The new Elden Ring patch suggests a fix for some of the RPG’s framerate issues. Trouble is, however, that ‘fix’ doesn’t seem likely to help a whole lot.
Elden Ring patch 1.12.3, which dropped early today, features a section dedicated to “possible unstable performance fixes.” Previously, publisher Bandai Namco had suggested that PC players might want to check their mouse to help with framerate issues, but now it’s turned its attention to the PS5. In the notes, it suggests that “unstable framerate may be improved by using the ‘Rebuild Database’ option from the device’s safe mode.”
‘Rebuild Database’ is a function in the PS5 safe mode menu that scans your console’s drive and creates a new database of the content stored on it. Sony says it’s “useful if you’re experiencing system feature issues or a game icon remains on Home after it has been deleted.” Crucially, that seems to suggest that it’s a system-level tool, not something that will really impact individual games.
That’s an opinion espoused by FromSoftware expert (and well-known PlayStation dataminer) Lance McDonald, who says that Rebuild Database “has absolutely no way to affect gameplay performance at all.” McDonald suggests that using the tool to fix Elden Ring’s framerate would be “like when you call your ISP about slow internet and they tell you to try deleting cookies.”
McDonald goes on to say that the tool “is useful in cases where an installed game disappears for some reason” – like a major firmware update, such as a big DLC drop – but that all it does is “scan the hard-drive for missing games and add the icons back to the dashboard.”
It’s safe to say that if you’re hoping for a fix, McDonald isn’t particularly confident that you’ll find it here. You should find some other fixes, however, though some of them are probably better for players than others – the bug fix that stops Black Knight Tiche from accidentally healing the boss seems handy, but if you were a fan of the Perfume Bottles, it’s not such good news.
Hopefully there’s also a fix on its way for the bug that makes two copies of Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss spawn.