Game capped at 30 FPS

My game has suddenly and randomly become locked at 30 FPS, which is making it very difficult to play smoothly. I have already performed extensive troubleshooting to resolve this issue without any success.

This problem occurs even on a completely fresh installation of Windows.

System Information:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
RAM: 32GB DDR4 3200MHz
Storage: 512GB M.2 SSD (Game is installed here)
Video Card: AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT Sapphire 8GB
Power Supply: 650W
Troubleshooting Steps Performed:

Complete OS Reinstallation: I have formatted my PC and reinstalled Windows, but the issue persists.

Video Drivers: Updated to the latest version. I also used DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) for a clean reinstallation of multiple driver versions (both newest and older compatible ones).

BIOS: Updated to the latest version.

Windows Update: My system is fully updated.

Game Reinstallation: I have reinstalled the game multiple times through both the Steam and standalone clients.

Shader Cache: Cleared the cache via AMD Adrenalin software and the Windows Disk Cleanup utility.

Compatibility Settings: Tried disabling fullscreen optimizations and running the game as an administrator.

Hardware Testing: I tested my video card with other graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077, where it achieves 80-100 FPS on High/Ultra settings. This strongly suggests the hardware is not the source of the problem.

Configuration Files: I have tried resetting the game's configuration files.

In-Game Performance:

GPU utilization is at 100% with a temperature of around 60°C.
CPU utilization remains low, not exceeding 30%.

https://imgur.com/a/sS0ikW1

Do you have regular vsync enabled in game and a 60Hz monitor?

To answer your question, I tested on both a 144Hz and a 75Hz monitor, and enabling or disabling VSync had no effect on the problem.

However, I have good news. I managed to resolve the issue by installing a fresh copy of the operating system on a brand new SSD. With a clean system containing only the graphics drivers and Path of Exile, the game now runs perfectly.

Unfortunately, I'll probably never know what the actual root cause of this problem was.

Since the problem is now solved

I'm writing to provide a crucial update to this thread. I believe I have now identified the source of the problem.

Yesterday, I installed the PoE Overlay Community Fork (the standalone version, not from Overwolf). In the exact sequence of events that followed – restarting my PC and then launching Path of Exile – the 30 FPS lock immediately returned, identical to the issue I first reported.

Fortunately, I had created a Windows System Restore point just before installing the overlay. Reverting to that restore point has once again completely solved the issue.

This application was also installed when I originally encountered the problem, but I had not mapped the installation to the beginning of the issue at that time.

While this is not a definitive accusation against the app, this is the second time the problem has been triggered immediately after its installation. I wanted to document this here in case it helps the support team or other players facing a similar issue.

If you use this overlay (the standalone version) and do not have this problem, please let me know.