Performance drops in FM26 3D matches despite strong specs (RTX 4060 + i5 12450H)

Hello everyone,

I’m having a problem on Football Manager 2026 — when I launch a 3D match, my game starts running smoothly at first, but after a few minutes, it becomes noticeably laggy.
I’ve already tested my setup on FM Scout and compared it with the game’s recommended requirements — and I’m well above them.
Here are my specs:
Laptop: Erazer Deputy P60i (bought 2 months ago)
Intel Core i5-12450H (8 cores)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
While playing, my laptop doesn’t seem to overheat, so I don’t think it’s a thermal issue. There must be something else going on, but I can’t figure out what.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated — I’m open to all advice.

Thanks a lot in advance!

I had the same problem. My laptop is more than capable of playing FM26 at the highest setting but 3D match is terrible. I played in windowed mode for a while but i didn't like it the matches run smooth but i'm not a fan of windowed mode so i messed about with the settings and found this seems to be a lot better. not the highest setting but at least i can play it now. I hope there is going to be a fix for this issue.

GRAPHICS QUALITY - COSTOM
RENDER SCALE - 175%
MESH DETAIL - MEDIUM
SHADOW QUALITY - OFF
TEXTURE QUALITY - MEDIUM
ANTI-ALIASING - DISABLED

Hope this helps

2025-11-04 10:31#308149 Bobly : I had the same problem. My laptop is more than capable of playing FM26 at the highest setting but 3D match is terrible. I played in windowed mode for a while but i didn't like it the matches run smooth but i'm not a fan of windowed mode so i messed about with the settings and found this seems to be a lot better. not the highest setting but at least i can play it now. I hope there is going to be a fix for this issue.

GRAPHICS QUALITY - COSTOM
RENDER SCALE - 175%
MESH DETAIL - MEDIUM
SHADOW QUALITY - OFF
TEXTURE QUALITY - MEDIUM
ANTI-ALIASING - DISABLED

Hope this helps

You could probably add some shadow quality to it but i got it working and didn't mess with it again.

Thank you for your reply Bobly, I will try it but it's really hard to understand why some people seems to not have to much problem of fps.
Do they have a really high set up and FM will make some patch in order to respect the good functioning for the configuration recommended or is it a problem of configuration in my laptop... Hard to understand

I just discovered one of the main causes of my FPS drops!

When I enable the reduced player display (the small player panels at the bottom of the screen) during 3D matches, my FPS literally gets cut in half.

Has anyone else noticed the same issue?

2025-11-04 12:02#308157 RvaG_Bloody : I just discovered one of the main causes of my FPS drops!

When I enable the reduced player display (the small player panels at the bottom of the screen) during 3D matches, my FPS literally gets cut in half.

Has anyone else noticed the same issue?

Yes, I noticed that too. The solution was to play in windowed mode, but without showing the Windows taskbar where the game icon is located; only the top bar remains visible. That way I can play with everything at maximum settings.