Helldivers 2 is a third-person shooter game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to the top-down shooter game Helldivers, which was released in 2015. Helldivers 2 was released on February 8, 2024, for PlayStation 5 and Windows. Since it is a new game, some players have reported experiencing issues such as stuttering, freezing, and lagging while playing it on their PCs.
To have an uninterrupted gaming experience on your PC, it’s crucial to have the right hardware. However, not everyone has access to a computer that can handle high resolutions and FPS, which results in common problems while playing PC games that require high performance. This guide provides easy steps to address the issues faced while playing Helldivers 2.
Gamers often come across issues while playing games, such as stuttering, lagging, crashing, and dropping frames. The intensity of these issues may differ from computer to computer. It is important to rectify these problems to ensure a more enjoyable and smoother gaming experience. This guide aims to help you identify and resolve the root causes of these problems.
Check System Requirements
Check out the system requirements of the Helldivers 2 game below to ensure that your PC configuration meets the game’s system requirements.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4790K or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470
- Storage: 100 GB available space
Recommended System Requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600XT
- Storage: 100 GB available space
- Additional Notes: SSD Recommended
Fix: Helldivers 2 Stuttering and Lags Badly
Experiencing lags or frame drop issues while playing a game can be a complex problem. This can be due to various factors such as your PC hardware, the display resolution of the game, the maximum FPS limit count, or conflicting third-party apps. It is recommended that you try all the solutions individually until the problem is fixed or reduced. One of the quickest fixes is to change the in-game graphics-related settings or keep them low. This can resolve several issues in no time.
If you are encountering lags or frame drops while playing a game, it could be due to various factors such as screen resolution, in-game texture resolution, shadow resolution, maximum frame rate, or the number of characters displayed. Depending on the resolution and quality of the game, you can follow the steps below to reduce the lags or frame drops to some extent, regardless of the FPS count.
1. Use Launch Options
- Open your Steam client > Go to Library > Right-click on Helldivers 2.
- Select Properties > On the General tab, you’ll find Launch Options.
- Enter the launch options -fullscreen = Forces the engine to start in fullscreen mode.
2. Update Graphics Drivers
- Right-click on the Start Menu to open up the Quick Access Menu.
- Click on Device Manager from the list.
- Now, double-click on the Display Adapters category to expand the list.
- Then, right-click on the dedicated graphics card name.
- Select Update driver > Choose Search automatically for drivers.
- An update will automatically download and install the latest version if available.
- Once done, make sure to reboot your computer to change the effects.
3. Run the game as an administrator
Running the game exe file and the Steam client as administrator can prevent privilege issues and user account control.
- Right-click on Helldivers 2 exe shortcut file on your PC.
- Now, select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
- Make sure to click on the Run this program as an administrator checkbox to checkmark it.
- Click on Apply and select OK to save changes.
4. Set High Priority in Task Manager
Make your game priority in the higher segment via the Task Manager to tell your Windows system to run the game properly. To do this:
- Right-click on the Start Menu > Select Task Manager.
- Click on the Processes tab > Right-click on Helldivers 2 game task.
- Select Set Priority to High.
- Close Task Manager.
- Finally, run Helldivers 2 game to check for the issue.
5. Verify the Integrity of Game Files
If there is an issue with game files getting corrupted or missing, use this method to check for the problem easily.
- Launch Steam > Click on Library.
- Right-click on Helldivers 2 from the list of installed games.
- Now, click on Properties > Go to Local Files.
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files.
- You’ll have to wait for the process until it gets completed.
- Once done, restart your computer.
6. Change GPU Settings
It is important to check the PC’s graphics card settings to determine if any issues have been resolved. Follow the steps below to make sure the settings are correct.
For Nvidia:
- Open up Nvidia’s Control Panel > Right-click on the desktop screen.
- Click on Nvidia Control Panel > Click on Manage 3D Settings.
- Select Program Settings > Find ‘Helldivers 2’ and manually add the game if it’s not in the list:
- 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:
- Monitor Tech: G-Sync (If available)
- Maximum Pre-rendered frames: 2
- Threaded optimization: On
- Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
- Texture Filtering – Quality: Performance
7. Disable Fullscreen Optimizations
Full-screen optimization and DPI settings are the default ones on Windows. It would be best if you tried disabling it by following the steps below:
- Locate the Helldivers 2 game directory.
- Find and right-click on the Helldivers 2.exe file.
- Select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
- Checkmark the ‘Disable Full-Screen Optimizations’ box.
- Now, click on the ‘Change high DPI setting button.
- Checkmark the ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior’ > Select ‘Application’ from the drop-down menu.
- Click on Apply and then OK to save changes.
8. Update Helldivers 2
If you haven’t recently updated your Helldivers 2 game, follow these steps to check for updates and install the latest patch.
- Open the Steam client > Go to Library > Click on Helldivers 2 from the left pane.
- It’ll automatically search for the available update. If there is an update available, make sure to click on Update.
- Installing the update > closing the Steam client may take some time.
- Finally, reboot your PC to apply changes, and then try relaunching the game.
That’s it, guys. We assume this guide is useful to you. For further queries, you can comment below.
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