Which Graphics Settings Affect FPS the Most? Every PC Setting Explained
Every PC game hands you a wall of settings and a single unhelpful choice: Low, Medium, High, Ultra. Those presets bundle together settings with very different costs. Some cost a large share of your frame rate for a difference you only notice in a still image. Others cost little and change the image a lot. This guide explains what each common setting does, what it costs, and when to lower it. Use it with our maximum FPS settings guide for the order to apply changes in.
One habit matters more than any single value in this guide. Change one setting at a time. Replay the same scene. Then keep the change only if the game feels better or runs better in that scene. A value that helps in a GPU limited scene may do nothing in a CPU limited scene, so test on your own PC and your own game.
Here is a list of all the topics we will cover in this guide:
- Resolution, Render Scale, and Upscaling
- Texture Quality and Anisotropic Filtering
- Shadows
- Lighting, Reflections, and Volumetrics
- Geometry and World Detail
- Anti-Aliasing
- Camera Effects, Field of View, and Streaming
- Sync and Frame Caps: Pick One Coherent Setup
- A Sensible Starting Point
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Bottom Line
Resolution, Render Scale, and Upscaling
Resolution: what it does. Resolution sets how many pixels the game renders. What it costs. It costs GPU power first, and nearly every other setting scales with it, so a higher resolution makes shadows, reflections, and effects more expensive too. When to lower it. Lower it when your GPU is the limit and upscaling alone does not get you to a smooth result. Dropping from 4K to 1440p is a large step, so try upscaling first before you give up native output resolution.
Render scale: what it does. Render scale renders the 3D scene at a percentage of your display resolution while the menus and HUD stay at native resolution. What it costs. It costs less GPU power as the percentage falls, and the image gets softer as it falls. When to lower it. Lower it in steps, for example from 100 percent to 90 percent, then to 80 percent, and stop at the first value that feels smooth. Test in motion, not in a still menu, because softness shows up differently when the camera moves.
Upscaling: what it does. Upscaling renders at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs a higher resolution image. DLSS, FSR, and XeSS are the three common systems, and each game offers only the ones it supports. What it costs. Upscaling costs GPU work for the reconstruction step, but it usually costs far less than rendering at full native resolution in a GPU limited scene. It helps less, or not at all, when the CPU is the limit, because the CPU still has to prepare the same frames. If your frame rate barely moves when you drop resolution, suspect a CPU limit and read our low GPU usage and CPU bottlenecks guide before you keep lowering graphics settings.
Quality presets: what the numbers mean. Do not treat every brand’s Quality preset as the same internal resolution. NVIDIA states that DLSS Super Resolution Quality mode uses a 67 percent input resolution, Performance mode uses 50 percent, and Ultra Performance uses 33 percent. AMD documents FSR Quality as a 1.5x scale per dimension, which works out to about two thirds of the output resolution per dimension, with Balanced at 1.7x and Performance at 2.0x. Intel documents XeSS Quality as a 1.7x scale per dimension in its XeSS 2 plugin guide, which is about 59 percent per dimension, while XeSS Ultra Quality is 1.5x. Developers can customize these scales in a game, so check what your game actually offers and test the preset in motion. Start with Quality at 1440p and 4K. At 1080p output, even Quality starts from a low internal resolution, so the softness is easier to notice.
Dynamic resolution: what it does. Dynamic resolution lowers render scale automatically when a scene gets heavy, to hold a target frame rate. When to use it. Use it when holding a steady frame rate matters more than holding a steady image sharpness, for example on weaker hardware. Trade off. The image can look soft in the busiest scenes, exactly when there is most to look at. If that softness bothers you, turn dynamic resolution off and set a fixed render scale or upscaling preset instead.
Frame generation, kept separate. Frame generation is not upscaling. It inserts generated frames between rendered frames to raise the displayed frame rate. It can make motion look smoother, but it does not make the game respond faster, and it can add latency and visual artifacts in fast motion. Treat it as a separate test after upscaling is settled, not as a substitute for a sensible base frame rate.
Texture Quality and Anisotropic Filtering
Texture quality: what it does. Textures are the artwork wrapped over every surface. Higher texture quality uses sharper, larger artwork. What it costs. Texture quality mainly costs VRAM, the memory on your graphics card, not raw GPU speed. If your card has the memory headroom, High or Ultra textures may cost few frames. If it does not, the game streams and swaps textures constantly, and you get stutter and blurry pop in instead. When to lower it. Lower texture quality one notch when textures turn blurry after playing for a while, when objects pop in late, or when hitches grow worse over a session. Do not lower it first when the GPU core is at its limit but VRAM still has room, because that problem sits elsewhere.
As a starting point, not a rule, many 8GB cards handle High textures at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K and large texture packs push VRAM harder. Games differ, and one game’s Ultra pack can demand far more than another game’s. Judge by what you see: sharp textures that stay sharp mean your VRAM headroom is enough for that game.
Anisotropic filtering (AF): what it does. AF keeps textures sharp at glancing angles, for example a road stretching away from the camera. What it costs. On modern graphics cards it usually costs little. When to lower it. Start at 16x on a modern card. On very old hardware or integrated graphics, if you need frames back, drop AF before you touch texture quality, because AF sharpness is easier to give up than texture detail in most scenes.
Shadows
Shadow quality and resolution: what they do. Shadow settings control how detailed shadow edges look. What they cost. Shadows are expensive because the card draws shadow maps in addition to the main scene. Ultra shadows can cost more than almost any other single setting in some games. When to lower them. Lower shadows first when you are GPU limited and you need a large gain from one setting. Medium shadows, with slightly softer edges, often look close to Ultra in motion. Raise shadows only after the rest of your settings are settled and you still have frame rate to spare.
Shadow distance: what it does. Shadow distance controls how far from the camera shadows render. Trade off. A short distance saves performance but shadows appear as you approach objects. A long distance looks more consistent but costs more. If shadows popping in distracts you, raise distance one step and pay for it by lowering shadow quality, rather than raising both at once.
Lighting, Reflections, and Volumetrics
Ray tracing: what it does. Ray tracing simulates light paths instead of faking them, and games split it into reflections, shadows, and global illumination. What it costs. It is among the most expensive features in modern games, and its cost depends on which effects you enable and how the game implements them. When to lower it. Turn ray tracing off when you chase frame rate. If you want some of it, enable one effect at a time and test, rather than turning on a full ray tracing preset at once. Path tracing, sometimes labeled full ray tracing, renders far more of the scene this way. Leave it off unless you have a high end card and frame rate to spare, and test it in a busy scene before you keep it.
Screen space reflections (SSR): what they do. SSR reflects only what is already on screen, which makes it cheaper than ray traced reflections. Trade off. Reflections can vanish or smear at screen edges, because the reflected object is not on screen to reflect. When to lower it. Start at Medium in most games. Ultra mainly sharpens reflections you rarely stare at, so it is an easy place to save performance when you are GPU limited.
Ambient occlusion (AO): what it does. AO adds contact shadows where surfaces meet, which stops objects from looking pasted on. SSAO is the standard, cheaper method. HBAO+ and ray traced AO look better in some scenes and cost more. When to lower it. Start at Medium. It is one of the better value settings for image quality per unit of performance in many games. Turn it off only when you are GPU limited and need frames back, and expect flat looking corners and object bases as the price.
Volumetric fog, clouds, and god rays: what they do. These render light through volumes of air, fog, and cloud. What they cost. They are costly, most of all in open world games with large skies and fog. When to lower them. Set them to Low or Medium when performance matters. In a fog heavy scene, volumetrics can be the single setting that moves your frame rate the most after resolution and shadows, so test them there rather than in a clear indoor scene.
Geometry and World Detail
View distance and level of detail (LOD): what they do. These control how far away full detail models render before the game swaps in simpler versions. What they cost. Both CPU and GPU pay, because the CPU prepares more objects and the GPU draws them. When to lower them. Lower view distance when your frame rate drops outdoors but stays smooth indoors. That pattern points at world detail, foliage, or draw distance rather than at a single effect. If lowering view distance does not help, the limit may be elsewhere, so stop and check the bottleneck instead of lowering everything.
Foliage and grass density: what they do. These place thousands of individual plants in the world. When to lower them. Trim foliage first in open world games when outdoor scenes cost you the most frames. It is visible, so lower it in steps and check whether distant grass matters to you in motion or only in still images.
Tessellation and mesh quality: what they do. These add surface detail to models. What they cost. Usually modest compared with shadows, volumetrics, and resolution. When to lower them. Start at Medium to High. Lower them only after the bigger costs are settled, because they rarely buy back as many frames as shadows or volumetrics do.
Effects and particle quality: what they do. These cover explosions, smoke, sparks, and magic. When to lower them. Lower effects when chaotic scenes drop your frame rate while calm scenes run fine. Medium usually keeps the spectacle while giving back frames in exactly the scenes that need them.
Anti-Aliasing
Aliasing is the shimmering stair step on edges. Your options, oldest to newest, trade sharpness, cost, and motion stability differently.
- FXAA: a fast post process pass. It is cheap and it can blur the whole image slightly, including text and fine detail.
- SMAA: better edge detection than FXAA, still cheap in most games. A sensible pick when you want low cost smoothing at native resolution.
- MSAA: true geometric anti-aliasing. It is expensive, and it mostly appears in older engines, because it does not handle modern deferred rendering well in many games.
- TAA: temporal anti-aliasing, which uses previous frames. It is standard in modern games. It smooths edges well, but it can soften the image and ghost on fast moving objects in some games.
When to pick what. If the game has DLSS, FSR, or XeSS turned on, its temporal reconstruction already handles edge smoothing as part of the package. Check whether the game locks or ignores a separate anti-aliasing setting in that case, and do not stack a second heavy anti-aliasing method on top without testing. If you play at native resolution with no upscaling, TAA or SMAA is the sensible starting point. A higher output resolution needs less anti-aliasing, because edges are smaller on screen, which is one more reason upscaling to a high output resolution can look clean.
Camera Effects, Field of View, and Streaming
Motion blur, depth of field, chromatic aberration, film grain, and vignette: what they do. These are camera effects, not rendering quality settings. What they cost. Near zero performance in most games. When to change them. Change them for taste and clarity, not for frame rate. Most competitive players turn them off for a cleaner view. Many single player players keep depth of field for a cinematic look. Motion blur deserves one extra note: some players find it hides low frame rate judder, others find it hides detail in motion. Test it in your own game rather than copying a preset.
Field of view (FOV): what it does. FOV controls how much of the world you see. A wider FOV shows more at the sides and feels better on a monitor at desk distance. What it costs. A wider FOV renders more of the world, so it costs a small amount of performance. When to change it. Check whether your game measures FOV horizontally or vertically before you copy a number from another game, because the same number means different things under each measure. As a comfort starting point for first person games, many players settle near 90 to 105 horizontal. Treat that as a range to test, not a rule, and lower FOV only if you need a small gain and do not mind the narrower view.
Texture streaming and asset streaming quality: what they do. These control how aggressively the game loads textures and assets from storage into memory as you move. When to change them. If you get pop in hitches on slower storage or with limited VRAM, try adjusting the streaming setting one step and replay the same route. Pair this with the storage and VRAM checks in our stuttering checklist, because a streaming setting alone will not fix a game sitting on a slow drive or a card that is out of VRAM.
Sync and Frame Caps: Pick One Coherent Setup
Graphics settings decide how hard the card works. Sync settings decide how finished frames reach your screen. A mismatched sync setup can feel worse than a lower graphics preset, so pick one setup below and test it as a whole. Do not mix parts of both.
Setup A, tear free variable refresh rate. This setup suits a monitor with G-Sync or FreeSync. First turn variable refresh rate on in the monitor’s own on screen menu. NVIDIA documents that G-Sync requires a G-Sync or G-Sync Compatible display. AMD documents that FreeSync requires a FreeSync capable monitor and a supported Radeon card, and that the monitor setting should be enabled in its on screen menu. Then turn G-Sync or FreeSync on in the driver. In the game itself, set V-Sync to Off. On NVIDIA, set Vertical sync to On in the Control Panel, so the driver handles sync only above the variable refresh ceiling, where tearing would otherwise return. Finally, cap the frame rate a few frames below your monitor maximum, for example 141 on a 144 Hz monitor or 237 on a 240 Hz monitor, using one cap only: the game’s limiter or the driver cap, never both.
Trade offs in Setup A. A cap costs peak frame rate. Variable refresh only works inside the monitor’s own refresh range. Above that range, tearing or V-Sync delay returns. Below that range, some monitors flicker, most often some OLED and VA panels. If flicker appears with variable refresh on, test variable refresh off before you blame the game.
Setup B, lowest latency. Turn G-Sync or FreeSync off, and turn V-Sync off everywhere. You get lower input delay, and you accept tearing. Competitive players often prefer this setup. Test both setups in the same scene and keep the one that feels calmer to you.
Plain V-Sync without variable refresh. Plain V-Sync locks frame delivery to the monitor refresh rate, which removes tearing. It helps most when your frame rate runs above the refresh rate. It can add input delay, and when your frame rate falls below the refresh rate it can make motion feel uneven. That is why plain V-Sync is a circumstance choice, not a default to leave on in every game.
Do not mix setups. Two frame caps, or V-Sync on in both the driver and the game, can add delay without adding smoothness. If a game supports a low latency mode such as NVIDIA Reflex, let that mode handle its own frame limiting where the game offers it, and do not add a second cap on top unless the game itself asks for one.
A Sensible Starting Point
Start here, then change one setting at a time for your game. Textures as high as VRAM allows, AF at 16x, shadows at Medium, volumetrics at Low to Medium, reflections at Medium with ray tracing off unless your GPU is high end and you have frame rate to spare, AO at Medium, view distance at High, upscaling on Quality, camera effects to taste. That combination keeps the image close to Ultra in many games for far less cost, but treat it as a starting point to test, not a promise for every game. A game that still struggles after this tells you something: check whether the limit is the CPU, the VRAM, heat, or the game itself.
Watch temperatures while you test, and judge them against your own card maker’s specification, not one universal safe number. Limits vary by model, so a number that is normal on one card can be a warning on another. Our GPU temperature guide explains how to read core and hotspot readings while you play.
If problems started right after a driver update, try the normal clean install option in the driver installer first. Save a deep driver clean with DDU as a last resort, for cases such as switching GPU brands, a failed standard uninstall, or a problem that survives a normal clean install. Our DDU clean install guide walks through that last resort route in full. For Windows level settings that interact with sync and frame delivery, see our Windows 11 gaming optimizations guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which setting should I lower first when a game runs slowly?
Lower resolution or upscaling first if you are GPU limited, because nearly every other cost scales with resolution. After that, shadows and volumetrics usually buy back the most frames per step in GPU limited scenes. Lower textures first only when VRAM pressure is the problem, which shows up as blurry textures, late pop in, or hitches that grow worse over a session.
Why does Ultra cost so much more than High in some games?
Ultra often raises several hidden costs at once: shadow resolution, draw distance, volumetrics, and effect density. Each step may look small on its own, but together they load the GPU, and sometimes the CPU, much harder. That is why a tuned Medium to High mix can look close to Ultra in motion while running far smoother on a mid range PC.
Why does lowering texture quality not raise my frame rate?
Because texture quality mainly costs VRAM, not GPU speed. If VRAM still had room, lowering textures frees memory you were not short of, so the GPU core stays the limit. Check whether the GPU core, the CPU, or VRAM is the limit before you keep lowering a setting that was never the bottleneck.
Does upscaling replace anti-aliasing?
In most games that offer it, yes, in practice. DLSS, FSR, and XeSS reconstruct the image from lower resolution frames, and that reconstruction includes temporal edge smoothing. Check the game’s menu, because some games lock the separate anti-aliasing setting when upscaling is on. Do not stack a second heavy anti-aliasing method on top without testing it in motion.
Why does my game look soft with dynamic resolution on?
Dynamic resolution lowers render scale in heavy scenes to hold your frame rate target. The softest moments are therefore the busiest scenes. If steady sharpness matters more to you than a steady frame rate, turn dynamic resolution off and use a fixed upscaling preset or render scale instead.
Is ray tracing worth turning on?
It depends on your card, your frame rate headroom, and the game. Ray traced reflections or shadows can look better in scenes with water, glass, and glossy floors, and they cost the most in exactly those scenes. Enable one effect at a time, test in a busy scene, and keep it only if the image gain is worth the frame rate you give up.
Why does my game stutter even after I lower the graphics settings?
Because not every stutter comes from graphics settings. Heat, a driver problem, a CPU limit, slow storage, or a shader cache issue can all cause hitches that lower settings will not fix. Work through the symptom checks in our stuttering checklist instead of lowering every setting to Low, which only costs image quality without fixing the real cause.
The Bottom Line
Graphics settings are not a single dial from ugly to pretty. They are a budget, and each setting spends a different currency: resolution spends GPU power across the board, shadows and volumetrics spend GPU power in heavy scenes, textures spend VRAM, and view distance spends CPU power too. Spend deliberately. Test one change at a time in the same scene, keep what helps, and undo what does not.
We hope this guide helped you understand what each PC graphics setting does. You may also want to see our best PC settings for maximum FPS guide, which puts these settings in application order, and our stuttering checklist for hitches that lowering settings does not fix. For heat checks while you test, see our GPU temperature guide. And for the Windows settings around sync and frame delivery, see our Windows 11 gaming optimizations guide.
