Horizon Zero Dawn lag and fps drops fix – Horizon Zero Dawn has finally made its way to the PC platform. The game was initially released exclusively for the PS4 back in 2017. It arrived for Windows in the month of August of 2020.
To be honest, console ports rarely end up being perfectly optimized these days. They ship with a ton of bugs and performance issues. Horizon Zero Dawn runs quite well for the most part though. Still some players have already began reporting various performance related problems.
Horizon Zero Dawn PC – Lag and FPS drops fix
Compare the minimum system requirements of Horizon Zero Dawn with your System Specifications
Lets start by taking a look at the minimum system requirements of Horizon Zero Dawn PC. Because after taking a look at the minimum system requirements of the game you should be able to tell whether this game is suitable for your system or not.
Horizon Zero Dawn – Minimum Requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bits
- Processor: Intel Core [email protected] or AMD FX [email protected]
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB)
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 100 GB available space
I don’t know who listed these as the official system requirements of Horizon because there is no way that this game runs smoothly on a FX 6300. Detroit Become Human and Death Stranding has similar requirements but even people with RTX 2070s and RX 5700s were having a tough time running the titles without any lag or fps drops when they initially came out on PC. Even the recommended requirements of the game are not accurate if you ask me. If you want to play Horizon at maximum settings without any lag then here are the hardware specifications that you need :
Recommended (by Frondtech):
- OS: Windows® 10
- Processor: Intel™ Core i5 8400 or AMD Ryzen™ 5 1600
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1660 ti or AMD Radeon™ RX 5600 XT
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 80 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Disable Xbox Game Bar
It has been a while since Microsoft introduced the Xbox Game Bar feature on Windows 10. Sadly it still causes fps drops in some games. I am not sure if your fps drops in Horizon has anything to do with the game bar or not, but it is better to keep it off. Here is how to do it:
- Open Windows 10 Settings menu
- Click on Gaming
- Select Xbox Game Bar from the left sidebar
- Turn it off
- Restart your game launcher
Disable Game Mode
Game Mode is another feature that got introduced in Windows 10 but it is a complete hit or miss. In some games this features helps while it causes performance issues in some. So it is better to turn it off. Here is how to disable game mode:
- Open Windows 10 Settings menu
- Click on Gaming
- Select Game Mode from the left sidebar
- Turn it off
- Restart your game launcher
Turn off Steam Overlay
The Steam Overlay is recently causing problems in a lot of games. Try turning it off.
If you want to turn off Steam Overlay for all your Steam games then:
- Open the Steam client
- Navigate to the Steam Settings
- Select the In-game tab
- Un-check the box next to Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
If you want to turn off Steam Overlay only for Horizon then:
- Go to you Steam Library
- Right-click on Horizon Zero Dawn
- Select Properties
- Under the General tab, check the box next to Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game
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
These are all the fixes we have for people who are experiencing lag and fps drops in Horizon Zero Dawn.
If Horizon Zero Dawn is crashing for you then check out this guide.
If Horizon Zero Dawn is stuttering or freezing for you then check out this guide.
Click here to check out the Official Steam Discussions page of Horizon Zero Dawn.
That’s all folks!
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.