The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope – Guide to fix Crashing, FPS Drops, Stuttering and Lag

The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope is a third-person survival horror video game in which the player assumes control of five characters who are trapped in a ghost town. Throughout the game, the player needs to choose different dialogue options, which will influence the course of the narrative and the relationships between the protagonists. The game can be played multiple times, as there are multiple endings and multiple scenarios based on the decisions that the players make. Depending on the choices of the players, all characters may die by the end of the story. Action sequences mainly feature quick time events, most of which, if missed, can lead to dire consequences for the characters. [Source]

The game is crashing for some players, while some are experiencing lag, fps drops and random stutters whenever they are trying to play on their PCs. Is there a fix? Lets find out.

The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope – Guide to fix Crashing, FPS Drops, Stuttering and Lag

Check the system requirements of the game and compare them with your Specifications

  • Minimum:
      • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
      • OS: Windows 10 64bit
      • Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD FX-8350
      • Memory: 8 GB RAM
      • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 8570
      • DirectX: Version 12
      • Network: Broadband Internet connection
      • Storage: 80 GB available space
  • Recommended:
      • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
      • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
      • Processor: Intel Core i5- 8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
      • Memory: 8 GB RAM
      • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580
      • DirectX: Version 12
      • Network: Broadband Internet connection
      • Storage: 80 GB available space

You need a GTX 1060 paired with an i5-8400 to play the game on 1920×1080 resolution at 60 FPS.

Have you updated your graphics drivers

Here are the links to the latest drivers for AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. They might not be specifically optimized for Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope, but it is recommended to have the updated ones. Majority of the crashing issues in games are caused by video driver. So get the new ones:

  1. Nvidia Drivers
  2. AMD Drivers

Graphics Settings Guide for The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope

  • Resolution : 1920×1080
  • Screen Mode : Fullscreen
  • V_Sync : Off
  • AA Quality : Medium
  • SSAO : Off
  • Texture Quality : Medium
  • Shadows : Normal
  • Depth of Field : Normal
  • Limit Framerate to 30 FPS : Off
    dark pictures anthology little hope-graphics settings

Specifications of our Test Rig

  • CPU : Intel i5 9400F
  • GPU : Zotac GTX 1050 ti
  • RAM : 16GB DDR4 3000mhz
  • OS : Windows 10 64-bit (Latest Update)
  • SSD : 256GB (Game not installed on SSD)
  • HDD : 1 TB 7200 rpm
  • Monitor Resolution : 1920×1080
  • Driver : GeForce Game Ready Driver v457.09

The game is well optimized and I had no issues getting constant 60 FPS on a GTX 1050 ti. You shouldn’t have any problem even if you have a GTX 1050.

Terminate all overclocking applications or utilities running in the background

If by any chance you are experiencing micro stutters and random freezing in The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope 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 a bad news for you. It looks like Dark Pictures Anthology gets affected by overclocking as well so just to be on the safe side try to avoid CPU or GPU overclocking.

Upgrade your DirectX version

If The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope is not launching for you, there is a chance that it is because you are running a DirectX version that is lower than DirectX 11.

How to check the DirectX version on your PC

Here is how to check the DirectX version that your OS is running:

  • Press Ctrl+R or Windows key+R on your keyboard
  • Type “dxdiag” and press Enter
  • A dialog box will appear and at the bottom of the list your DirectX version will show up

How to download the latest DirectX version

  • Go to the official Microsoft DirectX download page. Here is the link
  • Choose language
  • Now click on the download button
  • Once the download is completed, open the “dxwebsetup.exe” file
  • Follow the instructions
  • Restart your PC

Use Game Mode (For Windows 10 users)

Game mode prevents Windows Update from performing driver installations and sending restart notifications and it also helps your system towards achieving more stable frame rates depending on the specific game and system.

How to turn on Game Mode

Here is how to turn on Game Mode:

  • Press the Start button
  • Click on Settings
  • Select Gaming
  • Now select Game Mode for the side bar
  • Turn Game Mode On

Update your OS if you are using Windows 10

If you are a Windows 10 user then you should definitely consider updating your OS. The recent Windows 10 updates have already caused loads of problems for a lot of AAA titles. From high CPU usage to constant stuttering while playing games or running heavy applications, people had to face everything.

Thankfully, Microsoft has already released an update that fixed the problem mentioned about. But who knows, there might still be some users who have not updated their Windows since then out of fear and are still facing performance issues. So check whether you have pending Windows updates or not and then update your OS. Here is how to do it:

  • Go to Settings
  • Go to Update & Security
  • Click on Check for updates
  • Wait for the updates to get installed
  • Restart your PC

Verify the in-games files of Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope 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 The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope
  • Select Properties
  • Click on the Local Files tab
  • Click on Verify Integrity of Game File

Disable all overlays

Close all the different overlays that you have enabled on your system. That include Steam, Discord, Nvidia GFE, AMD. Overlays are known to cause stutters in many games. So try to avoid them if your system is not high powered.

Reinstall the game

Do this only if none of the methods mentioned above work out for you. Files get corrupted during installations quite often. So a fresh install might fix the issue. This the last option you should consider.

These are all the fixes we have right now for the problems in The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope.


That’s all folks!

Last Updated on November 1, 2020

1 thought on “The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope – Guide to fix Crashing, FPS Drops, Stuttering and Lag”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *