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:
1. System specifications
Start by making sure your device meets the minimum requirements to play the game. You can check the requirements in the store page on your preferred platform.
- If your device does not meet the minimum requirement, we recommend you try to run the game on a different device or if possible try to upgrade your current hardware.
- If it meets the requirements, please check your settings on the next step.
2. Verify Game files
Missing or corrupted files could influence how the game performs on your machine. It is always the first step to verify the game files, to make sure the game has all data it needs to run properly.
3. Settings
Not every system configuration will be able to run the game on high settings. When encountering performance issues, the first step is to reduce your settings. It is worth especially checking detail and shadow settings, as well as lowering the resolution or running the game in window mode.
Additionally, you might want to try to delete the settings file within the game files. This file can be named config, graphics or preferences and can be typically found within the AppData folder of your system.
Sometimes apps like the Nvidia App or AMD Adrenaline override your game settings. We would recommend to disable the automatic optimisation, to make sure your adjustments work as intended.
NVIDIA
- Open the NVIDIA app, navigate to the Graphics tab, and toggle off "Automatically optimize newly added games and apps".
- After turning off the feature and manually adjust in-game settings back to your preference.
AMD
- Open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition and Go to Gaming > Games.
- Select the specific game that is having settings forced upon it.
- Check if any Radeon features (like Anti-Lag, Boost, or Chill) are toggled ON. Turn them OFF.
- After turning off the feature and manually adjust in-game settings back to your preference.
4. Updates and Drivers
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.
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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Run the launcher and the game as Admin
In some cases, an operating system may not give your game the necessary permissions to work as it should. This might result in the game not starting or running properly. Try enabling the option to run the game as administrator to see if this resolves your issue.
First go to the installation path of your game client. By default the client installs on your C: drive, but it might differ, depending on where you choose to install it.
After locating the .exe, do the following:
- Right-click on the .exe file
- Choose "Properties"
- Go to the "Compatibility" tab
- Look for the privilege level at the bottom and select "Run this program as administrator"
- Click on Apply.
Then repeat above steps for the game .exe. Again, the location of the file will depend on where you choose to install the game files.
8. Reinstall the game
If all fails, a clean reinstall can help. For this we would also recommend to remove all game related files.
Please note: This step will delete your save files. Make sure to back these up before proceeding with the deletion of files.
To start this process, uninstall the game through your game client.
Then navigate to the game folder. Typically, these can be found under AppData, which is hidden. To show the folder, open your Windows File Explorer and click on "View". Here select the option to "Show Hidden Items".
After enabling this option, go to the following location:
C:\Users\Your Username\AppData
Depending on your game, you will find the files in one of the three folders shown: Local, LocalLow and Roaming.
If you want to be sure, you can just move the game folder to a different location, for example the desktop.
This avoids any save files you would like to keep.
Once you have done above, install the game again.
Other things to consider
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.
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.
Background programs
The more programs are running, the more system resources are used. Please keep in mind that some programs reserve resources, even when not fully active. They are in a "ready-to-run" state. Completely disabling or removing them solves this.
Temperature
Temperature is a big influence in performance. When you fans increase their speed after starting a game, that means the system is doing what it is supposed to do. However, if you encounter consistent shut downs or bluescreens, it might be worth checking the temperature of your system. If all temperatures look normal, try to look for specific hotspots. These might not be fully obvious.
To address this, you might want to double check the ventilation of your system, the cleanliness as well as the state of the thermal paste of your CPU.
Please note: Advice given regarding system temperature may require opening your PC. You can do this at own discretion or seek a professional.