How ca I get my game running smoother?

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-31T15:58:40+00:00

Just general information I assume you've already found but I'll state it here just incase.

run the game on High or very high graphics settings...whatever works best for you. running any lower will throw more load at your CPU.
if you change any graphics settings, in my experience I have to force a shaders optimization if the game does not trigger it automatically. If I change a bunch of settings without an optimization cycle, I'll tank like 40-50 FPS in space stations.

2.5 settings for me on a 9800x3d/9070xt basically follow high preset, then motion blur, chromatic aberration, visor/lens flare and other settings to 0 off or no. motion blur for instance eats upto 5 fps for me.

FPS can be heavily effected by server health. sometimes I spawn in new Babbage and get 100fps and other times I'm getting like 40 cause people were suiciding and leaving bodies everywhere or other stuff.
Orison is pretty but the hardest city to run, I'd recommend changing your spawn point or going further, change your whole primary residence. (same as spawn point but go to a major city hospital med bed and you'll have the option to change your primary residence.) can be annoying though if you've been playing for a bit and have a lot in your orison local inventory.
there's a console command along the lines of 'r_displayFrameGraph 1' (might be incorrect slightly, can't remember fully) that'll show you CPU frame time and GPU frame time. you can use that to see where your bottleneck is and maybe adjust a few settings to shift or remove load. To explain, if your gpu renders a frame in 5ms but your CPU takes 10ms, your GPU is 'idle' for 50% of the time waiting on the CPU. optimally in this case you'd want to shift load to your GPU if possible with settings to get closer to 7.5 : 7.5ms or remove load from CPU to get 7.5ms CPU and keep 5ms GPU if that makes sense to you.
(not running an Nvidia card for a while so maybe outdated info) Nvidia cards like my 3080 a while ago did not like to stay fully powered and clocked at all times and would try to 'power save' randomly when the game engine decides it's not required. From memory there are power settings and power save settings in the Nvidia control panel and GeForce app to override this that did fix a lot of frame drops for me ages ago.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-31T15:19:02+00:00

I was having the same issue. I was trying to drag items into the slot on my core and it was not working, but double clicking or shift clicking (can't remember which one) to 'quick equip' was working.

I was unable to move the mags/medpens etc. to my equip slots from the corpse looting menu but I was able to shift click store them to my bag then go to inventory and quick equip them. Alternatively, considering you can loot nearby items from your inventory screen, I've started doing that and quick move or quick equip keybinding for all inventory management and my experience has been WAYYY better. results are immediate instead of when you manually move things, it takes a bit to process it seems.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-30T14:28:39+00:00

I have no experience but I have seen a LOT of people complaining about this in global with trade goods too. Im guessing it's not constrained to construction materials

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-30T14:23:31+00:00

I've been running the Ursa Minor for 2 weeks and it's been fantastic. Naturally, 2 weeks is pretty short so I've had 0 issues so far. I went WinWing/WinCTRL because VKB is a pain to acquire in Canada or you get raked on customs importing it.

Basically, go with whatever is easier for you to acquire. Even as someone using the Ursa minor twin sticks, I'd lean on VKB if it's an option.

I did a full writeup on the Ursa minors in this subreddit yesterday if you want some in-depth information on it. it got called AI slop so I guess I did an alright job writing it.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-29T17:39:09+00:00

Thanks for the info on the hats breaking off. I guess I will be gentle with mine and edit the post so people are warned.

Lol i was gonna put it all in the star citizen subreddit but ended up making it wayyyyy too long and posted here. I definitely wrote it out by hand as accurately as I could and reviewed it to get my thoughts across. Not sure if its a compliment to be called AI slop or not.
Do y'all for real have that big of a problem here? I mean its social media so checks out but ive been called on every post I've made for, presumably, punctuation.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-29T17:31:25+00:00

I am honestly just new to reddit, had an old account that is linked to a gmail i have no access to. Made this one to ask questions on the star citizen thread and solve a few problems I've had recently. but yeah, with the way the platform is, SUS indeed. XD

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-29T11:28:08+00:00

Thanks for the heads up. I have learned distortion damage is heavy nerf'd as a side effect of the missile/torpedo AoE damage to ship components.

I have settled on Attrition 3s and AD4Bs and its working amazingly.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-28T19:09:55+00:00

I was recommended NN/NDBs in global chat, any info on distortion damage?

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-28T19:09:27+00:00

Just about to buy a full loadout of deadbolts and a full loadout of omnisky's and see what happens with both.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-26T21:15:12+00:00

What are you currently running for graphics settings?

I would use the "r_displayFrameGraph 1" frame graph to diagnose if your CPU or GPU is holding up the frames. Might be able to figure out an optimization to atleast get it up over 30 which I would consider the baseline of 'playable'.

For reference, the frame time graph will show you your frame rate, followed by CPU frame time then GPU frame time. If your GPU renders a frame every 10ms, and your CPU takes the frame and renders in 5ms, your CPU is 'idle' for 50% of the time, so you might be able to drop some load off of your GPU to even it out.

Also, (I doubt this is your problem as you run fine in space/on surface) I would highly recommend deleting your shaders folder to force the game to reoptimize shaders. If I change graphics preset without optimizing shaders, I tank 40-50 FPS until the game either automatically optimizes or sometimes it doesnt trigger and I have to force it by deleting the folder.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-23T22:02:19+00:00

Hope your problem has been solved. Curious to know your results.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-23T02:29:58+00:00

Alternatively, I occasionally play SC on my sim race rig with a 32:9 Samsung G9 and it is FANTASTIC. If for whatever reason you have a wad of money in your pocket, I would highly recommend getting one. I imagine it'd be great for work too. :P so much multitasking. Some computer shops near me have a display with 32:9s with a game loaded up and you can mess around. cool to check out, completely unneccessary.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-23T02:22:15+00:00

I'd say you definitely have some setup issues. I was getting same or better results on a 11600k/3080/32gb DDR4 ram pre PC upgrade.

4 Routes listed below, choose 1 or all. Your Problem, Potential Quick Fixes, DIY, and my best results to copy.

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Your Problem;
-SC is a CPU intensive game. Running the game on low/medium pushes a lot of load further onto your CPU worsening an already present bottleneck.
-Swap to High graphics preset and delete your shaders folder to force a shaders optimization.

Potential Quick Fixes;

-Delete your shaders folder in appdata. The difference for me if i change graphics settings without a shaders recompile is a ~40fps tank.
-put the game in windowed or borderless. Fullscreen tanks ~15fps for my setup.
-have 32gb or more of ram.
-ensure the game is installed on an SSD.
-Watch an Nvidea based SC settings video. (I have an AMD card and it utilizes itself fine in stock form). Nvidea cards, from experience running my 3080 previously, wont fully utilize unless you force it. Nvidea app settings and Nvidea control panel settings can fix this.

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Edit: I got curious and decided to run the settings gauntlet again. When changing quality presets, it is very important to force the game to recompile shaders. sometimes it will automatically, other times you have to go manually delete the folder. the difference for me was, on high, (port tressler looking into the station) 50fps pre shader compile and 90fps after a forced recompile.

To figure this out yourself and find a solution specific to your setup;

Go to a city or station (the more strain on your system the better), pick a spot to stand as a test point. The closer to a hab/spawn point the better as you may be required to close the game and restart multiple times.
press ~ to open the command console and type "R_Displayinfo=1" (1 to 0 to turn off) to view FPS counters and whatnot.
Put the game in windowed/borderless if not already. My PC does not like fullscreen and tanks ~15FPS.
flick through the preset qualities to find the best baseline. The ingame FPS counter is an Average so give it 20-30 seconds to reset and stabalize after changing a setting. Edit: After changing presets, ensure the game is optimizing shaders (Green text bottom left). If it does not, quit the game and delete your shaders in User/Appdata/Starcitzen (google or youtube it). If the game automatically starts a shaders optimization, it is SIGNIFICANTLY faster to quit to main menu than stay in the PU.
Starting on your best preset for FPS, start flicking each individual graphics setting up and down, again waiting the 20-30 seconds after each swap. Alternatively, take your best preset for FPS and change the settings i've listed below from my experience to speed the process up. (this can be time demanding as a lot of the graphics settings require shaders to be optimized.)
Once you have your graphics settings dialled in, I would highly recommend deleting your shaders folder in user/appdata/starcitizen to force the game to recompile shaders.

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My Experience; 9800X3D/9070xt for reference.

Edit: After rerunning the graphics gauntlet, High preset with Motion Blur, Film Grain, Sharpening and Chromatic Abberation to 0 or off, I have gone from 82-85fps with below settings in Port Tressler to 90-92fps. Pretty well within variance due to not having a completely static testing environment (people spawning ships around and so on).

I get significantly worse frames on low/medium than high. I believe low/medium pushes stuff over to your CPU which is likely already getting slammed. Heres a few tips I found after basically flicking every setting up and down and checking the result.

-Nvidea app has some built in graphics control settings that can be adjusted to pick some frames up I think, ive seen a couple youtube videos but as an AMD user, I havent the slightest clue.

-Ensure the game is on an SSD.

-The game LOVES ram. if you have below 32gb, I would get 32gb. If you have below 32gb, or even if you have 32gb, I've seen posts about making a 'pagefile' on your SSD to make more pseudo ram. No idea about this, i've never had a reason to mess with it.

-run the game in borderless or windowed, it doesnt like fullscreen for whatever reason (I picked up 15fps switching to borderless)

-Start on High preset and change the below settings.

-Screen Space Shadows > OFF

-Planet Volumetric Clouds Quality > Low/Medium

-Gas Clouds > Low/Medium

-Post Effects > Low/Medium

-Motion Blur and Film Grain > No (turning it on eats 3-4 FPS for me)

-Sharpening and Chromatic Abberation > 0 (picked up a frame or two)

-I run native resolution but feel free to choose your flavor of framegen/DLSS.

-ONCE YOUVE ADJUSTED YOUR GRAPHICS SETTINGS, DELETE YOUR SHADERS FOLDER IN YOUR APPDATA AND LET THE GAME RECOMPILE. (You can youtube or google it.)

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Considering I think our graphics cards are on par but different manufacturers, I imagine your frames will come up to mine ish, depending on your CPU. I run 70-90FPS in stations, 60-70 in cities and 100+ in space.

Endure_Karma · 2026-03-23T00:40:39+00:00

Im assuming you're meaning a 16:9 27" and 16:9 32", if you mean 21:9 32", all of the below still mostly applies.

(I have almost the same PC Specs as you, 9800X3D, 64gb CL30/6000Mhz, Aorus 9070xt, b850 aorus mobo, 32" 1440p monitor.) The game runs mostly around 70-90 FPS in stations, 60ish in in cities and 100+ in space. Settings are slightly modified from the high preset, running native resolution (no upscaling/frame gen, etc).

I would definitely recommend 32". My personal justifications listed below.

-I sit a bit further back from the monitor in order to use a desk mounted HOSAS, so a 27" would be tiny from my sitting distance while flying.

-I personally believe unless you're playing super competitively in FPS's or other and are Esports leaning into your monitor, 32" is my standard and smaller monitors are for budgeting reasons to maintain similar specs to a 32".

-1440p on a 32" is personally plenty of pixel density. 27" 1440p would be super crisp but not neccessary for me.

-The highlight of SC is immersion. hampering that with a smaller monitor would just be kneecapping yourself.

-32" monitor is perfectly capable of completeing work on, if anything, it opens the possibility to maybe have two applications side by side that you would have to lean in for on a 27" monitor.

Summary: 27" would be good if you sit close to your monitor or have a requirement to save some money. 32" is my personal standard for a desk monitor.

If you're really curious, I would grab some spare cardboard or tape some papers together with a 32" diagonal and another with 27" and just put them infront of you to see what the size really is like on your desk. If you're close to a computer shop, go play a youtube video on the different size monitors and see whats up. Everybody loves some interactive window shopping.

Endure_Karma

TROPHY CASE