Horizon Forbidden West Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing (Solved)

Horizon Forbidden West is an action role-playing game created by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Initially, it was launched for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles, but now it is also available for Windows PC users. However, some PC players have reported issues such as stuttering, freezing, and lagging while playing Horizon Forbidden West on their computers.

To play games on a PC without experiencing issues, it is essential to have the right hardware. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to a computer that can handle high resolutions and FPS, which can lead to common problems while playing PC games that require high performance. Therefore, we have prepared a guide to help you address the issues encountered when playing Horizon Forbidden West.

Gamers often face issues such as stuttering, lagging, crashing, and dropped frames while playing games. The severity of these problems can vary from computer to computer. Addressing these issues ensures a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience. In this guide, we provide simple steps to help you identify and resolve the underlying causes of these problems.

Check System Requirements

Check out the system requirements of the Horizon Forbidden West game below to ensure that your PC configuration meets the game’s system requirements.

1. Use Launch Options

Open your Steam client > Go to Library > Right-click on Horizon Forbidden West.
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 Horizon Forbidden West 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 the Horizon Forbidden West game task.
Select Set Priority to High.
Close Task Manager.
Finally, run the Horizon Forbidden West 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 Horizon Forbidden West 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 ‘Horizon Forbidden West’ 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 Horizon Forbidden West game directory.
Find and right-click on the Horizon Forbidden West.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 Horizon Forbidden West

If you haven’t recently updated your Horizon Forbidden West game, follow these steps to check for updates and install the latest patch.

Open the Steam client > Go to Library > Click on Horizon Forbidden West from the left pane.
It’ll automatically search for the available update. If an update is available, make sure to click on Update.
Installing the update > and 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. If you have further queries, you can comment below.

Horizon Forbidden West Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing (Solved)

Check System Requirements

Fix: Horizon Forbidden West Stuttering and Lags Badly

1. Use Launch Options

2. Update Graphics Drivers

3. Run the game as an administrator

4. Set High Priority in Task Manager

5. Verify the Integrity of Game Files

6. Change GPU Settings

7. Disable Fullscreen Optimizations

8. Update Horizon Forbidden West

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