17.4k. This is the most demanding setting in the entire game. High does offer sharper, more detailed reflections, but almost all the water in the game has ripples on the surface or is fast-moving (in rivers, etc), so spotting the difference takes a lot of focus and using High isnt worth the performance hit. - Deleting all files from the Settings folder and restarting the game (someone suspected the in-game Settings menu was bugged and benefited from doing this). RELATED: Red Dead Redemption 2 - What Is Lumbago? Look man listen here. This slider can incur an intermediate performance hit on Ultra, so we recommend using a Medium or High position for the best compromise. As with other forms of tessellation, TT simply gives tree models more detail the closer the player is to them. While the water physics admittedly won't look quite as intricate on a lower setting, lowering the physics quality (which differs based on hardware) will ensure that the player won't experience a massive dip in frames when traveling near a river or lake. As a story focused gamer I absolutely loved the first game and loved the second game even more. This setting controls the quality of volumetrics (fog, mist, etc) that are near the player. Reflections, for reasons well beyond me and others, are equally murderous. Tested using Nvidia GTX 1070, Vulkan, benchmarking tool, and gameplay. I am currently getting good frame rates; if I had to guess, approx. Higher settings will offer a better simulation with more accurate light scattering and shadow casting. That said, I found pushing Ultra SSAO in the normal settings makes this setting a hog at anything above 1080p. Its a nice setting visually, and not too hard on frames: keep at High for the best visual-performance balance, though Medium doesnt look terrible either if you need a couple frames. Moving the slider all the way to the left will offer the best performance at the cost of overall image quality. Adjusting this option will change the Volumetrics Quality option above to Custom. Okay, here is where the fun truly begins. It will make screen a bit blurry tho, but you can gain even 20-30% FPS.For video editing and rendering i'm using Davinci Resolve 16.\rhttps://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/Song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk5lhfDwkqI0:00 Timestamps:0:06 Textures0:38 Lighting1:01 Global Illumination1:17 Shadows1:38 Far Shadows1:54 SSAO2:11 Full SSAO2:25 Reflections2:49 Mirrors3:05 Refraction Issue3:10 Water + Water Physics3:51 Volumetric4:07 Unlocked Volumetric Raymarch Resolution4:22 Particle + Particle Lighting4:58 Tessellation5:18 Antyaliasing5:51 Grass + Grass Shadows6:18 Long Shadows6:31 Geometry7:00 Tree7:14 Parallax Occlusion Mapping Quality7:36 Decal7:48 Fur8:00 \"Performance\"8:07 \"Quality\"8:13 Benchmark Low vs Performance vs Medium vs Quality vs HighPC:GPU: MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4GB @1480MhzCPU: i7-4770k@4.0GHz 4core 8ThreadRAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR3 1600Mhz 16GB (2x8GB)Mobo: Z97 Gaming 5SSD: Crucial MX500 256GBHDD: Western Digital Red 2TB PSU: XFX Black Edition XTR 650W (Gold)CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTXCase: Corsair Obsidian Series 750DMonitor: AOC G2460PG 144hz G-Sync 1080p 24'Mause: Steelseries Rival 100Keyboard: Random Garbage This can be set safely to High for the best visual-performance boost, though Medium is not too visibly different. It makes a huge impact on visual quality, though some players may find that it makes the overall image look too soft. No problems there. Seems that after the updates this might not be as accurate anymore but only by a little. We recommend 16X for high-end PCs and either 8X or 4X if you need just a little bit more performance (1 to 2%). Moving this slider all the way to the right offers a big increase in visual quality, especially for scenic vistas, but comes with a large performance hit. Reflection Quality: see above this here is a killer. This setting determines the number of particle effects and quality. So uhm, I was tweaking around and followed a tutorial on graphics and such for RD2. We want to create an inspiring environment for our members and have defined a set of guidelines. RELATED: Red Dead Redemption 2's Civilization vs. Frontier Theme Explained. Water Reflection Quality: while not as brutal as the standard Reflection Quality option, this setting can cause frames to crater a good ten or more frames when near bodies of water. Before diving headfirst into the ocean of graphics settings, check the official system requirements for the game to see how your PC stacks up. Things like campfire smoke, sparks, and more are affected by this toggle. High is fine, but Medium looks just fine and doesnt nibble on the GPU too hard. It is most noticeable on dirt roads and other surfaces not covered in vegetation. Before I break down each option and its relative impact to performance, I feel I need to highlight a couple reprobates in the crowd. Even with newer, higher end specs, finding the right settings to get the best balance between quality and performance can be a fine line. Once it has opened, make sure the "use advanced 3D image settings" is selected, as this is where all the important settings are. You will see the fps difference. Yes, I also got the 3080 and can now crank up the settings at 4K, it is definitely stunning. If you're in search of the best-looking graphics with minimal FPS loss, this might help. Reflection quality High and Mirror quality low. It appears that using this option incurs no meaningful performance penalty, so we recommend leaving it on. We recommend leaving this setting on High or Ultra as it does not seem to cause any performance hit. This slider controls how accurate the water simulation is, as well as how much player interaction can cause fluid deformation. Damn nice. If youd like a more nuanced look, check out our compatriots at Game-Debate, whose article I used to cross-reference my own findings. The Schofield is the most well-balanced sidearm and the best revolver in RDR2. Using High or Ultra looks amazing at high resolutions, but the performance hit is brutal. Here I will list my graphical setting and PC specs. Most noticeably hair and beard and also leaves on the trees looks very glitchy without AA. I actually haven't even tried playing RDR2 yet (on any platform), was waiting for the appropriate hardware. For example, if your PC is unable to stay at 60Hz or above, each dip down to 30Hz when Double Buffering is enabled will make the game feel stuttery. Triple Buffering introduces a single frame delay to ensure smooth output regardless of frame rate fluctuations below the display refresh rate. Seems to have some marginal effect, but the overall pixelated texture remains. It gives it way more detail and, well, tessellation. Best kept at the same setting you have Shadows set to for performance-quality balance. Can safely keep maxed in most cases, but dont drop below 75% unless you love pop-in. Graphics settings are saved in a file called system.xml, located within%UserProfile%\Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings. The latest addition to graphics settings is Tree Tessellation, and while its impact in the benchmark tool is around 5%, its performance impact in game can be 20% when looking directly at trees, hence the "major" impact rating and the recommendation for it to remain off. Ultra isnt too hard on frames though, if you have the VRAM to support it. TAA and FXAA will cause the game to look blurry, but MSAA will eat it entirely. Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. It doesnt eat a whole lot of frames (one to two), and since its an on/off toggle it doesnt hurt to leave this on. It's strongly recommended to set Texture Quality to Ultra regardless of the performance hit, as anything lower looks terrible. High will only free up a frame from Ultra, so this is a safe setting to max. On a rtx 2070. For more guides and content on the game, check out our RDR2 hub page. That said, all of these at max would equal the performance hit of Reflections alone when its pushed to Ultra, so if you have the bastards above reeled in, you can more liberally play with the rest of the settings. The following settings combined should have a minimal performance hit at lowest vs highest (10-15%), so therefore can probably be maxed out: Particle Quality - Ultra [Requires restart], Unlocked Volumetric Raymarch Resolution - On (Not recommended for older cards), Parallax Occlusion Mapping Quality - Ultra. It may not display this or other websites correctly. RDR2 heavily rely on Anti-aliasing. DLSS is NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling technology. Grass Shadows: these can be murder, especially if you wanna take advantage of the improved draw distances in Red Dead Redemption for PC. It is impossible to definitively test all scenarios, so the performance and settings recommendations contained within this guide are based on our own findings. Anti-aliasing in RDR2 is a frustrating mystery. Dont be me. For example, the lamps in the mayor's manor have a horrible strobing flicker effect that I could only fix by turning lighting down to medium. This has the unfortunate effect of reducing frames by a significant amount, given that there are so many trees in the game's environment. Tree Quality: This can cost between four to six frames between Low to Ultra. Noticeable when you stop and take notes, sure, but certainly not in motion. This setting will enable the game engine to cast rays into clouds in order to offer a better light simulation. SSAO helps to enhance visuals by darkening the areas where two objects or surfaces meet. The effect is not game-breaking and I'm frankly quite impressed with the graphics all the same. Press J to jump to the feed. hopefully OP doesnt mind, or maybe could even update his post with this. This setting dictates the quality of all textures in the game. Medium offers solid visuals that are not too far off from High/Ultra, allowing you to push the grass distance beyond 75% without sacrificing too many frames or muddying the visuals of grass near you. Particle Lighting: works in tandem with Particle Quality. Don't @ him. i would be more surprised if a AAA game wasn`t vastly superior in a machine like yours tbh. Because seeing most reflections in the game is tough during normal play, we recommend leaving this setting off. - Tinkering with the resolution scaling setting. Opting for the higher settings will incur a large performance penalty, so we recommend going with Medium. Tessellation Quality: this had a moderate impact to frames between Low and Ultra, though High is a fine middle ground only costing a few frames. However, it feels kind of goofy seeing these PS1/PS2 level textures pop up every now and then, so I'm interested in solving the issue if possible. My peasant eyes can't even see the screenshots, im not worthy. At these settings, you will notice some slight banding or dithering in the light, but it will run 3-4% faster than using Ultra, which offers the best light simulation and eliminates the artifacts seen in the console versions. Unless youre me: see self-deprecating insult in the bullet above. Turn this down first after messing with the hogs listed in the first section of this guide. Adjusting this option will change the Volumetrics Quality option above to Custom. Each further DLSS preset step will further lower the game's internal resolution, offering better performance at the cost of sharpness.