Fix The Medium Stuttering, Lag, and Low FPS on PC and Xbox Series X|S

The Medium is experiencing a range of issues on PC, predominantly stuttering with the game and FPS drop. While some players are able to lock the FPS at 60, the game really stutters when switching to the spirit world. At the current state, the game is basically unplayable for players on PC. And while the permanent fix has to come from the developers, you can follow our fix to reduce some stutter and boost FPS in The Medium.

How to Fix The Medium Stuttering, Lag, and Low FPS on PC

Before we proceed with the guide, ensure that your system meets the minimum requirements to play the game. If your system fails to meet the requirement, it’s probably the reason why The Medium is stuttering, lag, and you are getting low FPS. Here are the system requirements to play the game.

If you meet the requirements, here are the solutions you can try.

Terminate Unnecessary Applications

With so many games, third-party software that forcefully inject themselves between operations cause crash in the game. Hence, the first thing we must do to resolve the The Medium stuttering and FPS drop is suspend all unnecessary programs and then launch the game. Here are the steps you can follow.

1. Press Windows Key + R and type msconfig, hit Enter
2. In General tab, uncheck Load startup items
3. Go to the Services tab
4. Check Hide all Microsoft services
5. Now, click Disable all
6. Click on Apply and OK.

Try launching the game, check if the error still occurs.

Enable/Disable Fullscreen Mode

Running the game after enabling the in-game Fullscreen mode seems to fix a lot of stuttering problem in the game. Users who ran the game on Windowed mode encountered lag and stuttering problem. So, head over to the Settings and enable the Fullscreen mode. If you are already running the game on Fullscreen, try changing to windowed that can potentially reduce stutter with the game.

Disable Fullscreen Optimization and Run as Admin

We have seen that disabling the Fullscreen optimization from the game’s properties also helps reduce stuttering in games. Here are the steps you need to follow.

1. Right-Click on TheMedium.exe at the install directory or the game’s shortcut.
2. Select Properties and go to the Compatibility tab.
3. Uncheck Disable Fullscreen Optimization and check Run this program as an administrator.
4. Click Apply and Ok.

Update the Graphics Card

It’s a gamer’s modus operandi to keep the graphics card and all the other software on the system updated. The graphics card in particular is important because it directly impacts your game performance. NVidia and AMD both release updates for their driver fairly regularly. Go to the official website of your graphics card manufacturer and check if a new driver is available or use GeForce Experience to check for the driver. Download and install the new drivers. If the The Medium stuttering and FPS drop started after a driver update, consider rolling back.

Check your Internet Connection

If your internet connection is slow that can also lead to games lagging and stuttering. As such, ensure that your connection is ideal to play the game or disconnect the internet completely and then attempt to play the game. At the time of writing, we are unsure if you can play the game without internet, so you need to try it out yourself. 

Find the Ideal Graphics Settings

If you are playing the game on high system specifications, it’s most likely to crash, stutter, and drop FPS. As such, you should set the graphics settings from the in-game graphics settings to the lowest and increase the settings by one until the game stops to stutter. When the stuttering start to occurs, the previous settings is the best for your system. We will update this section of the post when the game releases and we are able to test it. We will let you know the best settings to play the game on a mid-range PC. You can return here to check the settings you should specify.

Change NVidia Settings

In the next step to fix The Medium stuttering, FPS drop, and performance issues, we will set the NVidia for performance. Here are the steps.

1. Right-click on Desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel
2. Expand 3D Settings and click on Adjust image settings with preview
3. Check Use my preference emphasizing: Quality (for users who have a powerful PC, you can allow the app to decide and select Let the 3D application decide)
4. Drag the bar to Performance (there are three options Performance – Balanced – Quality)
5. Click on Apply to implement the changes
6. Next, go to the Manage 3D settings under 3D Settings
7. Click on Program Settings and select The Medium (if the game is not in the drop-down list, click Add, browse and add the game)
8. Under 2. Select the preferred graphics processor for this program: choose High-performance NVIDIA processor
9. Under 3. Specify the settings for this program, set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance and Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to 1.

Alter the Power Options in Window 10

For users who do not have an effective CPU cooler, you may want to skip this step as it would increase the CPU temperature by a few degrees. Without proper cooling, it may harm your system. Here are the steps to follow.

1. Click on the battery icon in the System Tray and drag the button to Best Performance
2. Right-click on the battery icon and select Power Options
3. Click on the Change plan settings link
4. Click on Change advanced power settings
5. Locate Processor power management and click on the plus sign to expand
6. Expand Minimum processor state and set it to 100%, next expand Maximum processor state and set it to 100%
7. Click on Apply and OK to save the changes.

Set Windows for Best Performance

In the Windows search tab, type performance and select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows. Check Adjust for best performance. Click Apply and OK. Check if the The Medium stutter and lag still occur.

Delete Temporary Files from Windows

Again, this is another general step to speed up the system and ultimately fix the The Medium FPS drop, stuttering, and other performance problems. Here are the steps you can follow to clear the temporary files on PC.

1. Open the Run dialogue box by pressing on Windows Key + R
2. Type %temp% in the field and hit Enter
3. Press Ctrl + A and hit Delete (if you cannot delete some files, let them be and close the Window)
4. Again, press Windows Key + R and type temp, hit Enter
5. When prompted provide the permission. Delete everything in this folder as well.
6. Again, press Windows Key + R and type prefetch, hit Enter
7. Press Ctrl + A to select everything and hit the Delete key (skip files that do not delete)

After you are done with the above three processes, empty the Recycle Bin.

How to Fix The Medium Stutter and Lag on Xbox Series X|S

Unlike PC players, users on Xbox X|S do not have the option to boost FPS, the performance of the game is optimized by the developers and the FPS is locked. Your best option is to wait for a patch from the developers to resolve the stuttering. A quick tip to avoid such problems with the game is to avoid scenes that are visually demanding.

Hopefully, the above solutions have resolved the Medium Stutter, Lag, and low FPS on PC and Xbox X|S.