Crusader Kings 3 lag stuttering crashing fix – Crusader Kings III is a dynasty simulator by Paradox Interactive which is set in the Middle Ages. That game is a direct sequel to Crusader Kings and Crusader Kings II that were released in 2004 and 2012 respectively.
Just like the previous games Dynasties in Crusader Kings 3 can form cadet branches that have their own heads and they are mostly independent from their parent dynasty. The heads of dynasties will be able to use a new resource known as Renown to assert their control over their house.
The biggest difference this time is that the characters in Crusaders Kings 3 have full-body, 3D-rendered character models instead of 2D portraits. They all have traits that affect their stats and behavior. Taking choices that go against a character’s traits will increase that character’s stress. Characters will be able to select one of five lifestyles to follow. Each lifestyle has three skill trees that allow characters to enhance skills related to that lifestyle. Crusader Kings 3 has a map that is about 4X more detailed than the previous one and is slightly larger too.
Now that you know what Crusader Kings 3 is all about, lets move straight to the performance of the game on the PC platform. The problem is that a lot of people expect games that look like these to be very light. But that is not the case every time, at least not with Crusader King III. The game is fairly demanding and requires you to have at least a mediocre gaming PC. With that being said, the game does have some performance issues. And players have already started complaining about them. Therefore here is a basic guide to fix some of those.
Crusader Kings 3 – Lag, Stuttering and Crashing fix
Crusader Kings 3 – Official System Requirements
Compare the minimum and recommended system requirements of Crusader Kings 3 with the specifications of your system.
| MINIMUM | RECOMMENDED | |
| OS Architecture | Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system | Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system |
| OS | Windows® 8.1 64 bit or Windows® 10 Home 64 bit | Windows® 10 Home 64 bit |
| Processor | Intel® iCore™ i5-750 or Intel® iCore™ i3-2120, or AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1055T | Intel® iCore™ i5- 4670K or AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2400G |
| RAM | 4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics Card | Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 (1 GB), or AMD® Radeon™ R7 260X (2 GB) or AMD® Radeon™ HD 6970 (2 GB), or Intel® Iris Pro™ 580 | Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1650 (4 GB) |
| Storage | 8 GB available space | 8 GB available space |
Update Video Drivers
Neither Nvidia nor AMD, have released optimized drivers for Crusader Kings 3 yet. But we would still recommend that you update your drivers just to be on the safe side. Here are the links:
Crusader Kings – Best Graphics Settings
We are still fiddling with the graphics settings of Crusader Kings III. This section will get updated soon.
Update : Click here to check out the Best Graphics Settings guide for Crusader Kings 3.
Verify the in-games files of Crusader Kings 3 via Steam
You can actually verify the in-game files of the game to check whether your system is missing any files that might be causing the game to crash or freeze:
- Go to your Steam Library
- Right click on Crusader Kings III
- Select Properties
- Click on the Local Files tab
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game File
Disable Nvidia GeForce Experience Overlay (For Nvidia users)
Recently I have noticed that a lot of Nvidia services would pop up whenever I turn on the Nvidia In-Game Overlay. You won’t realize until you check properly that there are a lot of these services and though individually they are consuming very little percentage of your CPU, when you combine them it is a hefty chunk. So try turning it off.
- Launch Nvidia Geforce Experience
- Click on the Settings icon on the top right corner
- Select the General Tab
- Turn of In-Game Overlay
- Restart your system
Preferred Graphics Processor (For Nvidia Laptop users)
A lot of players actually play games like Crusader Kings on their Laptops. If your laptop features a Nvidia graphics card inside then you need to make sure your laptop is using that instead of the low powered integrated one.
- Just open Nvidia Control Panel
- Click on Manage 3D settings located on the left side
- Select the Program Settings tab
- Under “Select a program to customize” select Crusader Kings 3
- If it is not there then click on Add and then select it
- Now set “Select the preferred graphics processor for this program” to “High-performance NVIDIA processor”
Disable Steam Overlay
The Steam Overlay is recently causing problems in a lot of games. Try turning it off.
- Go to you Steam Library
- Right-click on Crusader Kings 3
- Select Properties
- Under the General tab, check the box next to Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game
Turn off Windows 10 Background Recording
The Captures tool on Windows 10 often tend to take up a lot of resources and the Background Recording feature always records in the background while you are playing any game. So turn it off would immediately give you a boost. Here is how to do it:
- Open Windows Settings
- Click on Gaming
- Select Captures
- Turn off Background Recording
Close all overclocking applications
If Crusaders III is freezing a lot for you then chances are it is being caused by an overclocking application or utility running in the background. A lot of games have been suffering from this issue lately due to applications like MSI Afterburner. So it is best to stay on the safe side and run your graphics card on default speeds.
Wait for Performance patches from Paradox
Crusader King 3 is a brand new game. Bugs and performance issues are pretty common in games during launches. So expect a ton of patches and updates from the developers. All you have to do is be patient and wait for the developers to address the issues. We are pretty sure that they will be releasing a patch to fix the stuttering and freezing issues pretty soon.
These are all the fixes we have right now for the problems in Crusader King 3. Below are some important links. Try checking them out.
Important Links
- Here is link to the official forums of Crusader King 3
- Here is a link to the official Steam Discussions page of Crusader King 3
If you think this guide had helped you then let us know in the comment section below. Also, If you have some fixes that are guaranteed to work then also you can comment below. We will put it on this article. Good luck!
That’s all folks!
Last Updated on September 2, 2020
Shoaib, 30, is a simple guy who loves to play video games, and enjoys new cuisines sporadically. He has been gaming since he was 7 years old, and with an experience of 22 years, under his belt, there is not a single AAA game in this world, that he hasn’t played. Despite being a MBA Graduate he decided to follow his passion. And because of his love for gaming, Frondtech came into existence.