God of War FPS drops and Stuttering issues on Windows PC [Fix]

Here is a comprehensive guide to fixing FPS drops and stutter in God of War on Windows 11/10. God of War is a popular action-adventure game played by millions of gaming enthusiasts. While it works well for some, many PC users have reported experiencing FPS drops with the game. It degrades game performance, leaving you frustrated. If you are experiencing the same issue, this guide is for you. In this post, we will show you several working fixes to help you resolve the issue.

Before we discuss solutions, letus examine what might cause FPS drops in God of War.

What causes FPS drops in God of War?

Here are the potential causes of FPS drop in God of War:

If you have not installed game patches for God of War, you might experience performance issues with the game, including FPS drop. If the scenario applies, install all available game patches to resolve the issue.
An outdated graphics driver is a common reason for FPS drops in video games. Hence, ensure that you have updated graphics drivers on your PC to fix the issue.
If you have set the Balanced power plan on your Windows PC, it may cause gaming performance issues. In that case, you can simply change your PC’s power plan to Best performance to resolve the issue.
Your in-game graphics or graphics card settings may also cause the issue. Try optimizing your in-game graphics and GPU settings to resolve the issue.
The overlay feature can also disrupt normal gameplay in God of War. To resolve the issue, disable overlays.

There may be other underlying causes of the problem at hand. In any scenario, you can resolve the issue by following the below fixes.

Fix God of War FPS drops and Stuttering issues on Windows PC

Here are the methods that you can try to fix FPS drops in God of War on Windows PC:

Install the latest game patch.
Make sure your graphics driver is updated.
Modify your power plan.
Optimize in-game graphics settings.
Change your graphics card settings.
Disable overlays.
Turn off background recording and Xbox Game Bar.

Let us discuss the above fixes in detail now.

1] Install the latest game patch

The first thing you should do is ensure you have installed the latest God of War patch. The developers regularly release updates for the game. These updates or patches address bugs and improve overall performance. Hence, ensure you have installed all available game patches.

After downloading and installing any available patches, relaunch the game and check whether the FPS issue has been resolved. However, in case you still receive the same problem of FPS drops, move on to the next potential fix to resolve it.

2] Make sure your graphics driver is updated

The graphics driver plays a crucial role in video games. If you have outdated or faulty or corrupted graphics drivers on your system, it can deteriorate the performance of your games and cause FPS drops. If the problem is happening with other games as well, you are most likely dealing with an out-of-date graphics driver. If the scenario applies, to resolve the issue, you will need to update your graphics driver.

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To update graphics drivers, these are the methods you can use:

You can simply use the Optional Updates feature which is present under the Settings > Windows Update section to update your graphics drivers.
You can also use the conventional method to update your graphics drivers. Just visit the official website of the device manufacturer and download and install the graphics driver from there.
One more method is to use the native Device Manager app to quickly update GPU card drivers using the below steps:
- Launch the Device Manager app from the Win+X menu.
- Navigate to Display adapters, then expand the menu.
- Right-click on your graphics card.
- Click on the Update Driver option.
- Go ahead with the onscreen instructions to complete the update process.
Use a free driver updater that allows you to update all your drivers including graphics drivers automatically.

When done updating the graphics driver using one of the above methods, you can restart your PC and then try launching the God of War game. Hopefully, the FPS drops are resolved now.

If your graphics driver is up to date and you still see the issue, try the next fix to resolve it.

3] Modify your power plan

This problem might also be caused if you have set your PC’s power plan to Balanced. To get the best performance from your PC during gaming, you need to select the “Best performance” power plan. If the scenario applies, set your PC’s power plan to Best performance, then see whether the problem is fixed.

Here are the steps to set your PC’s power plan:

Firstly, open Settings using Windows+I hotkey and then go to the System > Power & battery section.
Now, click on the Power mode drop-down button and then select the “Best performance” option.
Finally, relaunch God of War and see if you are able to play without FPS drop.

4] Lower in-game graphics settings

In many instances, your in-game graphics settings can also trigger FPS drops during gameplay. Try lowering the in-game graphics settings to see if that resolves the issue. Simply launch God of War and then navigate to its settings and the graphics settings section. Here are the settings you need to change:

Texture quality: Low
Model quality: Original
Anisotropic Filter: Minimum
Shadows: Original
Atmospherics: Low
Ambient Occlusion: Disable
Film Grain: lower it to 0 if necessary
DLSS: Balanced
FidelityFX Super Resolution: Quality

After optimizing in-game graphics settings, relaunch the game and see if the issue is resolved or not. If not, try the next solution to resolve it.

5] Change your graphics card settings

Besides in-game graphics settings, you can also try changing your graphics card settings and see if the problem is fixed.

For Nvidia users, here are the steps to do so:

Firstly, right-click on empty space on your desktop and choose NVIDIA Control Panel from the context menu.
Now, go to Manage 3D Settings from the left pane and go to the Program Settings tab.
In the Select a program to customize: section, simply add the God of War executable in the program list.
Next, in the Specify the settings for this program section, change the following settings:
Max Frame Rate: Select a frame rate below your monitor’s current refresh rate.
OpenGL rendering GPU: Set it to your Nvidia GPU
Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
Low Latency Mode: Ultra
Vertical sync: Fast
Texture filtering – Quality: Performance
After that, press the Apply button to save the changes.

Similarly, other graphics card users can adjust their settings to resolve the issue.

6] Disable overlays

The overlay feature can also cause the issue at hand. Hence, try disabling overlays to fix the problem. To disable overlays on Steam, you can try the below steps:

First, start the Steam client and go to your LIBRARY section.
Now, right-click on the God of War game title and then select the Properties option.
Next, from the GENERAL section, simply disable the Enable Steam Overlay while in-game checkbox.
After that, try playing God of War and see if the FPS is improved or not.

If you use the overlay feature with apps like Discord, NVIDIA GeForce Experience, or Twitch, disable the option and see if the issue is resolved.

7] Turn off background recording and Xbox Game Bar

The Background Recording and Xbox Game Bar features let you record gameplay on Windows 11/10. But, it can also cause the FPS drop issue with your game. Hence, try disabling the background recording and Xbox Game Bar feature to resolve the issue. Here are the steps to do that:

First, press Win+I to open up the Settings app.
Now, go to the Gaming tab and click on the Xbox Game Bar option.
Next, disable the Open Xbox Game Bar toggle using this button on a controller.

That’s it!

How do I improve my God of War PC performance?

You can improve your God of War performance by doing some tweaks, like playing it at Low or Original resolution, keeping the Model Quality to Orignal or High, setting the Anisotropic Filtering to High or Ultra, setting the Shadows to Original or High, etc. You can turn off Reflections. If you need this option, set it to High for the best performance.

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