Fix: Stray Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing constantly

BlueTwelve Studio and Annapurna Interactive recently released Stray as a cat adventure third-person cyberpunk video game in July 2022 for PlayStation & Windows platforms. As the title suggests, a lost stray cat is alone and separated from the family, who must unveil an ancient mystery to find the real home.

Playing games on the PC requires a good hardware configuration to run smoothly. However, not everyone may have a high-performance system to run games in full resolution and higher FPS. It’s quite common for most PC games to be performance-hungry. In this guide, we have provided some steps to fix the Stray Stuttering and lag issues that users may face while playing the game.

Unfortunately, some Stray PC players are experiencing multiple issues like stuttering, lags, crashes, frame drops, etc., while playing the game. Depending on the compatibility factor, it can be a severe issue on some PCs. Therefore, it is always a better idea to fix the problem so that at least you can play the game with a respectable FPS count. There may be several reasons behind such issues, but they can be resolved by following the steps mentioned in this guide.

Check System Requirements

Check out the system requirements of the Stray game below to ensure whether your PC configuration is meeting the game’s system requirements or not.

Minimum Requirements:

Fix: Stray Stuttering and Lags Badly

Fixing in-game lags or frame drop issues isn’t easy because it depends on multiple factors, such as PC hardware, the display resolution of the game, maximum FPS limit count, conflicting third-party apps, and more. So, we recommend you follow all the methods one by one until the problem is fixed or reduced. Changing the in-game graphics-related settings or keeping them low can fix several problems in a jiffy.

It may include the Screen Resolution of the game, in-game Texture Resolution, Shadow Resolution, Maximum Frame rate, number of Characters Displayed, or other visual effects that require higher graphics or memory. So, you can follow the steps below to try reducing the lags or frame drops to some extent depending on which resolution and quality you’re playing the game, apart from FPS count.

1. Use Launch Options

• Open your Steam client > Go to Library > Right-click on Stray.
• 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

Run the game exe file as an administrator to avoid user account control regarding privilege issues. It would be best to run the Steam client as an administrator on your PC. To do this:

• Right-click on the Stray exe shortcut file on your PC.
• Now, select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
• 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 Stray game task.
• Select Set Priority to High.
• Close Task Manager.
• Finally, run the Stray game to check for the issue.

5. Verify Integrity of Game Files

If there is an issue with the game files and somehow it gets corrupted or missing, then make sure to perform this method to check for the issue easily. To do so:

• Launch Steam > Click on Library.
• Right-click on Stray 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

Make sure to change the graphics card settings on the PC by following the steps below to check if the problem has been fixed or not.

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 ‘Stray’ 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 help if you tried disabling it by following the steps below:

• Locate Stray game directory.
• Find and right-click on the Stray.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 Stray

If you haven’t updated your Stray game for a while, follow the steps below to check for updates and install the latest patch (if available). To do this:

• Open the Steam client > Go to Library > Click on Stray 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 > Close the Steam client may take some time.
• Finally, reboot your PC to apply changes and relaunch the game.

That’s it, guys. We assume this guide is useful to you. For further queries, you can comment below.