Payday 2 Stuck at 60Hz? Force Refresh Rate Fix!

You are playing Payday 2 on a high-refresh monitor, but the game feels sluggish and unresponsive because it is locked to 60Hz. Payday 2 lacks an in-game setting to adjust this, so you have to manually edit the game's configuration file to force it to use your monitor's native refresh rate.

Why this happens

Payday 2 uses a legacy renderer that often defaults to 60Hz regardless of your Windows display settings. You must manually define the refresh rate in the game's local configuration file to override this default.

Steps

1. 01
   Press Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
2. 02
   Type %localappdata%/PAYDAY 2 into the box and press Enter to open your local game data folder.
3. 03
   Locate the file named renderer_settings.xml, right-click it, and select Open with then choose Notepad.
4. 04
   Press Ctrl + F to open the find tool, type refresh_rate, and press Enter to locate the entry.
5. 05
   Change the value inside the quotes to match your monitor's refresh rate, such as 144, 240, or 360, then press Ctrl + S to save the file.
6. 06
   If the game overwrites your changes when you launch, right-click the renderer_settings.xml file, select Properties, check the Read-only box, and click Apply.

Still not working?

If the game still feels choppy, ensure your Windows display settings are actually set to your monitor's max refresh rate. Right-click your desktop, go to Display Settings, then Advanced Display to confirm the refresh rate is selected correctly. If the game remains at 60Hz, verify that no third-party overlay software like RivaTuner or NVIDIA Control Panel is forcing an application-specific frame limit on Payday 2.

Frequently asked questions

Does setting the renderer_settings.xml file to Read-only stop the game from saving other settings?

Yes, marking this file as read-only will prevent the game from saving changes to graphics, resolution, or windowed settings. Only use this if the game continuously reverts your refresh rate.

Will changing this value cause the game to crash?

Setting an unsupported or incorrect refresh rate can cause the game to fail to launch. If the game crashes, return to the file and change the value back to 60 or verify your monitor's supported refresh rates via Windows Display settings.