UPDATE Turns out this is caused by an "optimization" of the game engine that brings large performance gains to high thread CPUs. That optimization has the adverse effect on Windows 7, so according to CS the only way to resolve this is to not use Windows 7 with high-thread CPUs but to update to either the awful Windows 8 or the repugnant enslavement spyware Windows 10. Either one would not be an option for me, since dealing with Windows 7 is already frustrating enough and updating to either version would bring a ton of hassle for months to come, and I don't have the energy to deal with such a crapventure. This basically means after having invested >1000€ I now have awful game performance for the forseeable future because Windows 7 will no longer be considered since it is only used by a tiny fraction of people with higher-core-count CPUs. (I assume CPUs with fewer cores are limited by their inherently low performance, so it probably doesn't cause a noticeable performance drop there, dunno.) PSA/ further discussion thead here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/important-psa-optimization-brings-performance-drop watercooled Geforce GTX 1080 Around 13 FPS in AC Free Flight, with GPU bored at 20% load. Empty R&Y hangar 17 FPS, GPU at 50%. Main menu screen 22 FPS, GPU bored again. (pausing sim by opening menu can max GPU load as if no problem, especially when doing it in hangar with a big ship present) CPU load equally unproblematic. (watch video to get an accurate impression of the issue) Last time I logged in was a couple weeks ago I think, into New Babbage when it was quite new, and got 6-12 FPS IIRC, assuming that is normal, so didn't pursue the issue. I have been on an SC hiatus for roughly 11 months, so that's the last time the game ran fine. During that time, the only thing I can remember is that I might have updated the graphics driver. I am tired. I don't feel like big experimenting. EDIT - some summarizing from replies: - Only affects Star Citizen! (The Witcher 3 and Heaven Benchmark are fine - fully utilize the GPU.) - Completely removing the USER folder and user.cfg did not help. - Disabling hardware monitoring and control software (HWInfo64, RTSS, Argus Monitor) and keeping other software I usually load (e.g. web browser) closed did not help. - Using newest or 1 year old graphics driver with all settings reset (clean installs) did not help. (I rebooted after each version change.) - Changing graphics driver 3D options for Star Citizen to lowest or their opposite settings did not help. - Changing Star Citizen graphics quality to Low did not help. - Removing my NTFS-symlinks in the game folder for screenshots and p4k file and placing them there natively did not help. - GPU power target setting is 100%, temperature target 60°C, so all fine there, too. - NEW TEST: When I disable Vsync in driver (normally Adaptive), initial load screen has ~103 FPS with GPU load around 60W. And when pausing the game in AC, GPU load is around 60% at ~130W resulting in 37 FPS. I don't know whether that is 'normal', but it is definitely less restrained than when the simulation is running. :information_source: More details in the replies below, but I summarized pretty much everything above. (If the video resolution looks crappy for some reason, try Youtube directly. It should be 720.)