Watch_Dogs 2 How to possibly fix lag and stuttering

Option 1: The Obvious Solutions

Tweak the graphical settings

Turn down the graphical settings. Duh.

Nvidia have made a comprehensive performance guide[www.geforce.com] which goes over in depth what each graphical setting does, and how it will affect your gameplay. I highly suggest viewing this if you are using low end hardware.

Shut down background processes

The game is poorly optimized when it comes to utilizing the CPU. I have an i7 6700 and it runs at around 85-100% most of the time. You're gonna want to close down any CPU heavy applications. This could be anything. Look in task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and take a look at what programs are using the CPU while playing. Be careful to only shut down programs you have installed, and not any windows processes. That wont end nicely.

Update your video card drivers

I feel that this is a must. Keeping your drivers up to date means that you bring security, stability, and optimizations for your system. Out of date drivers may be riddled with bugs that cause instability when playing. Updating should solve some of them. If you're not comfy with doing this then dont worry. Most cards automatically update to the newest driver anyway, but if that isnt the case then heres some links to get you going.

Nvidia driver download[www.nvidia.co.uk]

AMD Driver download[support.amd.com]

If it ain't broke, dont fix it. Right?

Raise the processes priority

Open up task manager when in the main menu of watch dogs 2 and go onto the "Details" tab on task manager. Set the priority to "Above normal" or "High". Do not select realtime, as this will possibly cause system instability.

Option 2: The Not So Obvious Solutions

Tweak your .xml file

Hooray, lets fiddle around the game files.

Open up the file explorer and locate where your watch dogs 2 game profile is. The usual location is as follows.

"C:\Users\[user]\Documents\My Games\Watch_Dogs 2"

Once you're there, you will see a file called "WD2_GamerProfile.xml". Go ahead and right click this and open with notepad or notepad++, whichever you prefer.

Next what you're going to want to do is hit Ctrl+F and search for "DeferredFxQuality". The text we need should be highlighted. What should appear is DeferredFxQuality=console. Go ahead and change "console" to "pc". Hit save and exit the document.

To make sure that it stays like that, we need to make the file read only. Right click "WD2_GamerProfile.xml" go down to properties and open that up. Tick the box at the bottom that says "read only" and exit.

If you're on Windows 10, make sure the game runs in compatability for Windows 7

Looking over a few reddit threads and some steam discussions I have come across multiple fixes that worked for different users. In this case, Win10 users. This actually worked for me, or lessened the lag/stuttering that i was experiencing.

Firstly, locate where your Watchdogs2.exe file is. The most common path is usually as follows, but you can adjust this for where you installed it.

"C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Watch_Dogs2\bin"

Right click "WatchDogs2.exe" and hit properties. Under the "Compatability" tab there should be a drop down menu. Click Windows 7, hit apply and exit.

OPTIONAL: Run program as admin. No idea if this will help, I done it anyway.

Download and use the Ultra texture pack

Only do this if you know you can run the HD textures, otherwise you will see a decrease in FPS!

The textures must be bugged for some users, as this has helped many. This was also a problem in the first watch dogs game, and this seemed to fix it.

Ultra HD Textures download

Set launch options

Find Watch_Dogs 2 in your library. Right click and hit properties. Click "Set launch options" and enter as follows

-disablepagefilecheck

Put the game on an SSD

This will decrease load times massively. It also helps when driving around the city, and it eliminates a good portion of the stuttering.

Overclock your CPU

This game will require every ounce of CPU performance you can throw at it. If you are able to overclock your CPU, do so within boundaries. If you overclock and dont see any improvents, revert back to your original clock speed.

Heres a little guide on overclocking your CPU[www.techradar.com]

Option 3: The Unwanted Solution

Upgrade your hardware

This is applicable for almost any major game that is being released nowadays. I know its costly and not everyone has the cash to build a beefed up PC. My rig is as follows:

CPU: i7 6700

GPU: GTX 1060 6GB

RAM: 12GB DDR4 Ram

For this game it is essential to have a good processor. Im unsure how good it runs on low-medium range GPU's, but right now it does seem to be CPU's being the main problem.

The game ran like poop anyhow. The fixes above helped me majorly and I hope it helps you guys too. If you're experiencing problems still, post your hardware and your problem below. Im sure that you wont be the only one with that problem. I'll keep the post updated when more fixes/workarounds come about.

For low end gamers

LowSpecGamer makes amazing videos on how to tweak games to run smoothly on a low end machine. Here's his Watch dogs 2 video. Check it out!

Happy hacking!!

Disclaimer: These fixes may not work on your computer. Everyones got a different experience.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=832415893

How to possibly fix lag and stuttering

Option 1: The Obvious Solutions

Option 2: The Not So Obvious Solutions

Option 3: The Unwanted Solution

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