This is the closest description to my experience I found. I have had this problem for maybe 2 years.
Every „new“ 3D-Object in sight lets the client freeze, even with minimum graphics. According to Windows Task Manager the workload of CPU (low), graphic card (medium) and RAM (medium) does not change, no peaks, no break-ins. With fixing the Window Page File to 8 GB HDD access is greatly reduced, although RAM is used to 1/2 or 2/3 only with Swapfile Off. When I pan the camera while the complete scenery does not change (fleet waits on gate or for fight), then the dropouts largely disappear or shorten much in time. So I conclude that it’s not my 9 years old hardware, that the game limits.
Experience 2: Shutting down 3D (Ctrl-Shift-F9) in fights with some hundred ships does the handling make somewhat more smoothly, but the workload does not change. I would expect that the workload tends toward zero.
Exceptional experience: Two times after shutting down 3D turning it on again after the fleet, with only few objects in sight, EVE froze for 10/20(!) Minutes(!) while it absorbed every byte RAM that Windows granted it and let the HDD permantly beaver away. No change on Graphic and CPU. Other already running programs where normally usable. After these minutes everything was business as usual.
And sure, Experence 4: With the right settings other games do run smoothly. On higher setting the graphics may be sluggish, even very sluggish, but they never tend to have freezes.
I „consulted“ Copilot for all that, AI saves the world. The thing threw a series of unfamiliar terms at me, but it sound plausble to me. For that kind of graphics that is built in for few years now, textures and shaders have to be constantly prepared, some of this does the graphic card, some does the CPU. The combination of circumstances suggest that nothing is overloaded, that instead EVE is constantly waiting for completion of such operations. This is the reason why the workload hardly changes, why EVE does not react on user input and not on system messages — freezes like a simple windows program, that does its work and its UI with the same thread.
And so I can’t play anymore and maybe wait for CCP to adapt the substructure of EVE to the changes they made to the graphics. At the end I think CCP should focus on quality instead of quantity for some years so that all the other little and annoying bugs are finally fixed too.
I would suggest not turning the swap file off, Windows use it in very weird ways even for timing things. Since you mention it in regards to your error too, I would say definitely keep it on and fixed size (see below).
I would always set a fixed size for swap, and as early as at all possible after install (or after an actual defrag with free space gathering). To have the swap file as continuous as possible on the disk. Linear read from HD 150MB/s / SSD 600MB/s, broken up reads HD <1MB/s / SSD 30-70MB/s. Yes I put the SATA limit on the SSDs, unless you have an active cooled PCI Express disk, you won’t pass that due to heat throttle, on NVME disk without active cooling, you won’t even reach SATA speeds for a full second before it grinds to near halt to avoid burning itself out. The random read for SSDs depends a lot on quality (and age, no SATA in the 60+ MB/s range that I know of), but a good one should be 30+ whether SATA, NVME or PCI.
Apart from the very weird things I encountered, also want the swap file on to handle commit charge, most programs do not use all the memory they might in theory use. When the program starts it gets commit size memory (RAM + Swap), and then starts fill up, which goes in RAM first. Without a swap file you can only commit to your RAM size, which may be substantial less than your system can actually handle. If you encounter this problem however, the program simply fails to launch at all.
I had swap long years off. Sometimes for starting more fat programs temporary dynamic on. And now fixed for testing. Hit. On my main windows on this machine, no gaming, I never had it on.
Since I read swap file and not page file, I am going to assume you have Linux OS?
The only cures I have found with Windows are very limited as I mostly use the game for acid tests of wine. In a nutshell here are the only 2 things you can do with both Windows and Linux;
If you are running in Steam, switch the account to using only the CCP software. This will not adversely affect your Steam account. This process reduces extra RAM used by Steam.
a. Shutdown Steam.
b. Go to your account settings on the Eve homepage and login using the Steam icon on that page.
c. From there, request to change your password.
d. Eve knows you have a Steam account and will set you up a user ID and password.
e. Download the client, launcher, and login. Note: If you are using Linux, be certain your wine is the latest version available or at least 10.8.
Kill the CCP launcher after it reads “The client is running”. This also reduces RAM and removes a lot more stutter.
Finally there is the infamous “Potato Mode”. If the stutter is low or shared graphics memory, the place to start is to open the in game monitor. CTRL+F or CTRL+Alt+Shift+M will open the needed monitors. When you toggle Ctrl-Shift-F9 this will drop the 3D window leaving only 2D windows and brackets visible, but your GPU frames per second should shoot up like a sky rocket. If your GPU is an old model, shared memory, or passive there isn’t much more you can do other than a GPU upgrade. Some people will suggest GeForce Now, but I did the trial, and have issues with it other than just keyboard and mouse lag.
If your GPU is top of the line, you are running Windows 11, and your PC is the best of the best, then the issue is the game client has yet to include your drivers. You should try switching the game to use DX 11, if you are running DX 12. This is the bane of any game attempting to keep up with the latest and greatest. My motto is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I personally still kill the 3D window ( it really is only eye candy ) when traveling to other systems. Jita is a game crasher if you are running 8 GB RAM. Even if you keep it on Steam be sure to kill the CCP game launcher, unless you are a multi-boxing omega, then you might need it.
It’s Windows 10 and old, 16GB, not with Steam, not rubbish-strewn, running well. Switching to DirectX 11 made it only less bad. Until 2 years ago, EVE ran well and I defended it because of the ease of it’s graphics and the constant maintenance. But other (newer) games do it much better now. Elite Dangerous as example fills Card and RAM, but no stuttering (also while EVE launcher runs). If I set it’s graphic higher, than it’s slow, but no stuttering. If I set EVEs Graphics higher, it’s not slower, does not fill Card and RAM, but stutters much more — dropouts up to seconds in fleets.
I just wanted to cover all the basics. Eve is a very old database game, trying to keep up with other games by revamping their client. When you jump from instance to instance, it loads up all those players, their ships, models, and skins. Some issues are beyond our control when you have so much server side software and network issues between us and them.
I have really bad stuttering now as well. Combat (PVE) is next to impossible. Changing from DX12 to DX11 made it /slightly/ better at first, but still basically un-playable. Killing the sound had no effect. 2 - 3 second “lag” followed by 1 sec “active” is ridiculous. Even salvaging is affected. When a salvage succeeds and the wreck “explodes”, here comes the “freeze”. As long as nothing is being shot or dying (maybe it has to do with the message that comes up when something ‘gets shot/dies’?)
What does the Task-Manager say while that events? CPU, RAM, Graphic maybe. Does it depend on the count of objects on grid? With low graphics, after warp out and in again (caching). Fleet: Only while combat or at waiting on gate also? These questions are targeting graphics effects or objects themselve. Here it is mainly the objects on grid, effects „only“ raises stutter. (Low ship count = Boombastic Effects are good).