Possible fix for stutters/performance

[kodex]

I was initially hesitant to get this game since it wasn’t available on Steam for me, and I had to purchase it through Epic Games. However, after hearing many people praise the game for its “amazing” performance on PC, I decided to give it a try. While the game has its good moments, my experience was mixed.

The game ran smoothly during the prologue and the first hour, even at nearly maxed settings on my old i7 3770 and RTX 2060S. However, once I got into the open world, I started experiencing significant FPS drops, sometimes dipping into the low 20s, making the game unenjoyable until I restarted it. Having to restart the game every 30 minutes became frustrating, so I looked online for solutions. I found that many others were also experiencing FPS dips and stutters (although I hadn’t encountered stutters yet).

The settings that seemed to have the most impact on performance were:
(while it seems logical to lower the graphics, especially with lower end CPU like mine, what I didn't understand is how I could get 70+FPS in one spot, and then 30min later it would dip to low 20-30fps in the same spot)

EDIT: After playing for about 6-7 hours, sometimes I still had the FPS starting to drop, after changing Texture Quality from Ultra to High, I didn't have any issues with FPS drops anymore, even if I have 8GB VRAM available.

Shadow Quality
Terrain Detail
Screen Space Reflections and Shadows

If you have an older CPU like mine, adjusting the Level of Detail is also crucial. After setting everything to Medium from Very High, I no longer experienced FPS drops. Personally, I didn’t notice much of a visual difference, so playing on those settings was fine for me.

In addition to in-game settings, I set the game to always high priority through Process Lasso. Alternatively, you can use a mod from Nexus[www.nexusmods.com] that does the same thing without needing Process Lasso.

After these adjustments, the game ran beautifully for 10-20 minutes before micro-stutters and freezes began occurring more frequently. This wasn’t an issue before, so I went back online for help but couldn’t find any real fixes besides waiting for a patch. After trying various solutions, what ultimately fixed my stuttering issues was disabling the GeForce Experience overlay (as Nixxes ports reportedly don’t handle overlays well) and adjusting the following settings:

1. Go to the game’s directory and right-click on GhostOfTsushima.exe.
2. Select Properties.
3. Go to the Compatibility tab and check Disable fullscreen optimizations.
4. Also check Run the program as an administrator just in case.
5. Press Change high DPI settings and check Override high DPI scaling behavior, making sure it’s set to Application.

Also turning off pretty much all third party softwares that eat resources seems to help, and turning off Malwarebytes completely before playing (source - reddit lol)

After making these changes, I was able to play for over three hours with no FPS drops or stutter. I hope this helps others as much as it helped me.

[Flirkyn]

The shadow quality setting is indeed really intensive. Just reducing it from Ultra to Very High made me gain 10+fps, which is pretty big. You do notice a difference but imo nothing that would let me sacrifice so many fps for it

[Frid]

Originally posted by ari:

I was initially hesitant to get this game since it wasn’t available on Steam for me, and I had to purchase it through Epic Games. However, after hearing many people praise the game for its “amazing” performance on PC, I decided to give it a try. While the game has its good moments, my experience was mixed.

The game ran smoothly during the prologue and the first hour, even at nearly maxed settings on my old i7 3770 and RTX 2060S. However, once I got into the open world, I started experiencing significant FPS drops, sometimes dipping into the low 20s, making the game unenjoyable until I restarted it. Having to restart the game every 30 minutes became frustrating, so I looked online for solutions. I found that many others were also experiencing FPS dips and stutters (although I hadn’t encountered stutters yet).

The settings that seemed to have the most impact on performance were:
(while it seems logical to lower the graphics, especially with lower end CPU like mine, what I didn't understand is how I could get 70+FPS in one spot, and then 30min later it would dip to low 20-30fps in the same spot)

Shadow Quality
Terrain Detail
Screen Space Reflections and Shadows

If you have an older CPU like mine, adjusting the Level of Detail is also crucial. After setting everything to Medium from Very High, I no longer experienced FPS drops. Personally, I didn’t notice much of a visual difference, so playing on those settings was fine for me.

In addition to in-game settings, I set the game to always high priority through Process Lasso. Alternatively, you can use a mod from Nexus[www.nexusmods.com] that does the same thing without needing Process Lasso.

After these adjustments, the game ran beautifully for 10-20 minutes before micro-stutters and freezes began occurring more frequently. This wasn’t an issue before, so I went back online for help but couldn’t find any real fixes besides waiting for a patch. After trying various solutions, what ultimately fixed my stuttering issues was disabling the GeForce Experience overlay (as Nixxes ports reportedly don’t handle overlays well) and adjusting the following settings:

1. Go to the game’s directory and right-click on GhostOfTsushima.exe.
2. Select Properties.
3. Go to the Compatibility tab and check Disable fullscreen optimizations.
4. Also check Run the program as an administrator just in case.
5. Press Change high DPI settings and check Override high DPI scaling behavior, making sure it’s set to Application.

Also turning off pretty much all third party softwares that eat resources seems to help, and turning off Malwarebytes completely before playing (source - reddit lol)

After making these changes, I was able to play for over three hours with no FPS drops or stutter. I hope this helps others as much as it helped me.

Dude wtf is malwarebytes?

What are you people using ?

[Tank]

Originally posted by Frid:

Dude wtf is malwarebytes?

What are you people using ?

Its a secret, use google

[Kal]

I tried it and got a full on display driver crash on my end. I mean I also tried every other potential fix under the sun so maybe one of those combined with this caused my game to crash, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Kal]

nope, still stutters for me

[tres onze]

thx the last methods helped

[kodex]

Originally posted by Frid:

Originally posted by ari:

I was initially hesitant to get this game since it wasn’t available on Steam for me, and I had to purchase it through Epic Games. However, after hearing many people praise the game for its “amazing” performance on PC, I decided to give it a try. While the game has its good moments, my experience was mixed.

The game ran smoothly during the prologue and the first hour, even at nearly maxed settings on my old i7 3770 and RTX 2060S. However, once I got into the open world, I started experiencing significant FPS drops, sometimes dipping into the low 20s, making the game unenjoyable until I restarted it. Having to restart the game every 30 minutes became frustrating, so I looked online for solutions. I found that many others were also experiencing FPS dips and stutters (although I hadn’t encountered stutters yet).

The settings that seemed to have the most impact on performance were:
(while it seems logical to lower the graphics, especially with lower end CPU like mine, what I didn't understand is how I could get 70+FPS in one spot, and then 30min later it would dip to low 20-30fps in the same spot)

Shadow Quality
Terrain Detail
Screen Space Reflections and Shadows

If you have an older CPU like mine, adjusting the Level of Detail is also crucial. After setting everything to Medium from Very High, I no longer experienced FPS drops. Personally, I didn’t notice much of a visual difference, so playing on those settings was fine for me.

In addition to in-game settings, I set the game to always high priority through Process Lasso. Alternatively, you can use a mod from Nexus[www.nexusmods.com] that does the same thing without needing Process Lasso.

After these adjustments, the game ran beautifully for 10-20 minutes before micro-stutters and freezes began occurring more frequently. This wasn’t an issue before, so I went back online for help but couldn’t find any real fixes besides waiting for a patch. After trying various solutions, what ultimately fixed my stuttering issues was disabling the GeForce Experience overlay (as Nixxes ports reportedly don’t handle overlays well) and adjusting the following settings:

1. Go to the game’s directory and right-click on GhostOfTsushima.exe.
2. Select Properties.
3. Go to the Compatibility tab and check Disable fullscreen optimizations.
4. Also check Run the program as an administrator just in case.
5. Press Change high DPI settings and check Override high DPI scaling behavior, making sure it’s set to Application.

Also turning off pretty much all third party softwares that eat resources seems to help, and turning off Malwarebytes completely before playing (source - reddit lol)

After making these changes, I was able to play for over three hours with no FPS drops or stutter. I hope this helps others as much as it helped me.

Dude wtf is malwarebytes?

What are you people using ?

It's an antivirus, I personally don't have it on 24/7, only once a month or so to scan my system but for some it seemed to work, those that do have it.

[kodex]

Originally posted by tres onze:

thx the last methods helped

Glad to hear that.

[Bang115]

how can i access the directory of the game?

[Hahaman]

Someone mentioned shut down Wallpaper Engine if you have it running and then restart the game no stutters after that..

[kodex]

Originally posted by Hahaman:

Someone mentioned shut down Wallpaper Engine if you have it running and then restart the game no stutters after that..

Yes, that is what I meant by turning off resource-eating applications, Wallpaper engine eats a good chunk of RAM and CPU

[Elite1984]

Originally posted by Hahaman:

Someone mentioned shut down Wallpaper Engine if you have it running and then restart the game no stutters after that..

I tried turning off Wallpaper Engine, that didn't work for me.

[Roland]

LMAO another thread full of placebos.
None of these "solutions" are even original and can all be found (and have been debunked) in other threads
nothing to see here

My favorite part is where OP said they played for 3 hours and thought that was adequate testing, when many have said it doesn't even happen until after 5-6 hours of playing

[kodex]

Originally posted by Roland:

LMAO another thread full of placebos.
None of these "solutions" are even original and can all be found (and have been debunked) in other threads
nothing to see here

My favorite part is where OP said they played for 3 hours and thought that was adequate testing, when many have said it doesn't even happen until after 5-6 hours of playing

Thanks for your input. After turning off frame generation and using Lossless Scalling instead, I haven't had issues for the whole day I've been playing, and while my fixes might not be original, they worked for me and might help others too. If you have better solutions, feel free to share instead of just criticizing. We're all here to enjoy the game, right?

[Dekoi]

this actually helped thank you