How to optimize S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl

Many players are looking for ways to optimise STALKER 2 because The Zone is an unforgiving place. We know that getting the most out of Heart of Chornobyl can be a challenge, even with a computer that meets GSC Game World's recommended requirements.

While the developers have shared a series of steps to improve S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl performance, we understand that some stalkers may still face significant issues, such as performance crashes or even difficulties starting the game.

That's why we'll start by sharing the official tips as a starting point. Then, we'll add more practical, community-specific solutions designed to solve those details that only fans of the STALKER Universe and PC performance know how to find.

With the help of STALKERHispano, we're confident you'll finally be ready to explore the Zone with the performance you need to survive.

GSC Game World tips

Before we dive into more detailed solutions, we share the official tips from GSC Game World. Although these are general recommendations, they provide a good basis for ensuring your system is ready to face the challenges of the Zone. Here are the official guidelines to get you off on the right foot.

1. System Requirements: Make sure your PC meets the minimum or recommended requirements. If it's just right, adjust settings or consider upgrading hardware.
2. Update Graphics Drivers. Download the latest NVIDIA, AMD or Intel drivers from their official sites and restart your PC.
3. Reinstall Drivers. Uninstall current drivers from Device Manager. Download and install the latest drivers from the manufacturer's site.
4. Update Windows. Check for updates under Settings > Update and security. Keep the system up to date to avoid compatibility issues.
5. Adjust Graphics Settings. Reduce quality of textures, shadows, anti-aliasing and effects if necessary. Enable/disable V-Sync depending on performance.
6. Close Background Processes. Close unnecessary programs from Task Manager. Enable Game Mode in Settings > Games.
7. Configure Power Options. Select the high performance plan from Control Panel > Power Options.
8. Update BIOS and Chipset. Check your current version at msinfo32. Download updates from your motherboard manufacturer's website and follow their instructions.
9. Connect Monitor to GPU. Make sure the monitor is connected to the graphics card, not the motherboard, for maximum performance.

These basic steps are ideal for establishing a baseline configuration from which you can further optimise your experience. However, we feel that they are insufficient to really help you improve the performance of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

Optimise S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Increase stability and resources by configuring your PC in the following way

You may have got away with it so far, but the Zone can be far more demanding than any virtual world you've faced so far. Whether or not you can boot up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, follow these tips are to play the game properly, performance wise, or give it a try to boot.

If you are looking for increased performance and stability in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl follow these tips, ranked in order of the impact they will have on increasing your chances of success.

Adjustments in Windows 10/11

Depending on your system configuration, you will have some settings at hand that can make a decisive contribution to the ability to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 without performance problems.

• Disable Memory Integrity in Windows Defender. If you're not one of those stalkers who keeps getting into trouble all the time, you can benefit from disabling this advanced security monitoring.
• Enable or increase the Windows paging file on the hard drive on which you have installed the game. You can set Windows to decide the size of the paging file for you, or choose it on your own. If you plan to do the latter, it is always recommended to enable a paging file two or three times the size of your total RAM.
• Enable Game Mode in Windows. To do this go to the Windows options, Gaming panel and make sure that Game Mode is active.
• Enable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling(HAGS) and Windows Windowed Gaming Optimisation. You can do this by going to Windows Settings, System pane, click on Display, at the bottom you find Graphics and once open click on Change default graphics options. There you can enable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling(HAGS) and Windowed Game Optimization in your Windows.
• Make sure to use the High Performance windows power profile.
• Exclude the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 executable in Windows Defender, or even disable Windows Defender completely while playing.

Ultimately, if you were planning to format your computer and do a clean install of Windows 11, now may be the time. Whether you want to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl or just browse all day, we recommend you consider Windows 11 LTSC to make the most of your computer's resources and privacy.

BIOS settings

You will need to consult your motherboard manufacturer's manual to find out exactly how to enter and set up your BIOS for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Once inside, check these settings:

• Disable HPET (High Precision Event Timer) in your BIOS (if you can't, sometimes you can from Windows).
• Enable Resizable BAR in your BIOS. We're talking about a potential +10% FPS improvement, so don't miss this opportunity.
• Make sure you use the right XMP profiles for your RAM in the BIOS.
• Some users report improvements by enabling Above 4G Decoding as well.

Adjustments to graphics cards

• On AMD graphics cards, make sure you have Smart Access Memory enabled in AMD Adrenalin,
• On NVIDIA graphics cards, go to the NVIDIA Control Panel and set 3D applications to Prefer No Sysmem Fallback.
• As a last resort, you can always try overclocking your graphics card. With programs like MSI Afterburner this can be quite easy, but be careful not to overdo it.

With these settings on your system, you can give your PC the extra boost it needs to take on the Zone. While some of these settings may seem technical, each one contributes to improving stability and performance in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, so don't hesitate to ask on the forum or Discord if you need help with any of these steps - you'll be helping us improve this content for other stalkers!

Optimise S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 taking too long to load

If you are having problems with the initial loading of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl we have solutions to the problem. Staring at your computer screen for 5 to 20 minutes is very unpleasant, so if your S .T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 takes a long time to load we are going to give you a series of recommendations.

Both the suggestions we've given you so far and the mods and tools we'll show you in the next section can help you reduce loading times too, but if S .T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 still takes a long time to load you'll need to put some of these points into practice:

• Increase the GPU shader cache size (NVIDIA). The Nvidia Control Panel allows you to limit the size of the shader cache file, to prevent it from filling up your hard drive, and its default value can cause loading problems in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Follow these steps to increase the size of this cache:

1. Open the Nvidia Control Panel from the Windows taskbar.
2. Go to the "Manage 3D Settings" tab.
3. Scroll down this group of settings until you see the "Shader cache size" option.
4. Select a value of 10GB here, even more if you have space to spare on your hard drive.
5. Once you have done this, click Apply and close the Nvidia Control Panel.
6. If the problem was that you didn't have enough space to compile the shader cache, you should now be able to boot S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 much faster.

• BIOS update. Make sure you know what you're doing, or ask for help on the forums before embarking on this adventure. If you have never updated your BIOS, you may not be taking full advantage of the latest technologies your hardware has to offer, and are missing out on many opportunities to improve your ability to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 smoothly, without excessive load and interruptions.
• Reduce your CPU clock frequency. I know it may sound counter-intuitive, but it makes sense: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has optimisation issues and Unreal Engine 5 prefers cores over speed. This means that with stock frequencies or overclocking, the only thing we will get is overheating the CPU and that ends up causing crashes and crashes. To solve this problem, reduce your CPU frequency by 0.2-0.4Ghz and you can enjoy greater stability when playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
• Use CPU Priority Registry, to run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 with the highest priority on your processor.

Long load times can be frustrating, but with these solutions, you have tools to mitigate them and improve your experience in the Zone. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone, but trying these options will help you reduce waiting times and enjoy the game more smoothly.

Completely disable S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's bootloader

The initial phase of compiling shaders, wait for it... in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 primarily uses your processor (CPU) to do its job. This means that if your processor isn't quite up to speed, even when the first shader compilation is done, future initial loads will be slow as well. For example, if you have changed any graphics options or installed a mod that configures graphical aspects of Heart of Chornobyl, the game will recompile the shaders that are affected by these changes.

For the sake of game stability, we do not recommend disabling this process, but if you still want to do so, follow these steps:

1. Press the key combination Windows + R on your keyboard.
2. In the run window, paste the following instruction %localappdata%\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows
3. Locate or create with notepad the engine.ini file.
4. Open the file and copy the following:
   [SystemSettings]
   r.PSOWarmup.WarmupMaterials=0
5. Make sure to save it as engine.ini (not engine.ini.txt).

When using this method to load S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 more quickly, remember that:

• To disable shader compilation in S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl you have to perform the first slower compilation.
• If you update or reinstall your graphics drivers, make hardware changes, modify graphics settings in the game or there is a new patch, you will have to perform the compile again by changing the value from 0 to 1 (you can change it back later).

Mods and tools focused on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 performance and optimisation

The community has always been the cornerstone of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Universe, and Heart of Chornobyl is no exception. This section is subject to frequent changes, so keep calm and stay alert.

Despite the first two patches in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, we still recommend a lot of caution when using optimisation mods because you will have to keep an eye on the mod updates in order to avoid conflicts with the patches and to make the most of them.

The mod that has given us the most joy in these first weeks is Optimized Tweaks by VynnGfx, which comes in two versions:

• Optimized Tweaks BASE, provides lossless S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 performance improvements.
• Optimised Tweaks BOOST, further improves the performance of Heart of Chonrnobyl with loss of image quality.

Our tests with Optmized Tweaks BASE confirm that it produces a substantial improvement in stability when playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, with much smoother gameplay and virtually no interruptions during gameplay.

In terms of tools, at the moment we highlight the following:

• DLSS Enabler, if your graphics card does not support it natively (from NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 onwards) you can increase your frames a lot. Compatible with NVIDIA, Intel and AMD graphics cards.
• CPU Priority Registry, to run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 with the highest priority on your processor.

Some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 performance tools and mods may take some time to appear in this article, so keep our S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl downloads section handy to stay up to date.

The most important options to optimise S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl in-game

At this point, we're assuming you've been able to boot up the game and are looking to improve your STALKER 2 experience without resorting to having all the options set to Low. The first thing to investigate when optimising S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl: the Graphics section under Options.

Tired of trying all the possible combinations without really knowing what's working? Here are the 5 graphics settings that affect the performance of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl the most:

1. Foliage Quality is the graphics option that causes the most performance issues in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. If you are low on power, we recommend setting Foliage Quality to Low.
2. Shadow Quality is another culprit for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl's poor or very slow performance. If you are looking to increase your FPS, we recommend setting Shadow Quality to Low.
3. Global Illumination can have adverse effects on the performance of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 when entering buildings and constructions with many different light sources. If you have problems entering buildings in The Zone in Heart of Chornobyl set Global Illumination to Low.
4. Fog, in Environment Quality, requires constant efforts from your computer to see the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Gain additional FPS by setting Fog to Low.
5. Environment Draw Distance, under Environment Quality, amplify any performance issues you have when rendering greater distances from The Zone by setting Environment Draw Distance to Close, and ensure good performance in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

If you have problems with VRAM, also make sure to set Texture Quality to Low. In this situation, you can take advantage of using Optimzed Tweak BASE or BOOST to reduce the amount of RAM your graphics card needs to explore The Zone.

Hardcore gamers may be able to get between 5% and 25% more FPS to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl without losing too much visual quality by complying with all these in-game modifications.

Why is STALKER 2's performance so slow, and is it so poorly optimised?

Let's address some of the reasons behind the performance issues in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. We want to make it clear that our aim is not to criticise the decisions made by GSC Game World in a self-serving perspective.

It is clear that these decisions were made with the best interest in mind, seeking to offer players the most immersive and technically advanced experience possible. However, some of these choices, while ambitious, present challenges that we will analyse to better understand how they affect the game's performance.

Lumen and Nanite

Lumen and Nanite are two advanced technologies in Unreal Engine 5 designed to improve graphics quality, but can be demanding in terms of performance:

• Lumen: real-time dynamic global illumination and reflections system that delivers stunning graphics, requiring a lot of GPU and CPU power. This can cause FPS drops, especially on hardware that is not optimised to handle high-quality real-time lighting.
• Nanite: renders extremely detailed geometries with no visible loss of quality, loading millions of polygons. While efficient, in complex scenarios such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 it can saturate GPU resources, causing performance issues on less powerful machines.

Fork from Unreal Engine 5.1.1

GSC Game World decided to fork Unreal Engine 5.1.1, i.e. to create a custom version of the engine to suit the specific needs of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. While this decision has benefits, it also comes with significant limitations:

• Inability to upgrade easily: When modifying the base engine, upgrading to newer versions of Unreal Engine, such as 5.2, 5.3 or 5.5, becomes much more complex. Each new version brings performance improvements, advanced tools and bug fixes, but integrating these updates requires rewriting some of the modified code, which consumes time and resources.
• Performance and optimisation: The latest versions of Unreal Engine include specific optimisations for technologies such as Lumen, Nanite and DirectStorage. By staying at 5.1.1, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 does not benefit from these improvements, which prevents certain performance issues from being resolved.

Shader preloading

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl pre-compiles shaders at game launch so that players can enjoy a smooth and uninterrupted gaming experience. However, due to various issues, this process can be interrupted or suffer from problems that cause the game to malfunction. The most commonly reported result of this is very long loading times when starting the game.

Final notes on the optimisation of STALKER 2

The performance issues in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl are not the result of careless decisions, but of an ambitious bid to take advantage of advanced technologies and deliver a cutting-edge graphical experience. Despite these difficulties, it is important to recognise the development team's efforts to push the boundaries of what is possible, even if it means facing obstacles that have yet to be overcome.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is not just a game, it is a technical challenge that tests players and their teams. While we have covered a wide variety of solutions, we know that the Zone is unpredictable, and issues unique to each system can arise. That's why we invite you to share your experiences on the forums: what solution worked for you, do you have any tricks or tweaks we haven't mentioned?

If this guide helped you, share it with your fellow stalkers. It can be the difference between surviving the challenges of the Zone or getting lost among anomalies - the Zone is easier to survive when we work together!