First make sure you meet the hardware requirements. If you do not have hardware support for DirectX 11 the game will not run. I’ve tried a few work-arounds, but none of them are remotely playable. For Intel Graphics users Westmere and Sandy Bridge processors only support DirectX 10, you will need a new rig in order to play.
If you do meet the hardware requirements make sure you do the usual troubleshooting steps:

• Verify the game install ( https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335&l=english )
  
• Check your drivers (newer isn’t always better sometimes there are bugged driver releases).
  
• Make sure no background apps are hooking onto the game process (rivatuner, fraps, overlay programs, etc.) If you have to have said software make sure it is completely updated.
  
• Manually install the redistributable files found in the game install folder. Typically <\steam\steamapps\common\TheEvilWithin\_CommonRedist>
  
• Try running the game as administrator.
  
• Use the system file checker to check for corrupt/missing system files ( https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833 )

Navigate to the game exe (generally C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\TheEvilWithin). Right-click EvilWithin.exe, select properties, click the compatibility tab, check the box that says ‘Disable display scaling on high DPI settings’, and hit apply.

In the launch options (right-click ‘The Evil Within’ in the Steam library, click properties, in the ‘General’ tab click ‘SET LAUNCH OPTIONS…’) enter the following:
That should re-enable the post-processing and fix the issue.

In the launch options (right-click ‘The Evil Within’ in the Steam library, click properties, in the ‘General’ tab click ‘SET LAUNCH OPTIONS…’) enter the following:
Should lessen the VRAM demands and ideally improve performance on weaker hardware.

Enable texture caching so ideally the game won’t have to stream as many assets ( https://gtm.you1.cn/app/268050/discussions/0/619568793779342979/ )

The game doesn’t actually support SLI so it has to be “hacked in” ( http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Evil_Within#Enable_SLI ).

First off the game engine is temperamental and very sensitive to bottlenecks so pairing a 980ti with a gen 1 i7 (early gen i7s have not aged well) isn’t going to work too well.
With that out of the way the best thing to try doing is completely uncapping the framerate (+r_swapinterval 0) and then manually cap the framerate with something like Rivatuner. For some reason the v-sync implementation in the game is pretty rough, gameplay is smoother at 30fps or “uncapped”.

1. Don’t use unusual storage setups (NAS, etc.).
   
2. Don’t use Steam Cloud unless you need it. (I know a lot of people like it, but I have had tons of problems with it interfering with save data in a multitude of games.)
   
3. Try running the game as admin.

1. Enable the letterbox in the graphic options. The decreased amount of pixels to be rendered can make a world of difference, granted not everyone likes (or can even tolerate) the letterbox.
2. In the launch options enter:
Note: This will disable post-processing and disable many of the graphical options. It ruins the lighting, and should pretty much only be used as a last ditch effort to get better performance (typically on rigs below the requirements).

Many sources recommend: flawlesswidescreen

(I would link it, but the link filter is tempermental.)

However I have no personal experience with it so I cannot vouch for it one way or the other.

The demo is not representative of the game from a technical standpoint. The demo released on Oct 30, 2014 and has (if my understanding is correct) never received a single patch. The actual game received some patches in the months following the demos release that massively improved the game’s handling of hardware. The game still does not scale phenomenally, but it actually utilizes hardware much better.

Configuration file: Save files:
In the launch options box enter: That will enable the console, to access it in game push the ‘Insert’ button (note: I do not know if it varies for non-english keyboards or non-standard layouts).

Commands (copied from pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Evil_Within ):

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First time I've tried to make one of these so any questions, suggestions, or comments let me know.