The Evil Within 2 PC performance thread

[GrrImAFridge]

(Click for general game info.)

🖥️ System requirements:

🧰 Latest drivers: (as at 24/02/2022)
AMD: 22.2.2
Nvidia: 511.79

📊 Benchmarks:
GameGPU (Russian; launch build)
PC Games Hardware (German; launch build)

🎩 Tips and tricks:
Cap the frame rate/potentially improve frame times: Download RivaTuner Statistics Server (if you use MSI Afterburner, then you already have it installed), input your desired framerate limit in the "Framerate limit" box, and hit Enter . Alternatively, those with an Nvidia GPU can either cap the frame rate at the driver level via the Nvidia Control Panel (requires the 441.87+ drivers) or use Nvidia Inspector to force a vsync internal lower than one-half (click the small tool icon to open the game profile section).
Note: Useful if your system can't maintain, say, 60fps and you're sensitive to the wild fluctuations, or you're experiencing uneven frame times. The greater window the engine has to render a given frame, if you're imposing a lower frame rate than the game can otherwise provide, may also help in alleviating stuttering related to data streaming.
Fix G-Sync not functioning in fullscreen mode: Set G-Sync to "Enable G-Sync for windowed and fullscreen mode." (Credit to Blitzhex @ NeoGAF.)
Fix audio desyncing during cutscenes: Navigate to Control Panel -> Sound -> Active playback device properties -> Advanced and change the default format to Studio Quality. (Credit to d00d3n @ NeoGAF.)
Mitigate stuttering: Follow the instructions here. Adjust accordingly if you have an AMD GPU. (Credit to MaLDo @ NeoGAF.)

When posting your own tip/trick or something else you'd like to see here in the OP, be sure to tag my username (@GrrImAFridge), as this way I'll receive a notification. I may miss your suggestion otherwise.

⚙️ Graphics settings:

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Display mode: Fullscreen; Borderless; Windowed
Monitor: Self-explanatory
Resolution: Self-explanatory
Vsync: Disabled; Display-based; Display-based (half); 60fps; 30fps
Gamma adjustment: Self-explanatory
Field of view: 45 -> 90 in increments of 1
Film grain: 0 -> 100 in increments of 1
Chromatic aberration: Disabled/Enabled
Performance metrics: Disabled/Enabled

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Overall quality: Low; Medium; High; Ultra
LOD: Disabled/Enabled
Bloom: Disabled/Enabled
Object motion blur: Disabled/Enabled
Camera motion blur: Disabled/Enabled
Motion blur quality: Low; Medium; High
DoF quality: Disabled; Low; Medium; High; Ultra
SSAO quality: Disabled; Low; Medium; High; Ultra
SSR quality: Disabled; Low; Medium; High

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Volumetric light quality: Disabled; Low; Medium; High
Shadow quality: Low; Medium; High; Ultra
Anti-aliasing: Disabled; FXAA; TAA; TAA + FXAA

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Thanks JaseC. Looking forward to all future PC Performance Threads!

 

[GrrImAFridge]

I'm not sure what's up with the half-loaded system requirements screenshot. Bizarrely, the ones in the Destiny 2 and CoD:WWII threads are fine despite also being hosted on Abload (they all are), but the one in the Shadow of War thread is not, which is also of Steam's system requirements section. The forum software seems to cache external images locally and my guess would be that the image was half-loaded when it was saved.

 

[Frostman]

Great thread, as always. It will be a busy Friday for you.... :P

 

[Deleted member 679]

JaseC!!!!

Did the new driver make any difference for this game? I see no reason to update otherwise.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Thanks JaseC. Looking forward to all future PC Performance Threads!

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My original idea was to recreate all of my PC performance threads on here, but I decided to limit it to the ones created this month (and the CoD:WWII one since it's out soon) and bring over the earlier ones on an as-needed/requested basis.

Great thread, as always. It will be a busy Friday for you.... :P

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Haha, that's assuming I'm not beaten to the punch on AssCreed. The Steam version unlocks at 4pm UTC versus a rolling midnight unlock on Uplay (thanks for the middle finger, Ubi).

 

[Eclectic Sk3ptic]

My original idea was to recreate all of my PC performance threads on here, but I decided to limit it to the ones created this month (and the CoD:WWII one since it's out soon) and bring over the earlier ones on an as-needed/requested basis.

Click to shrink...

That's already more than we could hope for. Thanks for all the hard work, JaseC! =)

 

[LorentzFactor]

I never got the audio to stop desyncing. There was no Studio Quality option in my settings though for my Razer headphones, but I did set it to the a setting with the same Hz.

 

[Frostman]

Haha, that's assuming I'm not beaten to the punch on AssCreed. The Steam version unlocks at 4pm UTC versus a rolling midnight unlock on Uplay (thanks for the middle finger, Ubi).

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That's ridiculously late. UBI Shafting everyone that hasn't bought directly from them.

Edit: or in fact, it seems to be purely Steam buyers.

 

[PinkCrayon]

I found that DoF of all things was the biggest performance hog, turning it down to medium fixed most of my studders.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

That's ridiculously late. UBI Shafting everyone that hasn't bought directly from them.

Edit: or in fact, it seems to be purely Steam buyers.

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Yeah, Steam is the only service that has its own version of the game. The rest just sell Uplay keys.

 

[spam musubi]

Ugh, still experiencing bizarre performance. 3440x1440p G-Sync with GTX 1080ti. Also cutscenes desync despite making the sound fix. I get constantly laggy framerates.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Ugh, still experiencing bizarre performance. 3440x1440p with GTX 1080ti. Also cutscenes desync despite making the sound fix. I get constantly laggy framerates.

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The game hasn't been patched yet. There is one in the works, though.

 

[andymoogle]

The patch has been released. I haven't had the time to check it out yet, but I'll do it later today. The patch notes don't really say anything about performance improvements, so I don't have any hope for anything substantial.

 

[spam musubi]

The patch has been released. I haven't had the time to check it out yet, but I'll do it later today. The patch notes don't really say anything about performance improvements, so I don't have any hope for anything substantial.

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It does talk about fixing issues with refresh rate synced to the display, which might solve the problems I've had. I'll try it out tonight.

 

[MrH]

i5 3570k @ 4.3GHz, 16GB DDR3 @ 2133MHz, GTX 970 @ +125 +300, SSD, latest drivers/Windows

I had to play at 900p/medium settings for a stable 60fps, this was also on a clean installation of Windows with very little else on it. 1080p was just out of the question, even on low settings as it went into the low 40fps. The difference between low and ultra was only about 15fps. Funnily enough I didn't experience any stuttering, it was just poor frame rate in general, and my hardware wasn't even close to being fully utilised. I really enjoyed the game but it's definitely a bit of a stinker when it comes to performance.

 

[Pargon]

I didn't notice that there was a performance topic for this here.
The new NVIDIA Driver (388.31) appears to have fixed the severe stuttering that I was experiencing in The Evil Within 2.
Performance is still poor: GPU is still under-utilized, but at least it's not stuttering badly like it was before.

 

[Deleted member 1594]

This game runs like craaaaaaaaaap. One of the worst running games I've played this year. I'm regularly dipping below 60 on a 1080TI / 7700K @ 3440x1440. Which shouldn't happen.

Why is it capped at like... 80% GPU usage? This is probably the main culprit.

I'm on 388.31.

 

[Dolobill]

It's the worst performing PC game I've played in the past couple years (haven't played Quantum Break). I'm holding off from playing it until it gets a patch. I would refund it if I could.

 

[BadAss2961]

50% off now.

Really want to play the game, but won't bite until we get performance patch at least fixing GPU usage.

 

[Gabora]

I've been playing Evil Within 2 off and on for the past week (busy week) and just got done with Chapter 3.

I bought the game blind after beating the first game, and I was afraid I was going to get bad performance after so many people complained the game was poorly optimized, so far this has not been my experience.

Frame rates are capped at 60fps 99% of the time, the remaining 1% fluctuated down to 59/58 fps.

My specs: i7 7700k @ 4.20GHz (not OCed), 32GBs DDR4, GTX 1080Ti (running 388.13, did not know there was a new driver available), game installed on a SSD. 2k res on a G-sync monitor, G-sync set up to full screen only and I'm running the game borderless (dunno if it matters).

I have everything set up to max except for shadow quality (always turn down to high if there's ultra available, performance hog and diminishing returns in my opinion) and DOF quality is turned down to high.

Maybe I'll have issues as I get further along the game, but so far as good.

 

[VFX_Veteran]

This game has a big reason for being a dog on the average current hardware. It's brute forcing the lighting through a forward render process and computing shadows for every light (including your flashlight), has very high texturing for the enemies, and a sophisticated skin shader for all the monsters as well as the NPCs. The more geometry in the scene, the slower the computations. I can see why the graphics card and CPU aren't being fully utilized. This is the direction we should go for the future. Making the hardware designed for forward rendering and shadow casting lights.

Baked light probes (lightmapping) and only 1 shadow casting light isn't good enough anymore.

 

[Deleted member 1594]

I bought the game blind after beating the first game, and I was afraid I was going to get bad performance after so many people complained the game was poorly optimized, so far this has not been my experience.

Click to shrink...

The main issue is that the game seems to cap at 80% GPU usage. If that's enough for the fps you need at the resolution you are playing at.... great. But for a lot of people it's not.

If it used your full GPU power it would run so much better.

 

[Gabora]

The main issue is that the game seems to cap at 80% GPU usage. If that's enough for the fps you need at the resolution you are playing at.... great. But for a lot of people it's not.

If it used your full GPU power it would run so much better.

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I only said that because, to my impression, the game had bad performance across the board, even for people with pretty beefy PCs. I was expecting to get around 30fps, but so far I'm pretty much locked at 60. Even people with PCs similar to mine have been having problems. I didn't mean to sound like I was doubting anyone.

Considering the original was just as messy when it came out, I'm more than willing to believe this game is giving alot people hell.

 

[FiveHandsMusic]

Game has insane dips for me on my main pc ( gtx 1080, i7 4790k) and my laptop (gtx 1060 6gb, i7 7700k. Even on low, 30 fps locked it dips into the low 20s. Crazy.

 

[Premium Ghoul]

I can't seem to get this game to run at above 60Hz.

With my desktop refresh rate set to 144Hz starting the game in either fullscreen (I know it's not real fullscreen), borderless OR windowed mode will make my monitor change to 60Hz and I can't seem to stop that from happening.

I am playing the demo version, not sure if that makes any difference.

 

[potatohead]

Ran on my 1080 ti only played the demo though ran well for me at 4K though I limited to 30 fps for more stable framerate

 

[Pargon]

I can't seem to get this game to run at above 60Hz.

With my desktop refresh rate set to 144Hz starting the game in either fullscreen (I know it's not real fullscreen), borderless OR windowed mode will make my monitor change to 60Hz and I can't seem to stop that from happening.

I am playing the demo version, not sure if that makes any difference.

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I've not experienced that, but try setting "r_displayRefresh" to 0 or 144 in the config file.
The config file is stored in: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\TangoGameworks\The Evil Within 2\base\the_evil_within2Config.cfg
Just guessing, but having V-Sync enabled may also affect the refresh rate, if it's set to 60 FPS.

 

[Deleted member 2172]

This game is pretty badly optimized which is a shame. My framerate literally goes up by 3-4 frames when changing everything from Ultra to Low. Atleast it hovers around 60 I guess.

4790k
980ti
16GB RAM

 

[Premium Ghoul]

I've not experienced that, but try setting "r_displayRefresh" to 0 or 144 in the config file.
The config file is stored in: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\TangoGameworks\The Evil Within 2\base\the_evil_within2Config.cfg
Just guessing, but having V-Sync enabled may also affect the refresh rate, if it's set to 60 FPS.

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Thanks, that seems to have fixed it.

Edit: Now that I've finished the demo I can gladly say that this ran surprisingly well given what I'd heard about performance. I generally got 53-62 fps (80+ in the more minimalist scenes) with everything maxed, LoD set to on, and I didn't really see any stuttering at all.