Rockstar Blames NVIDIA for Some Red Dead Redemption 2 Performance Woes

NVIDIA gets thrown under the bus. | Source: Shutterstock.com

• Red Dead Redemption 2 launch plagued by stutters and crashes.
• Developer Rockstar Games has pushed out successive fixes.
• Rockstar places blame for persistent stuttering issues on NVIDIA hardware and drivers.

The launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC hasn’t been what you’d call smooth sailing for Rockstar Games. From the get-go, players reported performance issues running the gamut from FPS drops and stuttering to freezes and outright crashes reportedly linked to Rockstar’s new games launcher.

Almost ten days and a few bug fixing patches later, problems remain. Rockstar is pointing towards NVIDIA hardware as responsible for the most persistent of these – stuttering affecting some players.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Blames NVIDIA Hardware & Drivers

In a statement authored late yesterday addressing the performance problems, the developer promised that beyond the fixes already pushed out, it was working on a new patch. Rockstar also apologized to players for the ongoing inconvenience. By way of thanks for their patience, anyone that plays the game this week receives a complimentary care package. It includes the Prieto Poncho cosmetic as well as ammo and various provisions.

Regarding the stuttering, it had this to say;

However, we are aware that a small number of Red Dead Redemption 2 PC players are still experiencing some ongoing problems with the game stuttering. We believe this is due to unforeseen issues related to specific combinations of NVIDIA graphics drivers, NVIDIA GPU cards and certain CPUs.

Update 1.14 & Stutter Workaround

Earlier this morning, Rockstar released the promised 1.14 update that includes an extensive list of fixes as well as a workaround for the stuttering with yet another direct reference to NVIDIA hardware.

The support page for the workaround reads;

We have identified an issue with certain NVIDIA graphics card drivers that cause significant stalls of several seconds on systems with 4-core and 6-core CPUs.

Rockstar Games says it is working in tandem NVIDIA to ‘improve driver performance’. It plans to push out yet another update within days to resolve the stuttering issue once and for all.

While Rockstar has remained diplomatic in its wording, NVIDIA is a rather fitting scapegoat for Red Dead Redemption 2’s lingering problems.