Silent Hill 2 has just been released and as I’ve reported, the game suffers from numerous traversal stutters. And, to the surprise of no one, a few mods surfaced, claiming that they could fix them. Well, I tried all of them and none of them fixes or reduces the traversal stutters. Shocking, I know.

Let’s start with the PC config we used for our tests. As always, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, and NVIDIA’s RTX 4090. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, and the GeForce 565.90 driver. Moreover, we’ve disabled the second CCD on our 7950X3D.

I used two completely different scenes for my tests. The first one is right after the third manual save (the first one you get in town). The second is after meeting Angela in the graveyard. I could perfectly replicate the traversal stutters in those two scenes whenever I was loading a save. As such, they were the perfect locations for our tests.

For those wondering, I tested Ultra Plus, Silent Optimizer, SH2 – SPF, and basically all the performance mods that are available on NexusMods. For Ultra Plus Mod, I tested V0.4.2, V0.6.2 and V0.7.2.

During my tests, all of the “performance” mods suffer from the exact same traversal stutters that can be found in the unmodded version. You’ll get the exact same traversal stutters at the exact same locations, no matter what mod you use. So no. None of them fixes the traversal stutters.

What I can say, though, is that UltraPlus V0.4.2 can improve performance. And while the game ran better with it, I could not spot any major visual downgrades.

I also tested PureDark’s DLSS 3 Frame Generation Mod. And, to be honest, I wasn’t THAT impressed by it. First of all, the performance boost is not as good as what we’ve seen with native implementations of DLSS 3 FG. Moreover, there were noticeable input latency issues, especially at 40-50fps.

You see, Silent Hill 2 does not support NVIDIA Reflex. I know there is a way to force it via MSI Afterburner. However, you’ll also have to limit your framerate and this introduces other issues with the DLSS 3 FG Mod. So, until PureDark figures out a way to also force NVIDIA Reflex, I’d suggest staying away from it. After all, this is a paid mod so the standards should be higher.

Anyway, right now, there is no mod that can reduce or fix the traversal stutters in Silent Hill 2. Bloober Team will have to do something about them via a post-launch update. That’s the only way via which we might get a smoother gaming performance. Until then, there is no reason to experiment with different mods. You’ll simply waste your time.

The only way I could get an almost stutter-free experience on the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D was by locking the framerate at 30fps. By doing this, there weren’t any noticeable traversal stutters. I’ve explained this multiple times so I won’t be wasting any more of your time. TLDR: The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D can handle all the streaming data at 33ms but not at 16ms. That’s why you won’t get stutters at 30fps (33ms) but you will get at 60fps (16ms). Also, if you have programs running in the background, you might get more or heavier stutters. We always test games without anything running in the background.

Naturally, I tried the DLSS 3 FG Mod with the 30fps cap. However, the game never felt as smooth as with an unlocked framerate. Not only that but I could spot some stutters (that weren’t present without the mod). So, nope. The DLSS 3 FG Mod is not able to save the day. It will, though, increase your average and minimum framerates.

Stay tuned for more!