Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 Stuttering, Lags, or Freezing (Solved)

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, an action-adventure game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Xbox Game Studios, was released in 2024 as a sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. The game is set in 9th-century Iceland, drawing inspiration from Norse mythology and culture, and is available for both PC and Xbox Series X/S users. However, certain PC players have reported encountering issues such as stuttering, freezing, and lagging during gameplay.

In order to mitigate such issues, it is imperative to possess the appropriate hardware for seamless gaming on a PC, a luxury not universally attainable. Given the demanding nature of PC games requiring high performance, many encounter challenges owing to hardware constraints. Consequently, a comprehensive guide has been compiled to assist in remedying the issues experienced when playing Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.

Gamers commonly experience impediments such as stuttering, lagging, crashing, and dropped frames, albeit with varying degrees of severity. Addressing and rectifying these issues are pivotal in ensuring an enhanced and uninterrupted gaming experience. This guide proffers straightforward steps to identify and resolve the underlying causes of these problems.

Senua's Saga Hellblade 2

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10/11 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-10700K | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3080 | AMD RX 6800 XT | Intel Arc A770
Storage: 70 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Required

Fix: Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 Stuttering and Lags Badly

Please remember the following information: Dealing with in-game lags and frame drops can be complex and is influenced by various factors such as PC hardware, display resolution, maximum FPS limit, and third-party apps. It’s best to try each solution separately until the problem is fixed. One quick solution is to tweak the in-game graphics settings. To minimize lags and frame drops, it’s important to consider screen resolution, texture and shadow resolution, maximum frame rate, and the number of displayed characters.

1. Use Launch Options

Open your Steam client > Go to Library > Right-click on Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2.
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.
An update will automatically download and install the latest version if available.
Once done, make sure to reboot your computer to change the effects.

3. Run the game as an administrator

Running the game exe file and the Steam client as administrator can prevent privilege issues and user account control.

Right-click on Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 exe shortcut file on your PC.
Now, select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
Make sure to 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 Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 game task.
Select Set Priority to High.
Close Task Manager.
Finally, run the Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 game to check for the issue.

5. Verify the Integrity of Game Files

If there is an issue with game files getting corrupted or missing, use this method to check for the problem easily.

Launch Steam > Click on Library.
Right-click on Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 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

It is important to check the PC’s graphics card settings to determine if any issues have been resolved. Follow the steps below to make sure the settings are correct.

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 ‘Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2’ 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 be best if you tried disabling it by following the steps below:

Locate the Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 game directory.
Find and right-click on the Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2.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 Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2

If you haven’t recently updated your Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 game, follow these steps to check for updates and install the latest patch.

Open the Steam client > Go to Library > Click on Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2 from the left pane.
It’ll automatically search for the available update. If an update is available, make sure to click on Update.
Installing the update > and closing the Steam client may take some time.
Finally, reboot your PC to apply changes, and then try relaunching the game.

That’s it, guys. We assume you found this guide useful. If you have further queries, please comment below.