Red Dead Redemption 2 has had a seriously rocky launch on PC, sadly, although Rockstar is promising that many of the ongoing issues which haven’t previously been solved – including the game stuttering badly – are fixed with the latest patch for RDR2.
Version 1.14 comes with various stability fixes for the PC, and addresses the aforementioned stuttering issue which has been plaguing some folks with Nvidia graphics cards – albeit with a temporary workaround, rather than an actual fix.
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In the patch notes, Rockstar says it has added a new launch parameter which rebalances the workload on processor cores to “avoid hitting an edge-case” with certain Nvidia graphics drivers that causes a significant amount of stuttering – or even outright stalling – for those using quad-core or six-core CPUs.
As mentioned, this is a temporary workaround which you’ll need to apply via the game launcher by following Rockstar’s instructions here. Note that if you have used another workaround (like BES) you’ll need to disable that first.
Sadly, while this should cure your stuttering blues, it might result in a performance hit when you’re in towns – but only with some PC configurations, Rockstar notes. So that could be a bit of a downer…
A proper fix is apparently in the works, with Rockstar saying it’s working with Nvidia to improve its graphics driver’s performance so stuttering can be remedied without resorting to a launch condition which could potentially bog the game down elsewhere (at least in towns).
Still, this is clearly much better than having the game stall literally for seconds at a time in some cases, or indeed having to install some third-party app like BES to artificially control CPU usage (with BES itself reportedly causing crash issues for some RDR2 folks, anyway).
Vulkan victory
There are a ton of other fixes here, too, including various improvements for those running the game using Vulkan rather than DirectX, with performance and stability boosts for graphics cards with 4GB of video memory or less, among other boons.
There are also fixes for “crashes during game startup and logo screen”, and crashes when changing graphics settings, among many other crash cures.
Some folks have still been complaining about getting frustrating and unhelpful ‘Red Dead Redemption 2 has exited unexpectedly’ errors right up until today, so hopefully those will become a thing of the past for everyone, too.
It doubtless won’t surprise you to hear that the PC launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 has certainly got some people crying foul about the game being rushed out the door rather than being properly tested. However, as we recently observed, the PC is undoubtedly the best platform to play Red Dead Redemption 2 – when it works.
As one wag put it on Twitter yesterday: “Glad I’m holding off for the Steam version, big thanks to all the PC beta testers!”
Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Update pic.twitter.com/DuItXRAYiBNovember 13, 2019
As you can see above, prior to the launch of this new patch, Rockstar tweeted about its imminent arrival, and apologized for the experience that some PC gamers have had with RDR2.
Those who play “this week and through to the holiday season“ are set to receive a bonus bundle of Red Dead Online goodies as some compensation for all these issues. And you can always salve your disappointment with some of the finest Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats to entertain Arthur.
Via PC Gamer
