Performance Tuning and Optimization
How to tune tick rate, player limits, and other settings to optimize Conan Exiles dedicated server performance.
Overview
Conan Exiles server performance is primarily bottlenecked by CPU single-thread performance, not memory or I/O. The server runs significant simulation logic (thrall AI, building decay checks, physics) on a single thread. Tuning focuses on reducing unnecessary simulation load and calibrating tick rate to your hardware.
Tick Rate
ServerMaxTickRate in ServerSettings.ini controls how many simulation ticks per second the server runs:
[ServerSettings]
ServerMaxTickRate=30
Recommended values:
30— default, suitable for most servers, low CPU cost60— smoother gameplay at higher player counts, roughly doubles CPU usage
Set this incrementally. Start at 30, monitor CPU under load, and increase only if you have headroom. Values above 60 are not officially supported and may cause instability.
Max Players
Set in Game.ini:
[/script/engine.gamesession]
MaxPlayers=45
More players increases simulation load linearly. Match this to your CPU's single-thread headroom. For a budget VPS, 20–30 is a safer ceiling. For a dedicated node with a modern CPU, 40–70 is achievable.
Thrall Conversion Multiplier
High thrall populations are a significant CPU load. Reducing the conversion time means less time idle thralls spend in a partially-broken state, but it also encourages players to accumulate more thralls faster.
[ServerSettings]
ThrallConversionMultiplier=0.25
The default is 1.0. A value of 0.25 reduces conversion time to 25% of default. This is popular on PvE servers but does not directly reduce AI simulation cost from existing thralls.
Building Decay
Keep decay enabled to reduce the number of active structures the server simulates:
[ServerSettings]
BuildingDecayEnabled=true
Servers with years of accumulated player structures and no decay enabled experience significant performance degradation over time. Active decay periodically removes abandoned structures and reduces the simulation footprint.
Harvest and XP Multipliers
These do not directly impact performance but affect player density and progression speed, which indirectly affects activity levels:
[ServerSettings]
HarvestAmountMultiplier=2.0
XPRateMultiplier=2.0
Higher rates lead to more resource nodes being active and potentially more player-built structures earlier, which can increase load.
Monitoring Server Performance
Check the server log for performance warnings:
ConanSandbox/Saved/Logs/ConanSandbox.log
Look for lines containing HitchThresholdMS or ServerPerf. These indicate the server is missing tick deadlines.
On Linux, use top or htop to monitor Wine/server process CPU consumption. The server process (ConanSandboxServer-Win64-Shipping.exe under Wine) should stay below 80% on a single core under normal load.
Memory Usage
Conan Exiles servers typically use 6–12 GB of RAM depending on map, mod count, and player count. Allocate at minimum:
- 8 GB for a lightly modded server
- 12–16 GB for a heavily modded server or high player counts
Memory pressure does not cause gradual degradation in most cases — the server will crash or refuse connections before experiencing slow memory issues.
Restart Schedule
Scheduled daily restarts are strongly recommended. The server's memory footprint grows over time due to entity accumulation. A daily restart at a low-traffic time (e.g., 4:00 AM) keeps the server stable and clears stale in-memory state.