Fix Destiny 2 Lag, FPS Drops, Crashing And Freezing [Updated 2023]

This article mainly focuses on the performance of Destiny 2 on PC, so if you are a console player, then, unfortunately, we don’t have anything for you here. I have been noticing a few performance issues in-game. Though the game never crashed for me, but I noticed the frame rates have significantly dropped for me, and this was more noticeable in Crucible, where even a single fps drop could cause you to lose a fight. So I went ahead and checked the forums and saw that a lot of players have been complaining about the performance of Destiny 2 lately. Lag, fps drops, insanely low fps, crashes, random freezing, everything was there.

How to fix Destiny 2 Lag, FPS Drops, Crashing And Freezing

Check whether your PC specifications are enough to run Destiny 2 or not

Let’s take a look at the system requirements of Destiny 2:

Minimum Requirements Recommended Specifications
Operating System
Windows® 7 / Windows® 8 / Windows® 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
Windows® 7 / Windows® 8 / Windows® 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
Processor: Intel
Intel® Core™ i3 3250 3.5 GHz or Intel Pentium G4560 3.5 GHz
Intel® Core™ i5 2400 3.4 GHz or i5 7400 3.5 GHz
Processor: AMD
AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz
AMD Ryzen R5 1600X 3.6 GHz
Video: NVidia
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 2 GB or GTX 1050 2 GB
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970 4 GB or GTX 1060 6 GB
Video: AMD
AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB
AMD R9 390 8 GB
Memory
6 GB RAM
8 GB RAM
Hard Drive Space
105 GB available hard drive space
Internet
Broadband internet required

Just because the game was so well optimized and ran so smoothly, I never actually bothered to check the recommended specifications for the game, but when I did, I realized that Destiny 2 is actually a pretty heavy game. A game that requires a Ryzen 5 1600X and a GTX 1060 6 GB to run at 1080p 60fps is no joke.

Check whether your graphics drivers are updated or not

Here are the links to the latest drivers for AMD and Nvidia graphics cards:

  1. Nvidia Drivers
  2. AMD Drivers

Best Destiny 2 Graphics settings [Updated 2023]

So, as I told before, I went ahead and ran Destiny 2 on a very basic and mediocre gaming PC in order to come up with a combination of settings that is a good balance between decent visuals and good performance. Here are the full specifications of our rig:

  • CPU : Ryzen 5 5600x
  • GPU : MSI GTX 1650
  • RAM : 16GB DDR4 3200mhz
  • HDD : 1 TB SSD

Here are the settings that we thought gave the best performance without sacrificing much on the visuals part:

Go to Settings > Video

  • Window Mode : Fullscreen
  • Resolution : 1920 x 1080
  • V-sync : Off
  • Framerate Cap Enabled : Off
  • Field of View : 90
  • Anti-Aliasing : FXAA
  • Screen Space Ambient Occlusion : Off
  • Texture Anisotropy : 4x
  • Texture Quality : Medium
  • Shadow Quality : Low [A resource hungry setting]
  • Depth of Field : Low
  • Environment Detail Distance : Medium
  • Character Detail Distance : High
  • Foliage Detail Distance : Medium
  • Foliage Shadows Distance : Medium
  • Light Shafts : Medium
  • Motion Blur : Off
  • Wind Impulse : Off
  • Render Resolution : 100%
  • Chromatic Aberration : Off
  • Film Grain : Off

Best Destiny 2 graphics settings

To test these settings we spawned in one of the most graphically demanding locations in the entire map, which is Watcher’s Grave on Nessus. I noticed that the fps boost was almost close to 15 minimum. I was getting 60+ fps in most of the areas. Though, I would still recommend that you bring your settings all the way down to low if you want to do good inside the crucible playlist.

Tweaking settings in Nvidia Control Panel

The first thing you should do is click on ‘Adjust image settings with preview‘ located on the left side under 3D settings and make sure that ‘Use the advanced 3D image settings‘ is selected. Now:

  1. Click on Manage 3D settings on the left bar
  2. Click on the Program Settings tab
  3. Locate Destiny 2 from the drop-down menu under “Select a program to customize”
  4. If you cannot find it on the list, then click on the Add button, and another list will appear
  5. If you still don’t see Destiny 2, then you need to add the .exe file manually. Just click on Browse
  6. Locate the folder where you have installed the game
  7. Select the executable file or the .exe file, which in this case should be Destiny2.exe
  8. Once added, the program settings will now be available for the game
  9. Now make the following changes:
    • Image Sharpening : Off
    • Threaded Optimization : On
    • Power Management : Prefer Maximum Performance
    • Low Latency Mode : Off
    • Texture filtering – Quality : Performance

Leave everything else untouched. Apply the settings and restart your PC once.

AMD Adrenalin 2023 Settings for Destiny 2

Click on Global Graphics.

  • Radeon Anti-Lag : Disabled
  • Radeon Boost : Disabled
  • Image Sharpening : Off
  • Anti-Aliasing Mode : Use Application settings
  • Anti-aliasing Method : Multi-sampling
  • Morphological Filtering : Off
  • Anisotropic Filtering : Disabled
  • Texture Filtering Quality: Performance
  • Surface Format Optimization: Enabled
  • Tesselation Mode: AMD Optimized
  • Wait for V-sync: Off
  • OpenGL Triple Buffering: Off
  • Shader Cache: AMD optimized
  • Maximum Tesselation Level: Off
  • GPU Workload: Graphics
  • Radeon Chill: Off
  • Frame Rate Target Control: Disabled

Update your Windows 10 or Windows 11 OS

If you are a Windows 10 or 11 user, you might be using a version that is old and buggy. Microsoft releases updates for Windows 10 and 11 sporadically. So the version or build of the OS you are currently sitting with, might not be an optimized one. Or you might be using a buggy update that is harming the performance of your system.

Microsoft is now known for releasing buggy updates, and the problem has only gotten bigger on Windows 11. Just go and check Reddit. You will get an idea of the scenario. So check whether you have pending Windows updates or not and update your OS. Here is how to do it:

  1. Go to your Windows Settings
  2. Click on Update & Security
  3. Click on Check for updates
  4. Wait until all the updates are installed
  5. Restart your PC

Increase the Priority of Destiny 2 from the Task Manager

This method is quite silly, in my opinion, but it surprisingly works.

  • Launch Destiny 2
  • Press Alt+Tab to minimize the game
  • Open Task Manager
  • Click on Details tab
  • Search for the process called Destiny2.exe from the list
  • Right-click on the process and Set Priority to High
  • Click on the View tab on your Task Manager
  • Change Update Speed to High

Performance issues for AMD Ryzen 5000 users

If you recently upgraded to one of the newly launched AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, then chances are you are struggling to get Destiny 2 to run on your PC. A few threads started popping up on the Destiny 2 forums and reddit claiming that Destiny 2 is not working properly on AMD Ryzen 5000 processors. This started mainly after the arrival of Beyond Light.

The good news is Bungie is well aware of this issue, and they are trying to figure out the root cause of this problem. So, all you have to do is be patient and have faith on Bungie.

Terminate all overclocking applications or utilities running in the background

Looks like Destiny 2 is one of those games that gets affected by the silliest things that otherwise shouldn’t cause any issue whatsoever. If by any chance you are experiencing micro stutters and random freezing in Destiny 2 or the game is crashing for you, check whether you have any overclocking application like Afterburner running in the background or not. If you are a person who likes to overclock his graphics cards to squeeze out some extra performance, then there is bad news for you. It looks like Destiny 2 gets affected by overclocking as well, so just to be on the safe side, try to avoid CPU or GPU overclocking.

Update 12/24/2023

If you have a weak Processor, and Destiny 2 is constantly stuttering for you. Then, I would suggest that you disable all sorts of overlays. I am talking about Steam, Nvidia GFE, etc. Overlays, nowadays, eat a lot of CPU as they come with multiple features.

Disable Nvidia Desktop Capture and Windows Background Recording.

  1. Open the Nvidia GFE Overlay (by pressing is Alt + Z).
  2. Click on Instant replay and turn it off so that we can change the settings.
  3. Open the settings with the cog on the right.
  4. Scroll down and click on the “Privacy control” tab.
  5. Disable “desktop capture”. This prevents you from using instant replay on your normal desktop.

To Disable Win Background Recording:

  1. Press Win + G to open the Xbox Game Bar. If you see this circular arrow, then background recording is enabled.
  2. Open the Settings menu by clicking this cog.
  3. Click on “Capturing”.
  4. Uncheck the box next to “Record in the background while I’m playing a game”

[Note: All the methods listed above are basic troubleshooting methods. Some may work for you, and some may not. We have not included any advanced method because we do not want people to mess with the in-game files as it might cause the game to break down completely]


That’s all, folks!

Last Updated on December 24, 2023