This week, Capcom told IGN that performance issues with the PC version of Dragon’s Dogma 2 may be linked to the heavy amount of CPU demanded from NPCs in the game. Now, in response, fans are plotting an NPC murder spree in a bid to boost the game’s frame-rate.
"In Dragon's Dogma 2, a large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and dynamically calculates the impact of their physical presence in various environments. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate," a Capcom representative told IGN. "We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future."
With Dragon’s Dogma 2 not out until March 22 (check out the Dragon’s Dogma 2 global release times to find out when exactly it goes live where you live), the game’s burgeoning community is coming together to identify NPCs who can be killed safe in the knowledge their untimely deaths are inconsequential.
“Idea: a community made list of inconsequential NPCs you can kill to boost FPS,” reads a thread on the Dragon’s Dogma subreddit. “Since the way NPCs are handled is theorized to be very taxing on your CPU, killing off NPCs should boost your performance. However, what's the point of killing off NPCs to boost your frame-rate if you're also killing content? This is why I am suggesting a community sources list of junk NPCs we are free to murder.”
In response, one user suggested killing any non-shopkeeper NPC, and potentially even guards. Another suggested finishing a quest before murdering its related NPC, although as others pointed out, that strategy is fraught with risk. “This idea is wild,” replied another. “The optimization is so bad that we have people wanting to commit mass genocide for more fps.” “Can't wait for a week to go and someone posts the game running at 60fps after slaughtering everyone,” joked another user.
Less than 24 hours since IGN’s story revealed Capcom’s explanation for poor performance on PC, this Dragon’s Dogma 2 NPC murder spree has become a meme.
Dragon's Dogma 2 only has one visual mode across all consoles, and launches with an uncapped frame-rate for all consoles. According to IGN Dragon’s Dogma 2 performance reviewer Michael Thompson, areas such as Vernworth are very demanding, even on the highest-end machines and, in particular, the CPU. Dragon's Dogma 2 currently has high demands on hardware, with the Steam Deck struggling to run at playable rates. Even high-end machines with an RTX4090 paired with an AMD 5800X3D CPU can drop into the 30s while in denser populated towns.
While you wait to play, check out Everything You Need to Know Before Starting Dragon's Dogma 2, as well as IGN's Dragon's Dogma 2 review.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
