How to fix Call of Duty: Vanguard freezing

Even the smoothest game launches run into an error two along the way. Whether it’s server-related errors, or compatibility issues that prevent players from the game, the developers may end up working overtime during the first weeks of their newly released titles.

Compared to past Call of Duty games, Vanguard’s launch was noticeably smooth and most errors or bugs that came up were fixed shortly. Not all the errors can be fixed by developers, however, and if you’re experiencing freezing or low frame rates even after the most recent patches, it may be time to troubleshoot your PC.

Freezing mostly occurs for PC players since consoles come with fixed hardware, making it easier for developers to optimize their game. While it’s unlikely for players with high-end gaming PCs to run into a freezing issue while playing Vanguard, players will lower-tier rigs will need to use every method in the book to get the best gaming experience out of their PCs.

Here’s how you can fix freezing in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Lower your graphical settings

Vanguard looks stunning when you turn up all the graphical settings, but doing so may cause your system to struggle when it comes to keeping up a smooth frame rate. While the game will look noticeably worse after turning down most of the settings, the performance increase may be the solution to freezing and it can allow you to enjoy Vanguard with a smooth frame rate.

• Render Resolution: 100
  • Reducing render resolution causes Vanguard to look choppy and causes the most damage to visual quality. If you can’t seem to average frames above 30 with the settings below, however, you should try lowering render resolution since it can make a huge impact on your game’s performance.
• Texture Resolution: Low
• Texture Filter Anisotropic: Low
• Particle Quality Level: Low
• Particle Resolution: Low
• Bullet Impacts and Sprays: Off
• Shader Quality: Low
  • Keeping these settings will take the load off your GPU and it’ll be able to push more frames while maintaining it.
• Tessellation: Off
• Level of Detail Distance Range: Short
  • Rendering all the buildings on the horizon may seem useful, but it’ll be also relatively taxing when it comes to performance. Rending more objects will cause your GPU to struggle, which will lower your fps.
• Nearby Level Of Detail: Low
• Distant Level Of Detail: Low
• Clutter Draw Distance: Low
• Volumetric Quality Level: Low
• Screen-Space Shadows: Off
• Shadow Map Resolution: Low
• Sun Shadow Cascades: Low
• Cache Sun Shadows: Off
• Cache Spot Shadows: Off
• Spot Cache Size: Very Low
• Spot Shadow Quality: Low
• Particle Lighting: Medium
• Ambient Occlusion: Off
• GTAO Quality: Low
• Screen Space Reflection: Off
• Anti-Aliasing: Disabled
  • Depending on your gaming setup, Anti-Aliasing may be turned on by default. In a hectic game like Vanguard, it’ll be hard to notice the change it makes. Considering it also requires quite a bit of resources to function, keeping it off will be the way to increase performance and fix freezing.
• Depth of Field: Off

Keep your system up-to-date

Operating system and driver updates may seem unnecessary at first, but some can include very important fixes alongside performance improvements. If you can’t remember the last time you installed a system upgrade or updated your drivers, then it may be time to do it.

To install Windows updates, you can click on the Start button at the bottom of your screen and choose the cog icon, which will lead you to the settings. There will be a Windows Updates section there and you can check whether you have any updates after clicking on it.

Updating your GPU drivers will be slightly different. If automatic updates are turned on for your GPU drivers, then yours may be already up-to-date. Players who disable automatic updates for their GPUs, however, will need to navigate to Nvidia and AMD’s dedicated download pages where they can enter the model of their GPU and download the latest drivers.

Disable antivirus

An antivirus program works for the good of your system. While most are relatively optimized, there can still be false positives, especially in games. When an antivirus program quarantines an important game file, the game may start crashing. If an antivirus decides to run a thorough scan while you’re gaming, you may find yourself experiencing freezes, making it impossible to enjoy the game.

Disabling your antivirus while gaming will take a load off your CPU and it’ll allow it to focus its resources on Vanguard instead.

Disable overlays

Most recording programs and even Discord come with an in-game overlay that makes them more useful while you’re playing with your friends. Rendering these overlays in addition to Vanguard can cause your system to struggle which can trigger freezes.  

If you have any active overlays while you’re playing Vanguard, turn them off and reset your game right after doing so.

Check your background processes

If there’s a rogue process in the background that’s sucking up all of your CPU and GPU power, there may not be that much left for Vanguard. When this is the case, players will experience freezing with low frame rates.

Open up the task manager and check if there are any background processes that are using more resources than they should. If you suspect any tasks, right-click on them and choose End Task to terminate them. While you’re at it, you can also end the tasks for programs that leave leftover processes since your CPU will welcome the additional breathing room.