Larian’s turn-based cRPG Baldur’s Gate 3 received the latest major Patch 9 right before the holidays, giving especially ardent players a chance to try out the Paladin class, along with its oath-driven subclasses or the not-so-secret oath-breaking option. Larian Studio has also previously revealed that Patch 9 will be the last major update for Baldur’s Gate 3 until the game’s full release in August 2023.
Unfortunately, some players have reported running into micro-freezes, lags and stuttering after the latest patch. The problems are not limited to lower-end setups, as there is evidence that even players with truly monstrous machines are experiencing problems.
Let’s take a look at some ways to deal with freezes in Baldur’s Gate 3. Let us know if they have helped you in the comments below!
Update Graphics Drivers & Lower Game Settings / Framerate
Starting with the most general possible option that you have likely heard before if you had any problems with games. Updating the graphics driver of your GPU and reducing its load by lowering the game settings or limiting the framerate will allow you to see whether the problem comes from your card’s inability to deal with the game’s bulk.
Verify game files / run Baldur’s Gate 3 as Administrator
Locate Baldur’s Gate in your list of Steam gates, right-click and select Properties. Proceed to Local Files -> Verify integrity of game files. If your problem comes from corrupted parts of the game, this option will fix them.
Additionally, some players have commented that running the game in the administrator mode solved their problems. To run the game as Administrator, right-click on Baldur’s Gate 3.exe, proceed to Properties -> Compatibility and choose the option Run this program as an administrator.
Use True Fullscreen / Windowed Option
By default, the game uses the “Fake Fullscreen” option. You can find it by going to the Options -> Video -> Display Mode. This is also the section where you can cap your framerate if you want to see if it would help.
Switch Between Vulkan & DX11 Versions of the Game
Baldur’s Gate 3 is available in two versions: Vulkan and DirectX 11. By default, the game is launching in its Vulkan implementation. According to the official site, Vulkan presents a potential performance increase over DX11 in most cases, though may be slightly less stable for now. If you are having performance issues, please try the DX11 API instead, which is available through the launcher.
However, in my personal case it was the other way around: swapping from DX11 to Vulkan dealt with almost all freezes, leaving only half-a-second long stutterings before a cutscene plays.
