Graphics Settings That Actually Matter for Frame Rate

31 Aug 2026

Modern PC games can present players with dozens of graphics settings, each promising better shadows, sharper textures, more realistic lighting or increased detail. The problem is that these options do not affect performance equally.

Some settings can cut your frame rate in half. Others barely change performance but make the game look noticeably worse when reduced. A few depend heavily on whether your system is limited by its graphics card, processor, video memory or display resolution.

Understanding the graphics settings that actually matter for frame rate helps you improve performance without turning every game into a blurry, lifeless mess.

This guide explains which settings usually have the greatest effect, which ones are worth keeping high and how to find the best balance between visual quality, smoothness and input responsiveness.

Why Graphics Presets Are Not Always the Best Solution

Most games offer presets such as:

Low
Medium
High
Ultra
Very High
Epic

Presets are convenient, but they often change every setting at once. This makes it difficult to identify which option is responsible for the performance loss.

The Ultra preset may enable several expensive effects that are difficult to notice during normal gameplay. Switching directly from Ultra to Low can improve performance, but it may also reduce texture quality, object detail and image clarity unnecessarily.

A better approach is to start with a suitable preset and adjust the most demanding settings individually.

The Settings That Usually Affect Frame Rate Most

The biggest performance costs commonly come from:

Resolution and render scale
Ray tracing and path tracing
Shadow quality
Reflections
Volumetric lighting, fog and clouds
Ambient occlusion
View distance and object detail
Crowd density and simulation quality
Anti-aliasing
Hair, physics and destruction effects

Texture quality can also matter, but it behaves differently from most other settings. It often affects video-memory use more than raw frame rate.

Resolution: Usually the Biggest GPU Setting

Resolution determines how many pixels the graphics card must render.

Common display resolutions include:

1920 × 1080
2560 × 1440
3440 × 1440
3840 × 2160

A 4K image contains four times as many pixels as 1080p. That does not always mean it will run at exactly one quarter of the frame rate, but the graphics-card workload can increase dramatically.

Signs That Resolution Is Limiting Performance

Resolution is likely to be a major factor when:

GPU utilisation is close to 100%.
Lowering resolution produces a large FPS increase.
The frame rate is much better at 1080p than 1440p or 4K.
The processor has unused performance.
The game becomes slower when ray tracing or high-quality effects are enabled.

Should You Lower the Display Resolution?

Reducing the native output resolution can make the image look soft, particularly on LCD and OLED displays.

A better option is often to keep the display at its native resolution and use:

Render scaling
DLSS
FSR
XeSS
Dynamic resolution

These techniques reduce the internal rendering workload while maintaining the correct output resolution.

Render Scale

Render scale changes the resolution used to produce the three-dimensional game image while keeping menus and interface elements at the display’s native resolution.

For example, 75% render scale at 4K uses a lower internal resolution before reconstructing or enlarging the image.

Lowering render scale can provide a substantial performance improvement, but aggressive values can cause:

Soft details
Shimmering
Reduced distant clarity
Blurred text within the game world
Unstable fine objects

Start with a modest reduction rather than immediately choosing 50%.

DLSS, FSR and XeSS

Modern upscaling technologies render the game at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct a higher-resolution output.

The most common modes are:

Ultra Quality
Quality
Balanced
Performance
Ultra Performance

Quality Mode

Quality mode is normally the best starting point. It often provides a useful frame-rate improvement while maintaining good image quality.

Balanced Mode

Balanced mode reduces the internal resolution further. It can be useful at 1440p or 4K when Quality mode does not provide enough performance.

Performance Mode

Performance mode can deliver a larger FPS gain but may introduce visible softness or image instability, especially at 1080p.

Ultra Performance Mode

This is primarily intended for very high output resolutions. At 1080p or 1440p, it can render from such a low internal resolution that the image loses substantial detail.

Upscaling works best when the output resolution provides enough information for reconstruction. Quality mode at 4K typically has a better visual foundation than Performance mode at 1080p.

Ray Tracing

Ray tracing can improve:

Reflections
Shadows
Global illumination
Ambient lighting
Transparency effects
Indirect lighting

It can also be one of the most demanding settings in a modern game.

Why Ray Tracing Costs So Much Performance

Traditional graphics use approximations and precomputed techniques to create realistic lighting. Ray tracing simulates how light travels through a scene more directly.

This requires additional processing for:

Rays
Surface intersections
Lighting calculations
Noise reduction
Reconstruction
Reflections
Shadow checks

Which Ray-Tracing Effects Matter Most?

The cost and visual benefit vary by game.

Ray-traced reflections can be highly visible around glass, water and polished surfaces. Ray-traced shadows may offer a smaller improvement during ordinary gameplay. Full ray-traced global illumination can transform a scene but place a heavy load on the graphics card.

When performance is poor, reduce individual ray-tracing options rather than disabling everything immediately.

A sensible order is often:

Lower ray-traced reflections.
Lower ray-traced lighting.
Reduce ray-traced shadow quality.
Disable unnecessary transparency effects.
Disable ray tracing entirely when the frame rate remains inadequate.

Path Tracing

Path tracing is a more comprehensive lighting method that attempts to simulate multiple light interactions throughout the scene.

It can produce extremely realistic results but generally requires:

A powerful modern graphics card
Upscaling
Frame generation
Denoising
A reasonable base frame rate

Path tracing is often better suited to slower single-player games than fast competitive titles.

For most players, high-quality rasterised graphics or selective ray tracing offers a better balance between image quality and responsiveness.

Shadow Quality

Shadow quality is one of the most consistently demanding graphics options.

It may control:

Shadow resolution
Number of shadow-casting lights
Shadow draw distance
Soft-shadow calculations
Contact shadows
Cascaded shadow maps
Character shadows
Vegetation shadows

Ultra shadows can be expensive while providing only a subtle improvement over High.

Best Setting for Shadow Quality

High is often the practical sweet spot.

Dropping from Ultra to High may improve frame rate without noticeably reducing image quality. Moving from High to Medium can produce a further gain but may cause softer or less detailed shadows.

Low shadows may create:

Obvious flickering
Blocky edges
Short draw distances
Missing object shadows
Distracting pop-in

Shadow Distance

Shadow distance can be more demanding than shadow resolution in large outdoor games.

A high shadow-distance setting means that more distant objects, buildings and vegetation continue casting detailed shadows.

Reducing it can improve performance in:

Open-world games
Flight simulators
Racing games
Large multiplayer maps
Heavily forested environments

Use the lowest level that does not create distracting shadow pop-in during normal play.

Reflections

Reflection quality can involve several different techniques.

Screen-Space Reflections

Screen-space reflections use information already visible on screen. They are usually less expensive than ray-traced reflections but can disappear when the reflected object moves outside the camera view.

Increasing their quality may affect:

Reflection resolution
Ray-marching steps
Accuracy
Noise
Maximum distance

Medium or High often offers a good balance.

Ray-Traced Reflections

These can reflect objects outside the current view and produce more accurate results, but they are significantly more demanding.

Planar Reflections

Some games use separate scene renders for mirrors, water or polished surfaces. These can also be expensive because parts of the scene may effectively be rendered again.

Reduce reflection quality when performance drops significantly around:

Water
Glass buildings
Wet streets
Mirrors
Shiny indoor environments

Volumetric Lighting, Fog and Clouds

Volumetric effects simulate how light interacts with fog, smoke, dust and clouds.

They create:

Light shafts
Atmospheric haze
Dense fog
Realistic clouds
Smoke illumination
God rays

These effects are often expensive because they sample large areas of the image repeatedly.

Best Setting for Volumetrics

Medium or High is frequently the sweet spot.

Ultra volumetric settings may provide only a modest visual improvement while reducing performance significantly, especially at higher resolutions.

Cloud quality can be particularly demanding in:

Flight simulators
Open-world games
Racing games
Weather-heavy environments

Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion darkens areas where objects meet or where light would be partially blocked.

It adds depth around:

Corners
Furniture
Character contact points
Small environmental details
Creases and intersections

Common methods include:

SSAO
HBAO
HBAO+
GTAO
Ray-traced ambient occlusion

Ambient occlusion is usually worth enabling because disabling it can make environments look flat.

Use Medium or High when performance is limited. Ultra settings may increase sample quality without producing a major visual difference during movement.

Ray-traced ambient occlusion is more accurate but can be much more demanding.

Anti-Aliasing

Anti-aliasing reduces jagged edges and shimmering.

Common methods include:

FXAA
SMAA
TAA
MSAA
DLAA
Supersampling
Temporal upscaling

FXAA

FXAA is inexpensive but can blur the entire image.

It is useful on lower-powered systems but may make fine detail look soft.

SMAA

SMAA generally offers sharper results than FXAA with a modest performance cost.

TAA

Temporal anti-aliasing uses information from previous frames. It is effective at reducing shimmer but can cause:

Softness
Ghosting
Motion smearing
Detail loss

Its performance cost is normally moderate.

MSAA

Multisample anti-aliasing can be demanding, particularly at high sample counts.

In older or less deferred rendering engines, moving from 2× to 4× or 8× MSAA can sharply reduce frame rate.

Supersampling

Supersampling renders the game above the display resolution and then downsamples it.

It provides excellent image quality but is extremely demanding. It effectively increases the number of rendered pixels, making it similar to running at a higher resolution.

DLAA

DLAA uses an AI-based anti-aliasing approach at native resolution. It can produce excellent image quality but does not provide the performance benefit of DLSS upscaling.

Use DLAA when you already have sufficient performance and want better edge quality.

Texture Quality

Texture quality is one of the most misunderstood graphics settings.

Higher texture settings mainly increase:

VRAM use
Storage requirements
Asset-loading demand
Texture resolution

When the graphics card has enough video memory, increasing texture quality may have little effect on average FPS.

This makes texture quality one of the settings worth keeping high when possible.

When Texture Quality Hurts Performance

Problems occur when texture use exceeds available VRAM.

Symptoms can include:

Severe stuttering
Delayed texture loading
Blurry surfaces
Sudden frame-rate drops
Hitching when turning
Performance worsening over time

When this happens, reduce texture quality by one level and retest.

Do Not Automatically Use Low Textures

Low textures can make a game look dramatically worse without providing a meaningful frame-rate improvement when VRAM was not already full.

A sensible approach is:

6GB VRAM: Medium to High, depending on the game
8GB VRAM: High in many games, with exceptions
12GB or more: High or Ultra in most titles, subject to resolution and ray tracing

These are broad guidelines rather than guarantees. Modern games vary considerably.

Texture Filtering

Anisotropic filtering improves the clarity of textures viewed at an angle, such as roads, floors and distant surfaces.

Common levels include:

2×
4×
8×
16×

On modern graphics cards, 16× anisotropic filtering usually has a very small performance cost.

It is generally worth leaving this setting at High or 16× because lowering it can make surfaces appear blurry without delivering a noticeable FPS improvement.

Level of Detail

Level of Detail, or LOD, controls how quickly detailed models are replaced by simpler versions at a distance.

Higher settings can increase:

Object complexity
Draw distance
Geometry detail
Vegetation detail
Distant character quality

This can affect both the processor and graphics card.

Signs That LOD Is Too High

GPU usage is high in complex outdoor scenes.
CPU performance drops in areas with many objects.
Distant environments cause lower frame rates.
Lowering resolution does not fully solve the problem.
Object-heavy scenes produce frame-time spikes.

High is often a good compromise. Ultra may increase the amount of distant detail that is difficult to notice during normal gameplay.

View Distance

View distance controls how far away objects, terrain, buildings, shadows or characters remain visible.

It can be heavily CPU-dependent because the game must manage more objects and issue more rendering instructions.

View distance is particularly important in:

Battle royale games
Simulators
Strategy games
Open-world titles
Large multiplayer environments

Competitive players may need to keep certain distance settings high to see opponents, vehicles or structures.

Reduce decorative object distance before reducing visibility that affects gameplay.

Crowd Density

Crowd density can place a substantial load on the processor.

Each character may require:

Artificial intelligence
Animation
Physics
Pathfinding
Audio
Visibility checks
Draw calls

This setting commonly affects performance in:

City environments
Sports games
Racing crowds
Role-playing games
Simulation titles

Crowd density may have little impact in an empty area but significantly reduce FPS in a busy city centre.

Lower it when the graphics card is not fully used but the frame rate drops around large numbers of characters.

Traffic Density and Simulation Quality

Traffic, physics and simulation settings are often CPU-heavy.

They may control:

Number of vehicles
Pedestrian behaviour
Destruction
Environmental simulation
Artificial intelligence
Physics calculations
Background world activity

Lowering these settings can improve frame rate when:

One or more CPU cores are fully utilised.
GPU usage is below maximum.
Lowering resolution makes little difference.
Performance collapses in busy areas.
The frame rate is high indoors but low in cities.

Vegetation Quality

Vegetation can be demanding because a scene may contain thousands of trees, bushes and grass objects.

The setting may affect:

Grass density
Foliage draw distance
Shadow casting
Wind animation
Geometry detail
Transparency
Physics interaction

Vegetation often affects both GPU and CPU performance.

Medium or High is usually sufficient. Ultra foliage settings can be expensive in forests while producing little visible improvement during movement.

Hair Quality

Realistic hair rendering can be surprisingly expensive.

Technologies may simulate:

Individual strands
Hair transparency
Collision
Wind
Lighting
Shadows
Physics movement

Hair quality is most noticeable during cutscenes and close-ups. Reducing it can provide useful performance improvements without affecting most environments.

In action games, Medium or High is normally adequate.

Physics Quality

Physics settings can affect:

Cloth
Hair
Destruction
Ragdolls
Particles
Debris
Object interaction

Physics is often CPU-dependent, though some effects may use the graphics card.

Lower physics quality when performance drops during:

Explosions
Destruction
Large battles
Crowd scenes
Weather effects
Heavy particle activity

Particle Quality

Particles are used for:

Smoke
Fire
Sparks
Dust
Magic effects
Explosions
Weather
Debris

High particle counts can affect both frame rate and visual clarity.

Competitive players sometimes reduce particle quality not only for performance, but also to improve visibility.

Medium is often a practical balance.

Effects Quality

The Effects setting may combine several options under one label.

It can control:

Explosion detail
Particle counts
Lighting effects
Decals
Physics
Transparency
Post-processing

Because the name is vague, its performance effect varies significantly between games.

Test demanding combat scenes before deciding whether the option matters.

Post-Processing Quality

Post-processing adds effects after the main scene has been rendered.

It may include:

Bloom
Depth of field
Motion blur
Lens flare
Chromatic aberration
Film grain
Vignette
Colour grading

The performance impact is usually moderate, but some games combine expensive effects under one setting.

Motion Blur

Motion blur normally has a relatively small performance cost. Many players disable it for clarity rather than FPS.

Camera motion blur can make fast turning feel less precise, while per-object motion blur can look more natural.

Depth of Field

Depth of field blurs parts of the image that are outside the camera’s focus.

It is most noticeable in cutscenes and aiming modes. Disabling it may offer a small performance improvement and clearer gameplay.

Film Grain and Chromatic Aberration

These usually have minimal performance impact.

Disable them when you dislike the visual effect, not because you expect a large frame-rate gain.

Bloom

Bloom adds glow around bright lights. It is generally inexpensive on modern hardware.

Screen-Space Effects

Screen-space effects use information from the current frame.

These may include:

Reflections
Shadows
Ambient occlusion
Global illumination
Contact shadows

The performance cost depends on resolution and quality.

Because they operate using screen data, their cost may increase at higher resolutions. Lowering their quality can be more beneficial at 4K than at 1080p.

Tessellation

Tessellation adds geometric detail to surfaces.

It can improve:

Terrain
Character models
Brickwork
Water
Displacement effects

Modern graphics cards generally handle moderate tessellation well. Excessive tessellation can still reduce performance in older games or on lower-powered hardware.

Use Normal or High unless the game has a known issue with extreme tessellation settings.

Water Quality

Water can combine several demanding effects:

Reflections
Refraction
Tessellation
Waves
Simulation
Transparency
Foam
Caustics

Performance may drop sharply around oceans, rivers or rainy environments.

Reduce water quality when:

The game runs well inland but poorly near water.
Reflections are especially expensive.
Large bodies of water dominate the scene.
The difference between High and Ultra is difficult to see.

Global Illumination

Global illumination simulates light bouncing between surfaces.

Traditional methods may use:

Precomputed lighting
Screen-space techniques
Voxel lighting
Probe systems

More advanced games may use ray-traced global illumination.

This setting can have a large visual impact and a large performance cost.

High usually offers a good balance. Ultra or ray-traced settings may require upscaling on mid-range hardware.

Contact Shadows

Contact shadows add small, detailed shadows where objects touch nearby surfaces.

They improve depth around:

Feet
Furniture
Small objects
Character equipment
Environmental clutter

Their performance cost is typically moderate, but the visual benefit can be subtle during normal play.

Reduce or disable them when chasing additional FPS after addressing larger settings.

Screen-Space Global Illumination

Screen-space global illumination improves indirect lighting using visible scene information.

It is less expensive than full ray tracing but can still reduce performance, particularly at high resolutions.

Medium or High is often sufficient. Ultra may increase sampling quality without producing a dramatic improvement.

Depth of Field, Motion Blur and Film Effects

These settings are frequently blamed for low performance, but they are rarely the main cause.

Turning them off may slightly improve frame rate, but the larger benefit is often improved clarity.

Disable them when you prefer:

A sharper image
Clearer camera movement
Better competitive visibility
Less cinematic presentation

Do not expect them to compensate for heavy ray tracing, high resolution or an overloaded graphics card.

V-Sync

V-Sync is not a graphics-quality setting, but it can affect the displayed frame rate.

It synchronises frame delivery with the monitor’s refresh rate to reduce tearing.

On a 60Hz display, traditional V-Sync may limit the game to 60 FPS. When the system cannot maintain that target, some implementations may drop to a lower effective rate.

V-Sync can also add input latency.

Variable refresh technologies such as G-SYNC, FreeSync and HDMI VRR usually provide a better experience when supported.

Frame-Rate Limits

A frame-rate cap can improve consistency even though it reduces the maximum FPS.

Capping the frame rate can:

Reduce GPU utilisation
Lower temperatures
Reduce power consumption
Improve frame times
Prevent unnecessary fan noise
Leave performance headroom
Reduce rendering latency in some GPU-bound situations

A stable 90 FPS can feel better than a game fluctuating between 75 and 130 FPS.

Choose a cap the system can maintain in demanding scenes.

Frame Generation

Frame-generation technologies create additional frames between conventionally rendered frames.

They can make motion appear smoother, but they do not eliminate the need for a strong base frame rate.

Frame generation works best when the game already runs at a reasonably responsive rate.

It is suitable for:

Story-driven games
Open-world exploration
Graphically demanding single-player titles
Slower-paced gameplay

It is less suitable when:

Base performance is extremely low.
Input latency is critical.
You play competitive games.
Image artefacts are distracting.
The CPU cannot produce enough real frames.

Do not compare generated FPS directly with native FPS without considering responsiveness.

Which Settings Affect the CPU?

CPU-heavy settings often include:

View distance
Crowd density
Traffic density
Physics
Simulation quality
Artificial intelligence
Destruction
Object detail
Animation quality
Number of players or characters

A CPU bottleneck is likely when:

GPU utilisation is below maximum.
Lowering resolution barely changes FPS.
One or more CPU cores are heavily loaded.
Performance drops in crowded scenes.
The game targets a very high frame rate.
Stuttering occurs during world traversal.

Which Settings Affect the GPU?

GPU-heavy settings commonly include:

Resolution
Render scale
Ray tracing
Reflections
Shadows
Volumetric effects
Ambient occlusion
Anti-aliasing
Lighting quality
Post-processing
Water
Particles

A GPU bottleneck is likely when:

GPU usage remains close to maximum.
Lowering resolution increases FPS.
Reducing ray tracing produces a large improvement.
Performance worsens significantly at 4K.
The processor has unused capacity.

Which Settings Affect VRAM?

VRAM-heavy options include:

Texture quality
Texture pool
Resolution
Ray tracing
High-resolution texture packs
Shadow resolution
Geometry detail
Large view distances

Exceeding VRAM capacity can cause stuttering rather than simply reducing the average frame rate.

Watch for:

Hitching when turning
Textures loading late
Performance degrading after several minutes
Large spikes during area changes
Improvements after lowering texture quality

Graphics Settings Worth Keeping High

Some settings often provide a meaningful visual improvement with little performance cost.

These commonly include:

Texture filtering
Texture quality when VRAM allows
Model quality
Basic lighting quality
Moderate ambient occlusion
Interface resolution
Colour quality
Anisotropic filtering

The exact effect varies by game, but these should not be the first settings you reduce.

Settings to Lower First

When a game is GPU-limited, begin with:

Ray tracing
Path tracing
Shadow quality
Volumetric quality
Reflections
Global illumination
Ambient occlusion
Water quality
Effects quality
Render scale or upscaling mode

When the game is CPU-limited, begin with:

Crowd density
View distance
Traffic density
Simulation quality
Physics
Object detail
Destruction quality
Background character count

A Practical Optimisation Method

Do not change every setting randomly. Use a repeatable process.

Step 1: Choose a Realistic Performance Target

Decide whether you want:

A locked 30 FPS
A stable 60 FPS
Around 90 FPS
120 FPS or higher
Maximum visual quality
Lowest competitive latency

Your target should match the display and hardware.

Step 2: Start With the High Preset

High is usually more sensible than Ultra.

Ultra settings are often designed to maximise image quality regardless of performance efficiency.

Step 3: Test a Demanding Area

Use a location containing:

Crowds
Vegetation
Weather
Reflections
Combat
Large views
Lighting effects

An empty room is not a useful performance test.

Step 4: Monitor GPU Usage

When GPU use is near maximum, reduce GPU-heavy settings.

When GPU use is low, investigate CPU-heavy options, frame caps, power limits or engine restrictions.

Step 5: Change One Setting at a Time

Record the frame rate before and after each adjustment.

This shows which settings actually matter in that game.

Step 6: Watch Frame Times

Do not focus only on average FPS.

A small increase in average frame rate is not worthwhile when the change introduces stutter or unstable frame pacing.

Step 7: Use a Frame Cap

Set a limit the system can maintain during demanding gameplay.

Step 8: Save the Configuration

Some games reset graphics options after updates or driver changes. Take screenshots of important settings.

Recommended Starting Settings for a Mid-Range PC

A sensible starting point is:

Native display resolution
DLSS, FSR or XeSS Quality when needed
High textures
16× anisotropic filtering
High model quality
High or Medium shadows
Medium or High volumetrics
Medium or High reflections
Medium ambient occlusion
High view distance, adjusted for CPU performance
Medium crowds
Motion blur based on preference
Ray tracing disabled or set selectively
Variable refresh enabled
Stable frame-rate cap

This configuration often looks close to Ultra while performing significantly better.

Recommended Settings for Competitive Gaming

Competitive players usually benefit from:

Native resolution or modest upscaling
High texture quality when VRAM allows
Low or Medium shadows
Reduced effects
Reduced particles
Low motion blur
Disabled depth of field
Disabled film grain
High visibility settings
Highest stable frame rate
NVIDIA Reflex or AMD Anti-Lag when supported
Variable refresh or carefully configured V-Sync
A sensible FPS cap
Stable frame times

Do not reduce settings that make enemies or important objects harder to see.

Recommended Settings for Cinematic Single-Player Games

For slower story-driven titles, prioritise:

High textures
High model detail
High lighting
High ambient occlusion
High reflections
Quality-mode upscaling
Selective ray tracing
Medium or High volumetrics
Stable 60 FPS where possible
Frame generation when the base frame rate is adequate

A stable 60 FPS with strong visual quality may be preferable to an unstable attempt at 120 FPS.

Why Ultra Settings Often Are Not Worth It

Ultra settings frequently provide diminishing returns.

The difference between Medium and High may be obvious. The difference between High and Ultra may only appear in:

Side-by-side screenshots
Zoomed comparisons
Static scenes
Distant shadows
Minor reflection details
Extremely fine effects

However, the performance penalty may remain substantial.

High settings are often designed around the intended visual experience. Ultra settings may exist for future hardware, screenshots or enthusiasts willing to accept lower performance.

Should You Use Automatic Optimisation?

Applications from graphics-card manufacturers and game launchers can recommend settings based on your hardware.

These are useful starting points, but they do not know:

Your preferred frame rate
Whether you value visuals or responsiveness
Your exact cooling performance
Your tolerance for upscaling
Whether you use a variable-refresh display
Which scenes matter most
Whether background applications are running

Use automatic optimisation as a baseline, then test the game yourself.

Common Graphics-Settings Mistakes

Setting Everything to Low

This can make the game look unnecessarily poor while failing to solve CPU, storage or shader-related stutter.

Setting Everything to Ultra

Ultra can waste substantial performance for tiny visual improvements.

Lowering Textures First

Textures may not reduce FPS unless VRAM is full.

Ignoring the Resolution

Players sometimes adjust dozens of minor settings while continuing to render at a resolution their GPU cannot handle.

Enabling Every Ray-Tracing Option

Selective ray tracing often provides better value than enabling all effects.

Using Performance Upscaling at 1080p

This may produce a very low internal resolution and visibly reduce image quality.

Chasing Maximum FPS

The highest number is not always the smoothest experience. Frame-time consistency matters.

Ignoring CPU Settings

Lowering GPU options will not solve a CPU bottleneck caused by crowds, simulation or view distance.

Final Graphics Settings Checklist

For the best balance between quality and frame rate:

Start with the High preset.
Confirm the correct native resolution.
Use Quality-mode upscaling when needed.
Reduce ray tracing before reducing textures.
Lower shadows from Ultra to High.
Reduce volumetrics and reflections.
Keep anisotropic filtering high.
Keep textures high when VRAM allows.
Reduce crowds and view distance for CPU bottlenecks.
Use a stable frame-rate cap.
Enable variable refresh rate.
Test one setting at a time.
Monitor frame times as well as FPS.
Optimise using a demanding real gameplay scene.
Avoid Ultra settings that offer little visible improvement.

Final Thoughts

The graphics settings that matter most for frame rate are usually resolution, ray tracing, shadows, reflections and volumetric effects. CPU-heavy options such as crowd density, simulation quality and view distance become more important when GPU utilisation is low.

Texture quality is often worth keeping high, provided your graphics card has enough VRAM. Anisotropic filtering also has a small performance cost on most modern systems and should rarely be reduced.

The best-looking configuration is not the one with every setting on Ultra. It is the one that delivers strong image quality, stable frame times and a frame rate your system can maintain.

Start with High, reduce the genuinely expensive settings and stop once the game looks good and feels smooth. That approach normally delivers a much better experience than blindly choosing either Ultra or Low.

Need Help Improving Gaming Performance?

Poor frame rates can be caused by graphics settings, outdated drivers, overheating, insufficient memory, storage problems or hardware bottlenecks.

Hamilton Group can help diagnose slow computers, recommend sensible upgrades and improve gaming or network performance.

Visit hgmssp.com, call 0330 043 0069, or book a meeting with one of our experts.