How To Fix FPS Drops and Lag in Warhammer 40K: Darktide

It’s never a good thing when a game we’re incredibly excited for has performance issues. But, that’s — alas, something we’ve grown accustomed to as modern gamers. Almost no one knows this better — at present, anyway — than players of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. It’d seem that fans of this long-awaited installment to the storied franchise are experiencing a duo of unpleasantries: low FPS, and lags.

In a Reddit thread posted to r/DarkTide, user u/Firestrike9 (who credits Steam user Solivaguz) details a step-by-step process to fixing low performance issues. It seemed to resonate with many users, who all explained their — admittedly impressive — specs, and the low frame rate they were recording. So, let’s take a look at their solution as we ask: How To Fix FPS Drops and Lag in Warhammer 40K: Darktide?

How to Fix FPS Drops and Lag in Warhammer 40K: Darktide

In the abovementioned thread, u/Firestrike9 breaks down one potential fix for any who are experiencing this frustrating problem. But, it might seem a bit convoluted for some players. According to them, Darktide always has Ray Tracing turned on (even if it says it’s turned off!) so, here’s how to fix that:

• Reduce the in-game graphics settings.
• Exit the game. In a file explorer window, find the file called “user_settings.config” in the Darktide folder (%appdata%\Fatshark\Darktide). Open this file in notepad, and verify the settings are listed as follows:
  • rt_checkerboard_reflections = false
  • rt_light_quality = false
  • rt_mixed_reflections = false
  • rt_particle_reflections_enabled = false
  • rt_reflections_enabled = false
  • rt_shadow_ray_multiplier = 0
  • rt_transparent_reflections_enabled = false
  • rtxgi_enabled = false
  • rtxgi_scale = 0
• Save the file, and jump back into the game.

Related: All Darktide Grimoire Locations in Warhammer 40K: Darktide

If you followed this process step-by-step, then Ray Tracing should be forced off, thus making the frame rate closer to what you’d normally expect. It should also help to reduce the lag that some have reported.