So Tarkov is not the most properly optimized game… this we all know. I have looked all over for a proper guide to help remove stutters but nothing so far seemed either helpful or up to date. Recently I had a bad case of stutters and literally rebuilt my entire pc to find the problem (insane I know). On my journey to become stutter free I figured I would make a log/guide with everything I did to help rid myself of this disease. I will post my PC specs at the bottom for others to have a baseline of where my system is. The process takes some time but for me was well worth it and I have basically removes my stutters altogether. I hope this can help out a few people at least. So here we go.
- First of all for optimum performance Tarkov must be installed on an SSD.
- In Nvidia control panel go to manage 3D settings and under “global settings” turn power management mode to “Prefer Maximum Performance” this will ensure your clocks are running at their highest speeds (this can help you with ALL your games not just Tarkov)
- In Windows make sure your PC power setting is set to “High Performance” or the equivalent but make sure it’s NOT on balanced or power saver
- For Tarkov settings in game I followed ALL of the settings outlined by Chippawubba in this video- Its about 16 minutes and absolutely important. (I don't feel I need to include those in this post as my post contains other important fixes, but I can summarize if requested.) *My current settings
- Make sure the new "High quality color' option is UNCHECKED.
- If you are having trouble clearing your caches open the Tarkov launcher and click the dropdown under your username and click "Clear Cache" also wouldn't hurt to do an integrity check.
- Also while I understand monitoring FPS is necessary for this guide keep the in game FPS monitor off while actually playing, as I've had heard it can affect performance.
- Make sure you do a CLEAN driver install for your GPU, which means running *DDU (display driver uninstaller) and reinstalling your driver. For optimum performance the NVidia driver I found that ran best for me was *456.55 your experience may vary but I highly recommend this version.
- Also make sure you GPU is running in PCIe x 16 mode, open GPUZ and look for "Bus Interface" if it says anything les than x 16 or less than 3.0 after it, you will have to either reseat your card or move to a different PCIe slot.
- Make sure your computer has no corrupt files as well. Run your command prompt as administrator and execute these two commands separately to scan and FIX any errors with your OS. "DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth" "sfc/scannow" (Make sure to leave out quotation marks and run each command separate. Wait for the first to finish before running the second.)
- Download and install Memory cleaner, once installed go to options and check "Trim process working set when usage exceeds 80%" and also check "Trim processes working set every 5 minutes."
- For POTENTIAL additional performance open task manager when Tarkov is running, go to the details tab and scroll down to escapefromtarkov.exe and right click set priority to "High"
- Make sure your computer is not thermal throttling, Download GPUZ and CPUZ and Coretemp to monitor your computers temperature, Search for your components optimal operating temperature, most should be under or around 80c max, otherwise you might have a cooling problem.
- Check background programs as well, make sure other programs such as chrome are not eating up all your ram. 16gb is the necessary minimum for Tarkov, I have heard success with 8gb, but your safest bet is 16gb or a PREFERRED 32gb which has solved many stutters from what I've read. If your ram has an XMP option make sure it is enabled in the bios as not all ram come pre-enabled. Tarkov seems to love fast ram. I didn't realize I had XMP turned off for a couple weeks after getting new ram so this was a huge boost to my performance.
- Disable unnecessary game overlays such as "Windows Game Bar" "Discord" & "Nvidia Overlay" etc…
- If all else fails reinstalling windows can be a last resort, but this DOESNT guarantee you will have better performance it will just remove many potential problems that would otherwise hinder good performance if you didn't have a clean system to work off of.
- UNTESTED – I've heard turning off "game mode" in windows 10 has potentially helped some players, I have yet to test this myself and have game mode set to ON. I will try it with game mode off when I have a chance and update this post.
My pc specs-
8700k 5.0ghs OC
3080 FE
32gb 3200mhz ram
Adata sx8200 M.2 drive for OS and games.
Liquid cooling for CPU
High airflow case (Lancool 2 mesh)
1440p 144hz G-Sync monitor.
*Nvidia drivers
*DDU
If anyone has anything to add please do and I will include it in this post. I made this post out of my frustration and love for Tarkov and felt that no one else had to suffer like I and MANY others have. I tried to cover as many bases as I could. Feel free to ask any questions as well and good luck out there comrades.
