Owning a beefy PC gaming is bliss, but having a gaming rig can also be a curse. Considering how many hardware combinations there are in the market and how fast the development is, recently released games such as the popular horror game Dead Space remake might be getting too tough to handle especially for older PCs, causing lag, visual stuttering, and annoying frame drops. Although any proper fix is better done on a case-by-case basis (according to each specific specs), these are the 10 guidelines you should do if you encounter lag, stuttering, and frame drops in the Dead Space remake.

1. Lower the Graphics or Video Settings

This one is an obvious answer, but PC games these days keep pushing your gaming hardware capabilities — either with a justified result or not. Some PC users also often still overestimate their older rigs’ performance. For that reason, the easiest and first thing you should do is to tweak and reduce all the Graphics Quality options one by one until you reach the desired performance. Switching from Medium to Low can even boost your FPS by up to 10%.

And although the official Minimum system requirements often overshoot the “actual minimum” spec you need to run a game, taking a peek and following it never hurts.

2. Close All Unnecessary Background Applications

As I mentioned before (and as you can see from the system requirement above, I mean 16 Gigs of RAM?!), AAA games are very spec hungry these days. It is advised that you do not multitask when playing them and you should close all unnecessary applications to fix lag when running the Dead Space remake. Discord and Chrome (especially if you open a lot of tabs) are well-known apps that eat quite a lot of your PC’s memory. Other than that, you might want to close other unused game launchers like Epic Games, EA Play, Battle.net, and Uplay.

3. Turn On/Off V-Sync and Frame Rate Limit

Screen-related issues like screen tearing and stutter in games including Dead Space remake usually happen when your monitor’s refresh rate and GPU’s frame rate are different and not in sync, causing a visual error. As you can expect, the V-Sync option in game settings will attempt to sync them by locking the game’s frame rate to a stable one up to 60 FPS.

If you have already turned it on, try disabling it (as well as the Frame Rate Limit) instead to make the game run at a higher FPS. To change the V-Sync option, simply open the Dead Space in-game settings menu and look for the V-Sync option.

4. Check Your TV or Monitor Refresh Rate

Sure, the higher your TV or monitor’s refresh rate, it can display higher FPS. However, if your hardware isn’t compatible with the high refresh rate, it could end up causing issues instead. Therefore, you should try checking and changing the TV or monitor’s refresh rate from 120Hz or higher to 60Hz.

5. Turn On G-Sync (Nvidia User)

For PC players who’re using Nvidia graphic cards, try turning on the G-Sync feature. Right-click on your desktop to open the Nvidia Control Panel. Under the Display tab, set up G-Sync and click the Enable G-SYNC/G-SYNC Compatible check box.

6. Turn On Vertical Refresh (AMD User)

If you’re an AMD GPU user, right-click on your desktop, open the AMD Radeon Settings, and click the Wait for Vertical Refresh menu to Always on.

7. Update Your Graphic Card Driver

Updating the GPU driver might fix visual or rendering-related errors like lag, stuttering, and frame drops when running the Dead Space remake. If you use Nvidia cards, you can install the latest drivers by downloading them through the GeForce Experience app or the Nvidia site. Meanwhile, AMD users would want to download their drivers from AMD.com. You can also manually update your driver by:

  • Open the Windows Start menu.
  • Search for Device Manager.
  • Search for Display adapters.
  • Right-click on your GPU’s name.
  • Select Update driver.
  • Wait until it finishes, then restart your PC.

8. Do a Clean Install of Your Graphic Card Drivers

Sometimes, for some reason, the automatic installation of your GPU driver can cause a problem. At that point, you will have to do a clean reinstall of it; the easiest way to do it is by using DDU, Display Driver Uninstaller, from Guru3D.

9. Verify the Integrity of Dead Space Files

Corrupted or missing game files might also cause stuttering in the Dead Space remake. Here’s how you can repair the game files through Steam:

  • Go to the Library.
  • Select Dead Space.
  • Click the gear icon (Manage menu) on the right-hand side of your screen. Or right-click Dead Space from your games list.
  • Pick Local Files.
  • Choose Verify integrity of game files… menu.

10. Give Admin Privileges to the Dead Space Remake Executable

Giving the game’s executable file admin privileges might help bypass some update issues. Go to your Dead Space remake installation folder, right-click on the Deadspace.exe, select Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and in the Options, check the Run this program as administrator box. Click Apply to save the changes.

Dead Space Remake vs Dead Space: What’s New?

Dead Space Remake is now available for PC via Epic Store, Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.