ARK: Lost Colony is known for having serious performance problems. Many players have to deal with constant crashes, random freezes, and lag spikes even on good systems. While the game itself is poorly optimized, the good part is that most crashes can be reduced or stopped by changing a few simple things. In this ARK: Lost Colony PC Optimization Guide, we will see all the settings, mods, and server-related fixes.
PC Optimization Guide – ARK: Lost Colony
Below, we have some tips and tricks that will help you optimize your game to suit your PC.
Fix Your System First
Before adjusting any in-game settings, ensure your system is properly configured to run ARK smoothly. Many crashes happen because these basics are ignored. Start by updating your graphics drivers. Old or outdated drivers are one of the most common causes of crashing and freezing.
Next, restart your system. It may sound basic, but leaving your PC running for long periods can cause memory and performance issues. A clean restart often fixes more problems than expected. After that, close every program you don’t need. Game overlays and background apps, such as browsers, music players, monitoring tools, and performance software, use system resources and can easily cause ARK to crash.
Lastly, check your hardware for dust. A dirty system overheats faster, and overheating leads directly to freezes and shutdowns. When your system is clean, cool, and updated, performance instantly becomes more stable.
Fix Broken Game Files After Crashes
If ARK has already crashed or started behaving strangely, broken files are often the reason. You need to check your installed files against Steam’s servers and replace any corrupted or missing files, including broken textures and shaders.
- Open Steam
- Go to the Library
- Right-click ARK: Survival Ascended
- Click Properties
- Go to Installed Files
- Click Verify Integrity of Game Files
It takes a few minutes, but it is one of the fastest ways to fix repeated crashes, especially if you use mods or change settings often.
Resetting Config Files – Singleplayer Only
For single-player crashes that keep coming back, resetting the game’s configuration files can help. By removing the existing config files, you then force ARK to rebuild clean ones when you start the game again.
Before deleting anything, always make a backup. Once the files are removed and the game is restarted, ARK will automatically generate fresh configuration files, which often clears up long-term problems.
Graphics Settings
Most instability in ARK comes from graphics overload. The game puts a heavy load on the GPU. To put less strain on your GPU, go to the Settings -> Video, and do the following:
Using full-screen mode instead of borderless helps reduce strain. Borderless mode looks better, but uses extra resources.
Limiting FPS is another good thing. Keeping your frame rate within a reasonable range of 30-60 FPS reduces crashes by preventing your GPU from overworking.
High graphical effects are good and look nice, but they add very little to actual gameplay and increase crash risk. Medium settings are usually far more reliable than pushing everything to the maximum. Do not use Epic Settings.
Lowering shadows, post-processing, and texture quality can greatly improve performance. Set Super Resolution toward performance instead of quality.
DLSS, FSR, and Screen Clutter
Go to the RTX Tab and disable DLSS and FSR. Turning them off may lower FPS slightly, but it often improves clarity and reduces crashes.
Cluttered interfaces are another problem. Rendering hundreds of tame names and UI elements constantly uses resources. Turning off unnecessary visual elements makes the game feel smoother and reduces lag spikes.
Console Commands
Console commands can help performance, but they also carry risk. Commands that disable visual effects can improve stability, but using too many commands at once can break things. If you experiment with commands, change one setting at a time and test properly. Never stack multiple commands without checking the results.
Some of the commands that can help you are:
- VolumetricCloud 0
- VolumetricFog 0
- Fog 0
- DetailMode 0
Mods
Mods are one of the biggest crash sources in ARK. Even popular mods can become unstable after updates.
If your game keeps crashing:
- Unsubscribe from all mods
- Launch the game without any mods
- Check if the game is stable
- Add mods back one at a time
- Test after each mod
Once the crashes return, you have found the cause. Keeping only the mods you actively use makes the game more stable overall.
Server Crashes
Server performance problems are harder to detect than single-player issues. High farming rates can overload servers, especially when large creatures gather huge amounts of resources at once. Around 10x rates are usually safe.
Unused mods should always be removed from servers. They cause more damage in multiplayer environments than in single-player.
Check for cheaters or exploit users in the game. Sometimes crashes are caused by exploits.
Removing stuck creatures, clearing unused areas, and deleting abandoned bases from the map prevent server overload. Large numbers of structures and creatures being rendered at once are a major reason servers lag or crash.
That is all for this guide. Additional ARK: Lost Colony guides are linked below:
- ARK: Lost Colony Items Guide – All New Items and Consumables Detailed
- ARK: Lost Colony Thralls Guide – How to Get, Use
- ARK: Lost Colony Loot and Blueprints Farming Guide – Best Spots to Farm Loot and Blueprints
- ARK: Lost Colony Best Creatures Guide – 10 Creatures You Need to Tame
- ARK: Lost Colony PvE Base Locations Guide – Best Locations for PVE
- ARK: Lost Colony Desmodus Guide – How to Tame, Spawn, Abilities
- ARK: Lost Colony Malwyn Guide – How to Tame, Spawn, Abilities
This concludes our ARK: Lost Colony PC Optimization Guide. If you have some tips for us on how to optimize the game that worked for you, do let us know in the comments section.
