Despite the relatively low minimum system requirements, Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t exactly run very well on older machines — even when those machines more than meet the minimum requirements. If, like the author, you’re someone who can’t — or just won’t — upgrade your PC, we’ve got a few things you can try in the settings menu to improve performance.
Below, you’ll find some general suggestions, and below that, some tips and tricks for people with newer machines who still aren’t satisfied with their performance. (Note that we’ve tested the second set of changes on an older machine, and it appeared to only make performance worse, but your mileage may vary.)
Hogwarts Legacy Settings for Better Performance
Full disclosure: we haven’t tried everything yet. The game just came out, and it’s hard to want to fuss around in menus when there are spells to learn. Still, the configuration below seems to have made a big difference in how well the game runs on older machines. Here’s how to improve performance in Hogwarts Legacy on PC:
Go to the Settings Menu
Go to the Display Options tab (the second option from the top, just below the Save/Load game tab)
Scroll down to NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency – Set this to On + Boost
Just below that, set your Framerate to either 60 or 30 FPS (if 60 doesn’t cut it, go down to 30)
Turn off Motion Blur
Turn off Depth of Field
That usually helps with performance quite a bit, but if it doesn’t work, you can squeeze a few more frames out:
Go to the Graphics Options, which is the next tab down from Display Options.
Extract the .dll to the following folder (note that you may need to go to your E, D, or whatever letter you’ve assigned the drive Hogwarts Legacy is installed on), overwriting the old file.
Chromatic Aberration is off not because it makes a big difference in performance, but because the human eye is not a camera lens
If that still doesn’t cut it, and you’re desperate for more frames per second, you can also change the Upscale Mode to Ultra Performance. This setting, which is found in the Display options tab, will make your game look very, very low res, but it will definitely improve performance. There are a few different options for the Upscale Mode, so try out all the different choice and see if there’s a sweet spot for your rig.
We’ve got smooth frames, but at what cost? (Pictured: AMD FSR 2 Ultra Performance)
Settings for Better Performance (Newer PCs)
Even people with newer computers have struggled with performance after getting past the game’s tutorial. If you’ve got a PC that more than meets the game’s requirements, but still aren’t getting good frames, here is a possible fix. (Note that these fixes may only work if you have a G-Sync monitor with G-Sync turned on.)
Go to the Display Options tab (the second option from the top, just below the Save/Load game tab)
Turn off V-Sync
Scroll down to NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency – Set this to On + Boost
Quit the game, and go to your NVIDIA Control Panel (you should be able to find it by using the Windows search bar)
Go to the Manage 3D Settings, then scroll down to Vertical Sync and set it to On
Have you that noticed every time you launch Hogwarts Legacy there is a process for “Preparing Shaders…”?
Shaders are important to run the first time you run the game — to make the game look pretty by displaying light, shades, and colors properly. While this process is important to the initial setup, it is not needed after the initial time you run the game, and you will likely never need to run it again after that. (It’s quire possible the developers simply forgot to turn this process off.)
It can get annoying and time-consuming to run this every time your launch Hogwarts Legacy
Below is a quick fix to remove the Shader loading process:
Open File Explorer (WindowsKey + E) and place this in the address bar: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Hogwarts Legacy\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
Open the file Engine.ini in a Notepad (Right-Click -> Open with…)
At the very bottom, after all of the text, add the following (save when complete): [SystemSettings] r.ShaderPipelineCache.LogPSO=1
Open the file GameUserSettings.ini in a Notepad and find the line [ShaderPipelineCache.CacheFile] towards the end of the file.
When you do, change LastOpened=Phoenix to LastOpened=Test and save.
Launch Hogwarts Legacy and enjoy the quicker loading times!
Credit to R457 for finding this quick fix!
Performance Fixes for 3070 8GB and 3080 10GB GPUs
Thanks to a very well-researched video from the Hardware Unboxed YouTube channel, we’ve learned that there are a few specific cards that are really struggling in Hogwarts Legacy (likely due to the lack of vRAM on those models). Fortunately, there appears to be a simple way to improve performance — turn off Ray Tracing. Here’s how to do it:
Go to the Graphics Options in the Settings menu
Scroll down to the bottom of the menu
Turn off all the Ray Tracing options:
Ray Tracing Reflections
Ray Tracing Shadows
Ray Tracing Ambient Occlusion
Settings to turn off Ray TracingPerformance with Ray TracingPerformance without Ray Tracing
We hope these tips were helpful! If you have found anything that works for you, please let us know in the comments.
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DanielD
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
