I'm making this guide cause a lot of people still have FPS and stuttering issues on PC, and it is tiresome to explain the same thing over and over again to every individual. So sit tight, read it right, and let me know if you encounter any problems with anything I mentioned below. Skip the basics if you know your hardware specs. I've noticed that not everyone knows their hardware specs; therefore, I included it.
#Some [Tweaks] for FPS/Stuttering issues on PC
heavy tree
Basics:
Some people don't know their hardware specifications and it is imperative to understand that beforehand. You can get the required information from the task manager (press ctrl+shift+esc or right-click on the windows start button and click on Task Manager) and click on the performance tab on the left-hand side. You should know at least your CPU, RAM, GPU, and SSD or HDD.
If your RAM is less than 16GB, you will experience some stuttering, and there is nothing you can do other than add more. You are good to go if you have 16 GB RAM or more.
Make sure that game is installed on the SSD. This game will not run smoothly on HDD, no matter what you try. So please check that.
I can't list all the CPU and GPU info as there can be many different configurations but to run the game with an average of 60 FPS or more, your GPU is required to have at least 6GB VRAM or more. The game will still run with 4GB VRAM GPUs but not in a great way.
NVIDIA Control panel tweaks:
I'm doing it for NVIDIA cause all three of my machines have NVIDIA graphics, but there might be some equivalent settings in the AMD control panel as well. Open the control panel, click on "Manage 3D Settings" and change the following options:
DSR Factor: OFF (if it is not off, click on it and uncheck all the boxes inside)
Low Latency Mode: ON
Power Management Mode: 'Prefer Maximum Performance'
Shader Cache Size: '10GB'
```Hit Apply and close it.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------Windows tweaks:
Game Mode: Search "game mode" in the windows search bar, open it, and turn it on if it is not.
Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling: Search "graphics settings" in the search bar, open it -> click on "Change Default Graphics Settings" and make sure Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is turned on.
Exploit Protection: Search "Exploit Protection" in the search bar and set the value of "Control Flow Guard (CFG)" to Off by default.
This is because all the DX12-based games have memory leak issues and then on top of that, the control flow guard tanks the memory which results in a performance drop for everything that depends on memory. But if you are paranoid that it might not be safe to turn it off completely, you can add a custom rule for exception by clicking on the program settings tab in exploit protection -> add a program -> browse to the location where the game is installed and add 2 HogwardsLegacy.exe files, one is in Hogwarts Legacy folder and the other one is in Hogwarts Legacy\Phoenix\Binaries\Win64. Once added, you'll see it there, click on hogwardslegacy.exe ->edit->scroll down and find Control Flow Guard (CFG)->override system settings->off
Check for broken registries: Search "cmd" in the search bar and run as administrator. Type sfc /scannow and press enter. Once completed, you can close it.
Paging File: Setting a custom paging file can also help, but I'm leaving this out of this guide cause it depends on how much RAM you have and how much storage space you have available for paging (in either same drive as OS if you run single drive system or in a different drive if you have available). It shouldn't be an issue if your RAM is not always full. So you can skip it. But if you have less than or = 16 GB RAM and running a single-channel stick, you should consider setting up your paging file manually.
Engine.ini tweak:
Press win+R (opens Run). Type %appdata% and hit enter. It'll open the Roaming folder but you have to go one folder up to AppData (to do that, click on AppData on the top address bar).
Now open Local->Hogwarts Legacy->Saved->Config->WindowsNoEditor. Open the file called Engine.ini with a notepad, scroll down all the way bottom, and add this after leaving a couple lines of space.
DO NOT DELETE OR MODIFY ANYTHING FROM THIS FILE; ONLY ADD THE TEXT BELOW, AFTER LEAVING A COUPLE LINES OF SPACE.
[SystemSettings]
r.bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=True
r.GTSyncType=1
r.OneFrameThreadLag=1
r.FinishCurrentFrame=0
r.UseVSync=True
r.TextureStreaming=1
r.Streaming.PoolSize=3072
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1
r.MaxAnisotropy=8
r.DynamicShadows=True
r.MinShadowResolution=1024
r.MaxShadowResolution=3072
r.ShadowFadeExponent=1.0
[ConsoleVariables]
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesDuringGamethreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesEditor=1
Save the file and done.
In-game settings:
Okay now, it's time for the game settings that provide good visuals while also maintaining the performance. Sadly, it is going to be different for different CPU+GPU configurations. So I decided to test the settings below on an RTX 3060 laptop + Ryzen 7 5800H. The reason for this is 3060 mobile is a pretty average card. Not talking about the desktop, it is a laptop 3060. Laptop cards are not as powerful as desktop cards. So this configuration is like a mid. If your PC is better than this, you can still run the settings below without any problem at all, if you think your PC might not be better than this, you can turn down a couple settings depending on what you prefer.
In the graphics Options:
Effect Quality: 'High' (high looks better than Ultra, trust me)
Material Quality: 'Ultra' (Low Impact on performance)
Fog Quality: 'High/Medium' (High Impact on performance)
Sky Quality: 'Low' (High Impact on performance)
Foilage Quality: 'Medium' (Medium Impact on performance)
Post-Processing Quality: 'High' (Low Impact on performance)
Shadow Quality: 'Ultra/High' (Low Impact on performance)
Texture Quality: 'High/Medium' (High Impact on performance after some time)
View Distance Quality: 'Medium' (High Impact on performance)
Population Quality: 'Medium' (Medium Impact on performance)
``````diff
-Keep all the ray-tracing presets off. The game looks just as good, or even better in some instances without RT. So until devs omptimize the RT, don't use it (unless you have a top-end GPU)
In the Display Options:
Upscale Type: DLSS (if available)/FSR 2.0
Upscale Mode: DLSS 'balanced' (or 'quality', but there is not much of a difference)/ FSR 2 Quality
Upscale Sharpness: 0.3 with DLSS / 1 with FSR 2 (it is just a preference)
Frame Generation: ON (if available)
Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: ON
VSYNC: OFF
Framerate: Uncapped
Rest everything is preference.
heavy tree
UPDATE
In nvidia control panel settings, the option "Shader Cache Size" can be set to 10GB (instead of unlimited) for people who have 16GB RAM or more. Apparently that seems to be sufficient as well. Unlimited have no problem either but I do not see any difference with 10/100/Unlimited settings. However, if you don't have enough space in your drive or have 8GB RAM, you might need to set the shader cache size to 5GB.
Also for people who are able to run the game properly without any issue and have decent hardware, I have come across a method to make the visual experience even better (without reshades). But only for people who are able to run the game properly with at least consistent 60-70 fps. DM me if you are interested.
