The Division 2: How to Fix Low FPS, Lag and Freezing Issues

The Division 2 is the second entry in the renowned looter shooter franchise made by Ubisoft. The original game, called The Division, had a lot of potential but ended up gathering mixed reviews because of the lack of content. The game also suffered from an eerie atmosphere making the world feel empty. The game still received multiple improvements through updates and DLC though. The original game also, thus, managed to gain a fan following at the tail end of its life cycle. The Division 2 came out a month ago, almost 3 years after the original game. The game fixes most of the issues that were prevalent in the first part.

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The Division 2 is set in Washington DC now with the same issues plaguing this part of America. However, this time around, you’ve got a lot more tools at your disposal to rebuild the Division around the DC area. The world also feels a lot more vibrant and populated as compared to the last game. Consequently, The Division 2 has already become one of the best-selling games of this year. However, as with most Ubisoft games, The Division 2 is also plagued with performance optimization issues. Users have reported all sorts of problems like lag, low fps, freezes, stuttering and crashes. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re probably one of those people. Fear not, though, as we have found a few fixes that can iron out most of the persistent performance issues with the game.

1. Minimum System Requirements:

The most important thing you need to see is if your PC is even powerful enough to run The Division 2 without hiccups. If the specifications of your PC are not up to the mark, then none of the fixes will work and all efforts would be futile. The Division 2 is a very demanding game, and you need a pretty beefy rig to run it. The minimum requirements for The Division 2 are:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 8 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-2200K or AMD FX-6350
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: At least AMD Radeon R9 270 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670.
DirectX: Version 11
Network: A stable Broadband Internet connection.
Storage: 60 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 11 Compatible

2. Install the latest graphics card drivers:

The Division 2 only came out last month and there is a chance that compatible graphics drivers were not available back then. However, a week or two after release, these issues are usually ironed out by driver updates. If you do not remember updating your graphics card drivers, you might not have updated them at all. In any case, you should always make sure that you have the latest graphics card drivers installed on your computer to get the best out of your hardware. The links to the latest drivers for both AMD and Nvidia cards are posted below.

Nvidia Graphics Card Drivers
AMD Graphics Card Drivers

2. In-Game Video Settings:

A lot of the times, the game detects the best graphics settings for you. However, these estimates can be hit and miss and you need to adjust these settings to improve game performance. The Division 2 has a lot of video settings that can be tweaked. It comes down to player preference if they want higher FPS or better visuals. However, since our aim is to boost performance, we’ve picked a few settings that increase FPS while not compromising too much on the visual beauty of the game. Apply the following settings in-game for optimal performance.

Under Settings > Video:

Set Enable Reduced Latency to No.
Set Enable DirectX 12 Renderer to No.

Under Settings > Graphics:

Set V-Sync Mode to Off.
Turn off Frame Rate Limit.
Change the Shadow Quality to Medium.
Set the Spot Shadow Resolution to Medium.
Change Spot Shadows to Medium.
Set the Resolution Scale to 100% or lower.
Turn on sub-surface Scattering.
Crank the sharpening up to 5.
Change the Anisotropic Filtering to 8x.
Volumetric Fog should be set to Medium.
Change Reflection Quality to Medium.
Set the Local Reflection Quality to Medium as well.
Set the Vegetation Quality to Medium.
Turn on Depth of Field.
Select Yes under Parallax Mapping.
Set the Object Detain to 60 and Extra Streaming Distance to 04.
Turn on Lens Flare.
Set the Water Quality to High (can be lowered though, but the gain isn’t noticeable).
Turn on Chromatic Aberration.
Change the Projected Texture Resolution to 512.
Keep the Terrain Quality at High.

These settings are not absolute and can change depending on your machine. However, this is a good base to start from and you can fine tune your settings from here to get the best performance from your game.

3. Nvidia Control Panel Settings:

Sometimes the game just doesn’t use your dedicated GPU. This can be changed using the Nvidia control panel. Other than that, there are a few other options in the control panel that also boost the performance of the game. The following steps are only for Nvidia Graphics card users.

Using the Dedicated GPU:

Open Nvidia Control Panel by right clicking the desktop.
Click on “Manage 3D Settings”.
Find The Division 2 on the list and select your dedicated Nvidia Graphics Card.
If you are unable to find the game on the list, you can simply add it by browsing for the .exe file for the game.

Other Nvidia Control Panel settings:

Go to Program Settings under Manage 3D settings and locate The Division 2 (TheDivision2.exe).
Set the Max Pre-Rendered Frames to 1.
Turn on Threaded Optimization.
Change the Power Management to Highest Performance Mode.
Enable G-Sync if possible.
Change Multi-Display to Single Display performance mode.

5. Second Display:

You can also gain some performance by removing your secondary display. In the past, this has led to a massive increase in FPS in games. To do this, just unplug your secondary monitor from your PC by pulling out the HDMI or Display Port cable. Once you’ve done this, restart your PC and you should be good to go.

6. Task Manager Settings:

If none of the fixes above have worked for you, you can try to allocate more resources to the game. This can be done by changing the game to high priority in the task manager. Just follow these steps:

Run The Division 2.
Now Alt+Tab out of the game back to your desktop.
Right click the taskbar or Ctrl+Del and open the Task Manager.
Look for The Division 2 under the Details tab.
Right Click the Division 2 process and Set Priority to High.

However, if the problem still persists, you might have to contact official support with the developer or the graphics card manufacturer.

Having FPS issues on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as well? See our Sekiro Lag Fix guide here to increase your FPS in Sekiro by a considerable amount!