Horizon Zero Dawn Pc Long Load Times ((better)) Jun 2026

You may see old Reddit threads suggesting you disable CPU cores 0 and 1 via Task Manager. That was a bug from the 2020 launch version that has been patched. It will only make your performance worse now.

Despite these patches, the nature of the port means that the following factors still dictate the speed of your loading screens.

The PC port originally ran more stable on DirectX 11 than DX12 for many users. While updates have improved DX12, you can test DX11 to bypass certain DX12 I/O bottlenecks. horizon zero dawn pc long load times

If you’ve done everything above and still face 45+ second loads on an SSD, you may be hitting one of two hardware ceilings:

This sounds like forum snake oil, but it’s real. Older AMD Ryzen chips (especially 3000-series) with AGESA firmware before version 1.0.0.4 had faulty PCIe communication that caused unnecessary latency when NVMe drives reported their ready status. Similarly, Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) drivers from 2019 had a bug with large-block reads. You may see old Reddit threads suggesting you

The primary reason for long initial load times is .

Always allow the shader optimization process to finish completely on the main menu before starting your save. If you skip this, you will likely face massive stuttering and even longer loading screens later. Despite these patches, the nature of the port

Windows 10/11’s “Fullscreen Optimizations” can interfere with how HZD accesses the GPU’s memory bus during loading screens.

If you’re tired of reading the same loading screen tips, try these community-vetted solutions:

Legacy settings or background apps often conflict with the game's streaming engine: