Horizon Zero Dawn PC Crashes, Stuttering, Low FPS and Performance Fixes

Are you experienceing crashes, bugs and stuttering in Horizon Zero Dawn on PC? Check out our list of general issues that might help you fix them.

Horizon Zero Dawn is now available on Steam for PC and despite the expectations, the game is plagued with bugs and crashes. Most players experience issues even while having high-end PCs. Guerilla Games however, is now trying to get a hold of the situation. Until then, we’ve gathered some of the most common issues that you can solve on your own in Horizon Zero Dawn on PC, including crashes, low performance, and stuck downloading.

Horizon Zero Dawn PC Crash on Startup

Crashes on Startup are generally caused by an external source such as non updated drivers or low specifications. Check if your hardware meet the minimum recommendations. Next, check out if your GPU drivers are updated and finish the updates if needed. Then, make sure that you’re running the correct C++ distributables version. Download the correct one and reinstall it if you see the issue persisting.

Players on Steam have reported that disabling Steam Overlay during their gameplay is fixing the issue as well.  Open the Steam client and navigate to the Steam > Settings/Preferences > In-game tab. Uncheck the box next to Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.

Cinematic Stuttering

Players report that the opening cinematic for Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam is also having issues. This includes crashes, loops, and low performance. There’s no clear fix for this issue and Guerilla Games should be investigating this right now. What you can try is verifying the game’s files and start up the game with administrator rights. Also, try disabling the anisotropic filtering as it is causing issues right now and whitelist Horizon Zero Dawn off your firewall and anti-virus program.

Low Performance / Low FPS / Glitches

Horizon Zero Dawn on PC is a rather disappointing port, that’s for sure. However, there are some fixes you can try in order to lower the stuttering and performance while playing. Your best bet is to play around with the graphics settings and see which of those make your FPS rise up and your resolution not suffering. If those are not making this better, then check your GPU drivers for any updates.

Game not Starting

If Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t open up when you launch it then the first thing you want to do is run it with Administrator rights. If this doesn’t solve the issue, whitelist the game on your anti-virus or firewall program and try again. Last but not least, check if you meet the minimum requirements and whether or not you have the correct version of DirectX and C++ Visual Studio distributables.

Anisotropic Filtering not Working

There are several issues connected to Anisotropic Filtering right now and those have no clear fix. Guerilla has released a list of known issues and this is one of them. The studio promises to address the matter as soon as possible. Until then, you can choose the default setting and you should have no issues.

Downloading Stuck

If your download is stuck at a certain point, then you should start with the basics. Restart your router and check your connection speed. If this isn’t the issue then stop and start the download again or delete the game and start it once more if the issue continues.

If you are running into even more issues than the ones mentioned above, please give Guerilla some time to address them. We know that a faulty port is a problem for everyone but the issue won’t persist forever. Most issues should be fixed in the next few days.

Always looking for a deep story, empathetic characters, and a great soundtrack in video games. Hardcore game hoarder and a strong believer that one day Xbox will win the console war.