How to Fish Stuttering & High GPU Usage — FPS Cap, Mouse Lag and Tearing

FPS limit says 60 or 120, but the game runs much higher

The strongest current performance pattern is not simply “the game looks demanding.” Several players report that the selected frame cap remains visible while a live counter shows hundreds of frames per second. The same discussion includes reports of much lower GPU use after a maximum frame rate was enforced outside the game.

1. Show a live FPS counter. Use Steam’s overlay or a trusted driver overlay so you can compare the selected cap with the rendered rate.
2. Move the in-game limit once. Change it to another value, apply, then return to the intended limit and apply again.
3. Confirm the result in play. Do not stop at the settings screen; move the camera on an island and watch whether FPS stays near the target.
4. Use one external cap if the game cap still fails. Set a per-game maximum frame rate for How to Fish in the NVIDIA, AMD or Intel graphics control panel. Record the value so it can be removed later.
5. Keep changes isolated. Do not change resolution, VSync, polling rate and driver settings at the same time or you will not know which variable mattered.

Why is How to Fish using 90–100% GPU?

A GPU is designed to run at high utilization, so a high percentage alone does not prove hardware damage. The useful question is whether the game is rendering far beyond the display’s refresh rate, drawing unusually high power, overheating, crashing the driver or staying uncapped while minimized.

The official minimum requirement is only a GeForce GTX 1050 or AMD RX 460 with 8 GB RAM. That makes reports from newer GPUs worth documenting, but it does not establish one universal bug or safe temperature for every card.

Do not use an unknown “optimizer,” replacement executable or registry pack. A frame cap, resolution test and current graphics driver are reversible. Untrusted utilities add another cause to the diagnosis.

ADS sensitivity and FOV

For a camera that turns smoothly but feels too fast or slow, use the sensitivity and FOV calculator to match hip-fire cm/360. It supports different source and target DPI values. Aiming through a scope is a separate check; set base FOV before testing ADS.

AimUrWay’s author reports that FOV can return to 74 after restart because the saved and loaded settings keys differ. This is a community report, not a confirmed Dazed Games fix or diagnosis for every machine. Compare your setting before and after restarting, then reapply it if it changed.

Hip-fire aim stays left or right after turning

A September 12 Steam report describes the gun staying pointed left or right after the player turns, with shots landing to the side. The author says a laser sight makes the offset easier to see and that a friend noticed it too, especially with the sniper. This is a community report of aiming offset, not a report that the fire button stops working.

Official Patch 1.0.12 notes do not list a hip-fire change or a fix for this symptom. Compare a stationary shot with one taken after turning, then compare hip-fire with aiming down sights using the same weapon and attachments. Note Toggle Aim, game version, solo or co-op, and mods. These comparisons help describe the problem; they are not a confirmed repair.

The thread’s suggestion to aim does not establish a fix and is unsuitable for the finishing shot in 360 No Scope. Keep a plain hip-fire accuracy check separate from the full-spin achievement attempt.

Keybinds reset after restarting the game

A current Steam topic describes sprint rebound to Right Shift and crouch to Right Arrow on a split keyboard. The player says the bindings must be set again on every launch; another reply says the issue was also reported on Discord. This is a settings-persistence report, separate from mouse polling or low FPS.

1. Photograph the intended bindings. Record the action, exact key and keyboard layout before closing the game.
2. Test one action in play. Confirm that the new key works before a restart. A key that never works is a different remapping failure.
3. Exit normally and reopen once. Compare both the settings display and the action in play. Note whether the displayed key resets or only the input behavior changes.
4. Reapply the needed binding for the session if necessary. Treat this as a temporary accommodation, not a persistent fix. Include any remapping software or mods in the report.

Patch 1.0.11 now adds official options for toggle sprint, toggle aim, hold to attack and toggle nametags. Use those controls when they match the desired behavior, but keep them separate from the reported persistence problem: the note does not claim that every custom sprint or crouch key now survives restart. Do not delete the LocalLow save folder to troubleshoot a keyboard preference.

Text-chat key cannot be rebound

A Steam player reports being unable to choose a different text-chat key. This concerns opening the written chat, not voice chat or the microphone. Check whether text chat appears as a rebindable action in your current controls menu. If the action is missing, changing voice-chat settings will not add it.

Keep this separate from a binding that works until restart. Record the missing action, the key you want to use and your game version. Patch 1.0.11’s toggle aim, toggle sprint, hold-to-attack and nametag options change behavior; they do not promise unrestricted remapping of every action.

Reload is stuck on R

The Reload discussion began on August 23, with later replies from players using Colemak-DH and Gallium keyboard layouts. They report that Reload cannot be moved from R. The renewed replies do not establish a new Patch 1.0.12 regression or an official fix.

Check whether Reload is absent from the binding menu or is listed but ignores the selected key. Test the currently displayed key once and include your keyboard layout in a report. If a different binding works during play and only resets after quitting, use the restart checks above. Neither symptom calls for deleting your save folder.

Stuttering when moving the mouse or camera

This has a distinct test. A current player with a high-end system reported that the menu and game became unplayable only while the mouse moved, then reported the issue resolved after changing an 8 kHz polling rate. Another discussion describes heavy look-around lag at 8000 Hz.

1. Prove that movement is the trigger. Leave the view still for several seconds, then move the mouse in a circle. Compare the frame-time behavior.
2. Lower polling temporarily. In the mouse manufacturer’s official software, change 8000 Hz or another very high report rate to 1000 Hz.
3. Restart the game. Some input settings are read at launch, so test a clean start rather than only tabbing back in.
4. Try another basic mouse only as a comparison. Do not buy hardware before the polling-rate test; the report concerns how often input is sent, not mouse price.
5. Restore your preferred setting if nothing changes. A community workaround is useful only when your before/after result matches it.

If keyboard movement stutters with the mouse completely still, use the broader FPS and GPU path instead. That symptom is not isolated to polling.

Screen tearing even with VSync

A separate high-end PC report describes tearing and stutter with or without VSync and the FPS limit. That is evidence that no single toggle solves every system. It is not evidence that VSync should always be disabled.

• Confirm the monitor refresh rate in Windows and the actual in-game FPS.
• Test one synchronization path at a time: in-game VSync with no driver override, then a driver cap with the in-game limit documented.
• If you use G-SYNC, FreeSync or another variable-refresh mode, keep the frame rate inside the display’s supported range.
• Compare borderless and windowed mode once. Keep the mode that produces the cleanest frame pacing on the same scene.
• Record whether tearing is a horizontal split, while “stutter” is an uneven pause. They can occur together but are not the same symptom.

Safe performance test order

1. Restart Steam and install the current official build. The historical 1.0.12 fixes discussed below predate 1.1.0; the newer update does not name a universal stutter fix.
2. Remove mods and overlays from the test. Keep Steam’s FPS display if needed, but close capture tools and third-party injectors.
3. Confirm and reapply the FPS cap. Use a driver-level per-game cap only if the active rate remains above target.
4. Test mouse polling if motion is the trigger. Use 1000 Hz as a temporary comparison.
5. Lower resolution or quality one step. Retest the same island and camera route.
6. Update the graphics driver from the GPU vendor. Avoid third-party driver-download sites.
7. Run Steam’s installed-file check once. This can repair program files; it cannot fix a save-specific scene or restore inventory.

What Patch 1.0.12 fixed for FPS and the first Radio

Patch 1.0.12 fixes one specific frame-cap failure: FishNet no longer overrides Max FPS when joining a lobby. If the cap held in solo but changed after joining co-op, install the patch and retest that exact transition before keeping an external workaround.

The same patch preloads music so buying the first Radio should no longer cause the reported lag spike. This is not a general audio or stutter fix. The announcement does not claim to solve high GPU usage, 8 kHz mouse-polling stutter, screen tearing, frame-cap failures outside lobby joining or every later Radio hitch.

Performance report checklist

• CPU, GPU, RAM and Windows version.
• Monitor resolution and refresh rate.
• Selected FPS limit versus the live measured FPS.
• GPU utilization, temperature and power only if shown by a trusted monitor.
• Mouse model and polling rate, especially 8 kHz versus 1000 Hz.
• VSync/variable-refresh status and window mode.
• Island, solo or co-op state, host status and whether the problem occurs while alt-tabbed.
• Exact result after one controlled change.