Planet Zoo 2 overheating: how to stop your PC running hot

If Planet Zoo 2 sends your temperatures sky high within a few minutes, even in a brand new zoo with nobody in it yet, take a breath. It’s not you, and it’s very probably not your PC. The game just isn’t being gentle with hardware right now (it’s launch week, and it shows), and Frontier is already patching it. (The rest of our Planet Zoo 2 guides are on the hub.)

Why it runs hot

There’s no frame rate limit anywhere in the settings. So your graphics card just draws as many frames as it possibly can, all the time, and more frames means more heat whether you can see the difference or not. (A 60 Hz monitor can’t show you more than 60 of them anyway.) It’s also why turning the graphics right down can leave you just as hot. The card draws even more frames, so it stays busy.

There’s a second thing a cap won’t touch. Frontier says the game needs more processing power the more animals and guests you have, and that it leans on the processor more than the graphics card. In a small new zoo that isn’t the problem yet, so for now it’s the graphics card you’re trying to calm down.

Cap the frame rate

This is the step that fixed it on my own PC, and my PC is not a beast (it was properly cooking before I did this).

Start at 60. Frontier’s own target for the recommended specs is 30 FPS on High settings, so 60 is already double what the game is aimed at and you’re not missing much. Cap it first, before you touch anything else.

On NVIDIA, open the NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Manage 3D Settings and pick the Program Settings tab. Add Planet Zoo 2 to the list and set Max Frame Rate to 60.

On AMD, open AMD Software and go to the Planet Zoo 2 game profile. Look for Frame Rate Target Control, switch it on and set it to 60.

No luck with the driver? Use VSync instead. The Display settings have a VSync option that ties the game to your monitor’s refresh rate, and on a 60 Hz screen that gives you the same 60 FPS. On a faster monitor it will run at that faster rate, so a driver cap is the better choice there. One thing to know: the Refresh Rate option is greyed out while the game is in Borderless, so switch Screen Mode to Fullscreen first.

Still hot? Go lower. 50 is a good next step, then 45. A steady frame rate feels nicer than one that keeps jumping around anyway, so don’t be scared of a lower number.

Graphics settings

The cap does most of the work and the settings do the rest. Check that the three ray tracing options (global illumination, reflections and sun shadows) are switched off, because they’re among the heaviest things in the menu. Dropping the Preset one step helps too. Change one thing at a time and watch your temperature in the same spot of your zoo, otherwise you’ll never know what actually worked.

Guest limit

Later, when the zoo fills up, the processor does more of the work and graphics settings stop making much difference (annoying, I know). The Game tab has a Limit Number of Guests option with a Maximum Guests slider, and a lower number takes some load off the processor. Guests are where your income comes from though, so don’t take it too low.

Cooling and drivers

Assume it’s the game first, because it mostly is. But a hot game and a dusty PC stack on top of each other, so it’s worth a quick check either way. Dust in the filters and heatsinks, a loose cooler, old thermal paste, a laptop sat on a duvet (please don’t), all of it makes things worse. Frontier says laptops benefit from extra cooling so the processor can hold its speed. If you’re comfortable with it, a small undervolt cuts heat and power for very little performance loss.

Frontier’s own checklist is worth a go as well. Update your graphics drivers, verify the game files in Steam, and turn off overlays and recording software such as Discord, Xbox Game Bar and GeForce Experience.

If it still climbs after all that, stop playing for now and wait for the next patch rather than letting your PC cook. Frontier also suggests having a technician check for overheating if you’re worried.