Optimize and Play Apex Legends
Apex Legends is the newest, hottest battle-royale game. Inspired by popular games like the class-based Overwatch and the first big Battle Royale, PUBG, Apex Legends is a 60-person 3-man squad class-based battle-royale FPS.
This new game is being praised as one of the most stable battle royales on the market. The best part? The game is free-to-play.
However, as with any new game, there have been a number of reported bugs and issues that players are experiencing while playing this new game.
From FPS drops, muted audio, to complete game crashes, the /r/ApexLegends subreddit has daily complaints from select users that can’t play the new game everyone’s excited over.
Download and Install Apex Legends
To play Apex Legends, you’ll need to follow these simple instructions:
- Download EA’s Origin
- Create an Account / Log-In
- Update your Graphics Card, Ethernet, WiFi, Sound Card, Mouse and Keyboard Drivers with Driver Support
- Select the “Apex Legends” title and download it (~13GB)
The game is still pretty new, and while it’s considered one of the most polished battle-royale games on the market, there are still some bugs with it.
Follow the guides below to troubleshoot common issues.
- How to Fix Low FPS in Apex Legends
- Apex Legends Crashing on AMD Processors
- Apex Legends Crashing on GeForce Cards
- Apex Legends Audio Muted
- Apex Legends Audio Delay
How to Fix Low FPS in Apex Legends
- In your Graphics Settings, select r5apex.exe and change the Graphics performance preference to Classic App, set it to High Performance, and then launch the game as an administrator when you want to play.
- Inside the Nvidia Control Panel, click “Manage 3D Settings”, and select Apex Legends and change it to “Prefer Maximum Power”
- You can also change “pre-rendered frames” to 1, but it will make you lag just a tiny, tiny bit.
- Turning the shader cache on can help improve FPS, but on some systems, it may cause additional negative performance changes.
- If you have the ability to use G-Sync, use that as well (Only available on some monitors and graphics cards)
- From the task manager, change the priority of r5apex.exe to “High” and close out of other applications.
- Update your graphics drivers.
- Ensure your PC complies with the games minimum system requirements:
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
- RAM: 6GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 / Radeon HD 7700
- GPU RAM: 1 GB
- HARD DRIVE: Minimum 30 GB of free space
- Check to see if your system has the game’s recommended hardware requirements:
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- CPU: Intel i5 3570K or equivalent
- RAM: 8GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290
- GPU RAM: 8GB
- HARD DRIVE: Minimum 30 GB of free space
- Within the game, try to set the settings to:
- Full Screen
- Disable V-Sync
- Anti-Aliasing to Disabled/TSAA (slight performance difference)
- Use Native Resolution
- Keep Field of View at around 80-100
- Texture Streaming Budget to High
- Texture filtering as low as possible while still being playable
- Ambient occlusion as low as possible
- Shadow all to Low / Lowest
- Model detail low
- Effects detail low
- Volumetric lighting / Dynamic spot shadows Disabled
- Ragdolls low
- Impact marks the lowest
- Make sure other applications are not placing overlays (Discord, GeForce, Xbox Gaming)
- Clean your temporary files and uninstall other games to give your PC room to have the game run.
- Don’t use products like CCleaner as they may remove necessary files from your computer.
- Close out of Chrome when you’re playing the game or follow our guide on Optimizing Chrome Performance
Crashing on AMD Processors
Do you have an AMD Phenom? EA has confirmed that the game can’t even run on them, so it won’t load.
If you’re still running an AMD Phenom, you’ll need to upgrade to a newer processor before playing the game.
No fix available for this at this time.
Crashing on GeForce Cards
Several users with high-end PCs using an Nvidia GeForce 2080TI have reported that the game won’t even launch – which seems to be a drive problem. To be able to play the game, you may have to rollback the driver to an older version.
The new Nvidia drivers are supposed to be optimized for the game, but implemented a few bugs as of 02/08. Some users are already reporting that it works for them with the newest update, but other users are still left hanging.
The errors that come up for 2080TI users are:
- DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG
- CreateShaderResourceView failed
- DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED
To fix the GeForce errors, follow this guide on how to roll back to a previous version and select the last stable version.
Other users have fixed the issue by downclocking their card. We do not suggest this, as it can cause issues with your computer or change the performance of your card and its lifespan.
Audio Muted
Some users are experiencing the following issues with their audio:
- No audio
- Can’t hear anything but menu sounds
- Can’t hear enemy footsteps or gunfire
- Can’t hear the in-game voice
The fix to these issues is mostly the same. Follow the steps below to try to fix your issues:
- Update your motherboard drivers
- Update your sound card drivers
- In the game settings, make sure that the proper audio device is selected
- Go into Sound Settings -> Playback -> Your Audio Device -> Spatial Sound -> Turn on 7.1 Surround (even if you don’t have a surround-capable device)
Try the game after this. If this doesn’t solve your problem, troubleshoot other audio devices available to you to see if the issue resolves itself on other devices.
Audio Delay
Apex Legends has known issues with random audio delay, especially when using USB or Optical Audio.
To try to fix these issues, do the following:
- Update your motherboard drivers
- Update your sound card drivers
- Update your USB sound drivers
- In the game settings, make sure that the proper audio device is selected
- Go into Sound Settings -> Playback -> Your Audio Device -> Spatial Sound -> Turn on 7.1 Surround (even if you don’t have a surround-capable device)
- Relaunch the game.
If this doesn’t work, try to use a different audio port or USB until the game is patched.
Contact Apex Legends Support
If all else fails, you can contact Apex Legends (EA) support here:
- Web: https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/?product=apex-legends
- Phone: 650-628-1393
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/eahelp