For the smoothest Avowed experience on PC, start with a Custom profile based on High quality: use Windowed Fullscreen, a 90° field of view, ray tracing off, V-Sync off, and motion blur low or disabled. Keep textures and most image-quality settings on High, then choose upscaling by resolution: native resolution at 1080p if your GPU maintains its target, DLSS or FSR Quality at 1440p, and Balanced at 4K. If frame pacing remains uneven, lower shadows, view distance, and global illumination before reducing texture quality.
These settings are a practical starting point, not a guaranteed frame-rate profile. Avowed’s performance can change with patches, and the best choice depends on your GPU, CPU, resolution, and desired frame-time stability.
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Recommended Avowed settings at a glance
The following profile follows the High-oriented baseline reported by PCGamesN, while separating the choices that usually have the largest performance effect from those that preserve image quality. Apply it, load a demanding area, and then adjust one setting at a time.
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| Setting | Starting value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Display mode | Windowed Fullscreen | PCGamesN’s baseline uses this mode and it allows convenient switching without committing to exclusive fullscreen. |
| Field of view | 90 | A wider view is the cited baseline. Lowering it can reduce the amount of scenery rendered, but changes the way the game feels, so treat it as a comfort choice first. |
| Ray tracing | Off | The independent guide describes a high performance cost for a relatively subtle visual change, making it the first feature to disable when chasing smoothness. |
| V-Sync | Off | Leaving it off avoids adding synchronization latency while you diagnose frame pacing. Use your display’s variable-refresh feature separately if your monitor and driver support it. |
| Motion blur | Low or Off | Reducing blur improves clarity during camera movement and removes a post-processing effect that many players do not want. |
| View distance, shadows, textures, shading, effects, foliage, post-processing, reflections, global illumination | High | High is the recommended quality foundation. High effects also avoid the blocky edges that the guide observed at lower settings. |
| Upscaling at 1080p | Off when the GPU can sustain the target | Native rendering preserves the clearest image when performance headroom exists. |
| Upscaling at 1440p | DLSS Quality or FSR Quality | Quality modes reduce the render workload while retaining more detail than Balanced or Performance modes. |
| Upscaling at 4K | Balanced | 4K places substantially more pressure on the GPU; Balanced is the practical first test before more aggressive modes. |
The High values above are editorial recommendations from an independent test setup, not a promise that every graphics card will hold a particular frame rate. If your measured frame times are still unstable, change the settings in the order described below rather than dropping the entire preset.
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Choose a target before changing quality
A smooth game is not defined by average FPS alone. Decide whether you are optimizing for a fixed refresh target, the highest possible average, or consistent frame delivery. A profile that reports a high average but has severe dips can feel worse than a slower profile with stable frame times.
- Average frame rate: useful for understanding the general load, but it can hide traversal stutter and sudden drops.
- 1% lows and frame-time stability: reveal how often the game falls below its usual performance. Prioritize these when movement feels uneven.
- Image clarity in motion: compare foliage, thin geometry, and distant objects while turning the camera, not only in a still screenshot.
- Visual cost: note whether a setting changes shadows, foliage density, effects, or lighting enough to justify its performance impact.
Use the same demanding location and repeat the same camera movement after each change. Do not change several options simultaneously: you will not know which adjustment helped or caused a new artifact.
How to tune Avowed by resolution
1080p: preserve native clarity when possible
At 1080p, leave upscaling off if the GPU can sustain the frame-rate target you chose. Native output avoids reconstruction artifacts and is often the clearest option at this resolution. Keep the High quality foundation, then reduce shadows, view distance, or global illumination only if the GPU cannot maintain consistent frame times.
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1440p: start with Quality upscaling
Use DLSS Quality or FSR Quality as the first 1440p test. Quality modes render fewer pixels internally and reconstruct the output, providing a useful performance gain while preserving more detail than Balanced or Performance modes. If your 1% lows remain poor, lower shadows or global illumination rather than immediately dropping to a lower-resolution output.
There is no universal winner between DLSS and FSR in the available evidence. GPU architecture, driver version, patch level, and the scene you are testing can change the result. Compare both with the same camera path and select the one with the better combination of frame-time stability and moving-image clarity.
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4K: use Balanced first
Start at Balanced upscaling at 4K. Native 4K can impose a large render workload, while Balanced reduces that workload without committing to the most aggressive reconstruction. If the image is too soft, try Quality and then compensate by lowering the most expensive settings. If performance is still inconsistent, reducing shadows, view distance, and global illumination generally protects the texture detail that makes a 4K image look useful.
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Ray tracing
Ray tracing is a high-cost option in the cited independent guide, with a relatively subtle visual improvement compared with its performance demand. Turn it off first when you need smoother gameplay. Re-enable it only after the non-ray-traced profile already meets your frame-time target, and test a demanding outdoor scene rather than an empty interior.
Shadows
Shadows can affect both the average frame rate and frame-time spikes when many objects cast or receive them. The guide observed visible quality reductions at Medium and Low. Keep High if possible; if you must cut it, use the smallest reduction that resolves the dips and inspect foliage and characters for distracting shadow changes.
View distance
View distance controls how far scenery and objects remain detailed. Lowering it can reduce work in expansive areas, but it may introduce visible pop-in. Reduce it after ray tracing and before textures when distant-world rendering is the bottleneck.
Textures
Textures generally consume video memory more than raw shader time. Keep them on High when your GPU has enough VRAM and the game is not reporting memory pressure. Lowering textures can make surfaces visibly softer without addressing a CPU-limited frame-time problem, so do not use it as the first fix for stutter.
Shading and effects
Shading and effects influence material response, particles, and ability visuals. PCGamesN reports that High effects avoid blocky edges around objects, while Medium and Low settings visibly reduce quality. Keep effects High unless a specific effect-heavy scene causes the problem.
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Foliage
Foliage is expensive because many small objects must be drawn and shaded. Lowering it can help in dense outdoor scenes, but the trade-off is immediately visible vegetation detail and density. Test a forest or similarly crowded area before deciding.
Post-processing and motion blur
Leave post-processing on High initially, but set motion blur Low or Off for a clearer moving image. A blur reduction does not necessarily solve a frame-time problem; it makes camera movement easier to evaluate while you tune the actual render workload.
Reflections and global illumination
Reflections and global illumination can add substantial work in scenes with wet surfaces, bright light sources, or complex indirect lighting. If the High profile is still unstable, reduce global illumination before textures. Then check reflections in the same scene so you can judge whether the visual loss is worth the gain.
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DLSS, FSR, native resolution and frame generation
Native resolution renders the selected output directly and is the cleanest reference point. DLSS and FSR render internally at a lower resolution and reconstruct the image; their Quality, Balanced, and more aggressive modes trade clarity for workload reduction. Select the least aggressive mode that reaches your target, then evaluate motion rather than relying on a paused view.
Do not present one upscaler as universally best. Test DLSS and FSR on your own hardware, at your chosen resolution, and after major updates. Official Steam announcements have documented changes including clearer FSR Native AA labeling, corrected behavior when upscaling is off, and a fix for upscaling defaulting to DLSS on launch. Those changes can alter both the menu choice and the resulting image, so recheck the active mode after an update.
If you use a frame-generation option exposed by your game and GPU, retune it whenever a major patch changes the upscaler or frame-pacing behavior. Frame generation can increase displayed frame counts, but it does not remove the underlying render and input workload; judge it by latency and consistency, not by the displayed number alone. Disable it during troubleshooting so you can isolate the base game’s performance.
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Presets versus a Custom profile
Use Custom rather than accepting a blanket Low or Medium preset. The independent guide reports visible reductions in shadow and foliage quality at Medium and Low, while High effects avoid blocky object edges. A Custom profile lets you retain High textures and effects while cutting only the settings that are actually limiting your frame times.
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|---|---|---|
| High-based Custom | Balanced starting point; exact FPS is not stated and varies by hardware. | Retains the detail level used by the cited baseline. |
| Medium or Low preset | Can reduce workload broadly, but the benefit depends on the bottleneck. | Shadow and foliage quality visibly fall; lower effects can produce blockier edges. |
| High with ray tracing off | Removes a high-cost feature while preserving most other detail. | Relinquishes ray-traced lighting or reflections whose change is described as relatively subtle. |
| High with lower shadows, view distance, and global illumination | Targets common sources of GPU load and frame-time spikes. | May show shorter object detail ranges, simpler shadows, or less indirect light. |
| Lower textures | Can reduce video-memory pressure when memory is the limiting factor. | Surfaces look softer; it may do little for a CPU-limited stutter. |
Official PC requirements and what they do not guarantee
Obsidian Entertainment’s official requirements page, dated February 28, 2025, lists the following baseline. The requirements specify compatible hardware, not a locked frame rate at a particular preset or resolution.
| Tier | Operating system and API | Processor | Memory | Graphics | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Windows 10 or 11; DirectX 12 | AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400 | 16 GB RAM | AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, or Intel Arc A580 | 75 GB |
| Recommended | Windows 10 or 11; DirectX 12 | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel Core i7-10700K | 16 GB RAM | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | 75 GB |
Meeting the recommended tier does not guarantee a fixed refresh target because resolution, preset, upscaling, background processes, drivers, and patches all affect performance. There is also no single universally correct GPU recommendation supported by these figures; the right choice depends on the resolution and image-quality target you intend to use.
Fix stuttering, crashes and unexpectedly low FPS
Follow this sequence so that basic compatibility and software issues are ruled out before you spend time balancing individual graphics settings.
- Confirm the hardware and operating system. Compare your CPU, GPU, 16 GB memory requirement, Windows version, DirectX 12 support, and available 75 GB of storage with the official minimum or recommended tier.
- Update the graphics driver. Obsidian Support states: “If your system meets the minimum requirements, we recommend updating your graphics card drivers to the latest version.” Use the current driver for your GPU. If graphics problems continue, perform a clean driver installation rather than installing over a damaged driver package.
- Verify the game files. Use your PC storefront’s file-verification command to replace missing or corrupted files. Restart the game after the process completes.
- Install pending Windows updates. Reboot after updating so that the graphics stack and system components are actually reloaded.
- Check heat and overclocking. Monitor CPU and GPU temperatures during a repeatable demanding scene. Return CPU, GPU, and memory overclocks to stock settings while diagnosing crashes or sudden clock reductions.
- Update the BIOS when applicable. Obsidian’s support guidance specifically calls out BIOS updates for systems using 13th- or 14th-generation Intel CPUs. Follow your motherboard manufacturer’s procedure and do not interrupt the update.
- Strip the graphics configuration back for a diagnostic run. Disable ray tracing, upscaling, and NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency, then test the game. Obsidian recommends this combination when diagnosing crashes or performance problems. If the crash stops, re-enable one option at a time.
- Rebuild your profile gradually. Start with High-based Custom, ray tracing off, V-Sync off, and motion blur low or off. Add upscaling only after the base profile is stable, then test any frame-generation option separately.
Keep notes of which change affects the symptom. A crash that disappears only when upscaling is disabled points to a different investigation than a steady low frame rate that improves when shadows are reduced.
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Why a good PC can still stutter
Average FPS is masking bad frame times
A high average can coexist with long frames during traversal, effects, or shader compilation. Watch 1% lows or a frame-time graph and tune for consistency. Shadows, view distance, global illumination, and dense foliage are better first targets than texture quality when the problem is uneven delivery.
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A patch changed the active settings
Official Steam announcements have recorded a 40 FPS option, clearer FSR Native AA labeling, corrected behavior when upscaling is disabled, optimized elemental and spirit effects, and a fix for upscaling defaulting to DLSS at launch. After each major patch, open the graphics menu and confirm resolution, upscaler, native-AA state, ray tracing, V-Sync, and any frame-generation setting instead of trusting the previous profile.
The system is thermally or electrically constrained
Overheating can reduce clock speeds and create dips that look like a graphics-setting problem. Overclocks can cause crashes only in particular effects-heavy scenes. Test at stock settings and check temperatures before making further quality cuts.
Should you upgrade storage for Avowed?
Avowed’s official requirements call for 75 GB of storage, and PCGamesN states that an SSD is required. If the game is installed on a hard disk, moving it to a suitable SSD is a platform requirement and can also improve loading behavior, but storage cannot compensate for a GPU or CPU that is below the game’s rendering needs.
Before buying an SSD, confirm three things in your computer’s manual or motherboard specifications:
- Interface: determine whether your system supports the M.2 interface and the relevant PCIe generation, or whether you need a 2.5-inch SATA drive.
- Capacity: leave room for the 75 GB installation and future patches rather than filling the drive to its limit.
- Available slot: verify that an open M.2 slot exists and that its position will not conflict with a graphics card, heatsink, or other device.
PCGamesN names the Samsung 990 Pro as a gaming SSD option, but compatibility with your motherboard and the available physical space should come before a model choice. An SSD upgrade is sensible when you need faster storage or do not currently meet the requirement; it is not a substitute for tuning ray tracing, upscaling, shadows, or global illumination.
A repeatable tuning checklist
- Install the latest GPU driver and Windows updates, then verify game files.
- Set Windowed Fullscreen, FOV 90, ray tracing Off, V-Sync Off, and motion blur Low or Off.
- Choose High for view distance, shadows, textures, shading, effects, foliage, post-processing, reflections, and global illumination.
- Set upscaling Off at 1080p if native performance is sufficient, Quality at 1440p, and Balanced at 4K.
- Record average FPS and 1% lows, or observe a frame-time graph, during the same demanding route.
- If frame pacing is poor, lower shadows first, then view distance and global illumination; keep textures high unless video-memory pressure is evident.
- Compare DLSS and FSR at the same quality level and resolution, judging moving clarity as well as performance.
- After every major patch, recheck the active upscaler, FSR Native AA labeling, the 40 FPS option, ray tracing, and any frame-generation setting.
- If crashes remain, disable ray tracing, upscaling, and NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency, then continue with the driver, file, Windows, temperature, overclock, and BIOS checks.
This method gives you a stable reference profile and makes each compromise visible. It also prevents a patch from silently changing the setting that you thought you were testing.
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