How to Fish Stuttering, GPU, FPS Cap & Tearing Fixes

Patch 1.0.9 added difficulty and Steam diagnostics, not a universal stutter fix. Treat the following as community-tested PC troubleshooting, changing one variable per run.

FPS cap does not apply

Read the live FPS counter, not the menu value. Set one in-game cap, restart, then test a driver-level cap only if the first cap is ignored. Patch 1.0.5 lowered the minimum locked-FPS option from 50 to 30; it did not promise every external limiter would be honored.

90–100% GPU usage

Lower shadows, effects and post-processing first; leave textures alone for the first comparison. Disable Steam, Discord, Xbox Game Bar, recording and GPU overlays. If GPU load falls but frame time remains bad, inspect CPU load, temperatures and physics scenes rather than dropping every visual setting.

Mouse movement causes hitching

Community workaround: players report that an 8 kHz mouse polling rate can produce movement stutter. Test 1 kHz or 500 Hz for one session, then restore your preferred rate if the symptom remains unchanged. This is not an official engine limit.

VSync enabled but the image still tears

Compare VSync off, a stable cap below the display refresh rate, and one driver sync mode. Do not stack in-game VSync, driver VSync and multiple frame limiters in the same test; that makes the result impossible to read.

Stutter or teleporting only in co-op

If your own camera is smooth while boats, players or loose objects jump, diagnose latency and packet loss in the co-op guide, not GPU load.

Sources: Steam Community “GPU cooker?” and “Heavy stutter on mouse movement” reports, 2UpSkill’s PC guide, and Dazed Games Patch 1.0.5/1.0.9 notes, checked 2026-08-27. These are community workarounds, not official performance guarantees.