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

PC graphics settings control how much work your graphics card does for every frame. Turn the wrong setting down and you lose image quality for almost no extra speed. Turn the right one down and you gain smooth gameplay while the game still looks great. This guide explains every major setting, ranks each one by frame rate cost, and gives a clear order for what to turn down first.

The short answer: start with upscaling if your game offers it, then lower shadows, ray tracing and volumetrics. Keep textures and anisotropic filtering high if your card has enough video memory. First check whether your graphics card or your processor is holding you back, because that decides which settings will actually help.

What to turn down first: the frame rate cost table

Most explainers define each setting and stop there, leaving the real question unanswered: which setting is worth lowering? The table below ranks settings by typical frame rate cost.

Work through the table from the top when you need frames, and stop as soon as your frame rate is stable. The goal is the best looking game that still runs smoothly, not everything set to Low.

First, find out what is holding your PC back

Use a monitoring tool such as MSI Afterburner and watch graphics card usage during gameplay. Near 100 percent means you are graphics card limited, and lowering graphics settings should raise your frame rate. Well below 90 percent with a low frame rate usually means you are processor limited: then lower draw distance instead.

Resolution, textures and shadows

Resolution is the number of pixels drawn for every frame. A 1440p image has about 78 percent more pixels than a 1080p image, and 4K has about four times as many. That is why dropping resolution gives the largest gain and hurts image quality the most. Keep your monitor’s native resolution if you can, and try an upscaler before changing the display resolution.

Texture quality controls how sharp surfaces look up close. It uses more video memory (VRAM), but costs very little frame rate while your card has enough VRAM. Trouble starts when textures need more VRAM than the card has: the card swaps data in and out, causing stuttering even when the average frame rate looks fine.

Shadow quality is the best first cut. Rendering shadows means drawing parts of the scene again from each light’s position, which is why high shadows cost so much. Dropping shadows from Ultra to High, or High to Medium, often gives the biggest gain that barely changes how a game looks in motion. If shadow distance is a separate setting, lower it first, because distant shadows matter less than the ones near you.

Ray tracing and anti-aliasing

Ray tracing simulates how light bounces, giving more realistic reflections, shadows and lighting. It is also one of the most expensive settings in modern games. Lower reflections first if you want to keep some of it.

Aliasing is the jagged, stair step edge on diagonal lines. Anti-aliasing smooths those edges, and the method matters more than the strength setting. FXAA is cheap but slightly blurs the whole image. TAA uses previous frames and looks cleaner in motion, but can cause faint ghosting. MSAA looks sharp but costs far more performance. If your game offers TAA or an upscaler, use that and skip MSAA.

Ambient occlusion, volumetrics, draw distance and effects

Ambient occlusion adds soft shading where objects meet, such as in corners and under furniture. Higher quality methods cost a noticeable amount of performance, so Medium or SSAO quality usually keeps most of the depth for far less cost. Volumetric lighting creates light shafts through fog and smoke: atmospheric but expensive, so drop volumetrics to Medium before you touch textures.

Draw distance controls how far away objects render in full detail, and in open world games it loads your processor too. Lower it if you are processor limited, but in competitive shooters keep it high enough that enemies stay visible at fighting ranges. Turn motion blur, film grain and chromatic aberration off first: they cost performance and many players prefer the cleaner image.

Upscaling: DLSS, FSR and XeSS

Upscaling renders the game at a lower resolution and reconstructs it back to your display resolution. NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR and Intel XeSS all do this, and most modern games support at least one. Quality mode usually gives a large frame rate gain with a small visual cost. Turn on upscaling before you turn other settings down: it is often the largest single gain available.

Frame generation inserts generated frames between real ones. It raises the frame counter, but it does not reduce input lag, so it will not rescue a game that already feels sluggish below about 60 real frames per second. If stuttering persists, our guide to games that keep crashing on PC may help, since stuttering can also point to a driver problem.

VSync, G-Sync and FreeSync

VSync locks your frame rate to your monitor’s refresh rate to stop screen tearing, where the top and bottom of the image show different frames. The trade off is extra input lag, so competitive players usually turn VSync off. G-Sync (NVIDIA) and FreeSync (AMD) are better if your monitor supports them: they match the monitor’s refresh rate to your frame rate, removing tearing without the same input lag. Our guide to refresh rates from 60Hz to 240Hz explains what each refresh rate feels like in play.

Three ready made presets

Story games: native resolution, upscaling on Quality, textures High, shadows High, ray tracing Low or off, TAA on, volumetrics Medium. Aim for a stable 60 frames per second.

Competitive multiplayer: native resolution, textures Medium to High, shadows Low to Medium, effects Low, motion blur off, VSync off, variable refresh on. Aim for your monitor’s refresh rate, and read our guide to reducing input lag in games if responsiveness still feels off.

Low end PCs: upscaling on Balanced or Performance, textures Medium, shadows Low, ray tracing off, volumetrics Low, draw distance Medium, ambient occlusion Low or off. Only drop resolution below native when every other change still leaves the game unplayable.

How to test your own settings

Do not change five settings at once, because you will never learn which one helped. Start from a preset, note your average and 1 percent low frame rate in a repeatable scene, then change one setting at a time. Restore a setting if lowering it made no difference. Update your graphics drivers before you start.

Frequently asked questions

What graphics setting affects FPS the most?

Resolution, followed by ray tracing and shadows. For the largest gain without overall softness, lower shadows from Ultra to High or turn ray tracing off.

Should I turn textures down to increase FPS?

Usually no. Textures cost little frame rate if your card has enough video memory. Only lower them if stuttering suggests video memory is full.

Is DLSS better than lowering resolution?

In most cases, yes. DLSS, FSR and XeSS reconstruct a lower resolution image more cleanly than a plain resolution drop, and Quality mode at 1440p or 4K often looks close to native.

Why does my game stutter even with high FPS?

Stuttering usually comes from 1 percent lows, not the average frame rate. Common causes are textures exceeding video memory, a processor bottleneck, shader compilation on first play, or background programs.

Conclusion

Resolution, ray tracing and shadows take the most performance. Textures and anisotropic filtering take the least, as long as video memory can cope. Start with upscaling, cut shadows and volumetrics next, and test one change at a time.