Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now on PC at long last, but a lot of gamers have been struggling to play it. Part of the problem comes from RDR2's reliance on more than four CPU cores. Is there a Red Dead Redemption 2 CPU usage fix?
The affected players have been getting an error of Red Dead Redemption 2 100% CPU usage, and it can cause stuttering, freezes, and crashing - and even major FPS drops. Here's some potential fixes to sort you out.
Is there a Red Dead Redemption 2 100% CPU usage fix?
It seems absurd, but with everything else going on with Red Dead Redemption 2 maybe not - Rockstar didn't really build the game with 4 or less CPU cores in mind. If you have 6 or more CPU cores in your PC, Red Dead Redemption 2 should run flawlessly - but if not, you could be pushing 100% CPU usage and the game will freeze, stutter, drop frames, or crash.
There are a few possible fixes - although it should be warned, some players have reported that none of these worked for them, so hopefully there'll be a patch at some point.
- Update your graphics card drivers - bog standard, simple solution, but some players reported that this easy fix worked. If you're lucky, it might - otherwise, you may have to combine it with another fix below.
- Set RDR2 affinity on Task Manager to use 2 or 3 cores - open up Task Manager with RDR2.exe running, go to the Details tab, right-click on it, and select 'Set Affinity'. Lower the cores used.
- Use BES to limit CPU by a few percent - download BES here and give it a go.
- Use Process Lasso to limit cores on 98% - this is basically the same as above, except more intelligent. Search for Process Lasso and download it. Run, use it on RDR2, select CPU Limiter, and choose the option "When CPU use is: 98" reduce cores by 1 for 1 second, as in the picture below. Under 'Options' select 'Forced Mode'. Good luck!
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