Severe performance degradation

Community Technical Support
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Dear Gaijin community,

It is known that with the recent “Tusk Force” update, there have been reports regarding significant performance issues. While the graphics enhancements are appreciated, poor optimization of the game has caused more problems than improvements.

Key issues are:

Severe FPS drops, stutters: Players have reported FPS reductions ranging from 70 to 100 frames per second, even on high-end systems. While the FPS drops are expected following graphics enhancements, these should not present themselves as stutters, sudden fps drops and way above normal range of low dips.

Increased CPU Temperatures: There have been reports of elevated CPU temperatures, with some users experiencing temperatures exceeding 100°C, which is not normal for their systems. I, myself, noticed anomalies such as poor threading: while one thread of a core maxes out, the other one sits around 10% and sometimes even lower.

Ineffective Workarounds: Suggested adjustments, such as lowering “Terrain Displacement Quality” settings, have provided only marginal improvements, indicating that the core issue lies within the game’s optimization!

System Instability: Instances of game crashes, freezes, and even system lockups have been documented. While some of these are normal given the large number of player base of the game and the variety of systems that the players run, it is still concerning when we accumulate it with the other problems.

Graphic issues: While the vehicle textures stay solid, environmental graphics, such as ground, water and clouds, clearly need attention. Ground and water look good but have issues while clouds in the game appear poorly rendered and certainly they do not improve visual experience.

Request for immediate action:

While we understand that War Thunder is a business, the development team’s focus should not be solely on introducing new vehicles. Greater emphasis should be placed on improving the overall quality of the game. Many issues, such as airplane wings not appearing in the cockpit mirrors, have been present for some time now. Although this may seem minor, the fact that it remains unresolved over such a long period is concerning. There are many more reports like such and perhaps even more unknown when we think about the fact that there are a lot of people who do not bother reporting such “minor” issues.

I believe Gaijin will take quick action addressing these issues to restore the quality of the game. What we need from Gaijin team is a solid performance optimization work, while keeping the communication ways open to receive and provide constructive feedback from and to its community.

Thank you for your attention.

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I’ve been noticing FPS drops since a few updates, usually for a few seconds, depending on the map instead of going to the 165 FPS I always had. In the last few updates, it started fluctuating between around 150 and 120, rarely reaching the 165 FPS it should be at. But since this latest update, there are maps where performance has dropped dramatically. For example, on the Eastern Europe map, when viewing the new trees they added, the FPS drops from the usual 150-120 to between 60 and 70, with continuous micro-cuts, making the game on that map a disaster.
As I said a while ago, the devs need to focus on properly optimizing all maps and properly reviewing the new effects and tree models, etc., as that’s what’s causing the game’s performance to plummet.
When I started the game, I had a PC with a Rysen 5 1600AC, 8GB of RAM and an RX590, playing the game almost at maximum graphics without problems. After a while I changed the PC, with a Ryzen 5 5600X, 16GB of RAM and an RX6650XT, playing with everything to the maximum (except the SSAA), and continually having the FPS at 165, which was the maximum that my screen allowed, that would be in 2022. After one or two years, due to a defect I had to change the graphics card for an RX6700XT, and I still had the fps fixed at 165, but after these last three updates the performance dropped, this last update being the one that has lowered the performance enormously.
In fact, I made a report a while ago, it was accepted, but nothing has gone further.
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/J2EgpOd2Tx0j

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I fully agree with the concerns raised regarding the recent “Tusk Force” update. The performance issues, stutters, CPU anomalies, and visual inconsistencies described are not only real but, for many players, make War Thunder a frustrating experience rather than an enjoyable one.

Equally concerning is how bug reports are handled. The team often seems guided by a mindset forged over decades of unquestioned authority: decisions are assumed correct by default, and outside input, regardless of evidence, is routinely dismissed. Many bugs remain unresolved, not due to oversight, but because the culture of “we already know best” outweighs even the smallest inclination toward competence. This is compounded by a lingering culture of favoritism, where certain internal voices or priorities are pampered, hypocrisies are tolerated, and internal frustrations influence decisions about the game.

Camera bugs during takeoff, for example, have persisted for over a month, predating the “Tusk Force” update, yet they receive little attention. These issues quietly accumulate, undermining the experience for countless players. It’s no wonder many refrain from reporting them: indifference, internal pressures, and the habitual need to appease certain factions make the effort feel pointless.

At this point, expecting meaningful change is unrealistic. Repeated evidence of systemic flaws meets the same inertia, as if the process exists only to create the illusion of responsiveness while real improvements remain a distant thought.

War Thunder has been around for over a decade, yet fundamental problems persist as if long-ingrained habits and rigid hierarchies were immovable. Updates are often pursued for appearance or novelty rather than substance, while avoidable flaws linger unresolved. The result is a game hampered by a culture that prizes authority over competence, habit over progress, short-term optics over the player experience, and internal pressures and frustrations over reasoned decision-making.

Thank you for your attention.

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There is an existing thread for all the performance issues since the update. Leaving link here as they have closed multiple “duplicate” threads on these issues already:

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Yes, I am aware of the certain topic and I have written there but I wanted to draw some attention to the general degradation of the game optimization over the past year or so. It became much more apparent with the latest update, nonetheless, performance drops seem more like a pattern in the recent years. It would be nice if the staff would put as much effort on the quality of the game as modelling new vehicles.

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That’s great you’ve provided the link but how would the average player know that this is the main one to report issues that may not be related to FPS? I haven’t had any FPS issues, but the constantly crashing on initial startup and having to be restarted to run has been ongoing since this awful update has been released.

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Unfortunately, not only an average player but an experienced one would not mind or dare to voice their concerns, problems or complaints. Thank you for doing so in here!

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The frame rate seems to have recovered, but on my fairly powerful system, I can’t play due to stuttering. I set the frame rate cap to 170, and the game consistently maintains that 170 on both high and low settings, but regardless of the settings, I frequently encounter stuttering.

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After Tusk Force I had to go back to Dx11. RTX 3060 8GB, 1080p.

On Dx12 I had (even without ray tracing):

  • fps drops to 40-45 on most maps
  • fps locked on 30 fps in random battles
  • fps drops to even 5-15 fps in random situations

In previous update I played on mid-high settings of raytracing and it was much more stable.

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Screenshot 2025-10-21 143723

This just does not look good how the game uses the threads (or unable to) at least on intel CPUs. When I overclock my cache/ring frequency, the stutters seem to lessen but it also brings up the temperatures quite a bit.

The lack of optimization of the game leaves a lot of performance on the table. This is not a hardware issue. I hope the devs would focus on improving the quality of the game that we all love to play!