If your Warzone stutters, or if you notice severe FPS drops or Warzone crashes from time to time, here are some methods for you. You can try each one in any order you like, or start from the one you haven’t tried before.

  1. Change your power plan
  2. Change the Warzone configuration file settings
  3. Update your graphics driver
  4. Check for Windows updates
  5. Use DirectX 11
  6. Lower the in-game graphics settings
  7. Turn on Hardware acceleration

Before we start troubleshooting, please restart your computer to flush any temporary files that cause your computer to stutter. Once done, follow the tips below.

1. Change your power plan

When your Warzone keeps stuttering, the very first method to try is changing your power plan to Ultimate Performance, a new-launched power plan that you might not know.

If you’ve never used the Ultimate Performance plan, you will have to enable this plan using the command prompt or Powershell.

Here’s how to enable it:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Type cmd and press Ctrl, Shift and Enter together to open the command prompt as an administrator.
  2. Paste the following command line in your command prompt and hit Enter: 
     powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Once done, proceed with the following steps:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Type powercfg.cpl and hit Enter.
  2. On the Power Options page, click Show additional plans to reveal the Ultimate Performance option. Select it.
  3. Re-launch Warzone to see if the issue persists.

If this method doesn’t resolve the stuttering issue, move on to the next tip.

2. Change the Warzone configuration file settings

When your Warzone stutters when playing, modifying the settings in the Warzone configuration file can improve the gaming performance, and at the same time, resolve your stuttering issue.

To do so:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Type Notepad and hit Enter.
  2. Once Notepad is open, press the Ctrl key and O together to browse files, then paste adv_options.ini in the searching field and hit Enter, select the result that matches.
  3. Once you open the adv_options.ini file, the value of the parameter RendererWorkerCount should be set to the number of physical cores on your CPU. Then, press the Ctrl key and S together on your keyboard to save changes.

    (If you don’t know the number of physical cores on your CPU, press the Windows key and X together and select Task Manager, and then select the Performance tab from the top menu bar and you will see the number of physical cores on your CPU.)
  4. Now re-launch Warzone and see if the issue persists.

If this solution doesn’t work for you, take a look at the next one.

3. Update your graphics driver

When your Warzone keeps stutter, one of the first things you should do is to update your graphics card driver, since an up-to-date graphics driver always ensures the best gaming performance and fewer bugs.

To update your display card driver, here’s what you can do (please note that the following screenshots are taken on Windows 11, but the instructions work on Windows 10 as well):

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X at the same time, select Device Manager.
  2. Double-click to expand the category Display adapters. Then right-click your graphic card driver and click Update driver (the name of the device can be different on your computer).
  3. Then click Search automatically for updated driver software.
  4. Wait for Windows to find the latest driver available for you.
  5. When the driver update is done, restart your computer for the change to take effect.
  6. Then check and see if the problem is fixed.

If Windows says that it’s already found the latest driver for you, so no newer drivers are found, then you should consider updating your graphic card driver in a different way with the help of Driver Techie.

Its ever-growing driver database allows you to always have access to the latest device drivers that you need. More importantly, Driver Techie simplifies the driver update process, so all it takes is just 3 clicks (for Pro users), and all your drivers are updated.

To use Driver Techie to find you the latest drivers:

  1. Download and install Driver Techie, then launch it.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After the scan, select all the drivers you need to update and click Update All. Then all your drivers will be updated automatically without you having to do anything else.

Please note that Update All is available for Pro subscribers only, otherwise, you can only manually update the driver one at a time. To see how to manually update the drivers one by one, please check this post.

If you’re a Pro user of Driver Techie, and need our technical support to help with the Warzone stuttering problem, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>.

4. Check for Windows updates

Either way, you can check for Windows Updates to see if there are new drivers or patches available. When your warzone starts to stutter, it’s recommended to install all the Windows updates. To do this, please follow the instructions below:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the I key together. From the left panel, select Windows Update.
  2. In the right section, click on the Check for updates button.
  3. Once updated, restart your computer to see if the issue persists.

If there isn’t any new update available, skip this section to the next fix.

5. Use DirectX 11

Warzone may have compatibility difficulties with the default DirectX 12. If your Warzone stuttering issue persists, you can try changing your DirectX version to DirectX 11.

To do so:

  1. Open Blizzard Battle.net desktop app and navigate to the game Call of Duty: Warzone
  2. Click on the gear icon next to the Play button, then select Game Settings.
  3. Select Game Settings from the left pane and tick the checkbox before Additional command line arguments.
  4. Type -D3D11 in the blank below the above option.
  5. Click on the Done button to save changes.

Once done, re-launch your game and see if the issue is resolved. If not, proceed with the next tip.

6. Lower the in-game graphics settings

If you’re facing the stuttering issue while playing Warzone, it’s always recommended to lower the in-game graphics settings, such as shadows and textures, since the right configuration always ensures the best gaming performance.

And for your reference, the best in-game graphics settings will be listed down below.

Display:

  1. Display Mode: Fullscreen
  2. Render Resolution: 100
  3. Aspect Ratio: Wide 16:9
  4. Sync Every Frame (V-sync): Disabled
  5. Custom Framerate Limit: Unlimited
  6. Nvidia Highlights: Disabled
  7. Display Gamma : 2.2 (sRGB)

Details and Textures:

  1. Texture Resolution: Low
  2. Texture Filter Anisotropic: Low
  3. Particle Quality: Low
  4. Bullet Impacts & Sprays: Disabled
  5. Tessellation: Disabled

Shadows and Lighting:

Disable everything or turn down all the settings to the lowest.

Post Processing Effects:

  1. Anti-Aliasing: SMAA T2X
  2. Depth of Field: Disabled
  3. Filmic Strength: 0.00
  4. World Motion Blur: Disabled
  5. Weapon Motion Blur: Disabled
  6. Film Grain: 0.00

Now, re-launch your Warzone and see if the problem is resolved. If not, try the next method.

7. Turn on hardware acceleration

Some gamers reported that turning on hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling resolves the Warzone stuttering issue. If all the methods above don’t work for you, you can try turning this feature on to boost FPS in Warzone.

To do so:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and I together to open Windows Settings, and then select System.
  2. Click the Display tab from the left menu bar, scroll down the page and click Graphics settings.
  3. Under the Default settings section, click Change default graphics settings.
  4. Toggle on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
  5. Restart your PC for changes to take effect.

At this point, your Warzone should be running smoothly. If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to leave a comment below.