No Man's Sky Low FPS Fix: Settings, Base Lag and Stutter

No Man’s Sky low FPS on PC usually comes from four settings — Terrain Tessellation, Planet Quality, Volumetric Effects and Reflections — so lowering those one step and turning on DLSS, FSR or XeSS is the biggest single fix; if FPS only drops at bases or settlements, lower Base Complexity to Enhanced, because big builds cost CPU and GPU time that other settings can’t remove. Match your symptom below, then work that section.

This is one game in our survival and base-building series. The shared mechanism — why placed objects cost CPU time in every building game — is explained in why base building tanks FPS in survival games.

Find your problem first

What you see	Most likely cause	Go to
Low FPS everywhere, GPU at 95–100%	Planet, volumetric and reflection settings too high	Fix 1
FPS drops only at your base, a settlement or a busy hub	Base parts drawn and simulated at once	Fix 2
Stutter while flying down to a planet	Terrain generation (CPU) and streaming	Fix 3
Worse since the Cosmos update	Shader rebuild, or a bug fixed in a later patch	Fix 4
Stuck at 30 or 60 FPS	Max FPS or V-Sync limit	Fix 5
Fine for an hour, then gradually worse	Long-session buildup	Why FPS drops after hours of gameplay

Why No Man’s Sky is demanding

No Man’s Sky builds every planet procedurally as you approach it. That means two different kinds of load: CPU work to generate terrain, creatures and buildings as you fly in, and GPU work to draw atmosphere, clouds, water and lighting once you’re there. The settings below split along that line, which is why “just lower everything” works badly — the stutter on approach and the low FPS on the surface have different fixes.

The game’s 10th anniversary Cosmos update (9 September 2026) is why many players are re-checking performance now. It added DLSS 4.5 and XeSS 3, made base updates asynchronous to reduce hitches in complex builds, fixed several out-of-memory crashes, and fixed a PC-only input latency issue with V-Sync. Hello Games followed it with patches 7.01 through 7.05 (30 September 2026), so update before tuning anything.

Install the game on an SSD. Planet streaming from a hard drive turns every landing into a long hitch.

Fix 1 — The settings that actually move FPS

Change these in Options → Graphics, roughly in order of how much FPS they return:

Setting	Try	Why
Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)	DLSS Quality or Balanced (RTX), FSR or XeSS (AMD, Intel, GTX)	The cheapest large FPS gain — fewer pixels rendered
Terrain Tessellation	Standard	Big GPU cost on planets, and a stutter source on approach
Planet Quality	Enhanced	Second-largest planet cost; Ultra adds little you notice in motion
Volumetric Effects	Enhanced	Fog, storms and atmosphere — heavy on surfaces
Reflections	Enhanced	Costly near water, space stations and glass base parts
Shadow Quality	High	Ultra costs more for a small visual gain
Base Complexity	Enhanced	See Fix 2 — matters most at bases and settlements
GTAO (ambient occlusion)	Standard or Off	Moderate cost, subtle look
Texture Quality	Ultra on 8 GB+ VRAM, lower on 4–6 GB	Mostly a VRAM cost, not an FPS cost

Pick DLSS on an RTX card and FSR or XeSS on AMD, Intel Arc and GTX cards. If you’re not sure which mode, DLSS Quality vs Balanced vs Performance explains the trade-off. Running out of video memory shows up as sudden drops and texture pop-in rather than steady low FPS — how much VRAM you need for gaming covers that.

Fix 2 — Fix FPS drops at bases and settlements

If No Man’s Sky runs fine in space and in the wild but drops at your base, a settlement or a crowded hub, the cause is the number of base parts the game is drawing and updating — the same CPU-bound object load that hits every building game.

Lower Base Complexity

Base Complexity controls how many base parts are drawn at once and at what detail, including other players’ bases and decorations near you.

Base Complexity	What it does	Use it when
Ultra	Draws the most parts at full detail	Strong PC, small bases
Enhanced	Fewer distant parts, lower detail	The default recommendation for big builds
Standard	Only draws base parts very close to you	Weak GPU, or as a test to confirm bases are the problem

Players report little visible difference between Ultra and Enhanced, and a much larger FPS jump at Standard — with the catch that Standard makes much of a large base invisible until you walk up to it. Use Standard as a diagnosis: if FPS jumps when you switch to it, your base is the bottleneck.

This setting is not the same as the Base Complexity Limit message you see while building. That limit caps how many parts a base can hold; the graphics setting only changes how much of it is drawn.

Make the base cheaper to run

• Update the game. Cosmos made base updates asynchronous specifically to reduce hitches in complex builds.
• Cut decorative lights. Every light source adds lighting cost; large bases often have dozens nobody needs.
• Trim power networks. Long wire runs and many powered machines are extra work every frame.
• Split very large builds. One huge base costs more in one place than two smaller bases you visit separately.
• Expect settlements to cost more. Settlements are full bases with NPCs and buildings; the Cosmos patch notes list CPU optimisations for settlements and base power, which is another reason to update first.

If you play co-op, other players’ builds near you count too. For the wider picture of why object count matters more than graphics in this genre, see why base building tanks FPS in survival games, and for hosted worlds, survival game dedicated server performance.

Fix 3 — Stutter when landing on planets

Hitching as you fly down to a planet is terrain generation, not a weak GPU. The game is building the surface in front of you.

1. Terrain Tessellation → Standard. The setting most players find removes the bulk of approach stutter.
2. Planet Quality → Enhanced rather than Ultra.
3. Set a Max FPS a little below what your PC holds on the surface. Smaller swings between space and ground feel smoother than an unlimited frame rate that keeps crashing down.
4. Use an SSD. Streaming from a hard drive is the most common cause of very long landing hitches.
5. Close background apps that use CPU — browsers, launchers you aren’t using, and recording software.

Some stutter in the first sessions after an update is shader compilation, which settles once the shaders have been built. If stutter persists across many sessions, see why games stutter and how to clear the shader cache.

Fix 4 — After the Cosmos update

If performance got worse after Cosmos:

• Update to the latest patch. Hello Games released 7.01 to 7.05 between 10 and 30 September 2026, fixing crashes including ones linked to ship summoning, geometry streaming and physics-item memory.
• Verify the game files in Steam (Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files) or the Xbox app/Microsoft Store.
• Update your GPU driver. If the latest driver is the problem, a clean reinstall helps — see how to clean-install GPU drivers with DDU.
• Remove mods. Mods built for an older version are a common cause of crashes and slowdowns after a big update.
• Re-check your settings. Big updates can add new options (Cosmos added DLSS 4.5 and XeSS 3), so look at the upscaling menu again.

Fix 5 — FPS capped at 30 or 60

A hard cap at exactly 30 or 60 FPS is almost always a limiter, not performance:

• Max FPS — raise it to match your monitor’s refresh rate.
• V-Sync — turn it off and use a frame limit, or use G-Sync/FreeSync. Cosmos fixed a PC-only V-Sync input latency issue, but V-Sync still caps FPS to your refresh rate.
• Laptops — plug in, set Windows to a performance power plan, and make sure the game runs on the dedicated GPU (Windows Settings → System → Display → Graphics). Our best power plan for gaming guide covers the power side.

Frame generation

On RTX 40 and 50 series cards, DLSS Frame Generation raises the FPS counter, and Cosmos added DLSS 4.5 with 5x and 6x multi frame generation. It works best when you already have about 60 FPS before turning it on, and it adds some input latency. It does not fix planet-generation stutter or base CPU load — tune Fixes 1–3 first, then add it if you want smoother motion. For the latency side, see frame generation input lag explained.

Windows settings that help

• Close overlays you don’t use (Discord, GeForce/NVIDIA App, Steam, recording tools).
• Windows Game Mode on, and hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on if you use frame generation.
• Timer resolution can smooth frame pacing in CPU-heavy games — see the ultimate guide to timer resolution for gaming.

Summary

Problem	Fastest fix
Low FPS on planets	Upscaling on, Terrain Tessellation Standard, Planet Quality Enhanced
FPS drops at bases or settlements	Base Complexity Enhanced, fewer lights and powered parts
Landing stutter	Terrain Tessellation Standard, SSD, Max FPS cap
Worse after Cosmos	Latest patch, verify files, driver update, remove mods
Capped at 30/60	Max FPS, V-Sync, laptop GPU and power plan

More from the survival and base-building series: why base building tanks FPS in survival games, survival game dedicated server performance, Subnautica 2 low FPS fix and why FPS drops after hours of gameplay.