Cities Skylines 2 Low FPS Strategies: How To Fix Frame Rate Issues

Cities Skylines 2 has some serious performance issues, with the game struggling due to low FPS and a generally unstable technical state. If you're looking for solutions to this problem, this guide will hopefully help you!

Cities Skylines 2 Low FPS
Cities Skylines 2: Possible fixes to the low FPS problems. | © Paradox Interactive/ EarlyGame

With the release of Cities Skylines 2 , the devs admitted they can't reach their targeted benchmark and need to raise the minimum and recommended specs. But with the lifted embargo, numerous reviews also pointed out the technical issues.

It's all too obvious the sequel got some performance issues and problem with keeping a stable frame rate. But there are still some options how to fix low frame rates, especially since it's happening on PC all the time.

Based on our own experiences with other PC games, these are your best options to increase FPS for the time being and enjoy Cities Skylines 2!

Cities Skylines Low FPS: How To Fix Low Frame Rates

Cities Skylines 2 Night Time
Cities Skylines 2: Our tips to fix frame rates in the game. | © Paradox Interactive/ EarlyGame

With the devs still figuring out how to fix the overall performance problems in Cities Skylines 2 , these general tips are some options you can try to fix the FPS problem:

  • Update Graphic Driver – Installing the up-to-date GPU driver improves the compatibility and performance of the game
  • Lower Graphic Settings – Lower the resolution, adjust the display mode, deactivate VSync, lower texture, reflection, shadow, fog, clouds and ambient occlusion quality and adjust the level of details in the game in order to reduce the strains on your GPU
  • Close Background Applications – Background applications or processes might be using too much of your CPU and memory resources you would otherwise need for Cities Skylines 2
  • Lower Population and Building Counts – The more citizens and building are displayed, the more demanding the game becomes. Starting off with smaller cities could also do the trick
  • Check Background Tasks – Make sure there aren't any background tasks or update running. I especially run into some problems with a windows software eating up my whole CPU resources without reasons and my knowing.
  • Upgrade to SSD – Consider upgrading your hard disk driver (HDD) to solid-state driver (SSD) for faster loading times and potentially better performance
  • Hardware Upgrade – If you're overall having problems running the latest games, upgrading your hardware with more powerful CPU, GPU or more RAM could also do the trick

Fixing the performance issues is the number one priority of the devs. They hope to remove the general problems with additional patches and hotfixes, but also get the game to run at steady 30 FPS.

We'll update this article if there are any new solutions to the low FPS problem in Cities Skylines 2.

Ewelyn Derc

Ewelyn is a Content Creator at EarlyGame. She's mainly interested in everything that comes from Japan and has to do with JRPGs. But also Souls-like, Indies, Shooter, Rogue-likes, Otome, Visual Novel and more are in her field of expertise....