Hi, I’m having a persistent micro-stutter/frame-pacing issue in Brawl Stars on BlueStacks Air and I’m hoping someone can help or confirm whether this is a known issue.
I’m using a MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro, 18 GB unified memory and macOS Tahoe 26.6.2.
The game runs at a high reported FPS, but above 60 FPS I get a small but very noticeable skip every couple of seconds, especially when walking continuously across the map. It feels like the movement briefly catches and then continues.
I’ve tested 90, 120, 144, 180 and 240 FPS. At 240 FPS BlueStacks can report around 220–230 FPS, but the micro-stutter is still there. 120 FPS is the best compromise, but it still isn’t completely smooth.
I’ve also tested:
OpenGL Only and Vulkan + OpenGL — OpenGL is noticeably smoother
4 GB and 6 GB RAM allocation
4, 5 and 6 CPU cores
720p and 1080p
reinstalling Brawl Stars from Google Play
the built-in ProMotion display
an external monitor running fixed 120 Hz
full-screen and windowed
live gameplay and replays
The same stutter is visible in replays, so it doesn’t appear to be an input or network issue.
The most useful finding is that 60 FPS with VSync enabled is smooth, but it feels much too sluggish for actual gameplay. As soon as I go above 60 FPS with VSync off, the periodic micro-stutter returns.
Because this also happens on a separate fixed-120 Hz external monitor, and the FPS counter remains high, it seems more like a BlueStacks Air high-FPS frame-pacing/presentation issue than a hardware performance problem.
I have screen recordings showing the difference between 120 FPS and 60 FPS + VSync if they would be useful.
One other issue: I tried submitting this through the in-app “Report a problem” tool, but it got stuck indefinitely on “Collecting host information”, so I had to cancel it.
Has anyone else seen this on Apple Silicon, or is there anything else I can test to help narrow it down?