10+ Best Methods to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering Lag and FPS

Like many other games, Dark Souls 3 also gives updates from time to time. But the recent update wasn’t as good as expected. This is because many players are experiencing FPS drops, game lag, stuttering, and some other bugs and errors.

Dark Souls have a huge fan base across the world, and these stuttering issues made the fans upset and many started complaining about the same. They stated the following as the most commonly encountered problems in the game: –

  • Stuttering, 
  • Crashes: Particularly at the first bonfire, as well as random crashes,
  • FPS issues: Like low FPS and FPS drops,
  • Control Compatibility issues, and 
  • Some other graphics-related flaws. 

As a user of Dark Souls 3 and by keeping all these in mind I have made this post for people who are very desperate to get rid of the Dark Souls 3 Stuttering, FPS, and Lagging problems. I have covered almost all possible ways to resolve these issues.

Dark Souls 3
Dark Souls 3

But before trying these methods, please make sure that you are having a compatible system with proper requirements for Dark Souls 3 because only these requirements can get you results as expected and the game will obviously lag or stutter anymore.

Don’t know the system requirements for Dark Souls 3? No worries I have got you covered. Below we have mentioned both minimum as well as recommended system requirements needed to run the game smoothly.

How to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering Lag Crash Fix
How to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering Lag Crash Fix

Dark Souls 3 System Requirements for PC

To play the game effectively, make sure you fulfill the system requirements listed below. If you still have problems with the game, check out the ways listed further. Here are both the minimum and recommended requirements for Dark Souls 3.

PC Minimum System Requirements for Dark Souls 3:

  • CPU: Having an Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD FX-6300 is a minimum.
  • RAM: A 4 GB is a must.
  • OS: Windows 7 with 64 bit.
  • Graphics Card: You can have an NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 750 Ti card or ATI Radeon HD 7950 card, both give the same results.
  • Shaders: Pixel Shader 5.0 and Vertex Shader 5.0
  • Sound Card: Sound cards like DirectX 11 are a must. 
  • Disk Space: 25GB should be free.
  • Video RAM: Should be at least 2048 MB.
  • Network: 100MBPS broadband connection.

(Related – Useful Counter-Strike 1.6 Launch Options)

PC Recommended System Requirements for Dark Souls 3:

  • CPU: It is recommended to have an Intel Core i7-3770.
  • RAM: 8 GB RAM.
  • OS: Windows 10 with 64 bit.
  • Graphics Card: The NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 970 card is best for giving you optimal graphic quality without glitches.
  • Shaders: Pixel Shader 5.1 and Vertex Shader 5.1
  • Sound Card: DirectX 11 card. 
  • Disk Space: 50 GB free space.
  • Video RAM: 4096 (2048 + 2048) MB.
  • Network: 100MBPS broadband connection.

Note: Before trying the below methods please make sure to at least have the minimum requirements in your PC or computer for Dark Souls 3. 

How to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering, Lag and FPS Boost – 13 Easy Methods

There are many issues when you play games, especially games like Dark Souls 3, PUBG, and others. To overcome these issues or bugs or errors in Dark Souls I have listed all the possible ways that I think are the best possible solutions for various problems you are facing.

1) Boosting the Low FPS on Dark Souls 3 by Having New Drivers

FPS: Frames Per Second, this is nothing but how many frames or images your monitor needs to show. And it is recommended to set your FPS to 60 when playing Dark Souls 3, for having a better gaming experience without lags or glitches.

You can improve your FPS and fix it by installing new drivers like NVIDIA or AMD or Intel. All you need to do is visit the official site and install the new and updated driver on your PC or you can check out for Advance Booster Pro on the Internet. It automatically scans and updates your drivers to the latest version.

Download Latest Version of Drivers using Driver Booster Pro
Download Latest Version of Drivers using Driver Booster Pro

2) Low FPS Fix for Dark Souls 3 on Xbox 360 Controller

Sometimes you may face Low FPS issues all of a sudden in Xbox, this may be because your drivers are not up to date. So it’s better to check that your drivers are up to date, if not you must update them from your device manager section of Xbox 360. And if the issue isn’t resolved, it is better to contact the support team and they might help you out.

3) Fixing the Dark Souls 3 Stuttering Crash

Crashing will not let you play the game as you expected. Your game will entirely stop or get frozen in the middle of your play. Here are a few to get rid of this,

  • The best way to do this is by lowering the effects, light, and shadows in the game settings.
  • You can also resolve this issue by reinstalling the game again.

We have already covered some best settings for Dark Souls 3 to boost FPS and reduce stuttering. You can try those settings as it will drastically reduce the stuttering in the game.

4) Fixing the Dark Souls 3 Stuttering Crash in Full-Screen Mode

Many people have also complained that the game is lagging when they are playing it in full-screen mode. The best way to resolve this is to shift to windowed mode, this can be done from game options.

If this doesn’t work from the game options you need to do this from the GraphicsConfig.xml file. Remember that you need to restart the game once you have shifted to windowed mode.

5) Dark Souls 3 Fix for Overlay Crash

Generally, overlay softwares will work in the background for some PC games, but they are not always compatible with the game.

There might be a chance that the overlay software which is running in the background may cause the game to drag, or freeze, or crash all of a sudden. You can disable this overlay software, and see if the game works properly or not.

(Related – Free Roblox Accounts and Password with Robux)

6) Some Other Possible Fixes for Dark Souls 3 Stuttering 

Stuttering usually occurs when there is a delay between your GPU processing and the image shown on your screen. This makes the game slow, laggy and frames also skin sometimes.

There are a few ways that can help you solve this stuttering;

1) You can disable the Human Interface Devices (HID), every system has multiple HID devices but most of them are not required, and having more HID devices may have an effect on your gaming. Thus you can disable the HID devices by running a command named ‘devmgmt.msc’ which will give you the list of all HID devices. Now, just disable all the HID devices from the Device Manager.

Disable All HID Compliant Devices to Fix Stutters in Dark Souls 3
Disable All HID-Compliant Devices to Fix Stutters in Dark Souls 3

2) Many people have also claimed that this can be resolved by disabling the ‘Device Association Service’. And this can be disabled by running the ‘services.msc’ command on your PC. When you find the Device Association Service just click on the properties and change the Startup type to Disable.

Disable Device Association Service to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering
Disable Device Association Service to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering

7) Fixing the Controller Errors in Dark Souls 3

As controllers make gaming easy, most people use these controllers when they are playing games. But the issue with controllers is that when it’s used on a PC the game may not get synchronized properly with it, thus resulting in lagging.

This can be resolved by uninstalling the Xbox 360 peripherals for Xbox controllers, or other peripherals for the respective controller. You can do this from the device manager.

Disable Xbox 360 Peripherals to Fix Controllers Error in Dark Souls 3
Disable Xbox 360 Peripherals to Fix Controllers Error in Dark Souls 3

8) Fixing Dark Souls 3 Stuttering Crash at High Resolution

Sometimes the game will crash when you are using high-resolution graphics. For this you can lower your graphics to 1080p, this consumes less performance space and your issue will get resolved.

9) Fixing Dark Souls 3 Lag with Network Resetting

In many situations, Dark Souls 3 lag is caused by issues with network settings like the router’s cache. And to overcome this issue, the router’s register must be reset regularly.

For this, turn your router OFF and leave it off for roughly 5 minutes. Now restart your router and access the internet as usual. This clears the router’s cache, which may have been cluttered if the router has been active for a long time.

Reboot your Router to Clear Router Cache
Reboot your Router to Clear Router Cache

10) Clearing the Dark Souls 3 Game Cache for Speed

You can clear the game cache by running the ‘%localappdata%’ command in your Run dialog box. It will open a folder that contains a cache of different applications running on your System. You can delete all the files or just for Dark Souls 3.

Delete All LocalAppData Files to Clear Cache
Delete All LocalAppData Files to Clear Cache

This improves the FPS, and the game will not lag. But after doing this you need to change your graphic settings as this will get changed once you have cleared the cache.

11) Making Dark Souls 3 Run Smooth without Stuttering

You can make the game run more smoothly by changing your battery settings. For this, you must change the Battery Power Plan from Balanced to High Performance. This will aid to give more resources for applications to run the game properly.

Change Power Plan to Maximum Performance
Change Power Plan to Maximum Performance

12) Update to New Patch for Stopping Dark Souls 3 Stuttering

Dark Souls 3 releases new patches once, in a while, this is done to optimize performance and improve game behavior. You must remember that it is mandatory to stay updated with the Latest Patch.

(Related – Best PS4 Emulators for PC – Windows 10/8/7 Free Download)

13) Connecting Through a Dedicated Network

Some third-party applications like KillPing can help you with this. Kill Ping offers a dedicated route for Dark Souls 3, ensuring that the players are linked to Dark Souls 3 via a less busy network path. Furthermore, dedicated servers give gamers a lowering ping time and provide a much smoother and improved online gaming experience.

You can also watch the below video that shows how you can fix Dark Souls 3 stuttering, lag, crashes and other problems: –

How to Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering, FPS and Crashes

Fix Dark Souls 3 Stuttering – Related FAQ

As a person who has faced the Dark Souls 3 Stuttering, you might have many questions in your mind. Thus to help you with those here are some FAQs asked on the internet on the same.

Why is Dark Souls 3 Running Slow on My PC?

Well, there are many possible reasons for Dark Souls 3 to run slow. Here’s a list of a few such possible reasons: –

1) Your PC may not be compatible with Dark Souls 3.
2) Your drivers may be outdated.
3) You may not have a proper internet connection.
4) The FPS might have changed.
5) Maybe you haven’t set up the game as required.

Not only this there are many more. However, it is not possible to know the exact reason for Dark Souls to slow down. So, it’s better to have a thorough look over all possible reasons to get better results.

Is There Any Dark Souls 3 Lag Fix Patch Available?

Yes, every game releases new patches to fix the existing issues, so does Dark Souls 3. The game developers always upload new patches every once in a while. The recent updates were made on August 25th, 2017 for both Xbox and Windows. If you want more information about this update you can check on the Dark Souls 3 Patches website. An announcement was made on July 7th, 2021 that the Xbox series will be getting new updates for Dark Souls 3.

Why Dark Souls III Stutters After a Few Seconds?

The drivers installed on your computer are either not operating correctly or are corrupted, which might cause Dark Souls 3 to stutter. Additionally, the drivers should be updated to the most recent version, as gaming companies always optimize the game to the most recent version.

How Can I Stop Dark Souls 3 from Stuttering?

If you’re having stuttering, keeping the game FPS halfway between the min and max FPS range can drastically minimize stuttering because your CPU or GPU won’t have to work as hard as it is working now.

How Can I Make Dark Souls 3 Run Smoothly?

You can try out all the above-mentioned methods in this post and see the results yourself. It is always recommended to try out all the possible methods you can because sometimes the reason behind stuttering can be unknown.

Final Words

Dark Souls 3 Stuttering has always been a major issue for players. Thus if you are also facing the same you can follow the methods mentioned above. You must see great results with these methods. But, if you are not able to get proper results and your game still lags or stutters, it’s time for you to upgrade your PC.

Didn’t get the results as expected? Dark Souls 3 has a fantastic community, you can try out the Dark Souls 3 Forums and ask the community about your issue. Hopefully, they will help you out. If not, you can place them in the comments section below and we aim to respond shortly.

Leave a Comment