How to Fix Dead Island 2 Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing Constantly on PC

The users are experiencing stuttering, lagging, & freezing issue while playing Dead Island 2 on their PC. This problem can arise due to a variety of factors, such as outdated drivers, low RAM, insufficient disk space, or incompatible graphics settings. Additionally, issues with the game files or conflicts with other running applications can also contribute to this problem.

To fix your lagging issue, you need to update the drivers, free up disk space by removing unwanted files or applications, close any other running applications, disable any overlays or unnecessary background services, verify the integrity of game files, and perform a clean install of the game can fix any issues with corrupted or missing files.

In this article, we have come up with all the effective solutions with detail that can easily solve your problem.

How to Fix Dead Island 2 Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing Constantly on PC

To fix your Dead Island 2 freezing issue, you need to;

Check Dead Island 2’s system requirements and confirm your PC has the required specifications.
Install DirectX Runtime and Visual C++ to make sure game components are not missing or outdated.
Ensure that you are not under-clocking or tweaking the GPU with any third-party app.
Run the Epic Launcher and Game as an administrator,
Set High Priority in Task Manager.

If the problem still persists, then try the below potential fixes;

1. Update the GPU Driver

An outdated display driver is a common culprit for Dead Island 2 stuttering, lagging & freezing problems on your PC. This can prevent the game from launching. Updating your display driver is an effective solution to this problem. To update the GPU drivers, follow the below steps;

Press Win + X on the keyboard and then click on Device Manager and expand Display adapters.
Right-click on the graphics card, and click on Update driver.

Choose Search automatically for drivers and update the driver.

In order to update the GPU driver, NVIDIA and AMD do release game-specific updates that you can download and install on your PC. But it takes time and if you are a newbie who doesn’t have skills then you might end up downloading the wrong drivers.

So, we suggest downloading Driver Easy software to update your graphics card driver quickly and efficiently. Unlike the device manager, it can update all drivers with a single click and has a broader database for detecting the latest drivers.

3. Force Use the Dedicated GPU

In case your PC has two GPUs, then switch to the dedicated GPU on which you want to play the game. This can help you to resolve your issue. To do so, just follow the below steps.

Nvidia:

Right-click on the desktop screen.
Open Nvidia Control Panel.
Go to 3D Settings.
Click on Manage 3D Settings.
Open Program Settings.
Select Dead Island 2 from the list.
Select High-Performance Nvidia Processor as the preferred graphics processor for this program.
Make sure to save changes and reboot the PC.

AMD:

Right-click on the blank desktop screen.
Open Radeon Settings.
Head over to Additional Settings.
Go to Preferences.
Click on Power.
Click on Switchable Graphics Application Settings.
Select Dead Island 2 from the list (If the game is not visible, select Add Application to include the game)
Select High Performance from Graphics Settings.
Finally, reboot the PC to apply changes.

3. Close Unnecessary Background Programs

When your PC runs too many things in the background, it will fail to give the expected gaming performance. So, disable some of the background activities by following these ways to boost the frame rate in Dead Island 2:

Press CTRL + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.
Go to the Processes tab.
Select the process you want to turn off and then click on End Task.

Disable other non-essential processes in the same way.

Keep in mind that you should only disable the services you are familiar with. Killing any essential services may bring new problems.

4. Change GPU Settings

Make sure to change the graphics card settings on the PC by following the steps below to check whether the problem has been fixed.

For Nvidia:

Open up Nvidia’s Control Panel > Right-click on the desktop screen.
Click on Nvidia Control Panel > Click on Manage 3D Settings.
Select Program Settings > Find ‘Dead Island 2’ and manually add the game if it’s not in the list:
- Monitor Tech: G-Sync (If available)
- Maximum Pre-rendered frames: 2
- Threaded optimization: On
- Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
- Texture Filtering – Quality: Performance

For AMD:

Monitor Tech: G-Sync (If available)
Maximum Pre-rendered frames: 2
Threaded optimization: On
Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering – Quality: Performance

5. Disable Fullscreen Optimizations

Full-screen optimization and DPI settings are the default ones on Windows. You should try disabling it by following the steps below:

Locate the Dead Island 2 game directory.
Find and right-click on the Dead Island 2.exe file.
Select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
Checkmark the ‘Disable Full-Screen Optimizations’ box.
Now, click on the ‘Change high DPI setting button.
Checkmark the ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior’ > Select ‘Application’ from the drop-down menu.
Click on Apply and then OK to save changes.

6. Disable V-Sync in Nvidia Control Panel

To avoid graphics issues while playing Dead Island 2, it’s recommended to use Vertical Sync in the Nvidia Control Panel software for smoother gameplay.

Open the Nvidia Control Panel by selecting it in the Start menu. Visit the Microsoft Store and install it if it isn’t already there.
In the Nvidia Control Panel interface, select 3D Settings and then Manage 3D settings.

Choose Program Settings > Add and choose Dead Island 2 from the list of applications.
Now, scroll down to Vertical sync and click it > OFf to make it inactive. This will require the Dead Island 2 game to always utilize V-Sync and then restart your PC.

After applying all these steps, restart your computer to apply changes and play the game to check for the issue again.

Disable FreeSync (For AMD Users)

Stuttering or lagging & even stuck on loading while playing Dead Island 2 on your PC could be caused by FreeSync technology. Developed by AMD, FreeSync syncs the game’s frame rate with the display’s refresh rate to eliminate screen stuttering and tearing.

Open the AMD Radeon software on your PC. You can do this by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting “AMD Radeon Settings” from the context menu.
Once the AMD Radeon software is open, navigate to the “Display” tab in the top menu.
Find and click on the “FreeSync” option in the left-hand menu.
In the FreeSync section, you will see a toggle switch labeled “AMD FreeSync.” Simply toggle the switch to the “Off” position to turn off FreeSync.
After turning off FreeSync, click on the “Apply” button to save the changes.

Apply these steps, restart your PC, and launch Dead Island 2 to see if the screen flickering or tearing issue is resolved.

7. Clean Temp Files

Those who have not deleted the temp files for a long time might also face the issue. If you don’t know, the temp files contain the startup files of the system and the apps. To do so, just follow below the steps

Open Run -> %temp% -> Select All -> Delete.

8. Play with Low Settings

If you still don’t get the expected FPS from Dead Island 2, we suggest you lower the preset quality. Also, turn off various in-game graphics features to see if it improves the frame rate per second.

9. Roll-back GPU driver

Press Win + X on the keyboard and then click on Device Manager.
Right-click on the GPU driver and go to Properties.
Go to the Driver tab and then click on Roll Back Driver.

Click on OK.

10. Upgrade The RAM

You can also upgrade the RAM on your system to troubleshoot the problem. You might be thinking that by upgrading the RAM, how we will be able to resolve the problem. When you upgrade your RAM with more than 8GB of RAM, the game will get more than enough resources to run properly, by which the issues will be resolved.

These are the most effective ways you can follow to fix the frame-dropping problem on Dead Island 2. If the issue still exists, re-install the GPU driver. Also, update Windows 11 or 10 to the latest version.