PC Graphics Settings Explained: What to Turn Down First for More FPS

To get more FPS in a PC game, turn on upscaling first, then turn off ray tracing, then lower shadows and volumetric effects. Those few settings cost the most performance; most others cost almost nothing. Here’s the order to work through, with a table at the end.

Start here: resolution and upscaling

Rendering resolution is the single biggest lever. Upscaling means the game renders at a lower resolution and then rebuilds a sharper image at your screen’s resolution. Instead of dropping your display resolution, use the game’s upscaler on a “Quality” or “Balanced” preset:

• NVIDIA DLSS on GeForce RTX cards
• AMD FSR, which works on most modern cards
• Intel XeSS, best on Intel Arc cards but available more widely

You’ll usually get a large performance boost with only a small loss in sharpness. Avoid the “Performance” and “Ultra Performance” presets unless you’re running a 4K screen, where they hold up better.

The heavy hitters

These options eat the most frame rate. Lower them first, one at a time, and test after each change.

• Ray tracing: beautiful, and often the most expensive option in the menu. Turn it off first if you’re struggling.
• Shadows: dropping from Ultra to High is often nearly invisible and frees up real performance.
• Volumetric fog, clouds and lighting: surprisingly costly. Medium usually looks fine.
• Screen-space reflections and ambient occlusion: moderate cost. Try one step down.

Usually safe to leave high

• Texture quality: costs video memory (VRAM), not much speed. Keep it high unless your card’s memory is full. Many games show a VRAM meter in the menu.
• Anisotropic filtering: almost free. Set it to 16x.
• Model and mesh detail: usually a modest cost.

Smoothness, not just FPS

A steady 60 often feels better than a frame rate that bounces between 70 and 110. Use a frame rate cap slightly below your monitor’s refresh rate. If your monitor supports variable refresh rate (G-SYNC or FreeSync), turn it on. Variable refresh rate lets the monitor match the game’s frame rate, which removes tearing and most stutter.

Frame generation, offered with recent versions of DLSS and FSR, adds generated frames between real ones. It raises the FPS counter but can add input lag, so it suits slower single-player games more than competitive shooters.

Know where your bottleneck is

Before changing anything, find out what’s actually holding you back. Most games’ settings menus, and overlays like NVIDIA’s or AMD’s own software, show GPU and CPU usage while you play.

• GPU near 100%: your graphics card is the limit. Every tip in this guide helps.
• GPU well under 100% with low FPS: your processor is the limit. Graphics settings won’t help much. Lower crowd density, view distance and physics settings instead, since those lean on the CPU.

Big open-world games and simulation games are often CPU-bound in cities and crowded areas, even on fast graphics cards. That’s why lowering resolution sometimes changes nothing.

Laptops and handhelds

Plug laptops in before gaming; most run their GPUs much slower on battery, and many also switch to a power-saving profile automatically. On handheld PCs like the Steam Deck, a 40 FPS cap at 40Hz often feels close to 60 while saving a lot of battery.

A quick routine

1. Pick the “High” preset, not Ultra.
2. Enable upscaling on Quality.
3. Turn off ray tracing, then test.
4. Still short? Lower shadows and volumetrics one step at a time.
5. Cap the frame rate a few frames under your refresh rate.

Cheat sheet

Our read: from our research across NVIDIA’s and AMD’s own documentation, upscaling plus a frame cap fixes most performance complaints before you touch anything else. If you’re playing Gears of War: E-Day on PC, start there. Every big PC release is on our Release Calendar.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report