Grand strategy titan Europa Universalis 5 launches into smooth waters, but Paradox has a secret fix if you're struggling

I suspect Paradox will be looking at the Europa Universalis 5 launch with some measure of pride, given how smoothly it's managed to land despite the inherent complexity of everything happening under the hood. The long-awaited sequel to one of the PC's best grand strategy games, EU5 had a lot riding on its shoulders, and so far it's mostly managed to deliver on those lofty expectations. But with performance the most common complaint, development studio Paradox Tinto explains what you should expect based on your hardware, along with a couple of handy Steam tricks if you're having trouble.

Coming in at 85 on Metacritic and 87 on Opencritic, Europa Universalis 5 is a reminder of what Paradox is capable of in the genre, and I've already been impressed by the sheer depth of its simulation. With so many calculations happening behind the scenes, however, it's no surprise that inconsistent performance, lag, and crashes are among the more common complaints from players so far. That's likely something that will improve over time; Crusader Kings 3's new DLC, All Under Heaven, recently managed to pull off a major map expansion with minimal impact on how it runs.

Paradox Tinto does admit, however, that "the requirements we've posted have created a lot of uncertainty in our community," so it offers some clarification on how you should expect the game to run. At the minimum (Intel i7-8700K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1060 / AMD RX 580) you should get 30fps at 1080p on 'low' settings. Reach the recommended (Intel i7-14700K, 32GB RAM, RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT) and you can expect a 60fps average at 1080p with 'ultra' settings.

While that means you shouldn't expect 4K 60fps if you're maxing out settings, the developer says it's hoping to "continue improving stability and finding ways for Europa Universalis 5 to run smoothly even on machines below the recommended tier." It explains that EU5 "is the most technically ambitious grand strategy game we've ever built, introducing new systems, visuals, and simulations that make it more demanding than earlier titles."

If you're on the low end, however, you may find yourself running into crashes or other severe performance hits. "We've noticed that many players crash the game due to their hardware being too weak," the developer writes. If you're in that situation, it has some good news: "There is a way to force the game into a 'very low' preset."

To do this, right-click the strategy game in your Steam library, go to properties and then the general tab, and find the launch options. There, add the line "-graphic_preset=very_low" (without quotation marks). Additionally, if you've been dealing with black screens on launch, you might have an issue with the game's Vulkan renderer, in which case you can add "-dx12" to the launch options to employ DirectX 12 instead. Note that you can use both of these settings simultaneously if needed.

Still unsure whether you should jump into the new frontier? Take a look through our Europa Universalis 5 preview. Or you could consider an upgrade to the best gaming PC in 2025 first.