How to Boost FPS & Fix Stutter in Deadlock (2026)

Last updated: June 3, 2026

Source 2 looks great, but Deadlock can chug in big team-fights, and there's no official optimization guide — so the community worked it out. Whether you got in through a friend or a hub like deadlock.io, the settings below reliably add frames and smooth out the spikes on most hardware.

Deadlock.io

Quick answer: Run exclusive Fullscreen on DirectX 11, cap your FPS, turn off Motion Blur, Bloom and Ambient Occlusion, drop Shadows to Low, and add -novid -high -fullscreen to your Steam launch options. For sudden mid-game stutter, verify the game files to rebuild the shader cache.

In-game settings that matter most

Window Mode: Fullscreen (lowest input latency).
Rendering API: DirectX 11 (most stable for the majority of GPUs).
V-Sync: Off. Max FPS: cap ~5–10 above your monitor's refresh rate.
Shadows / Render quality: Low — the biggest GPU saving for the least competitive cost.
Turn OFF: Motion Blur, Bloom, Depth of Field, Screen-Space and Distance-Field Ambient Occlusion.
Upscaling: DLSS Quality (NVIDIA) or FSR (AMD) if you're GPU-bound.

Steam launch options

Right-click Deadlock in Steam → Properties → Launch Options:

Option	Effect
-novid	Skip the intro video
-high	High CPU process priority
-fullscreen	Force exclusive fullscreen (lower latency)
citadel_region_override 0-5	Force a server region if matchmaking pings poorly

Driver & system fixes

Update GPU drivers first. In the NVIDIA panel set Power Management = Prefer Maximum Performance, Low Latency Mode = On, Shader Cache = Unlimited.
Shader stutter (FPS collapses for a second in fights): Steam → Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity to rebuild the shader cache.
Source 2 is CPU- and RAM-speed sensitive in team-fights — a strong CPU and dual-channel RAM help more than a bigger GPU.

Known net-jitter bug

There's an unsolved 2026 bug where in-game FPS tanks to 10–20 the moment combat damage starts, while overlays still read 60 . The temporary workaround players use is to Alt-Tab (or tap the Windows key) to refocus, or restart the client. It's a server-side issue, so there's no permanent fix yet.

Rough system requirements

Valve hasn't published official specs (the Steam page says "TBD"), but community testing lands around:

	Minimum (1080p/60)	Recommended (1080p/144)
CPU	i5-7500 / Ryzen 3 1200	i5-11400 / Ryzen 5 5600
GPU	GTX 1060 6GB / RX 580	RTX 3060 / RX 6600 XT
RAM	8 GB	16 GB dual-channel

Dial in those settings once and Deadlock stays smooth right through the late-game five-stack brawls — which is exactly when you can't afford to drop frames.