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For smoother Phantom Blade Zero performance, start with the Medium or High preset, enable the upscaler that matches your GPU (DLSS for NVIDIA, FSR for AMD, XeSS for Intel, or TSR), and use Quality or Balanced. Keep ray tracing and path tracing off initially, cap FPS to your display refresh rate, disable High-Quality Hair, and lower shadows, lighting, effects, materials, view distance, and environment detail before sacrificing character textures or reflections.
That approach preserves the settings that most affect character detail while targeting steadier frame pacing. S-Game’s official 1440p/60 FPS recommendation assumes upscaling and an RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6700 XT-class GPU; it is not a promise of native-resolution performance on every PC.
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| Name | Best for | Key spec | Platforms | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1440p raster baseline | Most RTX 3060 Ti/RX 6700 XT-class systems | DLSS, FSR, XeSS or TSR at Balanced; RT/PT off; 60 FPS cap | Windows PC | Oct 2026 |
| 1080p image-quality profile | 1080p monitors with GPU headroom | DLSS, FSR, XeSS or TSR at Quality; RT/PT off | Windows PC | Oct 2026 |
| 1080p ray-tracing profile | RTX 5060-class hardware seeking RT | Ray tracing on; upscaling required for the official 60 FPS target | Windows PC | Oct 2026 |
| 4K path-tracing profile | High-end GeForce RTX systems | RTX 5080-class hardware, DLSS and Ray Reconstruction | Windows PC | Oct 2026 |
What are the best starting settings for smoother performance?
Use the following as a baseline, then change one setting at a time while watching your base (non-generated) FPS and frame pacing. The values combine S-Game’s targets with the optimized raster profile reported by Wccftech.
| Setting | Starting value | Why this value |
|---|---|---|
| Quality preset | Medium or High | Provides a sensible baseline before custom tuning. |
| Super Resolution | DLSS on NVIDIA; FSR on AMD; XeSS on Intel; TSR is also supported | Upscaling usually improves FPS with less visual damage than setting every option to Low. |
| Upscaler mode | Balanced; Quality at 1080p when you have headroom | Balanced favors steadier performance, while Quality preserves more detail. |
| Frame Generation | Off initially | First establish a stable rendered frame rate; generated frames should not conceal a weak base rate. |
| Frame cap | Match the monitor refresh rate, or 60 FPS for a 60-Hz display | A cap is intended to improve frame pacing rather than create extra rendered FPS. |
| Ray Tracing Quality | Off | Rasterized rendering is much easier to drive and remains visually strong. |
| Shadow Quality | Very High | Wccftech retained this in its optimized profile, but it is an early reduction if you need more headroom. |
| Reflection Quality | Ultra | The optimized profile kept reflections because reducing them produced a relatively poor visual trade. |
| Lighting Quality | High | Lowering lighting is one of the more effective raster performance cuts. |
| Effects Quality | High | Reduces costly combat and environmental effects before character detail. |
| Material Quality | High | Offers useful GPU savings with less impact than lowering character textures. |
| Ambient Occlusion Quality | Ultra | Wccftech found a smaller performance benefit from lowering it than from reducing lighting or effects. |
| View Distance | High | A practical compromise between scene coverage and render cost. |
| Character Texture Quality | Ultra | Preserves the detail most visible during combat and dialogue. |
| Character Model Quality | Ultra | Kept high in the optimized profile because lower values were more noticeable than their gains justified. |
| High-Quality Hair | Off | Wccftech measured about a 19% performance penalty with it enabled. |
| Environment Texture Quality | Ultra with at least 8 GB VRAM at 1440p and no RT; reduce when VRAM is constrained or RT/PT is enabled | Texture memory pressure rises with resolution and ray-traced features. |
| Environment Model Quality | Ultra | Retained in the optimized raster profile. |
| Environment Detail Quality | Medium | One of the more useful settings to lower for additional performance. |
| Motion Blur | Off, or Low/Medium if preferred | Disabling it can make frame-generation artifacts less visible. |
How do I apply and tune these settings?
Use the Graphics options and make changes in this order so you can identify which setting is responsible for a gain or a visual compromise.
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- Choose the preset. Select Medium or High rather than starting from Ultra. Confirm the game is rendering at your monitor’s intended resolution.
- Select an upscaler. Choose DLSS for an NVIDIA GPU, FSR for AMD, XeSS for Intel, or TSR if you prefer the game’s temporal scaler. Start at Balanced; at 1080p, try Quality first if the GPU is not saturated.
- Disable RT and PT. Set Ray Tracing Quality to Off for the baseline. Path tracing is a separate, much heavier mode and is not appropriate for a general smooth-performance profile.
- Turn off High-Quality Hair. This setting can consume a disproportionate amount of performance despite its cinematic-sounding description.
- Set a frame cap. Match the cap to the display refresh rate. For a 60-Hz screen, use 60 FPS; for a higher-refresh display, use its refresh limit if the PC can sustain it.
- Test a repeatable combat scene. Compare the same area after each change, using the base FPS and consistency rather than a single peak number.
- Lower the high-cost group first. Reduce shadows, lighting, effects, materials, view distance, and Environment Detail before lowering character textures, models, reflections, or ambient occlusion.
- Revisit the upscaler mode. If the result is stable, move from Balanced to Quality. If it still misses the target, move to Performance before making broad Low-setting compromises.
Which settings should I lower first for more FPS?
The largest performance-per-visual-cost improvements generally come from shadows, lighting, effects, materials, view distance, Environment Detail, and High-Quality Hair. Keep the settings that preserve character and surface detail until those options have been reduced.
| Lower first | What you gain | What changes visually |
|---|---|---|
| High-Quality Hair | Wccftech measured an approximately 19% performance penalty when enabled | Hair uses the game’s lower-quality presentation rather than the cinematic option. |
| Lighting Quality | Useful GPU headroom in busy scenes | Less complex light contribution and shading. |
| Effects Quality | Improves combat-scene performance | Some particles and effect detail are reduced. |
| Shadow Quality | Can improve both average FPS and lows | Less detailed or lower-resolution shadows. |
| Material Quality | Reduces shader and material complexity | Some surfaces look less rich. |
| View Distance | Reduces distant-scene rendering cost | Objects and detail may simplify sooner with distance. |
| Environment Detail Quality | Helps in dense areas | Fewer small environmental details. |
Wccftech’s optimized profile kept Ultra Reflection Quality, Ambient Occlusion Quality, Character Texture Quality, Character Model Quality, and Environment Model Quality because lowering them delivered smaller gains or more obvious compromises.
Should I use DLSS, FSR, XeSS or TSR?
Choose the scaler associated with your GPU first, then select a mode based on the balance you want. Quality uses a higher internal resolution and favors image clarity; Balanced is the middle ground; Performance and Ultra Performance prioritize FPS; DLAA renders at native resolution for maximum image quality and therefore needs substantial GPU headroom.
NVIDIA GPUs: DLSS
Start with DLSS Balanced at 1440p. At 1080p, DLSS Quality is preferable when the GPU can maintain the target frame rate. If you later enable path tracing on a compatible GeForce RTX card, DLSS is paired with Ray Reconstruction automatically according to NVIDIA’s launch material.
AMD GPUs: FSR
Use FSR Balanced as the first 1440p setting and FSR Quality at 1080p when possible. If details look too soft, move up to Quality before lowering character or environment textures; if performance remains low, move down to Performance.
Intel GPUs: XeSS
XeSS Balanced is the practical starting point for 1440p, with Quality available when there is headroom. Adjust the internal-resolution percentage if the available XeSS modes do not preserve enough fine detail.
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TSR and DLAA
TSR is the game’s temporal-resolution option and can be used when you do not want to select a vendor-specific scaler. DLAA runs at native resolution, so it is an image-quality choice for systems already meeting the target FPS rather than a performance setting.
When should I enable frame generation?
Enable frame generation only after the game delivers a stable non-generated frame rate. Generated output can make the counter look higher, but it cannot repair poor simulation cadence or the responsiveness of a weak base rate.
- Update to a recent graphics driver.
- Enable Windows hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
- Keep V-Sync off when using DLSS Frame Generation, and leave NVIDIA Reflex on Automatic where available.
- Run with Motion Blur off if you see obvious generated-frame artifacts; DSOGaming identified motion blur as a major contributor to those artifacts.
- Compare combat responsiveness and frame pacing with Frame Generation on and off, not just the displayed FPS number.
Frame generation is most useful when the rendered base rate is already consistent and the display has enough refresh capacity to show the additional output.
Should I turn ray tracing or path tracing on?
Leave both features off for the general smooth-performance recommendation. Ray tracing improves reflections and shadows, while path tracing adds demanding indirect lighting, reflections, shadows, and water caustics; independent testing found path tracing extremely demanding.
S-Game lists an RTX 5060 for 1080p/60 FPS with ray tracing and an RTX 5080 for 2160p/60 FPS with path tracing. Those are official targets, not guarantees, and they assume the game’s upscaling technology. Path tracing is intended for high-end GeForce RTX hardware; when enabled with DLSS, Ray Reconstruction activates automatically on GeForce RTX GPUs.
If you experiment with either mode, lower Environment Texture Quality when VRAM is constrained, keep an upscaler enabled, and establish a rasterized baseline first so you can identify the cost of the lighting mode itself.
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What hardware does Phantom Blade Zero officially require?
S-Game’s 2026 requirements specify Windows 10 or 11 64-bit, DirectX 12, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD. The listed performance tiers are targets rather than universal guarantees.
| Official target | CPU | GPU | Resolution and frame rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB or Radeon RX 5500 XT 8 GB | 1080p/30 FPS with upscaling |
| Recommended | Intel Core i5-10600K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB or Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB | 1440p/60 FPS with upscaling |
| Ray-tracing target | Not stated by S-Game | GeForce RTX 5060 | 1080p/60 FPS with ray tracing |
| Path-tracing target | Not stated by S-Game | GeForce RTX 5080 | 2160p/60 FPS with path tracing |
An SSD is a requirement for installation and streaming the game’s data, but it should not be treated as an FPS upgrade. VRAM becomes increasingly important at 1440p and above, especially with ray tracing or path tracing enabled.
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How much performance can optimized settings recover?
Wccftech compared Ultra with an optimized rasterized profile at 2560×1440, using native TSR and disabling ray tracing and path tracing. Ultra averaged 74 FPS, with 63 FPS 1% lows and 62 FPS 0.1% lows. The optimized profile averaged 103 FPS, with 87 FPS 1% lows and 83 FPS 0.1% lows—improvements of 39%, 38%, and 34%, respectively.
That profile retained Ultra reflections, textures, character models, ambient occlusion, and environmental geometry. These are Wccftech’s measurements on its test system, not a guaranteed result for every CPU, GPU, driver, or game version.
How can I reduce stutter and uneven frame pacing?
First distinguish shader compilation from an ongoing performance problem. DSOGaming reported a lengthy first-launch shader-compilation phase and no major shader-compilation or traversal stutters during its testing after that process. Wccftech separately reported an approximately eight-minute PSO compilation step on a high-end Core i7-14700K system; compilation time varies with hardware.
- Allow the initial shader or PSO compilation to finish before judging ordinary traversal performance.
- Use a frame cap matched to the display refresh rate instead of allowing unrestricted spikes and drops.
- Disable Motion Blur when frame-generation artifacts look like judder or smearing.
- Turn off RT and PT while diagnosing ordinary raster performance.
- Lower the high-cost settings listed earlier before reducing character textures or models.
- Check base FPS and 1% lows, not only the generated-FPS counter.
DSOGaming also reported that the game has no built-in benchmark tool, so repeatable manual scenes are necessary when comparing profiles.
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Which profile should I use at each resolution?
1080p at 60 FPS
Use Quality upscaling first, or DLAA/native rendering if your GPU has ample headroom. Keep RT and PT off, disable High-Quality Hair, and leave character textures and models at Ultra. This profile favors image clarity because the internal resolution can remain relatively high.
1440p at 60 FPS
Use Balanced upscaling on an RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, or similar class of hardware. Keep the optimized values for reflections, ambient occlusion, character detail, and environment models, while setting lighting, effects, materials, and Environment Detail to High or Medium as needed.
4K at 60 FPS
Start with a high-end GPU and an upscaler at Balanced or Performance. Rasterized rendering is the practical baseline; path tracing should be treated as a specialist mode for hardware around S-Game’s RTX 5080 target, not as the default 4K setting.
Ray-traced 1080p
Use an RTX 5060-class GPU or better, enable DLSS, and keep expectations tied to the official 1080p/60 FPS target. If frame pacing is unstable, return to rasterized rendering before reducing every other setting.
How should I judge whether a change helped?
Use the same resolution, upscaler mode, RT/PT state, and scene for each comparison. Average FPS describes overall throughput, while 1% and 0.1% lows reveal how severe the slowest sustained moments are; a higher average with poor lows can feel less smooth than a slightly lower but steadier result.
Prioritize the target you actually feel during combat. Once the base rate is stable, add Frame Generation if desired, then verify that motion clarity, input response, and frame pacing remain acceptable on your display.
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Frequently asked questions
Can I change ray tracing or path tracing from the pause menu?
DSOGaming reported that switching ray-tracing or path-tracing modes requires returning to the main menu. Plan those comparisons between sessions rather than expecting an instant in-game toggle.
Why can a higher FPS counter still feel laggy with Frame Generation?
Frame Generation inserts predicted frames between rendered frames; it does not raise the rate at which the game simulates input and gameplay. If the underlying rendered rate is unstable, the counter can rise while responsiveness and pacing remain poor.
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What do 1% lows and 0.1% lows tell me?
They describe the slower portions of a run rather than its best moments. A profile with strong lows usually feels more consistent during traversal and combat, even when its average FPS is close to another profile.
Is the official 1440p/60 target native 1440p?
No. S-Game’s recommended tier explicitly specifies 1440p/60 FPS with upscaling. Native rendering can require a higher-end GPU or lower settings than that official target implies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change ray tracing or path tracing from the pause menu?
DSOGaming reported that switching ray-tracing or path-tracing modes requires returning to the main menu. Plan those comparisons between sessions rather than expecting an instant in-game toggle.
Why can a higher FPS counter still feel laggy with Frame Generation?
Frame Generation inserts predicted frames between rendered frames; it does not raise the rate at which the game simulates input and gameplay. If the underlying rendered rate is unstable, the counter can rise while responsiveness and pacing remain poor.
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They describe the slower portions of a run rather than its best moments. A profile with strong lows usually feels more consistent during traversal and combat, even when its average FPS is close to another profile.
Is the official 1440p/60 target native 1440p?
No. S-Game’s recommended tier explicitly specifies 1440p/60 FPS with upscaling. Native rendering can require a higher-end GPU or lower settings than that official target implies.
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