The highly anticipated full release of Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available, but some players are encountering performance issues on PC, including lag, stuttering, and FPS drops. The excitement surrounding the game’s launch is coupled with a sense of chaos due to its early release, moving up a month from September to August to avoid clashing with Starfield. As a result of this expedited launch, numerous review scores for Baldur’s Gate 3 are absent from various outlets on Metacritic.
Despite the game’s impressive visuals, it’s worth noting that there were prevalent performance problems during its early access phase. Early access players have found solutions to address issues such as lag, stuttering, and FPS drops.
Why does Baldur’s Gate 3 FPS drop?
FPS dropping in Baldur’s Gate 3 can occur due to various factors. Some of the most common reasons include:
- Problematic Settings: Inappropriate settings within the game, Windows, or the launcher can lead to poor performance. Incorrect graphical settings, such as using high-quality settings on lower-end hardware, might cause frame drops.
- Background Services: Running too many background applications can limit the resources available to Baldur’s Gate 3, causing issues with GPU, CPU, and memory utilization and resulting in laggy performance.
- PC’s Limitations: Meeting the game’s system requirements doesn’t guarantee maximum performance. Other factors like hardware bottlenecks, outdated components, or insufficient cooling can impact FPS.
- GPU Driver Issues: Using outdated or incompatible graphics drivers can lead to suboptimal performance. Keeping your GPU drivers updated is crucial for stable and smooth gameplay.
- Overheating: Overheating of the CPU or GPU can trigger performance throttling, causing FPS drops. Ensuring proper cooling and cleaning the internal components of your PC can help prevent overheating.
- Server Lag: Online games like Baldur’s Gate 3 can experience performance issues due to server lag or connectivity problems, resulting in FPS drops and other issues.
- Disk Performance: Slow or fragmented storage drives can impact loading times and overall game performance, leading to frame drops and stuttering.
- Software Conflicts: Third-party software, overlays, or applications running in the background can interfere with the game’s performance, causing lag and FPS drops.
- Memory Issues: Insufficient RAM or memory leaks can lead to performance degradation, affecting FPS and causing stuttering.
- Hardware Issues: Faulty hardware components like a failing GPU or unstable RAM can result in inconsistent performance, including FPS drops.
To address these issues, you can try the solutions mentioned earlier, such as adjusting graphics settings, updating drivers, closing background applications, and checking for system overheating. It’s also a good idea to monitor your hardware’s performance using tools like Task Manager or third-party monitoring software to identify any bottlenecks or abnormalities that might be causing the FPS drops.
How to fix Baldur’s Gate 3 lag and frame drops on PC
Before delving into troubleshooting steps, it’s crucial to ensure that your PC configuration meets the system requirements for Baldur’s Gate 3. Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements for the game:
Minimum System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 / AMD RX 4350
- RAM: 8GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
- DirectX: 11
- Storage: 70GB
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
Recommended System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4700K / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
- RAM: 16GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) / AMD Radeon RX 580
- DirectX: 11
- Storage: 70GB
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
Ensure that your PC meets or exceeds these specifications to have a smoother gaming experience. If your hardware falls short, it might lead to the performance issues you mentioned earlier. If your system meets or surpasses these requirements and you’re still experiencing problems, then the performance issues could be due to other factors that need troubleshooting.
If you’re still encountering frame rate drops while playing Baldur’s Gate 3, here are some steps you can consider to potentially mitigate these issues:
- Adjust Graphics Settings:
- Change the quality of shadows and clouds to medium or low.
- If needed, switch the model and texture quality from high to medium.
- Run as Administrator:
- Right-click the Baldur’s Gate 3 icon on your desktop.
- Select “Properties,” then navigate to the “Compatibility” tab.
- Check “Run this program as administrator.”
- Display Mode:
- Try playing the game in full-screen or borderless window mode to see if it affects performance.
- Task Manager Priority:
- Open Task Manager from the Start Menu.
- Under the “Processes” tab, locate Baldur’s Gate 3, right-click, and set its priority to “High.”
For addressing FPS drops, stuttering, freezing, and lag issues:
- Update GPU Driver: Keep your graphics card driver updated to ensure compatibility with the game.
- Change GPU Settings: Adjusting your graphics card settings can sometimes improve performance. Here’s how to do it for both Nvidia and AMD cards:
- For Nvidia:
- Open Nvidia Control Panel by right-clicking on the desktop.
- Click on Manage 3D Settings.
- Under Program Settings, manually add “Baldur’s Gate 3” if it’s not listed.
- Apply the following settings:
- Monitor Tech: G-Sync (if available)
- Maximum Pre-rendered frames: 2
- Threaded optimization: On
- Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
- Texture Filtering – Quality: Performance
- For AMD:
- The instructions are similar to Nvidia. Open your AMD control panel and locate similar settings to adjust.
- Enable DLSS (Nvidia Only):
- If you have a compatible Nvidia GPU (20 Series or newer), consider turning on DLSS for improved performance.
- Lower Graphics Options: Begin by adjusting the shadows setting; lowering it to the medium can make a significant difference.
- Adjust Resolution: If you’re experiencing frame rate inconsistencies at higher resolutions, try lowering to 1080p or 1440p for better performance.
- Contact Support: If none of the above solutions work, consider reaching out to Larian Studios support for assistance with specific issues related to your hardware configuration.
- Disable Fullscreen Optimizations: Disabling fullscreen optimizations and adjusting DPI settings might help with performance:
- Navigate to Baldur’s Gate 3’s game directory.
- Right-click on “Baldur’s Gate 3.exe” and select Properties.
- Go to the Compatibility tab.
- Check the ‘Disable Full-Screen Optimizations’ box.
- Click on ‘Change high DPI settings.’
- Check the ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior’ box and choose ‘Application’ from the drop-down menu.
- Click Apply and then OK to save the changes.
- Verify Integrity of Game Files: If you suspect that your game files might be corrupted or missing, you can use Steam to verify them:
- Launch Steam and go to your Library.
- Right-click on Baldur’s Gate 3 in the list of installed games.
- Click on Properties, then go to the Local Files tab.
- Click on “Verify Integrity of Game Files” and wait for the process to complete.
- After it’s done, restart your computer.
In the dynamic realm of PC gaming, unique hardware profiles can sometimes trigger uncommon bugs. If you exhaust the aforementioned steps without resolution, contacting the game’s support team can provide tailored assistance for your situation.