It runs badly. What to change first
A 3060 and an i9 reported 40–50 fps on medium. A 7800X3D reported its CPU pinned at 95–100%. A 5090 reported its GPU pinned near 100%. Those are three different measurements, so treat the pattern loosely — but none of the reports improve as the card gets stronger, and the developer has said the bottleneck they were working on was the CPU. Start with the prompt most players click through in the first two seconds.
The game asks which renderer to launch with. The developer names DirectX 11 as a performance option, and the store page’s own minimum spec asks for DirectX 11 — not 12.
“at its current state DX12 is borderline SHIT … but after launching in DX11 im hitting constantly 100+”
One player, on one machine — Discord #ideas. Not a benchmark, but the most specific figure anyone has posted.
Last checked against the Steam threads and the official Discord on
In the order worth trying them
- 01developer
Launch the DirectX 11 build, not DirectX 12
The game asks which renderer to use when it starts. The developer lists DX11 as a performance option; a player who switched reported the difference was not marginal. The store page's own minimum spec asks for DirectX 11, not 12.
“you can choose to play DX11 version at the start of a game”
- 02player report
What one player measured after switching
Posted as a suggestion that DX11 should be the default. Treat it as one person's result on one machine, not a benchmark — but it is the most specific number anyone has published.
“at its current state DX12 is borderline SHIT … but after launching in DX11 im hitting constantly 100+”
Discord · #ideas, Graphics API (no public link — server members only)
- 03developer
Set a frame-rate limit in the settings
This is the developer's answer to GPUs sitting at 90–100% with the demo open. It caps GPU utilisation rather than raising frame rate — two different complaints, and this addresses only the first.
“If you want your GPU % to be lower - you can set max fps throttle in settings”
- 04developer
Drop the video settings a notch, and test rather than assume
The developer's position is that the demo runs smoothly on the right settings. Players with strong cards disagreed. Both can be true when the bottleneck is the CPU rather than the GPU.
“From our tests - game runs smoothly - matter of selecting right settings.”
- 05developer
Turn motion blur off
Not a frame-rate fix, but it is the setting most often mistaken for one — two separate threads describe the demo as unplayable because of blur and boat motion rather than because of fps.
“You can turn motion blur off in settings”
What people actually reported
Hardware is written the way each player wrote it. All of this is the demo, none of it is a controlled test, and the right-hand column mixes two different measurements — some players reported a frame rate, others reported how busy a component was. Read them as individual reports, not as a series.
| CPU | GPU | Renderer / settings | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 7 7800X3D | RTX 5070ti | Vulkan, then DX12 · Ultra | CPU held at 95% on Vulkan and 99–100% constant otherwiseSteam · Runs very poorly |
| not stated | RTX 5090 | Vulkan | GPU sitting between 90% and 100% with the game openSteam · How is my 5090 being maxxed out |
| i9 | RTX 3060 | DX11 and Vulkan both tried · Medium | 40–50 fps on medium; above medium it fell to 20 or belowSteam · Runs very poorly |
| i7 | GTX 5060 (as posted) | — | Reported alongside the group above; no frame figure givenSteam · Runs very poorly |
| not stated | not stated | — | About 40 fps, on a machine the player says runs CS2 at over 400 — and no way to pick a refresh rateSteam · fps/hertz |
| not stated | not stated | — | Four players on “powerful systems”, all seeing 20–40 fpsSteam · Runs very poorly |
What the developer said the cause is
“Demo version is severly unoptimized in comparison to full release”
“CPU seems to be a bottlneck - we'll optimize it”
“we know, nearly every bug is already fixed, but we focus on delivering bug-less full release in stead of fixing demo”
Discord · #general, 24 August 2026 (no public link — server members only)
Known gap
There is no refresh-rate selector. A player raised it and the reply covered the frame-rate limiter instead, which is a different control.
Where the developer said the limit is
Asked about performance, they answered plainly: CPU was the bottleneck they were optimising. That is worth more than anything the reports below can settle, because the reports measure different things — one player posted a Ryzen 7 7800X3D holding 95–100% CPU at ultra settings, another posted a GPU sitting near 100%, a third posted a frame rate. High utilisation is not the same observation as low fps, and with a handful of self-reported machines there is no way to turn them into a conclusion about which component is holding you back.
They also said they stopped patching the demo in order to ship a clean 1.0. Those are two separate statements, and neither is a measurement of the release build — nobody outside the studio has run it.
Before you refund anything
Every measurement on this page is from the demo. If you are judging the game on it, you are judging a build the studio stopped maintaining on purpose — what changed for 1.0 covers the rest of that gap. And if the problem is nausea rather than frame rate, the motion settings are a different fix.
Performance questions
+Why is Water You Doing? running at 20 fps on a good PC?
Because you are almost certainly playing the demo, which the developer describes as far less optimised than the release build. They also identified CPU as the bottleneck they were working on, which is why strong graphics cards do not rescue it.
+Should I launch Water You Doing? with DirectX 11 or DirectX 12?
Try DirectX 11 first. The developer lists it as a performance option, the store page's minimum spec asks for DirectX 11 rather than 12, and a player who switched reported going from unplayable to a constant 100+ fps.
+Why is my GPU at 100% in Water You Doing?
Setting a maximum frame rate in the settings is the developer's own answer to this. Their words: if you want your GPU percentage lower, set a max fps throttle.
+Can I set the refresh rate in Water You Doing?
There is no refresh-rate selector. A player raised exactly this and the reply pointed at the frame-rate limiter, which is a different control.