GDK Performance Instability, FPS Drops and CPS Inconsistency

Short description of the issue

Since the migration to GDK, Minecraft Bedrock has significantly less stable performance on my lower-end hardware compared with UWP 1.21.114.1. After respawning, FPS can temporarily drop to around 10 FPS for several seconds, with the severity increasing significantly with the number of nearby loaded players/entities. The game also has inconsistent CPS/input behaviour at lower FPS.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Launch Minecraft Bedrock GDK.

2. Enter a local world or multiplayer server.

3. Die and respawn while monitoring FPS.

4. On a server, repeat this around different numbers of nearby players/entities. More loaded players produce a worse FPS drop.

5. To reproduce the CPS issue, limit FPS to 60 FPS or below and test normal, jitter, butterfly and drag clicking while monitoring CPS.

Expected result

Stable FPS and frame pacing, responsive input, and consistent CPS registration regardless of reasonable FPS fluctuations or nearby player/entity counts. This was the behaviour I experienced on UWP 1.21.114.1 on the same hardware.

Actual result

GDK performance is generally unstable. After respawning, FPS can temporarily fall to around 10 FPS for several seconds, with the drop becoming worse when more players/entities are loaded nearby. At 60 FPS or below, CPS registration becomes inconsistent and input can feel delayed. Severe FPS drops can also make network behaviour appear to lag.

The issue occurs in both local worlds and multiplayer servers and has existed since the initial GDK migration.

Summary

This appears to be a GDK-specific, hardware-dependent performance regression. The same hardware had stable performance and CPS registration on UWP 1.21.114.1. Minecraft Support investigated the issue for approximately a week but could not reproduce it because they did not have the required hardware.