The best starting point is your display’s native output resolution, the highest-quality DLSS, FSR or XeSS mode that reaches your frame-rate target, high textures when your graphics card has enough VRAM, and reduced ray tracing. If performance still dips, lower shadows, volumetric effects and reflections in that order. Keep frame generation for after the base game already feels responsive, then cap frames inside your monitor’s refresh or variable-refresh range.
There is no universal “ultra” preset that works across every new release. Engine design, GPU tier, VRAM capacity, CPU limits and the game’s upscaler implementation all change the result. The settings below give you a repeatable way to find a smooth image without sacrificing detail that has little performance cost.
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Start with a sensible baseline
Before changing individual sliders, select the game’s native output resolution: 1,920 × 1,080 for a 1080p display, 2,560 × 1,440 for 1440p, or 3,840 × 2,160 for 4K. Use the display’s native output even when the internal render resolution is lower; an upscaler can reconstruct the image while the monitor still receives its native signal.
Choose the highest quality upscaling mode that consistently meets your target. Quality is the normal first choice, Balanced is useful at 1440p and 4K when Quality misses the target, and Performance is a fallback for especially heavy scenes. Set textures to High if VRAM and texture streaming remain stable, leave geometry at High or the game’s equivalent, and disable or minimize ray tracing while you establish a steady base frame rate.
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Once the image is stable, set an in-game frame cap close to the monitor’s refresh rate or the upper edge of its variable-refresh range. This prevents the GPU from rendering unnecessary frames, reduces heat and power use, and avoids crossing out of the smooth VRR window.
Which settings cost the most?
MSI’s guide, published July 30, 2026, ranks resolution and ray tracing among the most expensive categories in demanding games. The practical order below describes typical GPU workload, not a guaranteed percentage for every engine.
| Setting or feature | GPU workload | Image-quality trade-off | VRAM effect | Latency and motion considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Output or internal resolution | Very high | Lower internal resolution softens fine detail; reconstruction quality determines how visible it is | Usually lower at reduced render resolutions | Lower workload can raise base FPS and improve response |
| Ray-traced lighting, reflections or global illumination | Very high | Disabling removes physically calculated lighting or reflections, especially visible in glossy scenes | Can vary by implementation | Reducing it improves the base frame, which matters before frame generation |
| Shadows | High to medium | Lower settings reduce shadow resolution, distance or filtering | Small to moderate change | Usually no added input delay |
| Volumetric fog, clouds and lighting | Medium to high in foggy scenes | Lower density, resolution or sample count can make haze less detailed | Small to moderate change | Large scene-dependent swings are common |
| Screen-space or ray-traced reflections | Medium to high | Reflections become less accurate, shorter ranged or noisier | Small to moderate change | Can remove stutters in reflective areas |
| Textures | Low GPU cost once assets are resident | Lower resolution surfaces look blurry at close range | High VRAM use; streaming pressure can cause hitching | Little direct latency change |
| Texture filtering | Small | Lower anisotropic filtering makes surfaces look less crisp at oblique angles | Minimal | Negligible response benefit |
This ranking is a starting hypothesis. Confirm it in the game’s busiest repeatable scene because an engine may shift work between the CPU, GPU and streaming system.
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Match output resolution to the display
Changing a 4K monitor to a 1440p output can look softer than keeping 4K output and using an upscaler. First lower the internal render resolution through the game’s reconstruction option. Only abandon native output when the title has no usable upscaler or its implementation produces unacceptable artifacts.
DLSS, FSR and XeSS in plain terms
NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution and Intel XeSS render a lower-resolution input and reconstruct a higher-resolution frame. Quality modes use a higher internal resolution and retain more detail; Balanced and Performance use progressively less internal work and trade image quality for speed. The names are not perfectly equivalent across games, so compare the actual image in motion rather than assuming that two labels have identical scaling.
Intel’s current XeSS developer guide includes Native Anti-Aliasing, Ultra Quality Plus, Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced, Performance and Ultra Performance. Intel describes Balanced as the best general balance and lists Performance for 1440p and higher output resolutions when more speed is needed. Its published examples specify 2.3× scaling for XeSS 1.3 Performance and 3.0× for Ultra Performance; those are scaling ratios, not promised game frame rates.
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Picking a mode by target
| Display target | First mode to try | When to step down | What to inspect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p | Native or Quality | Balanced only if the GPU cannot hold the target in heavy scenes | Thin geometry, foliage and distant text, where reconstruction errors show first |
| 1440p | Quality | Balanced, then Performance if necessary | Shimmering on fences, hair and foliage during camera movement |
| 4K | Quality or Balanced | Performance for the heaviest titles; Ultra Performance only as a last resort | Fine text, specular highlights and moving particles |
Use the game’s sharpening control sparingly. Excess sharpening can turn reconstruction noise into bright halos, while too little can make a good Quality mode appear softer than it is.
Ray tracing: the first major performance lever
Ray tracing can calculate reflections, shadows and global illumination with far more work than their rasterized alternatives. If the GPU is the limiting component, turn ray tracing off first or reduce the most expensive sub-feature, usually reflections or global illumination. Keep a lower-cost ray-traced effect only when its visual difference matters to you and the base frame remains responsive.
Do not judge ray tracing from a static screenshot alone. Walk through a scene containing mirrors, wet streets, glass, smoke and many moving lights. These are the situations where rays, denoising and additional bounces can cause the largest frame-time spikes. If turning ray tracing off removes those spikes, the smoother frame pacing is usually more valuable than the extra reflections.
Shadows, volumetrics and reflections: the second-stage reductions
Shadows
After ray tracing, lower Shadow Quality by one step. Shadow settings can change map resolution, draw distance, filtering and the number of cascades. A one-step reduction often costs less visible detail than lowering the entire quality preset. If distant shadows disappear too soon, look for separate distance or cascade controls and reduce those instead of the nearest shadow resolution.
Volumetric effects
Fog, clouds, god rays and volumetric lighting can dominate frame time in weather or interior scenes. Reduce volumetric quality or sample count when frame-time spikes occur in smoke, rain or dense atmosphere. Keep ordinary particle quality higher if the game separates it; particles and volumetrics do not have the same cost.
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Screen-space reflections can be limited by what the camera currently sees, while ray-traced reflections add work for off-screen surfaces. Lower reflection quality or distance after shadows when glossy floors, water and windows cause dips. Check fast camera pans because temporal reflection artifacts can be more distracting than a small average-FPS gain.
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Textures, filtering and geometry
Keep textures high when VRAM allows
Texture quality primarily consumes VRAM and storage bandwidth rather than shader throughput. If the game’s VRAM meter remains below your card’s capacity and streaming is smooth, High textures usually preserve a large amount of surface detail for a relatively small performance cost. Lower textures when you see delayed asset loading, blurry surfaces that sharpen late, hitching while turning, or an in-game warning that available VRAM is exceeded.
Texture quality cannot repair a VRAM shortage by itself if the game continues to stream a large open world. In that case, also reduce texture-streaming budget, world-detail distance or the optional high-resolution texture pack if those controls exist.
Texture filtering
AMD’s current support guidance says Texture Filtering Quality has a small impact on both performance and image quality and recommends Standard as the default. Keep anisotropic filtering at a high level when available; reducing it is rarely an effective way to solve a GPU bottleneck. Lower it only after expensive lighting, shadows and volumetrics have been addressed.
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Geometry and level-of-detail settings affect object count, draw distance and CPU submission as well as GPU work. Keep them at High while diagnosing a GPU-limited system. If the GPU is underused and the CPU is saturated in crowded areas, reduce crowd density, simulation distance or foliage distance before lowering texture quality. These controls can change gameplay atmosphere more than a modest shadow reduction.
Frame generation: use it after the base frame is good
Frame-generation systems insert generated frames between traditionally rendered frames. NVIDIA documents DLSS Frame Generation and Multi Frame Generation, while other games may provide a comparable option through a different vendor technology. Generated frames can raise the displayed FPS counter, but they do not replace the responsiveness of the underlying rendered frames.
First establish a responsive base frame rate with ray tracing, resolution and shadows tuned. Then enable frame generation and check mouse or controller response, camera pans, thin wires, foliage, particle effects and HUD elements. Look for ghosting, doubled objects or UI artifacts. Where supported, pair the feature with a latency control such as NVIDIA Reflex. If the base frame is too slow or inconsistent, generated frames can make motion look smoother while controls still feel delayed; reduce settings or disable generation instead.
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Frame caps, VRR and presentation settings
Set an in-game cap just below the monitor’s maximum refresh when using variable refresh. For a fixed-refresh display, cap at a rate the GPU can sustain rather than allowing large swings. AMD documents Frame Rate Target Control as a way to avoid unnecessary high FPS, reduce heat and power use, and remain within a FreeSync range.
Use the game’s own limiter first because it generally has the clearest frame-pacing behavior. If it lacks a cap, a driver-level limiter can work, but do not stack several limiters unless you are deliberately testing them. Enable variable refresh in the monitor menu and operating system, then confirm that the game is running in the display mode for which VRR is active.
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Optimizations for windowed games
For compatible DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 games running windowed or borderless, open Settings > System > Display > Graphics, enable Optimizations for windowed games, and restart the game. Microsoft says this transitions compatible titles from the legacy blt-model presentation to the newer flip-model, reducing frame latency and enabling features such as Auto HDR and variable refresh on supported displays. The setting does not rewrite a game’s renderer, so test it per title.
Automatic Super Resolution
Microsoft’s Automatic Super Resolution is more limited than an in-game upscaler. It requires a supported Copilot+ PC or ROG Xbox Ally X, Windows 11 version 24H2 or later, a compatible DirectX 10 or newer game, and a supported output resolution. When available, it renders lower and upscales to provide smoother performance while retaining a higher-resolution output. Treat it as a platform-specific option and use the game’s own DLSS, FSR or XeSS controls when those provide more settings or better integration.
A repeatable tuning procedure
- Record the target. Write down the display resolution, refresh rate and the minimum acceptable base FPS. Use frame-time consistency, not only the average FPS counter.
- Choose the output. Set the game to the monitor’s native resolution and select exclusive fullscreen or borderless according to which mode behaves better in that title.
- Pick reconstruction. Start with Native or Quality at 1080p, Quality at 1440p, and Quality or Balanced at 4K. Disable sharpening temporarily while comparing detail.
- Establish a control run. Use a repeatable route that includes combat, traversal, weather, crowds and a reflective surface. Repeat it after every meaningful change.
- Check the bottleneck. A GPU near full utilization with low CPU headroom indicates a graphics-bound scene. A GPU well below full utilization while one or more CPU threads are busy points toward crowds, simulation or draw distance.
- Reduce ray tracing. Disable it or lower reflections and global illumination first. Repeat the same route and note frame-time spikes.
- Lower shadows. Drop Shadow Quality one step. If the improvement is small, restore it and test volumetrics or reflections instead.
- Tune volumetrics and reflections. Change one control at a time, watching the scenes where fog, clouds, water or glass are present.
- Protect VRAM. Keep textures High unless streaming stutters or the VRAM meter is full. Reduce texture resolution or streaming budget only when those symptoms appear.
- Set the cap and VRR. Cap FPS inside the monitor’s refresh or VRR range, then verify that frame pacing remains even during traversal.
- Add frame generation last. Enable it only after the base frame feels responsive. Check controls and moving detail, and use a supported latency feature when available.
Starting points by resolution
| Target | Upscaling | Textures | Shadows | Ray tracing | Other guidance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p | Native or Quality | High if VRAM permits | Medium | Off or Low when chasing stability | Keep geometry High; cap to refresh or VRR range |
| 1440p | Quality or Balanced | High | Medium to High | Reduce before textures; selective use only | Use Performance only if Quality and Balanced miss the target |
| 4K | Quality or Balanced | High if streaming is stable | Medium to High | Selective; disable expensive reflections or global illumination first | Frame generation is optional after a responsive base frame |
These are starting points rather than universal presets. A mid-range GPU may need Balanced at 1440p, while a high-end card can retain Quality or native rendering in the same title. Conversely, a CPU-limited open-world game may gain little from lowering resolution.
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Low average FPS and GPU utilization near 100 percent
- Reduce internal resolution through Quality, Balanced or Performance upscaling.
- Disable or reduce ray tracing, then lower shadows and volumetrics.
- Use a frame cap that matches what the GPU can sustain rather than an unattainable refresh rate.
Stutter while turning or entering new areas
- Check VRAM usage and texture-streaming warnings.
- Lower textures or the streaming budget one step, and remove optional high-resolution packs.
- Reduce world-detail distance if the stutter coincides with large asset loads.
GPU usage is low but frames are slow in crowds
- Lower crowd density, simulation distance or foliage distance.
- Keep textures and filtering high; they are unlikely to solve a CPU bottleneck.
- Close background applications that consume CPU time and retest the same route.
The image shimmers or ghosts
- Move from Performance to Balanced or Quality upscaling.
- Inspect foliage, wires, hair and specular highlights during motion, not in a paused screenshot.
- Reduce excessive sharpening and compare the game’s anti-aliasing or Native AA option.
Controls feel delayed after enabling frame generation
- Measure the base frame before generation and raise it by reducing ray tracing or internal resolution.
- Enable Reflex or the game’s supported latency mode.
- Disable frame generation if the underlying frame remains too slow or inconsistent.
What the official guidance does—and does not—establish
MSI’s July 30, 2026 guidance identifies resolution, upscaling and Shadow Quality as the three changes that typically deliver the largest early gains. NVIDIA’s 2026 documentation explains that DLSS reconstruction creates a higher-resolution image from lower-resolution input and documents frame-generation options. Intel’s current guide defines XeSS modes and scaling ratios. AMD’s support guidance rates texture filtering as a small-impact control. Microsoft documents the Windows 11 presentation optimization and the hardware and software limits of Automatic Super Resolution.
Those sources do not publish a universal FPS number for every demanding new game, GPU and preset. Your result depends on the specific engine, driver, patch, processor, graphics card, VRAM, monitor and scene. Use the one-change-at-a-time procedure above, record frame times in the same route, and keep the setting that meets your target with the fewest visible artifacts.
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