Final Fantasy 16 stuttering error on PC: Possible fixes and reasons

Final Fantasy 16's PC port is not without its fair share of issues, despite being markedly better both in terms of options and overall port quality compared to the previous PC title in the series - Final Fantasy 7 Remake. While the port is overall well optimized and scalable, it does come with some problems that were already plaguing the demo, namely poor frame pacing and stuttering.

These issues are even more prevalent on PCs with hardware that's below the recommended specifications. The biggest culprit behind FF16's stuttering and freezing issues is the abnormally high VRAM usage, coupled with poor CPU usage. Thankfully, there are a few ways to fix the stuttering issues in the game.

Here's a comprehensive guide on how to possibly fix the stuttering issues in Final Fantasy 16's PC version.

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Possible fixes for stuttering error in Final Fantasy 16 PC

There are a few reasons why you might be experiencing stutters in Final Fantasy 16. The most probable among these reasons is, as mentioned earlier, the incredibly high VRAM usage. Moreover, if you're trying to run the game on a PC that does not meet even the minimum specifications, then stuttering and crashes are bound to be a regular occurrence.

In-game graphics settings (Image via Square Enix)

Unfortunately, the game doesn't seem to use CPU resources properly, which further contributes to its unstable nature. However, the easiest fix that I found during my time with the game helped me alleviate the majority of the stuttering issues. And that fix was to limit the game's framerate to 60fps, via the driver settings.

As of writing this article, the in-game frame limiter does not seem to work as intended. While it does seem to work if you lock the game at 30fps, going anything above that breaks the limiter and unlocks the frame rate. You can lock your frame rate to 60fps instead, by using either Nvidia Control Panel or AMD's Adrenaline Control Panel.

You can access your GPU's control center by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting either Nvidia Control Panel (if you have a Nvidia GPU) or AMD Adrenaline (if you have an AMD GPU). Moreover, apart from limiting your frame rate to 60fps, I highly recommend using either DLSS or FSR3 upscaling.

Final Fantasy 16 looks amazing on PC, despite the stuttering issues (Image via Square Enix)

Being a current-generation console port, Final Fantasy 16 heavily relies on you using DRS (dynamic resolution scaling) or upscalers. Lastly, using Frame Generation also helps stabilize the frame rate. Do note that while Frame Generation does add some input delay, it's not all that noticeable in a slow-paced game like FF16.