Watch_Dogs 2

Watch_Dogs 2

88 ratings
How to possibly fix lag and stuttering
By liamgporter
This guide will hopefully help some people fix the stuttering, micro stuttering, and lag that they are experiencing when playing Watch_Dogs 2.
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Option 1: The Obvious Solutions
Id like to state that this guide may be outdated in some aspects. I made it on a Christmas where i had struggled getting it to run on some medium end hardware for the time. Its christmas once again, and I have a new build and havent played the game in years. I hope some of it may still help those who might find trouble, even if the solutions are dead obvious. Thank you guys, and have a lovely 2024 :)

Tweak the graphical settings

Turn down the graphical settings. Duh.

Nvidia have made a comprehensive performance guide[www.geforce.com] which goes over in depth what each graphical setting does, and how it will affect your gameplay. I highly suggest viewing this if you are using low end hardware.

Shut down background processes

The game is poorly optimized when it comes to utilizing the CPU. I have an i7 6700 and it runs at around 85-100% most of the time. You're gonna want to close down any CPU heavy applications. This could be anything. Look in task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and take a look at what programs are using the CPU while playing. Be careful to only shut down programs you have installed, and not any windows processes. That wont end nicely.

Update your video card drivers

I feel that this is a must. Keeping your drivers up to date means that you bring security, stability, and optimizations for your system. Out of date drivers may be riddled with bugs that cause instability when playing. Updating should solve some of them. If you're not comfy with doing this then dont worry. Most cards automatically update to the newest driver anyway, but if that isnt the case then heres some links to get you going.

Nvidia driver download[www.nvidia.co.uk]
AMD Driver download[support.amd.com]

If it ain't broke, dont fix it. Right?

Raise the processes priority

Open up task manager when in the main menu of watch dogs 2 and go onto the "Details" tab on task manager. Set the priority to "Above normal" or "High". Do not select realtime, as this will possibly cause system instability.
Option 2: The Not So Obvious Solutions
Tweak your .xml file

Hooray, lets fiddle around the game files.
  • Open up the file explorer and locate where your watch dogs 2 game profile is. The usual location is as follows.

    "C:\Users\[user]\Documents\My Games\Watch_Dogs 2"

  • Once you're there, you will see a file called "WD2_GamerProfile.xml". Go ahead and right click this and open with notepad or notepad++, whichever you prefer.

  • Next what you're going to want to do is hit Ctrl+F and search for "DeferredFxQuality". The text we need should be highlighted. What should appear is DeferredFxQuality=console. Go ahead and change "console" to "pc". Hit save and exit the document.

  • To make sure that it stays like that, we need to make the file read only. Right click "WD2_GamerProfile.xml" go down to properties and open that up. Tick the box at the bottom that says "read only" and exit.

If you're on Windows 10, make sure the game runs in compatability for Windows 7

Looking over a few reddit threads and some steam discussions I have come across multiple fixes that worked for different users. In this case, Win10 users. This actually worked for me, or lessened the lag/stuttering that i was experiencing.

Firstly, locate where your Watchdogs2.exe file is. The most common path is usually as follows, but you can adjust this for where you installed it.

"C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Watch_Dogs2\bin"

Right click "WatchDogs2.exe" and hit properties. Under the "Compatability" tab there should be a drop down menu. Click Windows 7, hit apply and exit.

OPTIONAL: Run program as admin. No idea if this will help, I done it anyway.

Download and use the Ultra texture pack

Only do this if you know you can run the HD textures, otherwise you will see a decrease in FPS!

The textures must be bugged for some users, as this has helped many. This was also a problem in the first watch dogs game, and this seemed to fix it.

Ultra HD Textures download

Set launch options

Find Watch_Dogs 2 in your library. Right click and hit properties. Click "Set launch options" and enter as follows

-disablepagefilecheck

Put the game on an SSD

This will decrease load times massively. It also helps when driving around the city, and it eliminates a good portion of the stuttering.

Overclock your CPU


This game will require every ounce of CPU performance you can throw at it. If you are able to overclock your CPU, do so within boundaries. If you overclock and dont see any improvents, revert back to your original clock speed.

Heres a little guide on overclocking your CPU[www.techradar.com]


Option 3: The Unwanted Solution
Upgrade your hardware

This is applicable for almost any major game that is being released nowadays. I know its costly and not everyone has the cash to build a beefed up PC. My rig is as follows:

  • CPU: i7 6700
  • GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
  • RAM: 12GB DDR4 Ram

For this game it is essential to have a good processor. Im unsure how good it runs on low-medium range GPU's, but right now it does seem to be CPU's being the main problem.

The game ran like poop anyhow. The fixes above helped me majorly and I hope it helps you guys too. If you're experiencing problems still, post your hardware and your problem below. Im sure that you wont be the only one with that problem. I'll keep the post updated when more fixes/workarounds come about.

For low end gamers

LowSpecGamer makes amazing videos on how to tweak games to run smoothly on a low end machine. Here's his Watch dogs 2 video. Check it out!

Happy hacking!!

Disclaimer: These fixes may not work on your computer. Everyones got a different experience.
51 Comments
fallout360510 30 Jul @ 1:22pm 
the problem is Windows 11 24h2
Caradepollo 23 Jul @ 7:33pm 
banda perdi mi cuenta de ubitsoft que me recomiendan hacer para poder jugar de nuevo?
i_am_gross 28 Jun @ 9:37am 
The game is flickering, I can't fix it in the settings, I play through cloud gaming geforce now with RTX 4080
TizerisT 31 May @ 3:24pm 
Quick question: Is cutting and pasting to the SSD ok or is a regular reinstall preferable?
A3mPlaFe 10 Apr, 2024 @ 3:36am 
DO NOT run games as administrator, this is a terrible idea ESPECIALLY since it has online elements. If there was a vulnerability in the game you could get totally pwn'd since the game's process has full admin permissions. Running games as admin will never give a performance improvement and will only lessen the security of your system. Not that it much matters in this case since EAC digs so far into your system it could be considered a rootkit :P
Bonus: EAC does tend to cause a lot of performance overhead on it's own, it's great!
krzyuno 30 Mar, 2024 @ 7:38pm 
if you want to run the game in high priority on windows 11, you can not use task manager due to anti-cheat software, you have to force windows when the .exe launches to high priority in the windows registry.

you can create a .reg file and just double click it with the following to import it to the windows registry or you can manually create the keys in the windows registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\watchdogs2.exe]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options/watchdogs2.exe/perfOptions ]
"CpuPriorityClass"=dword:00000003

i'm not going to go into detail for how to do this if you don't feel comfortable doing this, you probably shouldn't. their are you tube videos' out their that can walk you thru this.
Classy Car 23 Feb, 2024 @ 10:10pm 
I have a ryzen 5 5500 and a 1070ti and it still stutters when first loading in lol. CPU gets to around 80% or so for a couple of seconds and then stays around 50-60% (ultra settings).
Jorda229 13 Dec, 2023 @ 6:31am 
dxvk improved my fps and removed stutter even tho pcgamingwiki says dxvk will make it worse (I originally downloaded it to get rid of flickering on rtx cards)
liamgporter  [author] 3 Dec, 2023 @ 12:15pm 
Im now on an RTX 4080 and i9 13900k :)
Führer Waffles 1 Dec, 2023 @ 4:12pm 
CPU: i7 6700
GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
RAM: 12GB DDR4 Ram
dookie build lmaooo