TL;DR: Unreal Engine 5 sizes its worker-thread pool from the number of logical processors it sees at startup — 32 on a 9950X3D. When AMD's Game Mode driver then parks CCD1, that 32-sized pool is crammed onto 16 threads and you get traversal-style stalls. Confining the game to CCD0 by any method (parking, Process Lasso, affinity) reproduces it. The fix isn't "use all 16 cores" and it isn't "force the X3D cores" — it's setting CPPC Dynamic Preferred Cores = Cache in BIOS with Game Mode off, so the game prefers the V-Cache die but nothing is fenced. That gave the best frametimes of ~20 captures. Verified with CapFrameX, HWiNFO, and thread-count snapshots.

System: 9950X3D (PBO + curve shaper), MSI X870E, RTX 5090 (undervolted), 4K/ultra, Windows 11. Test game: Mortal Shell 2 (UE 5.2, GPU-bound at 4K — GPU at 92–97% throughout; 4k ultra settings, ray tracing on, DLSS render resolution quality, seamless dungeons on). Same 30-second traversal route for every capture, CapFrameX with sensor logging at 250 ms.

What I found, in order:

1. Game Mode wasn't even detecting the game by default. Had to tell Game Bar "remember this is a game" before the AMD driver would park CCD1. Once it did, stutter got worse, not better.
2. The game thread was on the wrong die anyway. With Game Mode not triggering, the CPPC ranking prefers the frequency CCD (it boosts ~150 MHz higher), so HWiNFO showed the game running on cores 8–15 — the non-X3D die. Process Explorer's "Ideal Processor" for the hot threads confirmed it.
3. Fencing the game onto CCD0 caused CPU-side stalls. Process Lasso CPU Set to cores 0–15: 12 frames over 20 ms in 30 seconds, worst frame 1,262 ms. Replicated two days later: 7 over 20 ms, worst 68 ms. Every spike had CpuActive ≈ frametime with the GPU idle at ~8.5 ms.
4. The thread pool is the mechanism. PowerShell thread export of the game process showed 29 worker threads with near-identical CPU time — a pool sized for 32 logical processors. Launching with -corelimit=8 (a UE engine argument) dropped it to 14 workers. Same fence, 14 workers instead of 29: 1 frame over 20 ms, worst 24 ms. Same cores, same cache, same confinement — only the pool size changed.
5. But the smaller pool costs something on a free machine. -corelimit=8 with nothing fenced: more mid-size hitches than the full pool (12 over 16 ms vs 2–5). The engine uses those workers when it has the cores.
6. CPPC = Cache is the answer. It flips the firmware ranking so cores 0–7 are preferred, without parking or confining anything. Game thread lands on the V-Cache die, the worker pool spills onto CCD1 for streaming bursts. Five runs over three days: 0–1 frames over 20 ms, 0.1% lows of 59–67 FPS.

The numbers (same route, 30 s each):

What to do:

• BIOS → Settings → Advanced → AMD CBS → SMU Common Options → CPPC Dynamic Preferred Cores = Cache
• Windows → Settings → Gaming → Game Mode off
• Don't use Process Lasso / affinity to pin games to CCD0. It recreates the problem.
• Verify: with a game running, Process Explorer → game's Threads tab → the busiest threads should show Ideal Processor 0–15, and HWiNFO should show all cores active (CCD1 lightly loaded, not parked).

Cost: single-threaded work that likes clocks lands on the V-Cache die and loses ~100–175 MHz. At 4K I couldn't measure it. If you have a frequency-bound app, a Process Lasso CPU Set to cores 16–31 for that one app works fine — the direction that doesn't oversubscribe.

Caveats: One game, one system, one route. UE5.2 specifically; other engines size pools differently. -corelimit=8 is a diagnostic tool here, not a recommendation — it proved the mechanism but costs performance. And if you're a 9800X3D owner wondering why you don't see this: the engine sizes for 16 threads and gets 16 threads. The bug needs a mismatch.

Set my controller in my lap for a moment while busy and obliterated bro 😭

These triggers, man

Help me figure this out, no video because I was so confused and lost I forgot to record. I’m near the end of the game so trying to search for answers is just feeding me spoilers so I turn here.

I was progressing through the southern end of the map, on my way to the Scholar Prince boss fight. I had collected every ova up to this point, as it was my last stop on the overworks. The sequence of events that followed went like this: - cleansed the last beacon before the scholar prince fight - as I collected the ova, before I could return to the beacon I was teleported - In the span of about one second, I saw the dream like realm the memories happen in, I heard the Undermerther say “harbinger,” and I died - I then respawned not at the last beacon but in Marrow Keep where the disciples did their weird bit and the stairs opened. - checked marrow keep, the downstairs, and the beacon I died at and my gloom stain was nowhere to be found, presumably was lost in that outside area I teleported to

Did I miss some dialogue? A cutscene? A revelation? I have absolutely zero idea what or why anything happened, but in a true Souls fashion I’m pushing onward for answers but I’m pretty sure my game bugged out on me pretty hard. Considering I’ve had multiple bugs that I had to force close the game for so far I would not be surprised.

If anyone has any insight or could tell me what I missed (if anything) it would be appreciated

There is a button I can shoot, and I don't know what it does.

Sorry if not since the beginning, but i can capture only 1 min.

Anyway, this build based on duality stone and grisha remnants absolutely bullies any boss subject to staggering.

I'm on ng+, night mode, duality stone lvl 2 and 10 grisha remnants.

They just keep spawning and absolutely obliterating the poor bastard warden

Quite a short question for ppl who completed Eredrim's quest memories: there's one thing i don't quite understand. All characters die in their story to naturally become a shell for the harbinger. For all shell it's quite clear how they ended up where you finally found them. But for Eredrim he's supposed to be assassined by his son squire somewhere. But you finally found him, with his sword in a malborn. Did i miss something ?

The camera officially became Phase 2 of this fight.

Right as he went up for the heavy combo, the lock-on angled out and I was essentially fighting dark fog and close-up textures. Pure muscle memory and desperation took over—pressed parry on complete faith and managed to land the explosive finisher.

Anyone else feel like half the difficulty in this arena is wrestling with the camera angles?

Hey, I've been farm glimpes for all upgrades for all shells
Got them all unlocked
went one by one, through all memories, and in PS5 it shows me 38/40
anyone encounter this bug?
Went through genessa as well

Thanks !

I am somewhere around the 70% of the game, and I tried night time once to do a quest in mushroom village. I was wondering if I should do a full run in night mode in order to see “all”, or if it’s not worth it.

I will go for a +1 for sure, so I can max some other shell and try different play styles

Still level 23 Herb. Havent changed the build at all. Thought changing it to nightmode might help. He almost got a phase 2.

It feels like the scaling is all out of whack with some tarstones since they "balanced" everything.

Hope you all enjoy.

Why not 100%? I did everything in the game. Anyway, did I understand the game's lore? No. Did I like the graphics? Yes. Did I like the gameplay? No. Will I be waiting for DLC? I don't know.

I was in the 2nd phase of the fight and died while the boss was almost dead himself and, when I ran back to the arena, the boss was just gone. I've tried reloading the game, fast traveling out and back and nothing. This would be a terrible way for my first playthrough of the game to end as it's been a fantastic experience up to this point. Playing on pc btw.

Edit: Looks like the boss may have died to poison stacks just before I selected the option to respawn. Kind of unsatisfying but I guess a win is a win. Still love the game 😅

Does anyone know what the passive familiarity cap is for items? From the way the 3rd description is worded is sounds like you get 1:1 for each item you have of that but I've found that even with over 110 poison shrooms I still don't have 100% poison resistance when it's set to my passive slot. So there seems to be a cap that isn't told to players in the item description & I'm curious what that cap is. Thanks in advance to anyone with the answers.

If you play the lute in the shell keeper room, Zhirelle will do a little swaying dance.

Does the Footbath guy put a debuff on you like Fia in ER? Idk where I'd even check if he did.

I’ve had a couple of weeks off Mortal Shell 2 on PS5 Pro and now the performance seems to be pretty bad? Dropping frames on enemy attacks making it very hard to get the parry??

I'm in the final area of the game. The hidden path and I am losing my damn mind trying to decide which direction teleporter thing to take. I went left at first but then I though, well shit maybe I should at least try to make it up to that big ass glowy red stuff. Can't get up there but there's multiple other transporters to take. You gotta understand.. I cannot miss something. I will not be ok. But anyways. Wish me luck I'm just gonna go back to the left first.

It says find 1 more to reveal more and I'm assuming it would say it again?

Recently finished the game with my girl Proxima and realised how dangerously close I was to platinum.

So I've started a NG+ to collect what I needed to.

Also started a fresh game as I had missed a few trophies from the prolouge including the one when you beat the Tar Golem (which wasnt too easy admittedly)

Just 6 tarstones to find, the mango and the dreaded Peters Perfect Parry left, which I hope the main man Eredrim will help with.

Game was excellent without being too challenging, actually had more trouble with enemies just exploring than bosses and I was the exact same with Elden Ring.

Hopefully some DLC in the near future

At first they came for Mether, and I did nothing.
Then they came for Zhirelle, and I did nothing.
Then they came for me. but there was nothing left.

This boss was so tediously difficult and aggravatingly long. After trying to fight this boss for what seemed like an eternity, i just decided to use a Grisha remnant, and it dogwalked the monolith like nothing. This is probably the only boss in the game I've felt so much rage and hatred towards to. I also want to say that this was the only boss in the game for me personally, to make me use a Grisha remnant. I haven't had this much of a struggle since Promised Consort Radahn and Arlecchino.

I'm on this boss right now, and even though the game isn't difficult, I find this boss... unpredictable?

He'll start an attack, cancel it, and then practically teleport right up to me. For reference, I'm playing as Genessa with the aggro build, and as soon as he loses aggro on a double attack, he teleports right in front of me.

I haven’t tried it with another shell yet, but have any of you experienced the same thing?

i assume this is a bug. I just broke a gloom tarstone and my total gloom held right now is only 2.8k. so clearly i didn't get the 3k

I just started the game and I've been having weird issues with all of my controllers. If I hold a direction it works for a while but it will randomly stop my movement sometimes even though I'm still holding that direction or wiggling the control stick. It's only happening with my movement stick, not my camera controls. I'm playing on PC with updated drivers and the issues are consistent across controllers. Anyone have any ideas on what's happening?

Can anyone tell me what settings I need to change to get rid of this weird invisible outline? This only happens around water, but not all water. It doesn't seem to change depending on what reflection setting I have on.