Just Cause 4 Performance Guide – Fix Lag, FPS Drops and Stuttering [Updated]

Just Cause 4 (JC4) lag, fps drops, stuttering fix – Just Cause 4 is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Avalanche Studios. The game is set in an open world environment where the players get to play as Rico Rodriguez. It is the fourth game in the Just Cause series and the sequel to 2015’s Just Cause 3.

The game is set in a place called Solis. Rico Rodriguez takes on the Gabriella Morales, a newly introduced character, and her private army known as The Black Hand. When Rico is shown evidence that his late father was a part of The Black Hand, He decides to visit Solis, the homeland of the Black Hand in search of answers.

Key Features:

  • Skydiving, Base Jumping and Free Diving with no limits
  • Extreme weather conditions which includes Tornadoes
  • Fully open world experience. Rain-forests, deserts and snowy mountain peaks
  • Huge variety of vehicles including military jets, helicopters, sports cars and construction vehicles
  • Different methods and ways of Destruction

Even though Just Cause 4 is well optimized, the series has always been on the heavier side. Some players have been reporting lately that they are witnessing stuttering here and there in the PC version of the game and as a result their experience is getting affected as a whole. Players have been witnessing lag and fps drops as well. It is not as bad as Just Cause 3 but still could get annoying at times. Here is how you can fix any sort of lag, stuttering or fps drops in Just Cause 4 for PC:

Just Cause 4 Performance Guide – Fix Lag, FPS Drops and Stuttering

Step 1: Minimum System Requirements of the game

Make sure to check if your system meets the minimum system requirements that are required to run this game or not. Here are the system requirements for Just Cause 4:

Minimum:

    • OS: Windows 7 SP1 with Platform Update for Windows 7 (64-bit versions only)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz | AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (2GB VRAM or better) | AMD R9 270 (2GB VRAM or better)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 59 GB available space

Recommended:

    • OS: Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz | AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.2 GHz or equivalent
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (6GB VRAM or better) | AMD Vega 56 (6GB VRAM or better)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 59 GB available space

Step 2: Updated graphics drivers

Download the latest and exclusive graphics drivers. Outdated drivers could be the reason of performance loss at times. Both Nvidia and AMD have already released their latest drivers optimized for Just Cause 4. Here are the links to the latest drivers for AMD and Nvidia graphics cards:

  1. Nvidia Drivers
  2. AMD Drivers

Step 3: Best graphics settings for optimal performance

Go to Option>Graphics

  • Set Shadow Quality to Low
  • Turn V-Sync Off
  • Set Anti-aliasing to FXAA. Turn it Off if the game is blurry.
  • Set LOD Factor to Medium
  • Turn Motion Blur Off
  • Turn Screen Space Reflections Off
  • Set Texture Quality to Medium
  • Set Anisotropic level to 8x

These graphics settings would let you enjoy the game at decent frames per second without compromising much on the visual quality level.

Step 4: Tweaking Nvidia Control Panel

[Note : This step is for Nvidia users only]

  • Open Nvidia Control Panel
  • Click on Manage 3D settings > Program Settings > and locate the JC4.exe from the installation folder.
  • Set Power Management to Prefer Maximum Performance
  • Set Texture Filtering to Performance
  • Enable Threaded Optimization
  • Set Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames to 1
  • Set Monitor Technology to G-Snyc (Only if you have a Nvidia G-sync Monitor)

Step 5: Task Manager

  • Start Just Cause 3
  • Press Alt+Tab to minimize the game
  • Open Task Manager
  • Click on Details tab
  • Search for JC4.exe from the list.
  • Right click on the process and Set Priority to High or Realtime.
  • Right click on the process again and click on Set Affinity. Now Tick CPU 0 only and untick all the other CPUs. (Works better with Intel processors)

Update (Updated Methods)

Now that Epic has decided to make Just Cause 4 completely free on their store, we decided to give this two year old guide an update.

Step 6: Verify the in-game files [for Epic Games Launcher users]

Verifying the files of Just Cause 4 could also fix any sort of performance issue that you are having. Here is how to do it:

  • Open Epic Launcher
  • Go to your Library
  • Take your mouse pointer on Just Cause 4
  • Click on the Settings icon beside the Launch icon
  • Click on Verify
  • Restart the launcher after the process is completed

Step 7: Run Epic Games Launcher with administrator rights

Launching the Epic Launcher with administrator rights might solve your problems. Here is how to do it:

  • Go to the folder where you have installed Epic Games Launcher
  • Right-click on EpicGamesLauncher.exe and select Properties
  • Go to the Compatibility tab
  • Click Change settings for all users
  • Under Privilege Level, check Run this program as administrator
  • Click Apply

Step 8: Adjust your AMD Control Panel Settings (Radeon users)

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

If you think this guide had helped you then let us know in the comment section below. Also, If you are facing problems that are not mentioned on this article then also you can comment below. We will try come out with a fix. Good luck!


That’s all folks!

Last Updated on April 14, 2020