When you come across performance issues like lags, freezes, or FPS drops, there are several factors to consider and steps you can take to address these issues.

Please keep in mind that since there are various configurations and individual expectations, we can only provide general guidelines for these issues.

Here are some things to consider and steps you can take to improve the performance of your game:

Settings

Not every system configuration will be able to run the game on high settings. If you are unsure on which setting you should play, you can try running the benchmark within the game.
To do so, open the settings in the main menu. Then go to the graphic settings and open the advanced options.
There you can adjust your settings before clicking on "Benchmark". Select which benchmark you would like to run.
You can then tweak your settings to improve the performance. We suggest to specifically check the detail and shadow settings.

Mods

If your encountering performance issues and you have one or multiple mods installed, try disabling them and trying to reproduce your issue. If it’s fixed, then you know there may be an issue with one or more of the mods.

Drivers

Keeping drivers up to date is essential. All system drivers should be checked and updated regularly, but at the bare minimum, you should make sure you keep your graphics card drivers up to date. Please check your graphics card manufacturers’ app settings or download page to ensure you’re up to date.

Updates

You can check your Windows OS is up to date by typing ‘Update’ into the search bar on any of the supported Windows versions. Keeping your Operating System updated can often lead to better reliability, security & can sometimes include welcomed performance improvements.

BIOS updates are also another possibility to consider.

NOTE: Only proceed with this if you are confident in what you are doing.

More recent motherboard/vendors are certainly safer to use than those in the past, but there is always the possibility of being left with a non-functioning computer if done incorrectly. If you are confident, head to your motherboard support page and check the recent updates to see if they are worthwhile. Often these can come in the form of performance optimisations, stability improvements or adding support for future technologies which you can leverage to further improve performance and reliability.

Compatibility Issues with Third-Party Software

Sometimes other software can conflict with your system or our titles. In the past we have had issues with Razor Cortex, for example. If you are encountering a performance issue, it’s a good idea to have a quick check to see what other applications are running. If you suspect one might be the culprit, you can always close it down and try to reproduce your issue again.

If we find compatibility issues with third-party software, we will inform you on the forums.

Insufficient System Memory

Even if you easily surpass the minimum/recommended requirements for your system memory (RAM), you might still want to check your task manager to see how close you are to your maximum. Anything less than 1GB Free of system memory when you consider all running applications, game included, you may encounter paging. Paging is what happens when your system requires more RAM but doesn’t have enough available, so it starts swapping to your drives. When this happens, you will encounter repeated stutters.

Additionally, if your OS doesn’t have sufficient RAM then it will be unable to correctly cache frequently used files. This will lead to increased loading times.

Insufficient Video Memory

If your graphics card doesn’t have enough VRAM to run the game at your chosen settings, you will be auto downgraded during loading screens. This is done to avoid out-of-memory crashes. If you would like to bypass this, you can try selecting Unlimited Video Memory from the settings menu.

Additionally, the higher the in-game resolution, the more video memory the application will require. Try lowering the resolution to see if that improves it.

Long Loading Times

If you’re encountering long loading times, there are a couple of things that can be done to improve your situation.

While the usage of mechanical drives is supported, we recommend installing the game onto a solid-state drive (SSD) or M.2 for the best experience. The significantly increased read/write speeds can dramatically decrease loading times.

Secondly, check the health of your drive. This can be done by installing your drive manufacturer’s proprietary software and checking its condition.

Thirdly, the more RAM available, the better. By reducing background tasks, you can significantly decrease your loading times.

Finally, keep plenty of available space on your system drive & the drive you have the game installed on. An almost full drive will not perform as optimally as a drive with plenty of space available.

Laptop Performance Considerations

Thermals (Temperature)

Given the small form factor of a laptop compared to a desktop PC, cooling is always a concern. It’s important to understand what can happen if your laptop exceeds certain thermal ranges. All hardware/software configurations act differently but the key thing to understand is if a laptop doesn’t have sufficient cooling it will do one of the following: Limit or restrict the power available to the CPU (artificially reducing CPU performance). Limit or restrict the power available to the GPU (artificially reducing GPU performance). Crash the system (BSOD).

It’s always advisable to use your laptop manufacturer’s proprietary software to optimise your cooling. This may be done by setting custom fan curve’s so that your laptop’s cooling kicks in earlier and at greater speeds, downclocking/limiting hardware frequencies, or adding an FPS limiter through your GPU control panel.

Power Management

Most if not all laptops will artificially limit or restrict power delivery to major components if running directly from the battery. A rule of thumb to follow is, if you’re running any intensive applications (games) then plug your laptop into the main outlet.

Power profiles can be changed by going to the Power Plan section of your computers control panel.

Additionally, most manufacturers allow you to set custom power plans/profiles on their proprietary software. It’s recommended that you check there as most have toggleable pre-sets for Efficiency, Hybrid, Performance & Overclock which can really help.

If you would like to address your games performance in more detail, please feel free to raise your experience with the Total War community on the official forums or our Discord server:
https://forums.totalwar.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/
https://discord.com/invite/totalwar
These are great places to to exchange information and discuss advice with other players.
You can also contact our support team here.
Make sure to add your DxDiag and msinfo32 files to your inquiry.