One Elden Ring fan may have found a fix for the award-winning RPG’s persistent PC stuttering problem with a simple solution: disabling e-cores on newer Intel processors. Elden Ring’s PC performance has suffered from this stuttering issue even during the game’s review period. The action will, at random, stop for a second or slightly less and then catch up by moving at double speed for another second or two.
The situation is hardly ideal in a game where precision matters so much. There’s seemingly no trigger for the bug. It’s just as likely to happen during a boss fight as it is when you’re scaling a narrow precipice and trying not to fall and die.
YouTuber thsea4021 (thanks, DSOS) demonstrated a few short runs of the game with e-cores – Intel’s efficiency cores that use less power – enabled and disabled, while running around the initial Limgrave region. Elden Ring stuttered and experienced frame rate drops with e-cores enabled, but after thsea2041 disabled them, the problem seemed to resolve itself. Elden Ring was even able to hit a stable 60 fps.
You can disable them permanently through your computer’s advanced options or disable them for Elden Ring via the task manager each time you boot the game.
The solution may not come as a surprise to some. Intel users have debated whether e-cores are harmful to PC game performance since Intel first introduced the feature, and it seems their effects vary on a game-by-game basis.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF