As you can tell from our review of Elden Ring, the folks at Tom's Guide are quite fond of From Software's latest title. We love its ambitious open world, its tight gameplay, and its mysterious story and setting. One thing we don't like, however, is that the game has serious technical problems in its PC version. And frustratingly, there is no way for the average player to deal with it at the moment. [Because it is always difficult to gauge whether the technical problems are widespread or limited to specific hardware configurations. However, a quick glance at Elden Ring's Steam page is all it takes to see that the game isn't working that well. Most of the negative reviews of the game have nothing to do with Elden Ring's grueling gameplay or opaque storyline, and everything to do with the game running poorly on even the most powerful GPUs.

I can attest to this firsthand: I played the game on both an MSI gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and a custom-built desktop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, and both suffered from almost identical problems The frame rate stuttering is significant. Frame rate stuttering was a serious problem, as were serious graphical glitches that made enemies invisible. The game is supposed to be difficult, but it is not that difficult.

Some of these problems have workarounds, but most do not. However, here are a few problems that Elden Ring is currently experiencing on the PC and what can be done about them.

Problems When playing Elden Ring on a PC, no matter how powerful your system is, the game will occasionally start to get choppy, dropping frames one moment and compensating with wildly fast animations the next. In a game that requires split-second precision, this is obviously fatal.

Fix: This should go without saying, but update your graphics card drivers to the latest version; if you are using an Nvidia GPU, you can do this in the GeForce Experience software; if you are using an AMD GPU, you can do this in the Radeon software to do this. I forgot to do this before I started other troubleshooting methods.

Otherwise, From Software claims on Steam that they are "constantly working to improve the game so that it can be played comfortably on a variety of PC environments and platforms." Which means, in other words, that we'll have to wait for a patch. It's not an ideal solution, but it's the only way.

Problem: Elden Ring is fixed at 60 frames per second, which is not ideal for a game that sells fast, flowing animations. This is especially frustrating if you are playing on a powerful system that can easily support higher frame rates.

Fix: Again, this is one of those "wait for patch" issues. If From Software decides to remove the frame rate cap, but they may not. In the meantime, there are mods that unlock the frame rate. However, they are not necessarily recommended for use, as unauthorized mods and strictly regulated online play are usually incompatible.

Problem: Although not as widespread as other problems, some systems suffer from a glitch in Elden Ring where all enemies become invisible as soon as you target lock them. Targets do not return to invisibility after being removed; in a game as challenging as Elden Ring, this additional hurdle makes it nearly impossible to play.

Fix: From my own experience, updating the GPU drivers seems to have solved this problem. If you have a similar problem and are absolutely certain that your GPU drivers are up-to-date, you may have to consider a clean install of the drivers or wait for a patch.

Problem Elden Ring uses the Easy Anti-Cheat program to ensure that online play is fair for everyone. However, Easy Anti-Cheat sometimes refuses to start and the entire game refuses to start.

Fix Elden Ring patch 1.02.1 seems to have fixed this problem. The patch to fix the problem was released on February 26, so if you haven't downloaded it yet, you can do so on Steam. The client should automatically download the patch before the game starts.

If it fails, I was able to work around this issue by uninstalling and reinstalling the game.

Problem: Mouse sensitivity on Elden Ring is higher than necessary, making it difficult to move the camera or navigate menus.

Fix: If you really want to play Elden Ring with mouse and keyboard, you have several options. The easiest is to wait for a patch; FromSoftware is aware of this problem and is working on it. However, if you are using a gaming mouse, you can use software (such as Razer Synapse or Logitech G Hub) to lower the DPI of your mouse.

Another option is to use a gamepad such as an Xbox or DualSense controller. This is an expensive option, but frankly, Eldenring is essentially a console game. It is much easier to control it with a gamepad than with a mouse and keyboard, even when everything is working properly.