those are caused by game´s main thread in latest game versions, so they will be still there after this fix.
Cheers