Fix: SnowRunner Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing constantly

When it comes to driving simulation video games, SnowRunner is the latest one in the market. Saber Interactive has recently launched this sequel game for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows platforms. It has 40 different kinds of heavy powerful vehicles from almost every brand that you need to drive through extreme conditions on an open world map to conquer your journey. Here we’ve shared a guide for fixing Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing constantly on Snowrunner.

Simulation video game lovers are also finding this game quite interesting but the game is literally getting buggy every day. Although there is nothing new for the PC players as most of the PC games become laggy and even after receiving patch updates, players find plenty of errors or crashes either launching the game or during gameplay. So, the SnowRunner PC game also becomes quite irritating in its early days we can say.

Now, if you’re also feeling the same and want to quickly fix these issues without waiting for an official patch, then this troubleshooting guide is only for you. However, we can say that as the game is new, developers will definitely try to work on that and will fix these common but highly reported issues in the upcoming weeks or so. Meanwhile, users can check some of the possible workarounds below along with some other recommendations.

Why Does SnowRunner Keep Crashing?

For example, you should check whether your system configuration is compatible with your game’s system requirements or not. Next, you can also check for your internet connection speed and stability. There can be possible reasons behind SnowRunner that keeps crashing on your Windows 10 PC. Let’s take a look.

Your PC configuration isn’t compatible with the game’s system requirements.
Some of the game files are either missing or corrupted.
Your PC is running on an outdated Windows OS or graphics driver.
An outdated DirectX version.
The game or the client version isn’t updated.
Any of the overlay apps are running in the background.
Windows Firewall or Antivirus program is blocking the game.

1. Update Graphics Drivers

If you’re using the Nvidia graphics card then update the GeForce Experience app on your PC from the Nvidia official site here. But if you’re using the AMD graphics card on your system, then update the latest AMD Drivers from here.

2. Disable Steam Overlay

Open Steam on your Windows.
Head over to the Settings > Click on the In-Game option.
Click on the checkbox to disable “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game“.
Once the checkbox mark is removed, click on OK.

3. Enable Vertical Sync (V-Sync)

If in case, you’re facing lags or frame drops on your SnowRunner game then you should enable the Vertical Sync option. Vertical Sync is a kind of graphics technology that basically synchronizes the frame rate of a video game with the gaming screen’s refresh rate. So, that you won’t feel that many visible lags or input delay every time.

However, if your PC configuration isn’t that powerful and you’re using lower graphics settings then make sure to disable it according to the game.

Open the SnowRunner game > Go to Visual/Graphics Settings.
Turn on the Vertical Sync (V-SYNC) > Hit Apply/OK to save the changes.
Restart the game and check for the issue again.

4. Adjust Discord Settings to fix SnowRunner Lag

Launch Discord > Click on User Settings.
Select Voice & Video from the left sidebar.
Scroll down a bit and click on Advanced.
Next, disable OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco System, Inc.
Then disable Enable Quality of Service High Packet Priority.
Now, go to Overlay.
You can also turn off the in-game overlay.
Next, head over to Appearance.
Go to Advanced.
Disable Hardware Acceleration.
Once done, restart the system.

5. Adjust Nvidia Control Panel Settings

Click on Adjust image settings with preview under 3D settings.
Select Use the advanced 3D image settings.
Next, launch the Nvidia Control Panel.
Click on Manage 3D settings > Go to Global Settings.
Additionally, you can also adjust some of the other options:
- Disable Image Sharpening
- Enable Threaded Optimization
- Use Maximum Performance for Power Management
- Turn off Low Latency Mode
- Set Texture Filtering Quality to Performance mode

6. Change AMD Control Panel Settings

Go to Global Graphics.
- Turn off Radeon Anti-Lag
- Turn off Radeon Boost
- Use Application settings for Anti-Aliasing Mode
- Set Anti-aliasing Method to Multi-sampling
- Turn off Morphological Filtering
- Disable Image Sharpening
- Turn off Anisotropic Filtering
- Use Performance mode for Texture Filtering Quality
- You can also enable Surface Format Optimization
- AMD Optimization for the Tesselation Mode
- Wait for V-sync – Turn it on/off
- Use AMD optimization for the Shader Cache
- Disable OpenGL Triple Buffering
- Turn off Maximum Tesselation Level
- Set Graphics for the GPU Workload
- Turn off the Radeon Chill
- Disable Frame Rate Target Control

7. Verify Game Files to fix SnowRunner Lag

Make sure that this process will take some time. So, have some patience.

For Epic Games Launcher:

Launch Epic Games Launcher
Click on SnowRunner for Library
Now, click on Settings (cog icon)
Choose Verify
Once done, restart your Epic Games Launcher and run the game.

For Steam Launcher:

Open Steam > Click on Library.
Right-click on SnowRunner > Select Manage.
Go to Properties > Click on Local Files.
Click on the Verify integrity of game files… button.
Wait for the process to be completed.
Once done, make sure to restart the Steam client to apply changes.

8. Delete Cache

It may also be possible that the Windows system cache data becomes quite outdated so the system can’t run properly or the game is having issues with the startup. So, it’s always better to delete the system cache files or temporary files manually. To do this:

Press Windows + R key to open up the Run dialog box.
Now, type %temp% and hit Enter.
Here you will get a bunch of temporary files.
Make sure to select all files by pressing Ctrl + A keys.
Then press the Delete key only or Shift + Del keys (permanently delete) to remove all temporary files. [Keep in mind that some of the files may not be deleted. So, just skip them]
Once done, restart your PC and check the game again.

9. Uninstall Recent Windows 10 Update

A couple of days ago, Microsoft has released a new update for Windows 10 with KB4535996. So, this particular cumulative update for Windows 10 is quite buggy and causes so many errors or problems.

Go to Start menu > Click on Settings
Next, go to Update and Security
Click on View update history
Now, you can see that there is an update having KB4535996 has been already installed. Make sure to uninstall it.
Here you will see Uninstall updates option at the top of the page.
Click on it and select the mentioned cumulative update version.
Right-click on it > Select Uninstall.
It may take some time to delete that update and your system may restart automatically.
Have some patience and you can also manually reboot your Windows PC (if required).

10. Remove Temporary Files to fix SnowRunner Lag

Press Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the RUN program.
Now, type %temp% and press enter
You will get a bunch of temporary files on a page.
Select all files by pressing Ctrl + A on the keyboard.
Next, press Shift + Delete on the keyboard to remove all the files.
Sometimes some of the temporary files can’t be deleted. So, leave them as it is and close it.

11. Set Default CPU and Graphics Speed

Most users always want to use ultra-high performance from the CPU and GPU from the very first day. So, most of the users either buy an overclocked version or manually increased the overclocking speed. So, if you’ve also overclocked your GPU speed and after doing that you’re experiencing bottleneck or lagging or crashing-related issues, just set it to default mode.

You can also use the MSI Afterburner tool or Zotac firestorm application in order to lower the clocking speed. Once done, you can run the SnowRunner game and check if the problem is fixed or not.

That’s it. We hope this guide was useful to you. You can comment below for any queries.