Turning down the heaviest graphics settings
Also searched as: lower graphics settings fps · lower settings for fps · reduce graphics fps · turn down shadows fps · drop settings fps
What it does
Dropping the GPU-heavy in-game settings — ray tracing, shadows, reflections, volumetric fog, view distance — to gain frames.
The honest verdict
After resolution, this is the most reliable FPS lever there is, and it is honest about the trade: these settings cost real GPU work, so turning the few heaviest ones down buys real, measurable frames. The trick is they are not equal — ray tracing, shadow quality, and volumetric/cloud effects are usually the expensive ones, while textures (if you have the video memory for them) and anisotropic filtering are nearly free and worth keeping. Drop the top two or three offenders from Ultra to High/Medium and you often keep most of the look for a big chunk of the frames. Use the game's built-in benchmark to see which setting moves YOUR number, instead of nuking everything to Low and playing an ugly game for frames you did not need.
How Compy treats it
Where it genuinely fits a rig, Compy can recommend it — applied with a snapshot first and a one-click rollback after, like every change it makes.
The Compy Blackbook holds 174 graded entries like this one, judged against your hardware — and every change it does make is reversible, with the receipt to prove it.
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