Valheim FPS boost is like a frame-granting blessing from the Allfather

Valheim
(Image credit: Iron Gate AB)

A Valheim FPS boost trick will have you exploring the 10th realm more smoothly with almost no effort on your end.

The early access Viking survival game has a low-poly aesthetic, which seems like it should make for an easy performance win even on PCs that struggle with more photorealistic games. But if you're finding that it still isn't running quite as well as you'd expect, Reddit user bluEyedillusion may have discovered an easy solution that will boost your frame rates near instantly.

Just open up Valheim's launch options by right clicking on the game in your Steam library and selecting "Properties." Then paste this string of text into the "launch options" field, close the window, and launch the game.

-window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen

This will force Valheim to launch in true fullscreen mode, instead of fullscreen windowed, and I can personally vouch for the difference it makes. I have a GeForce RTX 3070, and my frames went from holding steady at 100-110 FPS in my base camp to 130-140 with the new launch options and true fullscreen. The original poster saw an even more dramatic improvement, going from 50-60 FPS in their base to 90-110. Make sure your monitor's native refresh rate is selected in Valheim's in-game graphics options to see the full effect.

 Chances are this not-actually-fullscreen fullscreen issue is just an early access glitch and Iron Gate Studio will fix the issue in a future update. Until then this little tweak is worth its weight in rubies. 

See what else to play with our guide to games like Valheim.

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.