We love the game, but its lazy FPS and strangely limited PC graphics options aren’t good enough in 2022
Let’s preface this by saying that Elden Ring is incredible. The fantasy world imagined by FromSoftware and George R.R. Martin is so full of life, so detailed, and so interesting to explore that it’s easy to forget about the game’s technical issues for long periods.
The problems are always there, though, just under the surface; a consistently inconsistent frame rate with poor frame pacing dogs the experience. Last week, a patch was released that improved some of these issues, but it didn’t address them all.
These problems don’t ruin Elden Ring. It’s a spectacular game that should be experienced by every RPG fan out there, but it’s also one I wish had been given more time to bake before its release.
The game’s inconsistent frame rate is a bummer
So far, in my experience, Elden Ring runs at somewhere between 40-60 frames per second when fully zoomed out on horseback, dipping to 30 fps or lower when in combat or in some of the larger towns. It can drop even further on foot, in one of the larger towns or on horseback through dense forest — down to 15-20 fps.
Elden Ring doesn’t feel unplayable at these low frames per second. Again, my feelings are anecdotal, but I have not yet found anything that makes me think, “I can’t play this anymore.” However, in a game that relies so heavily on combat timing, a locked 60 fps in the performance mode could mean the difference between beating that monster boss and dying for the 1297th time.
Console performance is passable, but it’s on PC (surprisingly) where nothing works as you’d expect
I’ve been playing on PS5, which offers the smoothest gameplay of all the platforms (aside from PS4 Pro, which runs at a lower resolution).
However PC, which you would expect to be the best place to play, is in fact the worst for a whole host of reasons.
First off, the PC port is hard locked at a maximum of 60fps (yes, you need to hack the game to get past this limitation), which just seems incredibly odd.
You can’t improve performance with Deep-Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) or go the other way and beef up the visuals with ray-tracing as neither are supported either.
Worst of all, the game has V-Sync on at all times, so G-Sync/Freesync won’t work to smooth out those annoyingly random frame rates. And unlike on console, there are short game freezes every time a new texture set loads in, compounding the performance-related pain.
Oh, and if you have an ultra-wide monitor, you’re also out of luck, as all you’ll get are black bars on either side of the 16:9 aspect ratio.
It’s especially annoying for a game like Elden Ring
This is a huge problem for From Software games like Elden Ring because they’re more difficult than most other titles. You can’t afford to lose control over your character because of framerate issues or stuttering animations. It could lead to mistakes in timing your attacks or dodging enemy strikes – or worse lead to death – forcing you to repeat long stretches of gameplay over and over.
“The good news is that Elden Ring is still a hell of a lot of fun to play”
Elden Ring is a game of multiple systems and interconnected mechanics, and they are tied together by the game’s framerate. Every time the game has to load something new, it drops frames. Fast travel causes it to drop frames. Changing weapons while in combat causes it to drop frames. Rolling while blocked by an enemy causes it to drop frames.
I’m still loving the game but its technical limitations, especially on PC, are impossible to ignore
The good news is that Elden Ring is still a hell of a lot of fun to play (check out the launch trailer below). From Software has crafted an absolutely gorgeous world for you to explore and die in. The bad news is that this game is not fully optimised for any platform right now, and it’s downright unacceptable on PC.
The locked frame rate, always on V-Sync and lack of ultrawide support is just bizarre. Yes, we’ve all gotten used to the technical quirks of FromSoftware games, but it’s high time these limitations were dealt with once and for all.
We should all be talking about a great game, not the retrograde mess the graphics options on PC and general optimisations are.
FromSoftware has promised fixes to these problems are coming; let’s hope they drop quickly for PC users who need them like yesterday.
If you just can’t wait to jump into this amazing open-world, we highly recommend playing on PlayStation – assuming you have that option. If PC is your place, you best wait for a few more patches.
