Gray Zone Warfare: How to fix stuttering in GZW

Did I stutter?

Soldiers with weapons patrol an area in Gray Zone Warfare
Image via MADFINGER Games

You’ve finally learned the ropes and started exploring new parts of the map in Gray Zone Warfare. However, as you begin discovering locations for the first time, you might experience stuttering in Gray Zone Warfare, which may disrupt your experience in the game, making you wonder whether there’s a fix.

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During the Early Access stage of GZW, I had my fair share of stutters, especially when I was about to get into a skirmish with an enemy player. A stutter right when you start emptying your clip may ruin your aim and cause you to get knocked out.

What causes stuttering in Gray Zone Warfare?

How to find the negotiator in Gray Zone Warfare
A stutter at the wrong time can be costly. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Stutters in Gray Zone Warfare have two root causes: they can be related to your graphical settings or caused by connection problems. Even if your system meets Gray Zone Warfare’s recommended specs, playing the game with high graphical settings can cause stutters related to rendering objects.

On the other hand, GZW stutters can also happen due to connection problems on your end or when the game’s servers struggle to stay online. These types of stutters may also occur in the form of rubber banding in GZW.

How do you fix stutters in GZW?

Players riding on a helicopter in Gray Zone Warfare.
You can’t have stutters in your life if you want a smooth experience in GZW. Screenshot by Dot Esports

The two best ways to fix stutters in GZW are to lower your graphics settings and join a new server. Lowering your settings will make it easier to render objects, so your system will deal with smaller loads, while changing servers may drastically help with network-related stutters.

There are also a few alternative fixes you can try to fix stutters in GZW, and here are all of them:

  • See if Gray Zone Warfare is down by checking its server status: If there are server problems, you might continue to experience stutter and lag in GZW until the servers are back to normal.
  • Close applications with overlays and resource-hungry background apps: Processes running in the background with overlays may cause stutters, and this also applies to software that pulls a lot of resources, like antivirus programs when they’re running scans.
  • Play GZW in fullscreen: Don’t use windowed or borderless windowed modes while playing GZW. Prefer fullscreen, so your system can dedicate most of its resources to the game.
  • Restart your modem/router: A quick modem/router reset is one of the best ways to troubleshoot your home network.
  • Switch DNS addresses: If your default DNS addresses are having an outage, you might experience stutters and lag in GZW, so you should switch them out for Google or OpenDNS for a quick check.
  • Update GPU drivers: Some stutters can also be related to outdated graphics drivers, so you should install the latest drivers for your GPU, especially while playing new releases.

Overall, you can also view your ping in GZW to keep an eye on network-related stutters. Stutters and performance problems will likely be resolved with GZW’s roadmap materializing, and using the best settings for the game will be your best bet until optimization patches arrive.

Author
Image of Gökhan Çakır
Gökhan Çakır
Gökhan is a Staff Writer and Fortnite Lead at Dot Esports. Gökhan graduated as an industrial engineer in 2020 and has since been with Dot Esports. As a natural-born gamer, he honed his skills to a professional level in Dota 2. Upon giving up on the Aegis of Champions in 2019, Gökhan started his writing career, covering all things gaming, while his heart remains a lifetime defender of the Ancients.