Update the server to Conan Exiles Enhanced 2.2.0 first, then reduce the work your world asks it to perform. Patch 2.2.0 moved the game to Unreal Engine 5.8.2 and replaced the older UE4 networking layer with Epic’s Iris system. Funcom says servers have so far experienced roughly half the lag seen before Iris, but the change does not remove limits created by enormous bases, purge events, AI, mods or servers that run indefinitely without maintenance.
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What “server lag” means in Conan Exiles
Players use “lag” to describe several different failures. A server that cannot finish simulation work on time produces delayed actions, rubber-banding, enemies that freeze and then move suddenly, or doors and crafting stations that respond late. A congested connection produces high ping, packet loss and players being disconnected even when the simulation is healthy. A client that cannot render a large base produces low personal FPS; that is not fixed by changing dedicated-server tick settings.
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Diagnose the symptom before changing settings. Ask whether every player sees the delay, whether it occurs only near one base, whether it starts when a purge begins, and whether a server restart temporarily helps. Those answers identify the highest-value fix and prevent you from treating a graphics problem as a hosting problem.
Apply the major official performance change first
Update to Enhanced 2.2.0
Conan Exiles Enhanced update 2.2.0 introduced Unreal Engine 5.8.2 and Epic’s Iris networking system. Iris replaces the previous UE4 networking layer and is intended to keep a server closer to its normal speed as the world fills with players and objects. Funcom’s developer explanation said that, before the change, a full server could take eight times longer to do the same work as a quiet server. In its 2026 community update, Funcom reported that servers had so far experienced roughly half the lag they had before Iris was enabled. That is Funcom’s own aggregate statement, not an independently reproduced benchmark, so treat it as evidence of direction rather than a guaranteed percentage for your installation.
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Updating is the first troubleshooting step because every later measurement is misleading if the server is still running the old networking implementation. Update the dedicated-server files, restart the service, and verify the reported build from the server console or hosting control panel. Have every player use the matching game build.
Recook or remove incompatible mods
Patch 2.2.0 changed serialization in the base engine and forced a recook of all mods. A mod that has not been recooked can remain marked out of date, fail to load, or create errors and extra work during startup and play. After the server update:
- Make a complete copy of the world save, configuration files and current mod list.
- Update each installed mod to a release that its author has recooked for Enhanced 2.2.0.
- Remove or disable mods that are still flagged out of date rather than leaving them in a repeatedly failing load cycle.
- Start the server with the smallest known-good mod set and add the remaining mods one at a time if performance is still uncertain.
A clean, recooked mod set also makes CPU and memory measurements meaningful. Do not compare a mod-heavy pre-update server with a clean post-update server and attribute every difference to Iris.
Measure the problem before tuning
Record a reproducible baseline
For at least one normal play session, note the online player count, time of day, location, active purge status, number of large settlements in view, and the exact symptom. Record whether a restart changes the symptom and how long the improvement lasts. This simple log separates a constant capacity problem from a periodic event or a leak that accumulates during uptime.
- Simulation delay everywhere: investigate CPU saturation, excessive entities, building scale and mods.
- Delay only during purges: investigate purge intensity and the number of AI actors spawned.
- Delay around one settlement: audit building pieces, storage, thralls, pets and building-related mods there.
- Improvement immediately after restart: add scheduled restarts, then look for a mod or workload that causes the gradual decline.
- High ping or disconnects without delayed NPCs: check the network path and firewall rather than increasing server tick values.
- Low FPS for one player only: lower that player’s graphics settings and view distance; server changes will not raise the client’s rendering rate.
Check CPU and RAM before editing files
Watch the machine while the lag is occurring, not only while it is empty. If one or more CPU cores remain pinned, the workload is usually an oversized world, an expensive mod or an undersized plan; configuration edits cannot create missing CPU capacity. If memory approaches the machine limit and the operating system begins swapping, add RAM or reduce the workload before experimenting with network settings.
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A fan-run Conan Exiles wiki lists 12 GB of RAM for large servers, but that figure predates the Enhanced build and should be treated only as an old baseline, not a current minimum. No authoritative current hardware minimum is established. An unverified launch-week claim of a two-to-four-times memory increase on UE5 servers should not be used for capacity planning. Leave operating-system headroom and test with your actual player count, mods and build size.
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Why very large bases cause persistent lag
Community guides consistently identify huge bases with thousands of placed pieces as a leading cause of Conan server lag. Every piece has to be tracked, simulated where applicable and synchronized to clients. Decorative sprawl, dense storage rooms and multiple abandoned settlements can therefore hurt even when only a few players are online.
Audit the world rather than asking players to guess. Identify settlements with unusually high piece counts, overlapping foundations, extensive lighting or many containers. Consolidate storage, remove duplicate structures and dismantle abandoned outposts. Test after each major cleanup so you can associate an improvement with a specific change.
Keep abandonment cleanup enabled
One community guide recommends leaving building abandonment cleanup enabled and points to DisableBuildingAbandonment=False in ServerSettings.ini. This is community advice with medium-low confidence, and the exact behavior can vary by build and server policy. Back up the file and explain the decay policy to players before enabling it; otherwise a cleanup intended to improve performance can be mistaken for lost property.
Do not treat Iris as permission to increase building limits. A secondary host summary quoting Funcom warns that Iris does not remove all server-performance limitations when players are free to build at scale. Use the additional headroom to make normal play more stable, not to multiply the amount of geometry your world must track.
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If the server is responsive until a purge starts and then every player experiences delayed actions, purge load is a strong suspect. Community guidance describes purges as the most common source of spikes on an otherwise healthy server and recommends reducing purge intensity. That conclusion has low confidence because the advice comes from guide summaries rather than a controlled test, but it is a sensible, reversible experiment.
- Confirm the timing: record at least two incidents and verify that the slowdown begins with purge activity rather than merely coinciding with peak player numbers.
- Lower purge intensity by one setting step, keeping all other settings unchanged.
- Observe a comparable purge window and record CPU usage, player symptoms and purge completion.
- If the spike remains, reduce the number of simultaneous AI or move high-density settlements away from purge paths before making a larger reduction.
Reducing purge intensity changes gameplay difficulty and rewards. Tell players what changed, and restore the previous value if the server was not actually purge-bound.
Control thralls, pets and other AI
Thralls and pets are repeatedly identified by community guides as major sources of server load. Each active actor can require AI decisions, movement, animation state and network replication. Hundreds concentrated in a single base are more damaging than a few distributed across normal settlements.
Practical reductions
- Remove unused thralls and pets rather than storing every recruit indefinitely.
- Distribute necessary defenders so one location does not become an AI hotspot.
- Inspect farms, elevators and other contraptions that keep actors moving or repeatedly evaluating paths.
- During diagnosis, temporarily reduce the population at the worst base and compare the same activity before and after.
AI-related changes should be tested separately from building cleanup. If both are changed at once, you may know that lag improved but not which policy should be retained.
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Audit mods and their update state
Mods can add building pieces, AI behavior, scripts and replication work. Community guides specifically call AI-heavy and building-expansion mods expensive, although the available advice is low confidence and does not establish a universal ranking. A small number of poorly behaved mods can matter more than a long list of lightweight cosmetic additions.
Use a binary-search troubleshooting method
- Export the current load order and back up the save.
- Disable roughly half of the nonessential mods and test the same scenario.
- If the lag improves, test halves of the disabled group until the responsible mod or combination is isolated. If it does not, test the remaining group.
- Check the suspect mod’s update notes and compatibility status for Enhanced 2.2.0; remove it if no recooked version exists.
- Reintroduce confirmed-safe mods gradually, restarting between meaningful changes.
Never remove a gameplay or storage mod from a live world without checking how its assets are handled. Keep a rollback copy and test on a duplicate save where possible.
Schedule restarts instead of waiting for a crisis
Several community sources recommend restarting every 12 to 24 hours. The goal is to clear accumulated memory use, apply mod updates cleanly and prevent a gradual decline in responsiveness. This is a maintenance measure, not proof that the underlying workload is acceptable; a restart that helps for only a few minutes points to a capacity or mod problem that still needs correction.
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- Announce the restart and give players enough time to leave combat and save progress.
- Stop the server through its control panel or service manager rather than killing the process.
- Verify that the process has exited, then start it and watch the log for mod or save errors.
- Record startup duration and the time until symptoms return.
- Choose a fixed low-population window, and adjust the interval toward 12 or 24 hours based on observed behavior.
Keep at least one recent world backup outside the server’s live directory. A restart cannot repair a corrupted save, and a configuration experiment should never remove your rollback path.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Approach configuration changes cautiously
ServerMaxTickRate
Community guides mention ServerMaxTickRate in Engine.ini. One host example uses ServerMaxTickRate=30 and describes a 30–60 range. This advice has low confidence, and older network settings may not map cleanly to the Enhanced build. There is no verified current tick-rate value that can be declared optimal for every server.
If you test the setting, make one change at a time, retain the original file, restart fully and compare CPU use, responsiveness and disconnects under the same player load. A higher target can demand more CPU; it cannot compensate for an overloaded simulation. If the change worsens stability, restore the backup immediately.
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Do not confuse ports with performance tuning
Funcom’s dedicated-server documentation lists these ports:
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 7777 | UDP | Game traffic |
| 7778 | UDP | Pinger |
| 27015 | UDP | Server query |
| 7777 | TCP | Mod download when needed |
| 25575 | TCP | RCON |
Opening the correct ports makes a server reachable and allows required downloads; it does not make an overloaded simulation faster. Expose only the services you need, restrict RCON access and verify firewall rules before diagnosing a network problem.
Choose hosting with the right performance controls
Whether you self-host or use a managed machine, evaluate three practical dimensions rather than a headline player number.
| Decision axis | What to verify | Why it affects lag |
|---|---|---|
| Build currency | How quickly the operator can deploy Enhanced 2.2.0 and recooked mods | An old build misses Iris and can leave mods in an incompatible state. |
| Hardware headroom | Dedicated CPU capacity, available RAM and behavior at your expected peak population | CPU saturation and swapping create simulation delay regardless of configuration. |
| Operator control | Scheduled restarts, purge controls, save backups and access to configuration files | These controls let you remove causes instead of merely restarting after failures. |
Ask for monitoring or logs that show CPU and memory during a busy period, not only idle specifications. Because a current authoritative RAM minimum is unavailable, your own workload test is more useful than an unqualified number in a sales description.
Diagnose common symptoms with a decision table
| Symptom | Most likely area | First action |
|---|---|---|
| All players rubber-band everywhere | CPU saturation, excessive world objects or incompatible mods | Confirm 2.2.0, inspect CPU, then test a reduced mod set. |
| Only one giant base is slow | Building pieces, containers, thralls and pets | Audit and reduce that settlement; keep abandonment cleanup policy under review. |
| Severe spikes begin with a purge | Purge intensity and AI concentration | Lower intensity one step and compare the next equivalent event. |
| Performance degrades after many hours | Accumulated memory use or a mod issue | Schedule a 12–24-hour restart and investigate the time-to-degradation. |
| One player’s FPS drops near a base | Client rendering load | Adjust that player’s graphics settings; do not assume server tick changes will help. |
| High ping but responsive NPCs | Network path, firewall or routing | Check connectivity and required ports, then compare from another network. |
A maintenance plan that prevents the lag from returning
After every game or mod update
- Confirm the server and clients report the same Enhanced build.
- Check every mod for a recooked, compatible release.
- Back up the save and configuration before the first post-update start.
- Watch CPU, RAM and startup logs during the first busy session.
Weekly world housekeeping
- Review abandoned structures and remove redundant bases.
- Count or estimate unusually dense settlements and consolidate storage.
- Remove unused thralls and pets, especially in high-traffic locations.
- Review purge timing and record whether spikes are recurring.
Every restart cycle
- Complete a controlled stop and start within the 12–24-hour target window.
- Confirm that backups completed and that the latest save is readable.
- Compare the time-to-lag with the previous cycle; a shrinking interval signals a worsening workload.
What not to expect from Iris
Iris is the most significant official networking improvement identified for Enhanced 2.2.0, and Funcom reports roughly half the previous lag so far. It is not a guarantee of a fixed tick rate, unlimited building, or smooth purges on every hardware plan. The remaining limits still depend on how many structures, actors and mods the server must process. If a world remains overloaded after updating, reduce that workload or provide more CPU and RAM rather than continually raising limits.
Use configuration edits only after the version, mods, workload and maintenance schedule are under control. Version-dependent settings can become ineffective or harmful after an engine change, while a reversible base cleanup or mod isolation test gives you clearer evidence.
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