FIX Stutter & FPS Drop for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[A_Artist]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Stutter & Lag FIX

If you are having problems with stutters and quick lag & fps drop, I highly recommend using my solution. It will make your game smooth with ~stable fps, it worked for me. No stutters, no fps drops, smooth gameplay.

If the previous method did not help you, use this one. For the Steam version: %localappdata%\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows

1) Create and open Engine.ini
2) Paste this:

[SystemSettings]
r.Streaming.PoolSize=12288 ; Only for 16GB VRAM. For 12GB use 9216, for 8GB use 6144, for 6GB use 4608, for 4GB use 3072
niagara.CreateShadersOnLoad=1
r.OneFrameThreadLag=0
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.15
r.TemporalAASamples=8
r.TemporalAASharpness=0.9
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen=0.8
r.RHICmdBypass=0
r.GPUCrashDebugging=0
r.AllowMultiThreadedShaderCreation=1
r.TextureStreaming.MinTextureResidentMipCount=7
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1
r.Streaming.MipBias=0
r.RenderTargetPoolMin=400
r.GTSyncType=1
r.EarlyZPass=2
r.AllowOcclusionQueries=1
r.GBufferFormats=3
r.AsyncCompute=1
r.UseAsyncShaderPrecompilation=1
r.Streaming.DefragDynamicBounds=1
r.Streaming.UseAllMips=1
D3D12.MaximumFrameLatency=3
D3D12.AsyncDeferredDeletion=1
D3D12.AFRUseFramePacing=1
D3D11.MaximumFrameLatency=3
D3D11.AsyncDeferredDeletion=1
D3D11.AFRUseFramePacing=1
FX.AllowAsyncTick=1
FX.BatchAsync=1
FX.BatchAsyncBatchSize=8
FX.EarlyScheduleAsync=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1

[ShaderCompiler]
bAllowAsynchronousShaderCompiling=True
bAllowCompilingThroughWorkerThreads=True
NumUnusedShaderCompilingThreads=1
bAsyncShaderCompileWorkerThreads=True
bEnableOptimizedShaderCompilation=True
MaxShaderJobBatchSize=50
MaxShaderJobs=500

Delete Film Grain and Chromatic Aberration

For the Steam version: %localappdata%\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows

1) Open Engine.ini
2) Backup original (Clone original Engine.ini to desktop)
3) Open Engine.ini, and paste this:

[SystemSettings]
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
r.FilmGrain=0
r.NT.Lens.ChromaticAberration.Intensity=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0

Disabled Ray Tracing and its other components for more FPS

For the Steam version: %localappdata%\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows

1) Open Engine.ini
2) Backup original (Clone original Engine.ini to desktop)
3) Open Engine.ini, and paste this:

[SystemSettings]
r.RayTracing=False
r.RayTracing.Shadows=False
r.RayTracing.Reflections=False
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion=False
r.RayTracing.GlobalIllumination=False
r.RayTracing.Lighting=False
r.RayTracing.Translucency=False
r.RayTracing.SkyLight=False
r.Lumen.Reflections=False
r.Lumen.Reflections.HardwareRayTracing=False
r.Lumen.Reflections.ScreenTraces=False
r.Lumen.GlobalIllumination=False
r.Lumen.ScreenProbeGather=False
r.BloomQuality=0

This method worked for me, it's definitely worth it. If this guide helped you it would be appreciated if you liked, favorited or commented on it. I would be happy to have your support to me 🥺🥺🥺

I would be very happy if more people connected and wrote their solutions here, it will help the community

[A_Artist]

Originally posted by マテジコ:

What graphical features will be disables using these commands?

Graphics will not be changed. I tested this on myself, FPS becomes more stable, thanks to these commands. The graphics in the game will be the same

[Paulyk]

just enable FSR3 and lower the video settings.... instead of forcing system intensive settings on your hardware.... the shadows are taxing as hell in this game....

[A_Artist]

If your game is on Steam Library -> right click it -> click on properties then in the "Launch Options" field paste that commands: -xgeshadercompile -nothreadtimeout -NoVerifyGC

This also help you!

[SkylerJames13]

would you be able to briefly explain what this is doing, to the less tech-savvy people? still waiting for mine to DL, but i don't want to modify things especially when i have no idea what it's doing to my game/computer

[A_Artist]

Originally posted by SkylerJames13:

would you be able to briefly explain what this is doing, to the less tech-savvy people? still waiting for mine to DL, but i don't want to modify things especially when i have no idea what it's doing to my game/computer

"-nothreadtimeout" disable the Unreal engine checking rendering threads by timeout. If one of the threads freezes, the game will NOT crash. This will help you a lot because most games on UE5 sometimes crash due to one of the threads freezing.
"-NoVerifyGC" - Disable the garbage collector. The game will not unload temporarily unnecessary data from memory. May improve performance and reduce lag due to less disk usage, but better to have 16GB of memory.

[alt]

already 'fixes' to performance problems dropping in steam forums not even an hour after launch.

tragic. i was really excited for this game.

[A_Artist]

Originally posted by マテジコ:

Originally posted by A_Artist:

Graphics will not be changed. I tested this on myself, FPS becomes more stable, thanks to these commands. The graphics in the game will be the same

Thanks for answer, but adding for example -dx11 will disable ray tracing. Those commands obviously do something so I'm curious what do they.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl does NOT use ray tracing from Nvidia. It uses Lumen RT from UE5 engine, -DX11 does NOT disable LUMEN RT.

[Heatnixx]

Originally posted by マテジコ:

What graphical features will be disables using these commands?

You will miss out on any DX12 features the game might have (DLSS, Frame Gen, Raytracing, etc).

[exceed_7]

There isn't dx11, it crashes if you use this line

[A_Artist]

Originally posted by alt:

already 'fixes' to performance problems dropping in steam forums not even an hour after launch.

tragic. i was really excited for this game.

Yeah, that's why I decided to help people here if they have problems with performance in this game, I would be very happy if more people connected and wrote their solutions here, it will help the community

[Heatnixx]

Originally posted by A_Artist:

Originally posted by マテジコ:

Thanks for answer, but adding for example -dx11 will disable ray tracing. Those commands obviously do something so I'm curious what do they.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl does NOT use ray tracing from Nvidia. It uses Lumen RT from UE5 engine, -DX11 does NOT disable LUMEN RT.

If this game uses Lumen you might aswell disable it. It's incredibly broken on UE5 (not UE5.4, which I doubt the developers updated the engine to, as it requires serious rebuilding).

[exceed_7]

130 fps in first location, everything is pretty much flickering and it's freezing every 5 sec for 2 sec.

[A_Artist]

Originally posted by exceed_7:

130 fps in first location, everything is pretty much flickering and it's freezing every 5 sec for 2 sec.

I understand you very much, the game has stutters

[Свети Отац Сава]

Originally posted by A_Artist:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Stutter & Lag FIX

If you are having problems with stutters and quick lag & fps drop, I highly recommend using my solution. It will make your game smooth with ~stable fps, it worked for me. No stutters, no fps drops, smooth gameplay.

1. Find S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl shortcut (usually on the desktop)
2. Click Mouse right button to open shortcut properties
3. In shortcut properties we see shortcut section with game icon, now you should find "Target" with "game location path"
4. You need to add this command after the "game location path" by pressing the space bar
5. It should look like this "game location path" -xgeshadercompile -nothreadtimeout -NoVerifyGC" (You can also add -dx11)
6. Click "Apply", and close. Enjoy game without Stutter & FPS drops

This method worked for me, it's definitely worth it. If this guide helped you it would be appreciated if you liked, favorited or commented on it. I would be happy to have your support to me 🥺🥺🥺

There is no target at all on my screen you must use windows 10 ......

[A_Artist]

Originally posted by マテジコ:

Originally posted by A_Artist:

"-nothreadtimeout" disable the Unreal engine checking rendering threads by timeout. If one of the threads freezes, the game will NOT crash. This will help you a lot because most games on UE5 sometimes crash due to one of the threads freezing.
"-NoVerifyGC" - Disable the garbage collector. The game will not unload temporarily unnecessary data from memory. May improve performance and reduce lag due to less disk usage, but better to have 16GB of memory.

As a software developer myself, I highly doubt "-NoVerifyGC" disables Garbage Collection.
GC is a very necessary process that ensures you don't run out of memory :) In my opinion, it streamlines which objects are removed from memory for faster cleanup. This can and might not have consequences for gameplay, however, especially if you PC is not as powerful as the game would like it to be.

True, but the game is highly demanding for a PC, and this command did not break anything for me or affect stability