How to Fix Horizon Zero Dawn (PC) Performance Issues / Lag / Low FPS
A Performance Guide for Horizon Zero Dawn Potential FPS Boost
If you are having Horizon Zero Dawn performance issues, lag issues or low FPS, you are not alone. Many users have reported the same problems. Let’s see what can be done to make our gaming experience better. The main optimization that is not in Horizon Zero Dawn.
CPU Settings
There are a few things you could try:
Close other programs (especially CPU and RAM heavy programs like web browsers).
Give Horizon Zero Dawn High priority via task manager.
1) Run Horizon Zero Dawn.
2) Open Task Manager [CTRL+SHIFT+ESC].
3) Switch it to the More details view if required using the “More Details” link in the bottom right corner.
4) Switch to the “Details” tab.
5) Right click “Horizon Zero Dawn.exe” on the list -> “Set priority” -> “High”.
OPTIMIZE NVIDIA SETTINGS
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you can do some things to tweak your settings. These tweaks require that you go into your NVIDIA 3D settings, from the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Tip: Remember to keep your graphics card driver updated! Especially never graphics card will get a lot of performance boosts from just updating the drivers.
- -Open the NVIDIA Control Panel (right-click on your desktop and choose it from the menu).
- -Click Manage 3D settings.
- -You can either change the settings for all programs and games, or you can do it for select programs. Select Global Settings or Program Settings and find Horizon Zero Dawn on the list. If you choose Global Settings, the changes will affect all programs and games.
- -Set Maximum pre-rendered frames to 1.
- -Set Preferred refresh rate to “Highest available”.
- -Set Power Management Mode to “Prefer maximum performance”.
- -Set Threaded optimization to ON.
- -Set Vertical sync to OFF.
- -Click apply and you can now close the control panel again.
Getting rid of junk files
A. Clearing PC from temporary files.
Those files don’t do anything, but they can take up a considerable amount of space and can slow down your PC even if you still have a lot of space on your storage device(s).
It’s especially helpful for those who have installed Windows for a few months and never really cleared junk from PC properly. You can alternatively use some utility programs such as CCleaner, but you still need to double-check whether all of those junk files are removed from your PC. How to do that:
• Press Win + R to open the run box -> type “prefetch” -> remove all junk (some files may not be deleted but it’s OK)
• Press Win + R -> type “%temp%” -> remove all junk (some files may not be deleted but it’s OK)
B. Run disk cleanup
Yet again there might be some programs that can do that for you, but if you don’t have one or you are not sure it removes the junk files – do the following
• Go to windows search and type “disk cleanup”
• Open the program
• Checkmark every file category that’s available and press OK
Maximization of power usage
• If you for some reason don’t want to use BHP, go to Power Option in Windows Control Panel and set it to High Performance. This will allow your CPU to use as much power as possible.
• Turn off C-states in BIOS*
- This one is highly optional and I don’t recommend anyone doing that unless you know what you are doing! For example, for some motherboards, not all C-states need to be turned off. C-states are the mechanisms that your motherboard uses to save energy. When C-states are turned off, CPU cannot be bottlenecked by the lack of power input from your motherboard. Disabling of C-states works very well with the High-Performance power mode described above.
Game Shortcut
If you have the game shortcut on your desktop.
1. Right-click on it and press properties and the Compatibility tab.
2. Tick override high DPI scaling behavior. and choose Scaling performed by (Application) in the drop-down menu.
3. Tick Disable fullscreen optimizations.
4. And tick Run this program as an administrator.
How do I update my video card drivers?
- -Press Windows + R.
- -Type “DxDiag” and click OK.
- -After the DirectX Diagnostic Tool loads, select the Display tab.
- -The video card’s name and manufacturer are listed in the Device section. The current driver version is listed in the Driver section.
- -Visit the driver manufacturer’s website to obtain the most up-to-date driver. Contact the driver manufacturer for assistance with updating the driver. If the computer is under warranty, contact the computer manufacturer.
