How to Fish (Dazed Games) Low FPS Fix: PC Performance & Stuttering Guide (2026)
If you have spent any real time playing How to Fish, you probably already know that this is not exactly a relaxing fishing simulator. One minute you are calmly waiting for a bite, and the next you are dealing with explosions, flying players, physics objects, monsters, water effects, and whatever else your friends have managed to turn into a disaster.
That chaos is a big part of why I enjoy the game. After playing a lot of PC games over the years, though, I have learned one thing: games built around physics and multiplayer interaction can be surprisingly difficult to optimize. A title can look relatively simple and still hammer the CPU, GPU, memory, and frame-time consistency at the same time.
That is exactly where How to Fish can become frustrating.
The game launched on Steam on August 20, 2026, and while its unusual combination of fishing, co-op destruction, base building, boss encounters, and ridiculous physics makes it incredibly entertaining, performance problems can become obvious during busy sessions. Low FPS, sudden drops, micro-stuttering, and poor 1% lows are especially noticeable when several players are throwing objects around at once.
I have tested enough PC games to know that there is rarely one magical setting that fixes everything. Instead, the best results usually come from a combination of sensible in-game settings, driver configuration, Windows tweaks, and making sure the game installation itself is healthy.
Here is what I would actually change first.
Why Does How to Fish Run Poorly on Some PCs?
Before changing twenty different settings, it helps to understand what is probably happening.
How to Fish is built around physics and real-time interaction. That matters because physics calculations can put considerably more pressure on the CPU than a visually similar game would.
When there are only a few objects on screen, your system may have no problem maintaining a high frame rate. Add several players, water interactions, explosions, moving objects, enemies, projectiles, and other physics events, and the CPU suddenly has much more work to do.
The GPU can also become a problem. Dynamic water, reflections, shadows, anti-aliasing, and other visual effects can increase rendering costs, particularly on older GPUs.
The result is something I have seen in plenty of PC games:
| Symptom | Likely Problem | First Thing I’d Try |
|---|---|---|
| Low average FPS | GPU or CPU limitation | Lower resolution/render scale |
| Sudden FPS drops | CPU/physics workload | Reduce physics-related settings |
| Micro-stuttering | Frame-time/background issues | Disable unnecessary overlays |
| Poor 1% lows | CPU, drivers, or background tasks | Clean up drivers and Windows |
| GPU usage seems low | CPU bottleneck | Lower physics and object-heavy settings |
| Smooth menus but bad gameplay | Real-time simulation load | Reduce shadows and physics quality |
The important point is that a low GPU utilization number does not automatically mean your graphics card is broken. If the CPU is struggling to prepare frames, the GPU can simply sit there waiting.
Start With the In-Game Settings
This is always where I begin.
I would rather spend five minutes adjusting the game’s graphics menu than immediately start changing Windows services or registry settings. In most cases, the biggest performance gains are sitting right there.
My starting configuration would look something like this:
- Display Mode: Fullscreen
- Resolution: Native resolution
- Render Scale: 90–100%
- V-Sync: Off
- Physics Quality: Medium
- Ragdoll/Physics Effects: Medium or Low, if available
- Shadow Quality: Medium
- Shadow Distance: Medium or Low
- Anti-Aliasing: FXAA/TAA or a lower-quality option
- Heavy reflection effects: Reduce if available
I would not immediately drop everything to Low.
That is one of the mistakes I see people make with performance guides. If your PC can run the game at a decent visual quality level, there is no reason to turn it into a blurry mess just to gain a few frames.
Instead, target the settings that actually have a noticeable performance cost.
Physics Settings Are Particularly Important
For How to Fish, physics deserves special attention.
This is not a conventional shooter where reducing texture quality suddenly solves every problem. If the CPU is struggling with a ridiculous number of objects, changing texture filtering is not going to save you.
Try Medium physics quality first. If you still experience major drops during chaotic multiplayer moments, move it to Low.
The visual difference may be considerably smaller than the performance difference.
Don’t Be Afraid to Reduce Render Scale
If you are playing on a lower-end graphics card, render scale can be one of the easiest ways to recover performance.
For example, if you normally play at 1920×1080, try reducing the render scale to around 90% before lowering your actual display resolution.
I generally prefer this approach because it preserves the monitor’s native output resolution while reducing the internal rendering workload.
If your system is particularly old, dropping from 1080p to 900p can also make a surprisingly large difference.
The key is to make small changes and test after each one. Do not change fifteen settings at once, because then you have no idea which setting actually helped.
Check Your Monitor Refresh Rate
This is one of those troubleshooting steps that sounds unrelated to FPS but can make a difference to how smooth the game feels.
If you are using a 144Hz, 165Hz, or 240Hz monitor, make sure Windows is actually running at the refresh rate you expect.
Go to:
Windows Settings → System → Display → Advanced Display
Check the selected refresh rate.
I would not automatically recommend switching every high-refresh monitor to 60Hz. A 144Hz display is one of the best upgrades you can have for PC gaming, and there is no reason to give it up unless you are troubleshooting a specific frame-pacing problem.
However, temporarily testing the game at 60Hz can help determine whether the problem is related to frame pacing rather than raw rendering performance.
If the game suddenly feels more consistent, you have learned something useful.
Don’t Rely Too Much on the Display Adapter Reset Trick
You may see advice suggesting that you disable and re-enable your GPU through Device Manager before playing.
Yes, you can do this. It essentially forces Windows to reinitialize the graphics device.
But personally, I would not consider this a real performance fix.
If your GPU driver is behaving strangely, restarting the driver or rebooting Windows can sometimes clear a temporary issue. However, repeatedly disabling and enabling your graphics card is not something I would build into a normal gaming routine.
If the game only runs correctly after performing this trick every time, I would investigate the driver installation instead.
Update Your GPU Drivers
This is much more important.
New games often expose driver problems that older games never reveal. A driver that worked perfectly for another title can still produce crashes, stuttering, or strange GPU utilization in a new release.
NVIDIA
Open the NVIDIA App and check for a newer driver.
If you have recently experienced serious problems across several games, a clean driver installation can be worth doing.
I would especially consider this if:
- The problem started after a driver update.
- Multiple games are suddenly stuttering.
- You are experiencing crashes or black screens.
- GPU utilization behaves unusually.
- The problem persists after changing the game’s settings.
AMD
For Radeon users, open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition and check for available driver updates.
If your installation has become messy after multiple updates, the Factory Reset option can be useful.
I would not reinstall drivers every time a game drops five frames, though. Driver maintenance should be targeted rather than treated as a ritual.
NVIDIA Control Panel Settings I Would Actually Use
If you have an NVIDIA GPU, create a profile specifically for How to Fish rather than changing global settings.
Open NVIDIA Control Panel and go to:
Manage 3D Settings → Program Settings
Add the game’s executable and start with:
- Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance
- Texture Filtering – Quality: High Performance
- Vertical Sync: Use the game’s setting or leave controlled appropriately
- Low Latency Mode: Start with Off or On and test before using Ultra
That last point is important.
A lot of optimization guides recommend Ultra for Low Latency Mode as if it automatically increases FPS. It does not. Low Latency Mode is primarily about reducing render queue behavior and latency. Depending on the game and whether you are CPU-bound, forcing aggressive settings can sometimes provide no benefit at all.
For a physics-heavy game like How to Fish, I care much more about stable frame times than chasing theoretical latency improvements.
AMD Users Should Keep Things Simple
For Radeon users, open AMD Software and create a game-specific profile.
Radeon Anti-Lag can be worth testing if input responsiveness matters to you.
I would avoid stacking several synchronization and frame-limiting technologies on top of one another while troubleshooting. If Enhanced Sync, V-Sync, an external FPS limiter, and another synchronization technology are all fighting for control, figuring out the source of a problem becomes much harder.
Start simple.
Verify the Steam Installation
This is one of the easiest fixes in the entire guide, so there is no reason not to try it.
In Steam:
- Open your Library.
- Right-click How to Fish.
- Select Properties.
- Open Installed Files.
- Select Verify integrity of game files.
- Wait for Steam to complete the scan.
This will not magically optimize the game’s engine, but it can repair missing or damaged files.
If your stuttering began after an update, this is particularly worth checking.
Give Windows Less Work to Do
Modern PCs are fast, but Windows can still have a surprising number of things running in the background.
Before starting a demanding multiplayer session, close applications you do not need.
The usual suspects include:
- Browser windows with dozens of tabs
- Discord overlays
- Recording software
- RGB/peripheral utilities
- Overwolf
- Game launchers
- Cloud synchronization applications
You do not necessarily need to disable all of them permanently.
In fact, I would strongly recommend against randomly disabling Windows services just because an optimization video told you they were “useless.”
For example, disabling telemetry services may slightly reduce background activity, but it is not the kind of tweak I would expect to transform a 40 FPS game into an 80 FPS game.
If you are looking for meaningful performance improvements, concentrate on the game, GPU driver, CPU load, overlays, thermals, and background applications first.
Try Windows Graphics Performance Settings
Windows also allows you to assign a game to your high-performance GPU.
Go to:
Settings → System → Display → Graphics
Add the How to Fish executable if it is not already listed and select the High Performance graphics preference.
This is particularly useful on laptops with integrated and dedicated graphics.
If you have a desktop with only one GPU, it is unlikely to be the magic fix, but there is little downside to making sure Windows is using the correct graphics device.
What About Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling?
HAGS is another setting that gets mentioned constantly in PC optimization guides.
I recommend testing it rather than assuming it is universally better.
Some systems benefit from it, while others show little difference or behave differently depending on the driver and hardware configuration.
Turn it on, restart Windows, test the game, and compare your frame-time consistency.
If performance gets worse, turn it back off.
Watch Your Temperatures
One thing I would absolutely check before blaming the game is hardware temperature.
If your FPS starts high and gradually gets worse after twenty or thirty minutes, thermal throttling becomes a possibility.
Use a monitoring application to check:
- CPU temperature
- GPU temperature
- CPU clock speed
- GPU clock speed
- GPU utilization
- RAM usage
- VRAM usage
If your GPU is sitting at low utilization while one or more CPU cores are heavily loaded, you are probably dealing with a CPU bottleneck.
If the GPU is pinned close to 100%, start lowering resolution, render scale, shadows, reflections, and other graphics settings.
That distinction saves a lot of unnecessary troubleshooting.
My Recommended Settings for Different PCs
| PC Type | Resolution | Physics | Shadows | Render Scale | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry-Level GPU | 900p–1080p | Low | Low | 80–90% | Stable FPS |
| Mainstream Gaming PC | 1080p | Medium | Medium | 90–100% | Balanced |
| RTX 3060/RX 6600 Class | 1080p | Medium | Medium | 100% | Stable 60+ FPS |
| Modern Mid-Range PC | 1440p | Medium/High | Medium | 100% | Image Quality |
| High-End PC | 1440p–4K | High | High | 100% | Visual Quality |
These are starting points, not universal benchmarks. Every PC behaves differently, particularly when the CPU becomes the limiting component.
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One More Thing: Don’t Chase the FPS Counter
After years of playing PC games, this is probably the most useful advice I can give.
A game running at 80 FPS with terrible frame pacing can feel worse than one running at a locked 60 FPS.
How to Fish is especially sensitive to this because its gameplay involves movement, physics, water, and multiplayer chaos. You want consistent frame delivery rather than a number that jumps between 90, 55, 110, and 47 FPS every few seconds.
If your PC cannot maintain a stable 100+ FPS, stop chasing that number.
Try locking the game to a frame rate your system can actually sustain.
A stable 60 FPS is considerably more enjoyable than an unstable 90 FPS.
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Final Thoughts
How to Fish is the kind of game where performance problems can become more obvious precisely when the game is at its most fun. When four players are fishing, shooting, exploding things, fighting monsters, and filling the screen with physics objects, your PC suddenly has much more work to do.
The good news is that you do not need to destroy the game’s visual quality to improve performance.
Start with the obvious stuff: reduce physics-heavy settings, lower shadows, adjust render scale, verify your Steam files, update your GPU driver, and remove unnecessary background applications. Then monitor CPU and GPU usage to figure out what is actually limiting your system.
I would also avoid questionable “optimization” tricks that involve disabling random Windows services or constantly resetting your graphics adapter. They might occasionally help a particular configuration, but they are not substitutes for proper troubleshooting.
For most players, the biggest improvement will come from finding the balance between stable frame times and visual quality, rather than blindly turning every option to Low.
And honestly, that is what I would aim for. How to Fish is at its best when the chaos feels intentional rather than when your PC starts fighting for its life. Get the frame pacing under control, keep the physics workload reasonable, and you can spend your time worrying about catching fish instead of watching your FPS counter collapse.
