More FPS without
losing what matters

The average lies: watch stability

The big number your counter shows is an average, and the average hides exactly what bothers you.

A machine running at 90 frames that drops to 45 at the start drives worse than one locked at 60. Because the stutter always arrives at the worst moment: when there are twenty cars around you, which is when you need the most precision.

So the goal isn't "more FPS". It's never dropping. Two practical consequences:

• Tune while watching the minimum at a race start, not the average alone.
• Cap the frame rate at a figure you can always hold. A stable ceiling feels smoother than a high peak followed by a drop.

What to lower first

In order of what gives back most for the least cost to driving:

1. Shadows and shadow quality. Among the most expensive things there is and among the most useless for driving. Always the first cut.
2. Ambient occlusion. Contact shading. Pretty, expensive, dispensable.
3. Reflections. Lower their resolution and update frequency.
4. Post-processing: motion blur, depth of field, lens flare. As well as costing performance, they get in the way.
5. Particle and smoke quality. Little real visual impact, high cost at starts and spins.
6. Excessive multisampling. Drop a step before touching anything important.

What never to touch

These settings aren't decoration: they're information you need to drive.

• Draw distance. If cars appear out of nowhere, you can't anticipate. The last thing to lower.
• Active mirrors. Reduce their quality, don't switch them off. Racing without mirrors is racing blind.
• Anisotropic filtering. Cheap, and it makes mid-distance tarmac readable.
• Basic anti-aliasing. Without it, boards and track edges shimmer, and that's exhausting over a long stint.
• Native screen resolution. Going below native blurs exactly what you need to read.

The setting that gives back most in a race

If you can only change one thing: the number of visible cars.

Every car on screen costs geometry, shadows, reflections and physics. It's the setting that explains why you're smooth alone and stuttering at the start.

How to use it sensibly:

• Lower it until the start runs steadily. Ten or twelve visible cars is usually enough.
• Don't lower it too far: if you stop seeing the car coming up behind, you'll cause incidents. It's a performance setting with sporting consequences.

And something almost nobody checks: overlay apps. Telemetry, dashboards, live graphs. Each one is drawn every frame. Keep the two you actually use and close the rest.

A twenty-minute method

1. Starting point: the medium preset, not high.
2. Measure in the worst case: a race with a full grid, rain if possible. Not a solo lap.
3. Cut the cheap block: shadows, occlusion, post-processing. Measure again.
4. Adjust visible cars until the minimum at the start is stable.
5. Cap the frame rate at something you always hold.
6. Raise what you do see: draw distance and anti-aliasing, while the minimum holds.

Proof you got it right: you do a start with a full grid and feel no stutter at all. If that's true, anything else you could raise is optional.

If you're on VR or triples the bar is higher: covered in triples or VR. And if the machine is short to begin with, check the requirements before spending.

Frequently asked