The Last of Us Part 1 was released on PC on July 17, 2025, following the PS5 release back in September. But it hasn’t gotten off to the best start, with PC players complaining of poor performance, glitches galore, and being a downright processor hog. Here’s how to fix The Last of Us Part 1 100% CPU usage.
How to fix The Last of Us Part 1 100% CPU usage
No game should ever take up 100% of your system’s CPU usage, and when it does, that indicates there’smost likely an issue. The same can be said for The Last of Us Part 1, which has been majorly slowing down some players' PCs upon booting it up.
Don’t worry, though, as nothing is wrong here; it is simply due toshader compilation. When you first load up TLOU Part 1, it will begin downloading all of the necessarygame shaderson themain menu. This is a heavy task, so it will bea CPU hogfor a while until they’ve downloaded, especially if youdon’t wait for it to finishbefore hopping into the action.
Related:All differences between The Last of Us game & TV show
The best course of action is tostay on the game’s main menuuntil the shader compilation is complete, the progress of which is indicated on a bar in thebottom left. You can expect it to take40-50 minutes, give or take.
Once all the shaders are installed, you should see a major drop in the amount of CPU power The Last of Us Part 1 takes up and will be able to run the game.
For more information on The Last of Us Part 1, check outThe Last of Us Part 1 Trophy Guide – All Trophies on PC & PS5on Pro Game Guides.
