Sekiro Shadows Die Twice: How to Fix Low FPS, Lag and Freezing issues

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the latest game from the developer of Dark Souls franchise, From Software. The game launched a few days ago and was extremely well received by the critics. This is mainly because of how solid the game mechanics are. Moreover, game also feels a lot like an evolution of a classic Souls game with a twist. The biggest change with Sekiro is the Japanese setting and the progression system. Usually, games developed by From Software have had pretty good optimization and are not very demanding. However, according to reports, this is not the case with Sekiro.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has had a shaky start to its PC launch with users reporting lag, low fps, freezes, and crashes. You’re probably one of those experiencing these issues if you’re reading this. Fear not, though, as a few fixes have been found that fix most, if not all, of the performance issues with the game. So, let’s go through them one by one.

1. Minimum System Requirements:

The first and most important thing you need to do is see if your PC can even run Sekiro smoothly. If your PC is not powerful enough to run the game, then no other fix will work for you. The minimum requirements to run Sekiro are posted below.

OS: Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 8 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 | AMD FX-6300
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 | AMD Radeon HD 7950
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 25 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 11 Compatible

2. Install the latest drivers:

Sekiro is a new game and there are chances that your graphics card drivers need to be updated for them to be fully compatible with the game. In any case, you should always make sure that you have the latest graphics card drivers installed on your computer. Links to the latest drivers are posted below.

Nvidia Graphics Card Drivers
AMD Graphics Card Drivers

3. Disable Integrated GPU:

The most common issue found behind the widespread low FPS problem is the game not using the dedicated GPU. You can, however, bypass that and force the game to use your graphics card. The fix is for Nvidia users and to do it, follow these steps:

Right Click in an empty space on the desktop.
Select the Nvidia Control Panel to open it.
Click on “Manage 3D Settings”.
Find Sekiro on the list of games and select your Nvidia graphics card.
If you can’t find the game on the list, you can add it by browsing for the executable (.exe) file for the game. The executable file for Sekiro is called ssdt.exe.

4. Change Program Settings:

You can also change some settings in the Nvidia Control Panel to make the game run smoother. To do that, follow these steps:

Open Nvidia Control Panel by right clicking the desktop.
Click on the “Manage 3D settings” tab.
Click on the Program Settings tab.
Locate Sekiro in the drop-down menu under “Select a program to customize”
In the customization options, change the Power Management to Highest Performance.
Change Multi-Display to Single Display Performance mode.
Turn on Threaded Optimization.
Set the value of Max Pre-Rendered Frames to 1.
Enable G-Sync if possible.

5. Remove your Second Display:

If the problem still persists, it might have something to do with a dual monitor setup. Users have reported a massive drop in FPS when two monitors are plugged in. In order to fix this, just disconnect your secondary monitor from you PC by pulling out the HDMI or Display Port cable. Restart your PC and you should be good to go!

6. Task Manager Priority:

If after all these fixes, you still somehow have low FPS. You can set the game to high priority in the task manager. In order to do that:

Run Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Now Alt+Tab out of the game to the desktop.
Right click the taskbar and open Task Manager.
Select the Details tab and look for Sekiro on the list.
Right click the Sekiro process and Set Priority to High.

However, if your problem still persists, you might have to lodge an official support request or wait for a patch. Have fun playing Sekiro!

Wanna get the best ending in the game? See our Sekiro guide here!