Dead Island 2 Performance and Technical Issues

Black screen, crashes, save problems, low FPS and more

Dead Island 2 is the sequel to the popular zombie apocalypse game developed by Techland. The second licensed part of the franchise was entrusted to Dambuster Studios, which was able to create a unique game world, but ran into technical problems. On the day of release, many players complained about performance issues, freezes and crashes, which led to negative reviews and a decrease in interest in the game.

In this article, we will figure out how powerful a computer is needed for the PC version of Dead Island 2, as well as provide proven solutions for common technical problems with the game.

What kind of computer is needed for Dead Island 2 (system requirements)

The system requirements of the game were published on the official website of the game on April 11, 2023. And the first tests appeared immediately after the release of the PC version, which happened on April 21st. We’ve looked at many independent tests of Dead Island 2 and come to the conclusion that the official system requirements are close to the truth:

After analyzing the system requirements of the game and the test results, we can derive a number of theses about its performance:

1. The game is demanding on the processor, but can parallelize calculations well. Requires many cores and threads at high frequency (above 4.0 GHz). Maximum performance is achieved with 16 processor threads. A comfortable minimum is 6 physical cores running in 12 virtual threads, or 8 physical cores. Less than 8 processor threads the game is unstable.
2. The game has a moderate consumption of video memory. For high settings, 4 gigabytes of VRAM is enough at resolutions up to 1440p (2560×1440). For the maximum, you will need 6 already. And if you want to play in 4K, your video card must have at least 8 gigabytes on board. If there is not enough VRAM, it is not recommended to set the texture quality to high, in order to avoid microfreezes.
3. A living classic in the face of the GeForce GTX 1060 allows you to play the game at high settings. On this still popular graphics card, you can get a stable 30 FPS at 1080p. This is also true for the Radeon RX 480 and RX 570 graphics cards.

How Dead Island 2 works on GeForce GTX 1060 – the most popular graphics card of recent years

4. For a stable 60 FPS on high settings at the same 1080p resolution, you will need at least a GeForce RTX 2070 or RTX 3060, and from Radeon video cards, at least the RX 5700 XT.
5. 1440p @ 30 FPS at high settings will require GeForce RTX 2070 or Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics cards, while 60 FPS will require RTX 3070 and RX 6700 XT, respectively.
6. To play 4K @ 30 FPS at high settings, you will need at least a GeForce RTX 3070 or Radeon RX 6700 XT. And for a stable 60 FPS at this resolution, you will need a GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT.

The game does not start on Windows 7/10

The game is not designed to run on Microsoft operating systems older than Windows 10.

If you have Windows 10 , and the game still does not start, then try installing all the latest updates.

Dead Island 2 (2023) crashes with error 0x0c000142 / 0x0c000005

Run Windows System File Checker. To do this, press the key combination Windows + R, and then in the window that opens, type “sfc /scannow” (without quotes). After the check is complete, restart your computer.

Error 0xc000007b

Reinstall or update NVIDIA drivers. It is advisable to do a clean install to reset unsuccessful settings.

“Out of memory” error in Dead Island 2

Your PC is running out of RAM. The best solution is to increase the amount of RAM to at least 8 gigabytes. Increasing the swap file probably won’t help. Also, be sure to close your browser before launching any game. Especially if it has a large number of open tabs.

Game crashes without error / freezes on startup / black screen / vcruntime140_1.dll error

1. Restart your computer after installing the game.
2. If this does not work, download and install RuntimePack. This is a complete set of all libraries necessary to run games.

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1. If this does not help, then check the integrity of the game files in Steam:
2. start Steam;
3. go to the “Library” section;
4. right-click on the name of the game (Dead Island 2) in the list on the left and open the properties;
5. in the “Local files” tab, click “Verify integrity of game files”;
6. wait for the process to complete.

Resolution does not change / image goes off screen

This error can occur if screen scaling is enabled in Windows. You can compensate for this in the following way:

1. Find the DeadIsland-Win64-Shipping.exefile in the game folder.
2. Go to properties and go to the “Compatibility” tab.
3. Click the “Change high DPI settings” button.
4. In the “Override scaling mode…” option, select “Application”.

Dead Island 2 (2023) slows down / lags / optimization problems / graphical artifacts

Check if your PC meets the system requirements

See See the “What kind of computer you need for Dead Island 2” chapter above.

Update your video card drivers

Visit the graphics adapter manufacturer’s website:

• NVIDIA GeForce:The site itself will select the appropriate drivers. Just click “Search” and then “Download Now”. After the download is complete, run the downloaded file and follow the instructions in the installer.
• AMD Radeon:Scroll down to Search for your product and select your graphics card under Graphics. Click the Submit button. On the page that opens, click LMB on your version of Windows and click “Download”. Once the download is complete, run the downloaded file and follow the instructions in the installer.

Important: Be sure to restart your computer after updating your drivers.

Turn on high performance for graphics card

For NVIDIA GeForce owners:

1. Open the NVIDIA Control Panel by right-clicking on the desktop.
2. Select Manage 3D Settings from the list on the left.
3. Switch to the “Program settings” tab in the main part of the screen and select Dead Island 2 from the drop-down list under “1. Select a program to configure “(if the game is not in the list, then add the appropriate button next to it).
4. In the list below, find the “Power Management Mode” feature and toggle it to “Preferred Maximum Performance Mode”.

For owners of AMD Radeon and AMD processors:

1. Open Radeon Settings by right-clicking on the desktop.
2. Go to the “System” section.
3. In the “Switchable Graphics” category, set the graphics card with “maximum performance” as the main one.
4. Click Accept.

How to adjust the graphics in Dead Island 2 / how to increase the frame rate

Optimal settings for a weak PC , close to the minimum system requirements (i5-6400 + GTX 1060):

• Resolution:
• Windowed mode:full screen.
• V-sync:
• frame rate: 60.
• Field of view:
• Motion blur:
• Antialiasing:
• Viewing range:
• Post-processing:
• Shadows:
• Textures:
• Effects:
• Foliage Detail:
• SSAO:
• Indirect shadows:
• Screen Space Reflections:
• Shading quality:
• AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2:
• AMD FidelityFX Variable Shading:

“Soapy” (fuzzy) graphics in the game

Two possible reasons:

1. Your video card does not have enough memory to render textures in full quality. This game requires at least 4 GB of VRAM. Set the texture quality to medium or low.
2. Enabled DLSS or FSR smart upscaling in performance mode.

Sound problems in Dead Island 2

1. Open the Windows Control Panel.
2. Go to the Hardware and Sound section.
3. Open sound settings.
4. Select the default device (there should be a green check next to it) and go to its properties using the button below.
5. In the “Advanced” tab, select the default format “24 bit, 48000 Hz”.
6. If it doesn’t help, then lower it to “16 bits, 44100 Hz”.
7. If this does not help, then run the “Sound Troubleshooter” by right-clicking on the volume icon in the lower right corner of the desktop. Follow the instructions of the program.

Game freezes / “DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG” error / black screen

Perhaps the problem is overheating of the video card. Check if the fans of her cooling system are blocked by adjacent wires. If everything is in order with this, then try resetting the overclocking: go to the MSI Afterburner application and click the Reset button (if such a program is not installed, then the video card most likely did not overclock).

Game not saving in Dead Island 2 (2023)

Check if there are Russian letters in the path to the DeadIsland-Win64-Shipping.exe file. You can quickly find the file through the “Search” in the explorer.

Where are the save Dead Island 2

In the following folder: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\DeadIsland\Saved\SaveGames

Gamepad (joystick) does not work in the game

1. Delete the device in the “Device Manager” and restart the computer.
2. If that doesn’t help, run the controller setup on Steam and manually set the Xbox Controller mode.
3. If this does not help, then try connecting the gamepad via wire.

Write in the comments if you know other ways to solve technical problems in Dead Island 2!