Dota 2 has lag problems, and Valve needs your help to fix it

Steven Rondina Published 03/09/2021

Dota 2 has been suffering from serious performance issues over the last month, and Valve is looking for your help with fixing it.

The Dota 2 experience has been an unfortunately shaky one for some players, with lag issues dogging many games. While one might expect that a PC restart or modem unplugging would fix things, that has unfortunately proven not to be the case for many players experiencing these lag issues.

Making matters worse is the fact that there simply isn’t any reliable way to get around this. Regardless of hardware and internet connection, Dota 2 players with powerful PCs and brittle machines alike are suffering from in-game lag. Even frequently banned Twitch streamer Mason “mason” Venne has been left reeling over the problems in recent weeks, repeatedly drawing attention to it.

That said, a fix might be on the way. Valve employee Jeff Hill discussed the issue on Reddit and gave context about what’s happening and what’s being done to fix it.

“We’ve been seeing reports of these stutters and micro lags since the Nemestice release, and while we’ve shipped some performance fixes since then, it’s clear there’s still an issue,” Hill said.

Hill noted that these problems are only being felt by a small number of players, but those who are experiencing the issues are experiencing them frequently enough for it to be problematic. Valve isn’t quite sure what’s causing these issues and it’s strange that the issues have specifically popped up since the teardown of Nemestice. A fix is being worked on, but Valve is looking for your help in deploying it.

In his Reddit post, Hill asked players to use a program to record their data while playing to see what specific issues were causing the lag and stuttering troubles in Dota 2. Ideally, that will help determine the proper course of action for a hotfix.

How to make Dota 2 run better

There isn’t necessarily one reliable trick that will make Dota 2 run better significantly better other than upgrading your hardware and turning down graphical settings. It’s just a matter of making PC resources available and having the game run within those capabilities. Here are some tips for making Dota 2 run better:

Close all other programs
Play in full screen
Play with low graphical settings
Use a wired internet connection, not Wi-Fi
Turn off anti-aliasing

It’s always better to tailor settings for performance rather than graphics, and leaving browsers and other programs running in the background while gaming saps resources that could otherwise be directed towards making the game run smoother.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

View full profile