How to Fix Elden Ring: Nightreign Freezing on PC

If Elden Ring: Nightreign is freezing or stuttering on your PC, you’re not alone. This guide is built for the common situation where the game can look “fine” most of the time, then suddenly locks up: the image freezes, FPS drops hard, and control feels delayed or stops for a moment. Some players also get kicked from multiplayer when the pause lasts too long.

This is a practical fix guide, but it also explains the logic behind each workaround. The goal is simple: you’ll leave this article with a repeatable way to troubleshoot performance problems in other games too, instead of trying random tips forever.

If your problem is different — FPS is always low, GPU/CPU is pinned at 95–100% constantly, and the game never feels smooth even in calm areas — that's a raw performance limit. Lower resolution/settings or upgrade hardware. The steps below are for the “my PC is strong but it still randomly locks up” scenario.

How to use this list:

• Start from the top and go in order

• Change one thing at a time

• Test for a few runs

• Keep what helps, revert what doesn’t

Randomly stacking ten changes at once makes it impossible to know what actually worked.

Why Nightreign Freezes on PC

When Nightreign freezes on PC, it doesn’t behave like a normal performance drop. The game doesn’t slowly lose frames or feel gradually heavier. Instead, gameplay halts completely. The image locks in place, FPS drops to zero, and input stops responding. After a short or sometimes very long pause, the game resumes as if nothing happened.

This happens on low-end systems and high-end machines alike. GPU usage can look normal. CPU usage may spike briefly or look oddly low. Lowering graphics settings often does nothing. These freezes are not caused by the hardware being too weak (at least if you're sure about that yourself). They happen because the game hits a hard stall — a moment where it must stop and wait for something to finish before it can continue.

To understand why this happens, you need to look at how the game prepares and schedules its work.

PC Versus Consoles

On consoles, developers work with a single, fixed hardware setup. The CPU, GPU, memory layout, drivers, and operating system behavior are all known in advance. Because of that, a large amount of preparation can be done ahead of time and safely reused every time the game runs. The environment is predictable, controlled, and stable.

PCs do not work this way. Every PC is different. Different processors, different graphics cards, different driver versions, different background programs, different power and performance behavior. Even two systems with similar parts can behave differently depending on what else is running and how the operating system schedules work.

Because of this, PC games must be careful about when they do heavy work. If too much preparation is delayed, the game is forced to perform it while gameplay is already happening. When that occurs, the game has no choice but to stop and wait. Nightreign does exactly that.

During a Freeze

To draw anything on screen, the game relies on many interconnected systems working together. That includes graphics work, CPU logic, memory access, asset loading, and thread scheduling. If any critical part of that pipeline is not ready, the game cannot continue.

In Nightreign, many things are prepared only when they are first needed, rather than fully in advance. That might be a specific enemy attack, a visual effect, a lighting transition, entering a new area, or opening a menu that hasn’t been used yet. When the game reaches a situation it hasn’t fully prepared for, it may discover that required data or resources are missing.

At that point, the game pauses gameplay and waits while that work is completed. During this wait, no new frames can be rendered. Frame delivery stops, FPS drops to zero, and everything appears frozen until the stall finishes. That pause is the freeze players experience.

Sometimes this waiting involves graphics-related work handled by the driver or shader cache. Other times — and very often in Nightreign — it appears to be CPU-side work, like asset streaming, memory cleanup, or threads waiting on each other due to poor scheduling. The exact cause can vary, but the result is the same: the game stops until the work completes.

This is why lowering graphics settings often does nothing. The freeze is not caused by the GPU being overloaded. It’s caused by the game being forced to wait. Even the fastest hardware still has to wait for that work to finish, which is why expensive PCs freeze in the same places as everyone else.

Once a specific piece of work has been completed, the game usually keeps the result available. The second time the same situation appears, it often doesn’t need to be rebuilt. Over time, freezes can become less frequent as more content has already been encountered. This is why players often say the first session feels the worst, why the game “gets better after a few hours,” and why stutters can return after reinstalling drivers or clearing caches. When cached data is removed, the game is forced to rebuild it again during live gameplay.

Why Multiplayer Disconnects

In single-player, these freezes are disruptive but survivable. Multiplayer sessions, however, expect the game to continuously send updates about player position, actions, and world state. When the game freezes locally, those updates stop. From the server’s point of view, the client appears unresponsive.

If that pause lasts too long, the multiplayer system removes the player from the session. It does not know the game is busy preparing rendering data. That’s why freezes can cause disconnects, why error messages often reference performance or stability, and why network quality has no influence on this behavior. The problem happens before networking even becomes relevant.

Why Experiences Differ

Two players with very similar systems can still have very different experiences. Nightreign is sensitive to small timing differences. Background programs, overlays, capture tools, RGB software, driver behavior, power management, and operating system scheduling can all introduce tiny delays.

When the game is already close to stalling, those small delays can be enough to turn a short hitch into a long freeze. That’s why one system may barely notice the issue while another gets frequent lock-ups or disconnects, even with similar hardware.

FromSoftware’s engine has a long history of prioritizing predictable execution on fixed hardware. That approach works well on consoles. On PC, it becomes fragile. Instead of preparing most work ahead of time or safely in the background, the engine often performs critical tasks exactly when they are first needed.

These freezes are not random, and they are not caused by weak hardware. They are the result of when the game chooses to do its work — and how the PC operating system is forced to handle it.

Before You Try Any Fixes

This guide assumes you are dealing with hard freezes and long stutters on an otherwise stable game. That means Nightreign generally runs at a normal frame rate, then suddenly drops to zero FPS, locks up for seconds, and resumes — sometimes causing multiplayer disconnects.

If your performance problems look different — for example, consistently low FPS, constant frame drops during normal movement, heavy GPU or CPU saturation at all times, or the game simply running poorly no matter what — that is a separate issue. In that case, the system may not be able to handle the game properly, and no amount of freeze mitigation will fix raw performance limits. At that point, hardware upgrades or broader system optimization are the only real solutions.

The fixes below are specifically aimed at eliminating or reducing sudden freezes, stabilizing frame delivery, and preventing long stalls from turning into disconnects. They are not meant to increase average FPS or compensate for underpowered hardware.

Safe, Easy Fixes

These fixes do not permanently change your system and are safe for anyone to try. They address corrupted data, bad runtime state, and common driver misbehavior.

Verify Game Files

Corrupted or incomplete files can cause the game to stall when it tries to load assets mid-play.

In Steam:

• Right-click Nightreign

• Properties → Installed Files

• Verify integrity of game files

If Steam replaces anything, test the game again before doing anything else.

Disable Overlays

Overlays hook into rendering and input. When the game stalls to prepare data, overlays can worsen or extend the freeze.

Disable:

• Steam Overlay

• Discord Overlay

• NVIDIA ShadowPlay / GeForce Experience overlay

Restart the game after disabling them.

Switch Display Mode

Some players see fewer stalls when the game runs in a different window mode.

Try:

• Borderless Windowed

• Windowed

• Exclusive Fullscreen

Test each mode separately. Do not assume fullscreen is always best.

NVIDIA Control Panel

These settings don’t increase FPS, but they can reduce driver-side stalls.

In NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → Program Settings → Nightreign.exe:

• Max Frame Rate: 60
  Prevents the driver from over-queueing frames.

• Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance
  Prevents clock drops during heavy CPU stalls.

• Shader Cache Size: Unlimited
  Prevents shader eviction that can trigger recompilation freezes.

Apply changes, restart the game, test.

Restart After Long Sessions

Nightreign tends to accumulate more stalls the longer it runs. Restarting the game (or PC) clears cached state and can reduce freezes temporarily.

If freezes get worse after hours of play, this is expected behavior.

Driver & OS-Level Fixes

These fixes interact with Windows and drivers. They are reversible, but require care.

Clean GPU Driver Reinstall

Driver corruption or bad shader cache state can cause repeated stalls.

• Use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in Safe Mode

• Install a stable driver version (not always the newest)

• Restart after installation

If you recently updated drivers and freezes started afterward, rolling back often helps.

Repair Easy Anti-Cheat

If freezes happen more often in multiplayer, EAC can be involved.

Run:

...\Nightreign\Game\easyanticheat\easyanticheat_eos_setup.exe

Choose Repair.

Windows System File Check

Corrupted Windows system files can cause unpredictable stalls.

Open Command Prompt (Admin) and run:

sfc /scannow

If it reports errors it cannot fix:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Then run sfc /scannow again.

VC++ Redistributables

Nightreign depends on Microsoft runtime libraries.

Reinstall:

• Visual C++ x64

• Visual C++ x86

Restart after installation.

Windows Power Plan

Use Balanced or High Performance. Avoid aggressive power-saving modes.

Do not stack custom power tools yet. Test default plans first.

Advanced System Changes

Only continue if you know what you’re doing.

This section is optional and not required for most players.

These steps involve BIOS, memory, and CPU behavior. Mistakes can cause instability. If you do not understand these topics, skip this section.

BIOS Updates

Outdated BIOS firmware can cause poor CPU scheduling or memory instability that Nightreign exposes.

• Check your motherboard vendor’s site

• Install stable (non-beta) BIOS only

• Do not update unless you understand the process

Power loss during BIOS updates can brick systems.

Disable XMP Temporarily

Overclocked memory can be stable in most games but fail under Nightreign’s load patterns.

• Enter BIOS

• Disable XMP

• Test the game

If freezes stop, your memory overclock may be marginal.

RAM Testing

Faulty RAM can cause long stalls without crashing.

Use MemTest86:

• Run at least 2–3 full passes

• Any errors = unstable memory

This test can take hours.

CPU Auto-Boost / Overclocking

Aggressive CPU boost behavior can cause brief instability spikes.

On some Intel systems:

• Slightly reducing boost frequency can improve stability

This does not reduce FPS meaningfully but should only be done if you understand CPU tuning.

Engine Mitigations

These do not fix Nightreign’s engine. They reduce the chance of freezes by influencing how Windows schedules CPU threads.

Core Parking

Nightreign’s engine does not give Windows strong guidance on thread scheduling. This can cause work to land on parked or inefficient cores.

Tools like ParkControl adjust Windows power behavior so cores stay available.

Important notes:

• This increases power usage and heat

• Results vary by CPU

• This is a mitigation, not a solution

Use only if previous sections failed.

Process Lasso

Process Lasso is another way to mitigate Nightreign’s freezes by influencing how Windows schedules CPU threads. Instead of changing power behavior globally, it targets the game process directly.

What it does:

• Allows forcing higher process priority

• Allows restricting which CPU cores the game can run on

Why it can help:
Nightreign does not clearly tell Windows which threads are critical. Windows may schedule important work on inefficient, parked, or contended cores. Process Lasso reduces the chance of that happening by giving the game more consistent access to CPU resources.

Important limitations:

• Easy Anti-Cheat can block or reset some settings

• Affinity changes may not persist between launches

• Incorrect settings can cause crashes

General guidance:

• Use Process Lasso only if ParkControl alone didn’t help

• Focus on priority, not aggressive affinity changes

• If crashes appear after changes, revert immediately

This is a workaround, not a fix. Results vary heavily by CPU architecture and system configuration.

One Last Thing

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations — you now understand Nightreign’s PC freezing problem better than the game probably understands itself. At this point, you might still want to play the game instead of continuing to debug it.

So, if for any reason you decide you’d rather skip some of the friction — finishing builds, collecting remembrances, gearing characters, or just getting through content without worrying about whether the next freeze will ruin the run — yes, we do that too. LevelUpper's Nightreign boosting services are here.

But regardless of whether you use them or not, the important takeaway is this: Nightreign’s freezes are not random, and they are not your fault. They come from how the game schedules work, when it chooses to prepare data, and how Windows is forced to react in real time. Once you understand that, the fixes stop feeling like superstition and start making sense.

Work through the list in order. Keep the changes that help. Revert the ones that don’t. And when the game behaves, enjoy it — because you’ve already done more troubleshooting than most PC ports ever deserve.