In the most recent patch notes for Elden Ring update 1.13, FromSoftware covered plenty of small issues and bugs, most of which aren’t utterly game-changing. However, alongside an improvement to Torrent’s summon system, players are now also getting a helpful tip—check your peripherals and your mouse because they could be causing some framerate issues.
“In the PC version, unstable framerate may be caused by third-party applications that control mouse behavior,” the patch notes say. “Deactivating these third-party applications may improve performance. The version number of this update shown at the lower right corner of the Title Screen will be as follows: App Ver. 1.13. Regulation Ver. 1.13.1.”
On release, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC had a couple of small problems, such as a micro-stutter that had the capacity to wreak absolute havoc. In an effort to try and fix this issue and others that players were reporting, FromSoftware gave a similar solution: “In the PC version, the frame rate may not be stable when playing the game while running a mouse-control related app.” To try and fix this issue, the safest bet would be to stop running the mouse-control-related app, restart Elden Ring, and hope for the best.
However, as this issue has popped up again in the latest patch notes, it seems that either the problem has persisted or not enough players are aware of the solution. While it shouldn’t take long to remedy if removing an app does indeed solve things, it’s not the best look for FromSoftware as the studio has already been accused by players of not optimising the game properly.
“Your game runs poorly on all devices,” one player says in reply to FromSoftware’s advice. From consoles to ultra-high-end PCs, you lack Ultrawide support or DLSS/FSR/XESS—things modders implemented.” Others have pointed out that they’re still experiencing issues without any mouse-control apps in the background.
But smooth visual performance isn’t necessarily the be-all and end-all. Even current complaints about framerate and visual issues have been drowned out by the overwhelming amount of praise for Elden Ring and its DLC. Shadow of the Erdtree managed to sell 5,000,000 copies in less than a week while we’re still seeing streamers complete ridiculously impressive challenges in this game, like beating the fighting boss simultaneously with a controller and a dance pad. The love is very real, but even still, if you’re having some framerate issues, make sure you double-check your mouse-control app—every little helps.