Denuvo Reduces FPS: New Analysis Reveals Impact of Protection on Game Performance
A study has shown that the popular anti-piracy system Denuvo significantly reduces game performance, disrupting code optimization and CPU caching.
Blogger Nathan Baggs analyzed the operation of Denuvo, and programmer @valigo confirmed the findings on X. It turned out that Denuvo packs parts of the game code into a virtual machine that simulates the operation of the processor and adds "protective tricks" that make it difficult to reverse engineer the code. When launched, the virtual machine converts instructions into real code directly during operation, but due to unnecessary transitions and obfuscation, the processor receives an additional load on the command pipeline and branch predictor.
As a result, cycle optimization is lost, the order of memory access is disrupted, the processor cache stops working efficiently, and players face long loading times, "slowdowns" and FPS drops.
The analysis confirms the effect of Denuvo that has long been discussed in the industry.
