The short answer
- Turn on an FPS counter and verify whether the in-game frame limit actually holds; a selected value is not proof that it is active.
- If it does not hold, reapply the in-game limit, restart once and then test a per-game maximum frame rate in your GPU driver—not a global cap.
- If stutter happens mainly while moving the mouse, test a temporary polling-rate reduction from 8,000 Hz to 1,000 Hz before lowering every graphics setting.
- Change one thing at a time and stop testing if you see driver resets, artifacts, abnormal heat or instability.
See it in the game
Videos open on YouTube. Unless a timestamp is cited in the Sources section, use them for visual context—not as a guaranteed drop table or fix.
1. Confirm whether the FPS cap is actually working
Use one overlay or counter and watch the frame rate in the same scene for at least 30 seconds. A launch-week Steam report described the menu showing a 60 FPS limit while the game rendered above 400 FPS. In that report, a per-game driver maximum frame rate reduced GPU load.
That is a diagnostic lead, not proof that every high GPU reading is a bug. A GPU can legitimately run near full utilization when the frame rate is uncapped. The useful question is whether the requested cap holds and whether temperature, power, noise and frame pacing become reasonable after it does.
- 1
Enable a single FPS counter and note the current frame rate, GPU load and temperature in one repeatable scene.
- 2
Set the in-game cap, apply it and return to the scene. Restart once if the displayed limit does not hold.
- 3
If it still does not hold, open the NVIDIA, AMD or Intel control panel and set a maximum frame rate for the How to Fish executable only.
- 4
Retest the same scene. Keep the driver rule only if the cap now holds and frame pacing or load improves.
2. Test mouse polling only when movement triggers the stutter
A separate Steam report isolated severe stutter to mouse movement at an 8,000 Hz polling rate and reported that lowering it fixed the problem. This branch is relevant when keyboard movement is smooth but turning the camera with the mouse produces spikes.
Do not permanently downgrade the mouse from one anecdote. Save the current setting, test 1,000 Hz in the same scene, and restore the original value if there is no measurable change.
- 1
Stand in a stable scene and compare keyboard-only movement with slow and fast mouse movement.
- 2
If only mouse movement stutters, record the current polling rate in the mouse software.
- 3
Temporarily set 1,000 Hz, restart the game if required and repeat the exact camera movement.
- 4
Keep the change only if the frametime spikes clearly improve.
3. Separate tearing from low FPS or input lag
Screen tearing looks like a horizontal split between different frames; it is not the same as a regular hitch or slow input. Current Steam discussions contain mixed launch-week reports, including tearing and stutter on powerful systems and another player later saying an update resolved the issue.
Test one synchronization path at a time: start with the game's display and V-Sync options, then the matching per-game driver setting. Avoid stacking several frame caps and synchronization methods during diagnosis because you will not know which one changed the result.
Safe diagnostic order
- 1
Update the game and restart the PC so you are not measuring a stale process or pending update.
- 2
Verify the in-game frame cap with a live counter.
- 3
If needed, test one per-game driver cap and record the before-and-after reading.
- 4
Only test mouse polling when camera movement is the trigger.
- 5
Test display synchronization separately for visible tearing.
- 6
Lower resolution or quality only after the cap, polling and tearing branches have been isolated.
- 7
If the problem remains, report hardware, driver version, resolution, cap, observed FPS and the exact scene to the developer.
When to stop
Stop immediately if the display driver resets, the screen shows artifacts, the system becomes unstable or temperatures exceed the normal safe range for your hardware. Revert the last change. This guide does not recommend overclocking, undervolting, registry edits or replacing game files.
Sources used on this page
Community observations are useful leads, but they are not official drop probabilities.