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The game is laggy / low FPS
Star Citizen changes with every patch: double-check in game.
Open the interactive diagnosis →When does it lag?
Mostly in cities or stations
Cities are demanding
- That's normal: cities and stations are the heaviest places in the game, and they also depend on the server.
- Lower the graphics quality and draw distance, then compare.
- Avoid running other heavy apps at the same time (browser, video recording).
Copilot's noteIf FPS is low for everyone in the same area, it's usually the server, not your PC.
All the time, even in space
Check the basics
- Install the game on an SSD: on a regular hard drive it struggles a lot.
- Make sure you have enough RAM (the game needs a lot) and close what you don't need.
- Update your graphics card drivers.
- In the graphics options, try the other renderer (Vulkan or DirectX) and keep the best one.
Since a game update
Start from a clean slate
- After a big patch, the first sessions are often slower while the game rebuilds its shaders.
- If it doesn't improve, close the game and clear the shader cache (the "Star Citizen" folder in %localappdata%).
- In the launcher, run a game file verification.