A guide to improve performance, increase frame rate, and fix stuttering, freezing, low fps in Death Stranding.
Death Stranding, the legendary game of Hideo Kojima, is now on PC with its brand new features and graphic enhancements. Of course, these marvellous graphics may cause performance issues on some computers.
Anyway, players with performance problems in Death Stranding are able to find their way out by following the steps in my fps boost guide.
Can I run Death Stranding on my PC?
| Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 | Intel Core i7-3770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 |
| GPU | GeForce GTX 1050 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 560 4 GB | GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon RX 590 |
| RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage | 80 GB available space | 80 GB available space |
| OS | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
1) Update Your GPU Drivers
The drivers are important for performance. If you want to play Death Stranding smoothly, you need to update your video card drivers. New drivers are available for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.
Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx
AMD: https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/radeon-software
2) NVIDIA Control Panel & AMD Radeon Settings
Nvidia users:
- Open NVIDIA Control Panel
- Go to the Adjust image settings with preview tab.
- Click the “Use my preference emphasizing“
- Put the bar in Performance mode.
- Apply
- Click the Manage 3D settings
- Click the Program Settings
- Click the Add
- Select the Death Stranding from the list, then click on the “Add Selected Program” button.
- After, make the following settings
Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
Texture filtering – Quality: High Performance
Vertical sync: Off - If you have a notebook, make sure you have selected the “High-performance NVIDIA processor” on preferred graphics processor.
- Apply and close the NVIDIA Control Panel.
AMD users:
With a slight change in AMD Radeon Adrenaline software, you can increase performance.
Just follow these: AMD Radeon Adrenaline Software > Gaming > Graphics > Advanced > Texture Filtering Quality > Performance
3) Memory Leak Fix
The “Intelligent standby list cleaner” application will monitor and clear the memory standby list when it is > 1000mb (1gb). It will help players to fix stutters in games.
- Download the Intelligent standby list cleaner
- Run the 7-zip file.
- Extract to a folder.
- Go to the that folder.
- Run the “Intelligent standby list cleaner ISLC” application.
- Check the “Start ISLC minimized and auto-Start monitoring”
- Also, check the “Launch ISLC on user logon”
- Now, click on the Start button
- Minimize
4) Fullscreen Optimizations & High DPI
You should disable full screen optimizations on Windows 10 because it doesn't work properly and negatively affects performance.
- Launch Death Stranding
- ALT + TAB
- Open the Task Manager
- Right click on the Death Stranding process
- Select "Go to details"
- Right-click on the exe of Death Stranding (ds.exe)
- Select "Open file location"
- Right click on ds.exe file
- Select Properties
- Tick “Disable full-screen optimizations” on the Compatibility tab.
- After that, click on the “Change high DPI settings” button.
- Under the “High DPI scaling override” section, tick the “Override high DPI scaling behavior“
- Use the “Scaling performed by:” drop-down menu and select the “Application”
- Click on the OK and again OK.
5) Game Mode & Game Bar
The game mode and game bar in Windows 10 cause performance problems and crashes in many games. So I suggest you disable them.
- Select the Windows Start button, then select Settings
- Go to Gaming
- On the Xbox Game Bar tab, turn the Game Bar off.
- On the Captures tab, turn the “Record in the background while I’m playing a game” off.
- On the Game Mode tab, turn the Game Mode off.
6) Power Options
You can increase performance by increasing the power available to the computer.
- Type Power into the Windows search bar
- Select the Power & sleep settings
- Click the Additional power settings
- Select the High performance (or Ultimate Performance if you have) on the Preferred plans section.
- Click on the OK
7) Windows Performance Options
If your PC barely runs Death Stranding, you can optimize your system for performance.
- Type performance in the search section of Windows, click to Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows from the results.
- Select the Adjust for best performance from the options in the Performance Options window that opens.
- Click OK
8) Cleaning Temporary Files
- Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
- Type %temp%
- Press Enter key.
- Delete everything in the Temp folder that opens. You can skip undeleted.
- Again, Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
- Type temp
- Press Enter key.
- Delete everything in the folder that opens.
- Again, Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
- Type prefetch
- Press Enter key.
- Delete everything in the Prefetch folder that opens.
Finally, empty the Recycle Bin
9) CPU Core Unparking – Reducing Stutter
Quick CPU (CPU core parking manager) is a program that stops windows from limiting your CPU power. Unparking cores of CPU allows DEATH STRANDING and other games to have full access to your processor.
I’ve never heard of this program causing any problems. Nevertheless, you have all the responsibility!
- Download the Quick CPU
- Unzip and install it (x64 folder)
- Run the Quick CPU
- Set “System power plan” to High performance (or Ultimate)
- Set “Core parking index” to 100%
- Set “Turbo boost index” to 100%
- Set “Frequency scaling index” to 100%
- Apply.
10) High CPU Usage Fix
If the CPU usage is around 100% while playing DEATH STRANDING and you experience freezing/stuttering issues, it is possible to fix that by limiting your CPU.
- Download and install the Process Lasso
- Run the Process Lasso application.
- Launch the game.
- Go to the Process Lasso app and find the exe of DEATH STRANDING (ds.exe) in “All processes” list.
- Right-click on ds.exe and select the CPU Limiter
- Set the “When CPU use is” to 98
- Set the “Reduce by this many CPU cores” to 1
- Below the “Reduce by this many CPU cores”, set the “For a period of” to 1
- Click on the Add Rule button.
- Finally click OK button and play the game.
11) Best Graphics Settings for Performance
Basically I would say: Set DLSS to performance, turn off V-sync and cap frames to 60.
System > Options > Graphics Settings
| Minimum System | Performance | |
| Screen Mode | Full Screen | Full Screen |
| Vsync | Off | Off |
| Maximum Frame Rate | 60 | 60 or more |
| Graphics Quality | Low | Very High |
| Model Detail | Low | High |
| Memory for Streaming | Low | Default |
| Shadow Resolution | Low | Medium |
| Ambient Occlusion | Off | On |
| Screen Space Reflections | Off | Off |
| Nvidia DLSS | Performance | |
| FidelityFX CAS | Off | Off |
| Anti-Aliasing | Off | FXAA |
12) Controller
Are you playing the game with the controller? If so, try disabling vibration in controller settings (go all the way to the bottom).
It seems that the controller causes stuttering. If the stuttering problem continues even though the vibration is off, I suggest you unplug the controller and play Death Stranding with keyboard & mouse.
In addition, I recommend installing the DEATH STRANDING on the SSD (if possible), optimizing Discord and closing unnecessary services & programs for better gaming performance.
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