Based on the Harry Potter novels, and set in the wizarding world of Hogwarts, the open-world feeling of the new Warner Bros. game is unlike any other.
When Hogwarts Legacy won the most anticipated game of the year, it turned many eyes and set a standard that only the game could live up to upon release.
From the free reigns to Hogwarts Legacy’s charms, The game just seems correct in every way. Hogwarts Legacy’s PC performance is what doesn’t seem quite right. I can assure you right now that some PC players are having a terrible experience with the game.
Every other minute, new reports of fps decrease and stuttering problems appear. During the game’s early access, when this was occurring, everyone believed that Avalanche would undoubtedly solve it with a Day-1 patch. They didn’t return the game, instead choosing to keep playing. But now that the game has officially launched, the stuttering and freezing problems are still present.
For those who have already gone past the two-hour refund threshold, there is a sense of confusion. In any case, there’s no guarantee that your performance problems will be solved automatically. Nonetheless, let’s look at some fixes that have proved to work for those having the same kind of problems with Hogwarts Legacy.
Fix Hogwarts Legacy Stuttering, and FPS Drops on PC
Following are some of the fixes that might help with your issue.
Misleading Requirements:
This is a very hot take, a controversial one as well, but people from all over the world trying Hogwarts Legacy on PC got the game because the minimum requirements say that the game can be run on 16 GB of RAM, which is not the case. People with a 16 GB RAM build are getting stutters in their fps throughout the walkthrough of the game, with fps drops to 10-20.
Hogwarts Legacy is simply a RAM-hogging monster. On a 32 GB RAM computer, you’ll find your fps stabilize at 80-90 fps, which is okay-ish. Tests were done on the game using RTSS enabled, and the highest RAM usage the game was found to have was 27 GB. Although you might think this is okay if you’re a console gamer, for PC gamers, having this much RAM is unrealistic as not many games require this much.
People having an RTX 3070 TIs and more recent graphic cards are having trouble, while others are running the game without issues with a normal build of 3060 Ti. If you want the game to run smoothly, go for a 32 GB RAM stick. The experience of Hogwarts Legacy is one you want to see through smoothly.
Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling:
Use the brand-new hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling capability if you have the most recent Windows 10 build. You might actually gain from this if you have a good graphics card. Here’s how to activate it:
- On the Windows search bar, search for the term “Graphics”.
- Choose the top result that appears.
- The menu for Windows graphics settings is where you are.
- Switch on GPU scheduling that is hardware-accelerated.
- Restart your computer.
- To achieve the greatest performance, adjust Hogwarts Legacy’s settings.
- By using the proper settings, you can genuinely fix the stuttering and frame rate decreases in Hogwarts Legacy. If you have a subpar GPU like a GTX 1660 or an RTX 2060, try balancing the settings between low and medium.
Update Your Graphics Card Drivers:
Since Hogwarts Legacy is so new, it probably has bugs and performance problems like most new games do. Typically, graphics card manufacturers provide day-1 release fixes and game-ready drivers for major AAA releases. However, as Hogwarts Legacy has only recently been released, it is unknown if the creators or graphic card manufacturers will provide a new optimization patch.
Having said that, you’d anticipate both NVIDIA and AMD to turn towards the game and offer some type of adjusted drivers for better compatibility, given that it has caused seismic waves throughout the industry and is now enormous. Installing the most recent drivers might be a solid bet if you have been using outdated drivers and are experiencing performance difficulties like FPS drops and stutters. You can download the most updated graphic card drivers from the official website of your graphic card suppliers.
Force Dedicated GPU Usage For Hogwarts Legacy:
New-gen games that aren’t optimized frequently don’t make use of your graphics card. Usually, this occurs on laptops that have both integrated graphics and dedicated GPUs. So, when running on battery, laptops switch to integrated graphics as a power-saving technique. This inevitably leads to stunted performance in games and maybe the root of your problems.
Because Hogwarts Legacy is a very demanding game, you can only play it by making the most of your graphics card. The performance would be terrible on an integrated graphic card chip, and since it doesn’t abruptly cease operating, it can be challenging to identify the problem. Fortunately, if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you can mandate the use of a dedicated graphics card for a specific game or for your entire system. Just carry out these steps.
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel by right-clicking the blank desktop and selecting it from the drop-down menu.
- You can access a list of games by choosing the Manage 3D Settings menu in the control panel.
- Find Hogwarts Legacy in the list and select the NVIDIA Graphics Card option from there.
- If Hogwarts Legacy is not included in the Manage 3D settings box, you can manually search for it and add the game’s.exe file by navigating into the directory.
You can follow the same procedures for the Global Settings tab if you wish to apply this modification to every game you play, which is advised. By doing this, you can be confident that all of the games on your NVIDIA Control Panel list will, in the future, make use of your dedicated graphics card.
Alter Graphics Card Settings:
For the best gaming experience, it’s always a good idea to adjust your graphics card settings. The default GPU settings frequently prioritize quality above performance, which results in better images but a decrease in FPS. Additionally, there are a few tips contained in those settings that have been demonstrated to greatly enhance performance.
NVIDIA and AMD each provide a variety of tools for adjusting GPU parameters. They both have a good number of features as well. Performance can be greatly improved by turning these on or off. So, these might be the solution to your performance problems in Hogwarts Legacy. The ideal settings are listed below for both AMD and NVIDIA users.
NVIDIA Graphics Cards:
With NVIDIA’s own Control Panel tool, you may adjust several parameters for the best performance if you have an NVIDIA graphics card. Just carry out these actions.
Go right to the Manage 3D Settings tab in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
You now have two choices, just as there were when dedicated GPU usage was required. You may either apply these changes to all of your games using the Global Settings tab, or you can change these parameters for Hogwarts Legacy only by looking up the game in the list. The General Options tab is a suggested choice because these settings are essentially always ideal for the majority of games you’ll be playing.
- Simply go to Global Settings, search for Hogwarts Legacy from the list of programs, or, if you can’t find it there, browse for its.exe file and choose program settings.
- Once inside, switch the Power Management setting to Highest Mode to make sure that no power-saving functions affect how well you play games.
- Switch off Low Latency Mode and Picture Sharpening Mode as well. They increase the amount of processing and may place an unnecessary burden on your GPU.
- Set the Max pre-rendered frame value to 1. As a result, the game will not draw frames in advance, freeing up a significant amount of VRAM for on-the-go needs.
- The Texture Filtering Quality option should be set to Performance Mode. This may have an influence on visual quality, but it prevents frame dips.
- If you notice screen tearing and your monitor supports the capability, enable G-Sync. This modifies your monitor’s refresh rate to match the game. Thus, if you’re experiencing erratic frame rates, give this a yell.
AMD Control Panel:
The AMD Radeon Settings Control Panel allows you to modify the GPU settings for games if you’re using an AMD graphics card. We may also disable the numerous AMD-only proprietary features that provide an additional processing layer on top. What you must do is as follows:
- Go to the Global Graphics tab in the AMD Radeon Settings Control Panel. This will let you change the settings for Hogwarts Legacy as well as all of your other games.
- Turn on Surface Format Optimization; you only have to do it for the duration of the game.
- Choose the Graphics Mode option from the GPU Workload menu.
- Use AMD-optimized mode while Tessellation and Shader Cache are active.
Install The New Nvidia Driver:
Nvidia recently published a new Game Ready Driver, in case you weren’t aware. Yes, don’t worry about not finding any mention of Hogwarts Legacy in the Game Ready Driver release notes, as it offers stability for all new-gen games. The driver can be downloaded from this page or through GeForce Experience.
ALSO READ: You can ride a Broom in Hogwarts Legacy, but can’t play Quidditch
Sadly, AMD hasn’t made any content available for Hogwarts Legacy. The lack of an exclusive driver from any of the suppliers at the time genuinely astonished me. This is the first time that a major AAA title has experienced such a situation.
Cap the FPS of Hogwarts Legacy:
If you’ve tried every setting and still can’t get stable frames per second to enjoy the experience of Hogwarts Legacy, you can try this trick. It doesn’t matter if you have DLSS enabled or RTSS, all you need to do is limit the fps of the game to 70-80. As the game isn’t optimized to give out more FPS than 100, this setting makes sure the game doesn’t try to overachieve and use more GPU than possible.
Setting an fps limit gives a stable gaming experience in Hogwarts Legacy, do this to attain it:
- Open the Nvidia control panel & load up Hogwarts Legacy settings as explained above.
- The Max Frame Rate setting can be found.
- You must enter the FPS value that you believe your PC is capable of handling consistently.
- Play Hogwarts Legacy on High Performance
There’s another trick you can try, which is to go to “Adjust image settings with preview”, click “use my preference emphasizing,” and set the slider to performance. If it’s on performance already, leave it. Windows, by default, sets it to quality.
Close Heavy Applications:
As previously mentioned in the article, Hogwarts Legacy frequently consumes a significant amount of RAM. As a result, you must make the most space possible. If you don’t shut down resource-intensive applications and free up RAM, you’re going to struggle. Close any RAM-consuming background programs like your antivirus, Logitech Ghub, Razer Central, etc.
It’s possible that some applications are using a lot of resources and causing freezing and stuttering. Simply launch Task Manager, select the Processes tab, click on “Memory,” and you’ll be able to see which programs are using a lot of Memory. If they are not necessary, close them one at a time.
Turn Off All Overlays & Background Recording Apps
Features that you don’t use, such as “Nvidia Instant Replay” or “Steam Overlay,” take up a lot of memory in the background when gaming, which is why you need to turn them off when playing Hogwarts Legacy.
Disable your Steam overlay by:
- Go to Steam
- Open Settings & Find In-Game Tab
- Disable the “Activate steam overlay in-game.” check
To turn off Nvidia Instant Replay & Background Recording:
- When your game is open, press Alt-Z (only for users with NVIDIA instant replay enabled)
- Find & open the Nvidia instant replay tab
- You will be able to turn it off from there.
Similarly, follow these steps but look for background recording and turn that off aswell.
Hogwarts Legacy Fun Fact:
The primary tale of Hogwarts Legacy would last for about 35 hours, according to an early, leaked copy of the art book.
The game is anticipated to take up to 70+ hours for gamers that are completists who want to complete every quest and acquire every collectible.
Conclusion:
Hogwarts Legacy has everything the new-age gamer needs. An open-world storyline that follows the lives of several wizards in a mystical world full of magic. The game is meant to be played with stability so you can experience everything it has to offer. Unfortunately, many PC gamers have been finding problems within the game & are unable to do anything about it.
Hopefully, this blog has changed that; leave your feedback in the comments & let us know what you think of the game!