Fix: Stuttering, Freezing, and FPS Drops in For Honor

Performance errors like stutters, freezes, and lag spikes in For Honor can be caused by many factors, such as improper display settings, outdated GPU Drivers, corrupted game files, conflicting security programs, and more. 

We’ve compiled a list below showing all the factors that can cause issues with For Honor’s performance. This will help you determine the exact cause of the stutters, freezes, and frame drops you’re experiencing in-game.  

• System Doesn’t Meet Recommended Requirements: The recommended system requirements of For Honor give you an idea of the kind of specifications your system needs to run the game smoothly. If your system’s specifications are very weak compared to the recommended requirements, then it can result in noticeable performance issues unless you configure the game’s settings according to your specifications.
• Improper In-Game Settings: The Graphic and Display settings of For Honor greatly impact the game’s performance. If you haven’t configured these settings properly, your system will struggle to run For Honor smoothly.
• Windows Fullscreen Optimizations: If you don’t have the Fullscreen Optimizations feature of Windows disabled, then it can be one of the reasons why you’re experiencing stutters and FPS drops in For Honor.
• Not Using Dedicated GPU: For Honor might not be running on your dedicated Graphics Card, but instead, using your CPU’s integrated graphics. If this is the case, it can explain why you’re experiencing such performance problems.
• Incorrect Power Plan: The Power Plan on your system might be set to Balanced/Power Saver instead of High Performance, resulting in your hardware’s performance being limited by Windows. 
• Xbox Game Bar: Windows’s Xbox Game Bar feature can consume a huge chunk of your PC’s processing power, and you might not even know it’s running in the background. This feature should be disabled to allow For Honor to utilize your PC’s full capabilities. 
• Non-essential Background Processes: While playing For Honor, you have to ensure that there isn’t a large number of non-essential processes active in the background, as they pointlessly consume a lot of your system’s resources.
• Missing/Corrupted Game Files: Some of For Honor’s game files could be missing or corrupted. These missing/corrupted game files can lead to significant performance issues such as freezes and micro stutters
• Antivirus/Firewall Interference: If your Antivirus program and/or the Windows Firewall conflict with For Honor, they can be a major reason you’re experiencing freezes and lag spikes while playing the game.
• Lack of Free Disk Space: If the disk where you have For Honor installed is running critically low on space, it can cause major problems with the game, such as constant freezes and lag spikes.
• Overlay Conflict: The overlay of programs can conflict with each other or with For Honor and prevent the game from running smoothly.
• Outdated Graphics Card Drivers: If the drivers of your Graphics Card haven’t been updated in a while, then your GPU will not run at its full potential, leading to low performance in games such as For Honor. 
• Outdated Windows: An outdated version of Windows is known to cause performance errors in games.
• Peripheral Conflict: If you have many peripherals connected to your system, their firmware might be conflicting, causing errors, which can result in performance issues in games like For Honor. 

1. Check the System Requirements of For Honor

The chart below shows the minimum and recommended system requirements of For Honor. To run the game with good performance, For Honor’s recommended system requirements must be similar to your PC’s specifications. 

If your PC fails to meet the recommended system requirements, it can have a tough time running the game with decent graphics and a good framerate. But don’t be alarmed; the fixes we’ve listed in this guide will help you greatly optimize your PC so it can run For Honor without stutters, freezes, and FPS drops.

2. Change In-Game Settings of For Honor

If you’re experiencing performance issues such as stutters, freezes, and FPS drops in For Honor, the first step in fixing them is to optimize the in-game settings. This will allow you to squeeze out a lot more performance from the game without having to do external troubleshooting.

When optimizing the in-game settings, you must tweak them according to your system’s specifications. If your system meets (or exceeds) For Honor’s recommended system settings, then the game’s graphics settings are likely not the issue, and there are some external factors causing the performance problems. However, you can still make some changes to the display settings to improve performance. 

If your system fails to meet the recommended settings, you’ll need to tweak both the display and graphics settings. Open the game, head to the menu, and go to the options tab. 

First, open the Display options. The three most important Display settings are:

• Display Mode
• Screen Resolution
• Refresh Rate
• V-Sync.
  

  

No matter what game you’re playing, the Display Mode setting should always be set to Fullscreen. This is because playing a game on fullscreen allows your GPU to control the display completely. This results in a noticeable boost in FPS and a decrease in stutters/frame drops.

The Screen Resolution also has a big impact on performance. Ideally, it should be set to the native resolution of your monitor. For example, if your monitor’s native resolution is 1920×1080, then the Screen Resolution of For Honor should also be set to that. But if you’re experiencing major performance issues at the native resolution, you can try decreasing it slightly to improve FPS.

The Refresh Rate setting should be set to the highest refresh rate of your monitor. For example, if you have a 144 Hz, ensure that this setting is set to 144 HZ.

And finally, the V-Sync setting should never be enabled. The purpose of V-sync is to sync the FPS of For Honor to your monitor’s refresh rate. So if you have a 60 Hz display, the game will be locked to 60 FPS. But V-sync is notorious for significantly increasing input delay in games. In an online PVP game like For Honor, having high input lag can put you at a serious disadvantage.

That said, if you’re experiencing terrible stutters while playing For Honor, turning V-sync off may fix your problem. The stutters can result from your FPS quickly spiking to a high number, dropping to a low number, and going back up. Since V-sync will put a limit on your FPS, it will stabilize your FPS, which will result in fewer stutters. 

Once you’ve tweaked these Display Settings, go back to the menu and open the Graphics options. The Graphics options are more subjective, as what you should set them to entirely depends upon your system’s specifications. 

If you have a very powerful PC, you can set these settings to high, and it won’t harm performance. Your FPS will decrease slightly, but the game will be perfectly playable. 

But if your PC’s hardware is mid to low-end, you should set the Quality Preset to Custom and tweak the settings according to your hardware’s capabilities. Remember to set Anti-Aliasing to Low and Dynamic Shadows to Off as they greatly affect FPS.

Once you’ve changed For Honor’s in-game settings, start a match and note how big of an impact there’s been on the performance. If the performance has been boosted, but there are still noticeable stutters and freezes, move on to the fixes listed below.

3. Run as Administrator

When you run For Honor as an administrator, you will grant the game complete read and write privileges. This will allow the game to run the required commands and access important DLL files, resulting in increased performance and a lesser chance of experiencing stutters, freezes, or crashes.

To run For Honor as an administrator, you first need to find its executable file. The .exe file of the game will be located in its install folder.

If you use Steam to play the game, you can find the install folder of For Honor by following the steps we’ve listed below:

1. Open Steam and go to your Library.
2. Right-click For Honor.
3. Click on Manage > Browse Local Files.
   

If you use the Epic Games Launcher to play the game, you can find the install folder of For Honor by following these steps:

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher and go to your Library.
2. Right-click For Honor.
3. Click on Manage.
4. Click on the folder icon.
   
   

After navigating to the install location of For Honor, look for its .exe file. Once you’ve found this file, right-click on it and select Properties. Navigate to the Compatability tab and put a checkmark next to “Run as an administrator”. 

Before you click on Apply, you should also ensure that there’s a checkmark next to “Disable Fullscreen Optimizations”. 

The Fullscreen Optimizations option is a native feature on Windows designed to boost performance in games set to Fullscreen and allow for quicker alt-tabbing (minimizing/maximizing). It does so by running the game in a combination of windowed mode and fullscreen instead of running it in actual fullscreen.

Despite being made to boost performance, testing has shown that the Fullscreen Optimizations feature of Windows actually decreases performance. Therefore, you should always set Fullscreen Optimizations to disabled for every game you play, including For Honor. 

After checking off Run as administrator and disabling Fullscreen Optimizations, launch For Honor and test the performance of the game. There should be a noticeable improvement in stutters and FPS drops.

4. Change Game Priority through Task Manager

A quick way to eliminate stutters and FPS drops in For Honor is to change its priority and affinity through Task Manager. Follow the steps listed below to perform this quick fix:

1. Launch For Honor and get into a game.
2. Minimize For Honor by pressing Alt and Tab at the same time.
3. Open Task Manager.
4. Navigate to the Details tab.
5. Right-click on forhonor.exe
6. Set priority to Normal (if it’s set to High) or Low (if it’s set to Normal).

   

7. Click on Set Affinity.
8. Remove the checkmark from the last CPU core. 
9. Click OK.
10. Alt-tab back to For Honor.

This method has worked for many people in the For Honor community to eliminate stutters and lag spikes. But if it doesn’t work for you, don’t worry, as we’ve listed many more solutions below.

5. Use your Dedicated GPU (If applicable)

For Honor might not be using your dedicated Graphics Card (GPU), and using the integrated graphics of your CPU instead. Your CPU’s integrated graphics are significantly weaker than your dedicated GPU, so this can greatly impact the game’s performance. 

To ensure that For Honor is using your dedicated GPU, follow the steps we’ve listed below:

1. Press Windows Key, type Graphics Settings, and press enter.
   
2. In the Graphics Settings menu, click on Browse.
3. Locate the .exe file of For Honor and add it to the list.
4. Click on For Honor in the list and select Options.
5. Select High Performance and press Save.
   

Now that For Honor is set to High Performance, you have ensured that it will always use the dedicated GPU of your PC. If the game was not using your dedicated GPU before, its performance should now be boosted multiple times.

6. Set Power Plan to High Performance 

Windows has a Power Plan feature with three main options: Power Saver, High Performance, and Balanced. The Power Saver option will make Windows utilize the least resources possible while using your PC/laptop. This will use less power but will result in a significant decrease in performance.

The High-Performance option will ensure that Windows utilize the full capabilities of your system’s hardware, resulting in maximum performance.

And finally, the Balanced option will try to find the best balance between power-saving and performance. This will result in a slightly better performance output than the Power Saver mode but a worse performance output than the High-Performance mode.

If you’re experiencing stutters, lag spikes, and FPS drops in For Honor, you must set the Power Plan to High Performance. If you’re playing the game on a laptop, this will drain the laptop’s battery quicker, but it will eliminate the performance issues.

To set the Power Plan to High Performance, follow the steps listed below:

1. Open the Run dialog box by pressing Windows Key + R simultaneously.
2. Type powercfg.cpl and press enter.

   

3. In the Power Options menu, select High Performance.
   

7. Disable the Xbox Game Bar

The Xbox Game Bar is a native overlay feature of Windows designed to enhance your gaming experience by allowing you to perform the following functions while you’re playing a game.

1. Monitor system performance.
2. Capture screenshots and video clips of the game.
3. Increase/decrease the sound coming from each active app. 
4. Control Spotify.

These features of the Xbox Game Bar make it seem very useful, but unfortunately, it consumes too many resources of your system. 

If you want For Honor to run as smoothly as possible, you should disable the Xbox Game Bar, as it will free up more resources for the game to use.

To disable the Xbox Game Bar, follow the steps listed below.

1. Press Windows Key, type Settings, and press enter.
   
2. Click on the Gaming option.
   
3. Disable the Xbox Game Bar.
   

   

8. Close Background Processes

Since For Honor is a power-hungry game, you must ensure that there are no non-essential programs using your system’s resources in the background while you’re playing this game. 

If there are many non-essential processes running in the background while you’re trying to play For Honor, they will collectively use up a significant amount of your system’s resources, leaving For Honor with a limited amount of system processing power to work with. This can result in a severe decrease in performance, specifically a stutter or lag spike problem. 

To stop any non-essential program from running in the background, follow the steps listed below:

1. Press Windows + X simultaneously.
2. Select Task Manager.
   

   

3. Scroll through the list of processes and look for non-essential programs.
4. Select the non-essential programs.
5. Click “End Task”.
   

   

Once you’ve closed the non-essential background processes, For Honor will acquire more RAM, network bandwidth, and CPU & GPU power to work with. This will increase in-game performance. 

9. Verify Integrity of Game Files

There’s a chance that some of For Honor’s game files could be missing or corrupted. Some files can get corrupted or not installed if the user has a weak/unstable internet connection while downloading the game.

These missing/corrupted files cause several types of issues in the game, including freezes, crashes, and low FPS. 

To repair the corrupted files and reinstall the missing files, you must verify the game files through the game’s launcher. Steam and the Epic Games Launcher have a built-in file verification system that allows players to repair/reinstall these game files quickly.

To verify the integrity of For Honor’s game files through Steam, follow the steps we’ve listed below:

1. Launch Steam and go to your Library.
2. Right-click on For Honor.
3. Select Properties.
4. Go to the Local Files section.
5. Click “Verify integrity of game files…”
   

   

To verify the integrity of For Honor’s game files through the Epic Games Launcher, follow the steps we’ve listed below:

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher and go to your Library.
2. Right-click on For Honor.
3. Click Manage.
4. Click Verify.
   

After a few minutes, the game files of For Honor will be verified. If any missing or corrupted game files are found, the launcher will inform you that it has repaired them. Once the files are fixed, relaunch For Honor and see if the performance has improved. 

10. Turn off Antivirus

Antivirus programs often mark trusted applications, such as video games, as threats to your PC and prevent them from functioning properly. 

So your Antivirus Program might be flagging For Honor as a harmful program and blocking it from having complete read and write privileges. This can result in a decrease in FPS, micro stutters, and crashes. 

To stop your Antivirus from blocking For Honor, you’ll need to turn it off from its menu before you launch For Honor. And once you’re done playing For Honor, you can re-enable it, so it can continue to protect your PC. 

To turn off your Antivirus program, follow these steps:

1. Press Windows Key, type Windows Security, and press enter.
2. In the Windows Security menu, click on Virus & Threat Protection.
3. Select “Open App”.
   

   

When you select the “Open App” option, your Antivirus software’s menu will pop up. Through this menu, you’ll be able to turn off the Antivirus before you launch For Honor. And when you’re done playing the game, you can use the same menu to re-enable it.

11. Create an Exception in Windows Firewall

The Windows Firewall is a native program of Windows which helps protect your system against harmful programs. Every time you try to launch a new program, Windows Firewall scans it and determines if it is safe or not. 

This can help safeguard your PC from malware, but Windows Firewall is known to be unreliable. It can sometimes block programs from running despite them being completely safe and trusted. And when it blocks these programs, it causes errors within them, such as constant crashes and freezes. 

So the Windows Firewall could be another reason why you’re experiencing performance issues in For Honor. To fix this problem, you’ll need to ensure that there is an exception for Steam/Epic Games Launcher and For Honor in Windows Firewall.

To create these exceptions, follow the steps we’ve listed below:

1. Press Windows Key, type Windows Security in the search bar, and press enter.
2. In the Windows Security menu, click on Firewall & Network Protection.
3. Select “Allow an app through Firewall“.

   

4. Select “Change Settings”.
5. Scroll through the list and find Steam/Epic Games Launcher and For Honor.
6. Put a checkmark next to these programs.
7. Click OK to create the exceptions.

   

If you’ve scrolled through the entire list of apps and you can’t seem to find For Honor, then you’ll have to add it to the list manually.

To do so, select the “Allow another app…” option at the bottom. This will open File Explorer, where you’ll need to locate the .exe file of For Honor, which is present in the game’s install location. 

Once you’ve found the .exe file of For Honor, double-click on it to add it to the list in the Windows Firewall menu, and then add a checkmark next to it. 

12. Create Free Space on Disk

For Honor takes around 100 GB of space on the disk where it’s installed. If your disk has a low amount of total storage, or if you have a lot of other programs installed on it as well, then it might be running very low on space.

If the disk where For Honor is installed has 25% or less free space available, then For Honor will struggle to create temporary files within the disk. These temporary files are very important as they allow the game to function properly. So if there’s not enough disk space to create these temporary files, they can lead to performance errors. 

Furthermore, low disk space also results in low Virtual Memory. Your PC uses a portion of your disk space as extra RAM, so if there’s little to no free space available on the disk, your PC will lack the Virtual Memory required to run intense programs like For Honor.

So, launch File Explorer and see if the disk where For Honor is installed has 25% or more free space left. If it has less than 25% free space left, then follow the tips below to perform a Disk Cleanup:

1. Launch File Explorer.
2. Go to the This PC section.

   

3. Right-click on the disk where For Honor is installed.
4. Select Properties.
5. Select the Disk Cleanup option.

   

The Disk Cleanup feature will take a few minutes to scan your disk. Once done with the scanning, it’ll show you a list of the junk files it found and how much space each junk file is taking up on your disk. Before you delete these junk files, ensure that there are no important folders/files present in the list. The Disk Cleanup feature sometimes shows your Downloads folder as junk, so make sure that no important file/folder is selected. 

Once you’ve scrolled through the list, remove the junk files by clicking on the empty box next to them to add a checkmark. Then, click OK to delete them from your system.

13. Disable App Overlays

The overlays of different programs like NVIDIA GeForce Experience, Steam, Discord, AMD Radeon, and MSI Afterburner provide useful features for you to use while playing games. 

But these overlays come at a cost. Not only do they use resources passively, but they also tend to clash with other programs. They can also conflict with each other. This can cause many problems in your running programs, especially if they’re power-hungry games like For Honor.

Therefore, it’s wise to disable all app overlays while playing For Honor. This will eliminate the chances of these overlays conflicting with the game (or each other), boosting the game’s FPS and decreasing freezes/stutters. 

14. Update GPU Drivers

The Graphics Card (GPU) is the most important component of a PC when it comes to video games. So if the drivers of your GPU are outdated, games like For Honor will encounter performance issues.  

It’s important to regularly update GPU drivers as the latest drivers optimize the GPU for newer games, such as For Honor. This allows the GPU to perform better in these games. If you haven’t updated your GPU drivers in a long time, they can be the root cause of the stutters, freezes, or crashes you’re experiencing in For Honor.

So, the solution to fixing For Honor’s performance issues is to update the GPU drivers to the latest version. To do this, the first step is to find out the exact model of your GPU, so you can find its respective drivers.

To find the model of your GPU, follow the steps listed below:

1. Press Windows Key + X simultaneously, then select Device Manager.
   

   

2. Click on the arrow next to Display Adapters.
3. Take note of the name of the GPU that appears.

   

The device that shows up when you expand the Display Adapters option is your GPU. So now you know your GPU’s exact model, allowing you to search for its drivers.

But if the device under Display Adapters is named “Microsoft Basic Display Adapter“, then it is not the actual name of your GPU. When the Display Adapters option shows Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, it is because your GPU drivers are improperly installed or completely missing. So, you’ll need to use the following method to find the model of your GPU:

1. Press Windows Key + X simultaneously, then select Device Manager.
2. Click on the arrow next to Display Adapters.
3. Right-click Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.
4. Click on Properties.
   

   

5. Navigate to the Details section.
6. Click on the list present below “Property”
7. Select Hardware Ids.
   

   

8. Right-click the first line of text shown under “Value”
9. Click on Copy.
   

   

10. Open your browser.
11. Paste the line of text in its search bar and search it using Google. 

    

When you search this line of text on Google, several results will show up, which will help you figure out your GPU’s actual model. 

Since you now know your GPU’s model, we can move on to the next step, deleting the current GPU drivers installed on your PC.

We’re doing this because these GPU Drivers can clash with the new ones you will install soon. This conflict can cause malfunctions in the GPU, leading to severe performance issues.

To delete the current GPU drivers, you must use a program called Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU). It’s better to use DDU than the native Windows driver uninstaller because the latter is notorious for leaving behind residue files when it tries to wipe drivers. These residue files can cause serious problems with the new drivers that you’ll install.

To download DDU, head to this website and click on the download button at the very bottom of the page. After you’ve installed DDU, the next step is to boot your computer into Safe Mode. Safe Mode will disable all non-essential programs and services, ensuring that the driver removal process goes as safely as possible.

To boot your system into Safe Mode, follow these steps:

1. Press Windows Key and right-click on the Power Icon (bottom left).
2. Hold the shift key and click Restart. 
3. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options.
   

   

4. Select Startup Settings.
   

   

5. Boot your system into Safe Mode by pressing F5.
   

   

Now that your PC has booted into Safe Mode, we can begin the driver removal process. Launch DDU and set the device type to GPU. After that, select the brand of your GPU (NVIDIA or AMD). You can then click on the “Clean and restart” option in the top left to start wiping your current GPU drivers from your system. 

After a few minutes, your PC will automatically restart. This will indicate that the drivers have been successfully wiped from the system. All you need to do now is head to your GPU manufacturer’s website and install the latest driver for your Graphics Card.

For NVIDIA drivers, head to this website. Use the lists to select your GPU’s model and click “Search” to find the latest drivers.

For AMD drivers, head to this website. Use the lists to select your GPU’s model and click “Submit” to find the latest drivers.

After downloading the driver file, double-click on it to start the driver installation process. Select the “Express” installation option to install the drivers quickly. 

15. Update Windows

If the Windows installed on your PC hasn’t been updated in a long time, it can contribute to the performance you’re experiencing in For Honor.

When you use a very outdated version of Windows, it causes many problems, the worst of which are compatibility issues and network problems. The network problems arise due to your Network Drivers. 

Updates for your Network Drivers are included in the Windows updates. So if the Windows update is canceled, the Network Driver update is also rejected. This results in outdated Network Drivers, which lead to connectivity issues in multiplayer games like For Honor. 

So you should ensure that your Windows is being updated somewhat regularly. You don’t need to update it every single time there’s an update, but you should let the OS update itself once in a while.

Follow these steps to update Windows to the latest version:

1. Press Windows Key, type Settings, and press enter
2. Select the Updates & Security option.

   

3. Select “Check for updates”.
   

   

If Windows finds any updates after you click the “Check for updates” option, it will inform you and give you the option to install the newer version. Once the Windows update is finished, the compatibility and Network Driver issues should be fixed.

16. Disconnect Unnecessary Peripherals

The peripherals we connect to our PC come with their own firmware. If you don’t know already, the firmware of a peripheral is its integrated software, which enables it to function properly. 

If you have many peripherals connected to your system simultaneously, there might be a clash between the firmware of the different peripherals. This clash of firmware can cause serious performance errors. So your peripherals might be another reason why you’re experiencing stutters, freezes, or frame drops in For Honor.

To figure out what peripheral (if any) is causing this problem, disconnect all peripherals from your system, excluding your mouse and keyboard. Remove all controllers, headsets, second/third monitors, mics, webcams, etc. 

After removing these unnecessary peripherals, launch For Honor and see if the stutters/frame drops have decreased. If they have, then one of the peripherals was causing these issues.

Your job now is to determine which peripheral was the culprit of the performance issues. To figure this out, you’ll need to reconnect the peripherals individually. And each time you connect a new peripheral, open the game and look at its performance.

When the stutters/freezes return, the last peripheral you connected to your system is the one that’s causing problems. To stop the peripheral from creating these errors, update or reinstall its drivers.