Watch Dogs Legion stuttering freezing – Watch Dogs Legion is an open world action-adventure game by Ubisoft. It is one of the most anticipated and hyped games of 2020 without a doubt. And people are excited now that it has been finally launched.
There is no denying that Legion is a really great game. But that doesn’t take away the fact that this game has some performance issues. People have already started complaining about the constant stuttering and freezing they are experiencing while playing the game. So, here are some fixes you can try to fix the problems.
Watch Dogs Legion | Stuttering and Freezing fix for PC
It is very obvious that Watch Dogs Legion is an extremely demanding title. And you can easily tell that by looking at the system requirements of the game. You need a Ryzen 5 1400 paired with a GPU that has 4 GB VRAM minimum to play this game at the lowest possible settings, that to, at 30 fps. This guide is for people who know that they have a good enough gaming PC and still they are experiencing issues. If you have an under-powered rig, then this guide won’t be of any help to you.
Before you move further into the guide, make sure you take a look at the minimum and recommended requirements of Watch Dogs Legion. And also download the drivers optimized for the game. You can check out the system requirements from here. Nvidia users can download the latest drivers from here or via GeForce Experience. AMD users can download the latest drivers from here.
Watch Dogs Legion – Optimal Graphics Settings
Check out my guide on the settings of Watch Dogs Legion. I have tried to cover everything that would help you run the game properly, even on a low-end PC
Overlays and Notifications
Ubisoft Connect
If you are playing Watch Dogs Legion from Ubisoft Connect, then you need to turn off the in-game overlay and the desktop notifications. These notifications pop up randomly on the right side of your screen and could make full screen applications stutter.
- Go to Ubisoft Connect Settings
- Select the General tab
- Uncheck “Enable in-game overlay for supported games”
- Uncheck “Enable post game notifications for upcoming releases, events, promotions and additions to my games”
Epic Games Launcher
If you are playing Watch Dogs Legion from Epic Game Launcher, you have to do the exact same thing
Just go to the settings menu of Epic Games Launcher. Scroll down to the “Desktop Notifications” section and uncheck the boxes beside “Show Free Game Notifications” and “Show News and Special Offer Notifications”.
If you have other overlays, like from Nvidia GeForce Experience or AMD Adrenaline, try turning them off as well.
Windows 10 features
There are a lot of features or utilities that are installed by default on Windows 10, and they keep running in the background, hogging a ton of resources, without you having any idea about it.
For example – If you have Background Recording enabled on your system, then it can cause micro stutters and freezes. Basically, the feature constantly records in the background when you are playing a game. If you do not have a powerful processor, then the best thing would be to disable it. You can do that by heading over to the “Gaming” settings located inside the Windows Settings menu. There you should find something called “Captures” on the left. Click on it and disable the Background Recording feature inside it.
The Xbox Game Bar is another feature you need to disable. Go to Windows Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar. Turn it off.
And finally the Game Mode feature, 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
Try Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling
If you have the latest build of Windows 10 (2004) then you should make use of the brand-new feature called hardware-accelerated gpu scheduling. If you have a decent graphics card, then you might actually benefit from this. To turn it on, head over to the Windows 10 settings menu and click on “System”. Select the Display tab from the left, scroll down, and you will notice an option called Graphics Settings at the bottom. Click on it and turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling. You will have to restart your system after you have made the changes.
Other than these, you can try re-installing Watch Dogs Legion completely.
If none of the steps mentioned above work for you, you can check out some of the steps on the other the performance guides for Watch Dogs: Legion. The steps mentioned there are not mentioned here and vice versa.
If the problem you are facing is a serious one, then go here and submit a case to the Ubisoft support. And don’t forget to check out the Ubisoft Forum for Watch Dogs Legion.
If you think this guide had helped you, then let us know in the comment section below. Also, if you are facing other problems with the game, then try checking out our other guides on Watch Dogs: Legion. Who knows, you might end up finding a fix.
That’s all folks!
Last Updated on July 7, 2021
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.