Making Squad Smoother Than Vaseline (FIX - Guide) No more drops, no more stutters.

[Pavick]

I'm sitting at 90-100 FPS average running a RX 6600 OC'd 2500/2600 (NON XT) an i7 9700k @ 4.9ghz, 32GB DDR4 @ 4133mhz. I fixed my stutter and FPS drops completely. The game is running great so I decided to give you a rundown of what I did. Hope this helps someone out there. My goal here is to keep it stupid simple.

I urge you to go through all of these links even if you've done these things. I guarantee you'll learn and apply something new.

FYI FR33THY is the GOAT so credit to him for the great information. See below.

Windows 10/11 Optimizations
Windows 10: https://youtu.be/DCc0xPCiK6M
Windows 11: https://youtu.be/J31Q8T-1eNk

*Important bits from the Win 10/11 optimizations:
-Time stamps are in the comments for the Windows 10 Video
-Windows 10/11 optimizations are essentially the same thing and I'm recommending the Windows 10 video simply for time stamps (3rd comment from top).
-Intelligent Standby List Cleaner is a must (Win 10 vid - see timestamp in comments)
**SET THIS TO RUN AS ADMIN SO IT LAUNCHES WITH YOUR COMPUTER***
**PUT ISLC SOMEWHERE SAFE LIKE IN YOUR DOCUMENTS FOLDER, SO YOU DON'T DELETE IT**
-Power Options is essential (Win 10 vid - see timestamp in comments)
-Do not remove MIC permissions from Windows otherwise Discord and other apps won't work

Overclocking CPU
Intel: https://youtu.be/kx4CPsXi7I8
AMD: https://youtu.be/_Uft9blktT4

Overclocking GPU
NVIDIA/AMD Radeon: https://youtu.be/3Sk116LE1uU

GPU Driver Optimization
NVIDIA: https://youtu.be/uNUyF-d0oa4
AMD Radeon: https://youtu.be/wQE5neY1Xlc

Run Squad in DX12 Mode - Improved performance for me
Go to Steam Library, right click squad, properties, set launch options, type: -dx12
*You might get visual bugs or see no changes in performance. Simply delete -dx12 from launch options if it gives you trouble.

Disable Control Flow Guard
Press Windows Key, type: Exploit Protection, Control Flow Guard (CFG), set to "Off by default"
If you don't want to disable Flow guard for the entire computer, you can also hit + add program to customize by path. Do this for both the squad_launcher and SquadGame

Squad path: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Squad\SquadGame\Binaries\Win64
Squad_launcher path: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Squad

Ryzen CPU PBO Setting in BIOS
How to enable PBO (RYZEN ONLY): https://youtu.be/dU5qLJqTSAc?t=943
By default this is set to Auto, you want to Enable it. Ryzen users claim to get a huge performance bump after doing this.

Set Squad to High Performance Under Graphics Settings
Press Windows Key, type Graphics settings. Browse for SquadGame.exe within Steamapps. Click add, options, set to high performance (Don't let windows decide).

Edit SquadGame Properties
Locate your SquadGame.exe yet again under steamapps. Right click squad, properties, compatibility, check the boxes (Disable Full screen optimizations, Run as administrator. Click Change high DPI settings, bottom box (Override high dpi scaling behavior performed by: Application).

Unpark CPU Cores
Download: https://coderbag.com/programming-c/disable-cpu-core-parking-utility.
Upload it to: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload
Now that you've concluded the file is clean, run it. Leave the slider at 100. Once it's done you can delete this program from your computer.

Disable C-Steps/Speedstep/ShiftSpeed in your BIOS

This one made a huge difference in terms of performance and responsiveness within Squad. You'll have to figure out which Motherboard you have, how to get into the BIOS and where to find these 3: C-Steps, Speedstep and Shiftspeed. If you're unsure on what to do please make Google your friend. I only say that because most of us are running a different bios and have boards from a variety of manufacturers.

Within my ASUS Bios I go to:
Advanced menu, CPU configuration, scroll to bottom, CPU Power Management, CPU C-States, Disable. You should see Speedstep and Shiftspeed in there as well, if not you can simply use the search function up top.

Squad Complete Graphics Settings Guide
MoiDawgs Graphics Settings Guide 2022: https://youtu.be/YJt6w69Msr8

Good luck! If even 1 thing within this post helped you please let others know. Cheers!

[Pavick]

Originally posted by Holden:

Try this with recommended specs.
Gl with this

I don't see why you couldn't. I wrote this up to help people