Fix: The Forest Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing constantly

Endnight Games Ltd released the open-world survival craft video game The Forest in April 2018, and it has since earned overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam for the PC version. However, many players have reported experiencing stuttering, lagging, or even freezing issues while playing, which can be quite frustrating. If you’re facing these problems, this guide will help you fix them.

Running modern PC games smoothly often requires a strong hardware configuration. Not all players have high-end setups capable of handling maximum resolution and higher FPS, and since most PC titles are resource-hungry, performance issues are fairly common.

In this guide, we’ll go through the steps to fix The Forest stuttering and lag issues that some PC gamers encounter. These problems can cause frame drops, crashes, and overall poor performance, depending on your system’s compatibility. Resolving them will help ensure a smoother experience and allow you to enjoy the game at a more stable FPS count.

This guide will also help you understand the possible reasons behind stuttering or freezing and walk you through practical solutions to fix the issue.

OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT
DirectX: Version 9.0
Storage: 5 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible
Additional Notes: 32bit windows users need to ensure they have at least 4GB of ram usable on their system.

Recommended System Requirements:

OS: Windows 7
Processor: Quad-Core Processor
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
DirectX: Version 9.0
Storage: 5 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible

Fix: The Forest Stuttering and Lags Badly

Fixing in-game lags or frame drop issues isn’t easy because it depends on multiple factors such as PC hardware, the display resolution of the game, maximum FPS limit count, conflicting third-party apps, and more. So, we recommend you follow all the methods one by one until the problem gets fixed or reduced a lot. Mostly changing the in-game graphics-related settings or keeping them low can fix several problems in a jiffy.

It may include the Screen Resolution of the game, in-game Texture Resolution, Shadow Resolution, Maximum Frame rate, number of Characters Displayed, or other visual effects that require higher graphics or memory. So, you can follow the steps below to try reducing the lags or frame drops up to some extent depending on which resolution and quality you’re playing the game apart from FPS count.

1. Use Launch Options

Open your Steam client > Go to Library > Right-click on The Forest.
Select Properties > On the General tab, you’ll find Launch Options.
Enter the launch options -fullscreen = Forces the engine to start in fullscreen mode.

2. Update Graphics Drivers

Right-click on the Start Menu to open up the Quick Access Menu.
Click on Device Manager from the list.
Now, double-click on the Display adapters category to expand the list.
Then right-click on the dedicated graphics card name.
Select Update driver > Choose Search automatically for drivers.
If an update is available, it’ll automatically download and install the latest version.
Once done, make sure to reboot your computer to change the effects.

3. Run the game as an administrator

Make sure to run the game exe file as an administrator to avoid user account control regarding privilege issues. It would be best if you also run the Steam client as an administrator on your PC. To do this:

Right-click on your PC’s The Forest exe shortcut file.
Now, select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
Click on the Run this program as an administrator checkbox to checkmark it.
Click on Apply and select OK to save changes.

4. Set High Priority in Task Manager

Make your game priority in the higher segment via the Task Manager to tell your Windows system to run the game properly. To do this:

Right-click on the Start Menu > Select Task Manager.
Click on the Processes tab > Right-click on The Forest game task.
Select Set Priority to High.
Close Task Manager.
Finally, run The Forest game to check for the issue.

5. Verify Integrity of Game Files

If there is an issue with the game files and somehow it gets corrupted or missing then make sure to perform this method to easily check for the issue. To do so:

Launch Steam > Click on Library.
Right-click on The Forest from the list of installed games.
Now, click on Properties > Go to Local Files.
Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files.
You’ll have to wait for the process until it gets completed.
Once done, restart your computer.

6. Change GPU Settings

Make sure to change the graphics card settings on the PC by following the steps below to check if the problem has been fixed or not.

For Nvidia:

Open up Nvidia’s Control Panel > Right-click on the desktop screen.
Click on Nvidia Control Panel > Click on Manage 3D Settings.
Select Program Settings > Find ‘The Forest’ and manually add the game if it’s not in the list:
- Monitor Tech: G-Sync (If available)
- Maximum Pre-rendered frames: 2
- Threaded optimization: On
- Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
- Texture Filtering – Quality: Performance

For AMD:

Monitor Tech: G-Sync (If available)
Maximum Pre-rendered frames: 2
Threaded optimization: On
Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering – Quality: Performance

7. Disable Fullscreen Optimizations

Full-screen optimization and DPI settings are the default ones on Windows. It would help if you tried disabling it by following the steps below:

Locate The Forest’s game directory.
Find and right-click on The Forest.exe file.
Select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
Checkmark the ‘Disable Full-Screen Optimizations’ box.
Now, click on the ‘Change high DPI setting button.
Checkmark the ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior’ > Select ‘Application’ from the drop-down menu.
Click on Apply and then OK to save changes.

8. Update The Forest

If in case, you haven’t updated your The Forest game for a while, then follow the steps below to check for updates and install the latest patch (if available). To do this:

Open the Steam client > Go to Library > Click on The Forest from the left pane.
It’ll automatically search for the available update. If there is an update available, make sure to click on Update.
It may take some time to install the update > Once done, close the Steam client.
Finally, reboot your PC to apply changes and launch the game again.

It’s unfortunate that some players of The Forest on PC are encountering issues such as stuttering, lagging, crashes, and frame drops during gameplay. These problems can vary in severity depending on the compatibility of the game with different PC configurations. Addressing these issues is essential to ensure a smoother gaming experience with a stable and respectable FPS count. This guide provides various strategies and steps to troubleshoot and resolve these performance issues, helping players to enjoy The Forest without technical interruptions.