The long-awaited sequel to Dragon’s Dogma comes with several improvements to gameplay immersion, and part of those are the numerous graphical enhancements. It has been 10 years since the first game was released, and although Dragon’s Dogma 2 certainly feels like a more modern game in terms of its impressive visuals, it retains much of the aesthetic charm that the original had. Still, if you’re playing on PC, you’ll want to get the most out of the graphics settings so that you can balance those attractive visuals with decent FPS. On this page, we’ll give you our best tips and recommendations to get the most out of the graphics settings while improving your max FPS.

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Dragon’s Dogma 2 is up there with the best modern RPGs when it comes to visual quality, but it’s tough on CPUs in particular.

Best PC Graphics Settings for Max FPS – Dragon’s Dogma 2¶

The graphics settings available in the options for Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be familiar to most PC gamers who are accustomed to modern RPGs. You have the usual basic settings such as Texture Quality, Shadow Quality, and Motion Blur, but there are a few additional settings that aren’t present in most RPGs yet should still be familiar to those who enjoy modding RPGs, such as Mesh Quality. There are a few different quality presets that you can play with, but it’ll take some time for you to test them all on your own. So, to save you the hassle, we’ve done a bit of testing ourselves to achieve the best balance of FPS and visual quality. You can see the table below for a brief overview of our recommended settings.

It should be noted that the settings recommended below won’t necessarily be suitable for every player. A lot will depend on the components of each individual rig, but we’re generally targeting those who have mid-high-level hardware. If you find that you’re still struggling to maintain 60 FPS using these settings, you can try lowering some of those that have the highest impact, which we’ll discuss in more detail below. Also, note that we haven’t included some settings such as DLSS or FidelityFX. The reason for this is that we recommend most players use these by default since only those with the most powerful rigs will be able to run the game with 60+ FPS with everything on high without the use of DLSS or FFX, especially in 4k.

There are a couple of settings here that you can tweak further if your hardware allows. For example, different levels of Texture Quality can be adjusted to your preference, such as High (3GB) instead of High (2GB). It will depend on what your components can handle, but most of those listed in the table above are affected by GPU performance rather than CPU performance, with the main exception of Resource-Intense Effects Quality. We’ll talk a bit more about the impact of CPU usage in Dragon’s Dogma 2 below.

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Details on landscape features such as the stonework on this aqueduct will be impacted by things like texture quality settings.

DLSS, FFX, and Dynamic Resolution¶

So, we’ve covered the basic settings that can have a significant impact on performance in the table above. If you have a decent rig, you should be able to get away with “High” settings for most of these, but you may need to reduce some if your rig is still struggling, or if you’re not comfortable with the occasional dip to 45-55 FPS in certain environments, such as busy cities like Vernworth. With that said, one of the most impactful settings that you can adjust to improve general performance is DLSS (Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling) or FFX (AMD’s Fidelity FX Super Resolution).

If you’re not already familiar with what these do, they essentially allow your hardware to output higher resolution graphics from a lower resolution input to improve the framerate. They can be particularly useful for those using 4k monitors, but they’ll be helpful to anyone playing in 2k or even lower if you’re struggling to maintain consistent frames. The version you use will depend on your hardware, but generally, if you have an Nvidia card, you should use DLSS, and those with AMD cards should use Fidelity FX. That being said, some players may experience better performance with one or the other, even if they don’t have the associated hardware, so it can be worth experimenting with.

Dynamic Resolution – On or Off?¶

In terms of Dynamic Resolution, this should in theory allow you to maintain a consistent 60+ FPS regardless of your resolution setting, but the actual resolution that is being output will vary. For example, if you’re using a 4k monitor and you have 60+ FPS, you should maintain a 4k resolution. However, if your FPS drops to 30 or 40, the resolution will be lowered to a point until your hardware can achieve the target FPS again. However, after testing this feature for ourselves, it didn’t seem to function properly in the same way that it often does in other games, so we may need to await an update from Capcom until this setting can be properly utilized. In the meantime, if you’re not having any noticeable trouble with FPS, you can turn this setting off.

What Is DLSS Nvidia Reflex Low Latency?¶

If you’re wondering about what the DLSS Nvidia Reflex Low Latency setting is, and how it can impact gameplay in Dragon’s Dogma 2, it’s safe to say that unless you have the absolute best hardware available, you’ll want to keep this setting off. The main reason for this is that if you turn it on, it will most likely tank your FPS to unplayable levels. This is because the setting basically forces your PC to push through all the frames required by the game at any given moment, even if it puts an unmanageable load on your hardware. The setting is intended to reduce input lag, but in a game like DD2, it won’t make much difference to responsiveness, while it will make the game unplayable for most underpowered rigs. You can try turning it on to see for yourself, but we recommend keeping it off.

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Lighting effects and global illumination from ray tracing will be especially taxing for those with older CPUs.

Is Dragon’s Dogma 2 CPU Bottlenecked?¶

The main thing you need to understand about how Dragon’s Dogma 2 utilizes your hardware is that it draws on CPU usage much more than older RPGs. The underlying systems of the game are more complex than you might expect, with a lot of variables at play at any given time, and these are best handled by a good CPU. This means that even if you have a good GPU, such as a 3080 or better, if your CPU is underpowered, it’ll be the main bottleneck when it comes to achieving high FPS of 60 or above.

Interlaced vs Progressive Rendering¶

Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do about this while maintaining the best visuals, other than investing in a decent CPU to future-proof your rig. With that said, if you don’t mind compromising on some visual effects, there are a few settings that you can tweak to improve your FPS and reduce the bottleneck strain on your CPU. Chief among these is arguably Rendering Mode, which has two options between “Interlaced” and “Progressive”. These rendering techniques can mean different things for different games (and media formats), so we won’t bother you by confusing things with an attempt at a technical explanation. Instead, it’s enough to know that we experienced more consistent framerates when using Interlaced, so it may be worth trying if it’s not already selected by default.

Image Quality and Resource-Intensive Effects Quality¶

The other two settings that can have a significant impact on framerate in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are Image Quality and Resource-Intensive Effects Quality. The former is a bit confusing since we already have base settings for texture and mesh quality. However, whereas those basic settings don’t have much impact if you’re CPU bottlenecked (although they can if you’re more GPU bottlenecked), the general Image Quality setting can have a massive impact on overall performance. It should be set at the mid-way point by default, but if you turn it down one or two notches, you may notice drastic improvements to overall FPS.

If you reduce the Image Quality setting to near its lowest setting, you will notice that detailed textures take a significant visual hit. However, if you lower it slightly and see how that changes your FPS, you can find a compromise that works for you, with a balance of visual quality and consistent FPS. In terms of the Resource-Intensive Effects Quality setting, this one comes with just two options: “Low” and “High”. Changing it to “Low” will remove many of the special visual effects that are observed from Mage and Sorcerer spells, for example, but also change the quality of fire effects from monsters such as dragons. You should avoid changing this to “Low” if at all possible, so try playing with the other settings first, but if you really want those extra frames and you’re CPU bottlenecked, it may help to change this setting.

Is DLSS3 and FSR3 Coming for Dragon’s Dogma 2?¶

At present, the best thing that will improve FPS in Dragon’s Dogma 2 if you’re CPU bottlenecked is the implementation of DLSS3 (or FSR3 for AMD cards). This works differently to DLSS2, since it actively generates frames that don’t need to be rendered in the traditional way, thereby giving you increased perceived framerates with (ideally) a negligible impact on visual quality. As of launch, DLSS3/FSR3 isn’t supported by Dragon’s Dogma 2, and it’s only usable by those with 40 series Nvidia graphics cards (or AMD’s equivalent), but it’s worth keeping an eye on if you’d rather not invest in a better CPU for the time being.

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Your FPS is likely to tank while you’re in the main cities in Dragon’s Dogma 2, even with a relatively powerful rig.

Is FPS Worse in Cities in Dragon’s Dogma 2?¶

As you may have already noticed, FPS is significantly lower within large settlements in Dragon’s Dogma 2. This is mostly because there is much more to render at once in these feature-rich locations, especially in a complex game like this. The good news is that you won’t necessarily be doing much fighting in cities, so it’s better to take an FPS hit in them rather than during an intense fight with a Drake in the wilderness, for example. Even if you’re CPU bottlenecked, you should see a noticeable improvement for FPS outside of settlements in Dragon’s Dogma 2, which is often where it matters most to have consistent FPS.

We hope the above discussion helps you to achieve more consistent FPS in Dragon’s Dogma 2. There isn’t much that you need to change if you already have a decent GPU, but there are a few key settings that can improve performance for those who are bottlenecked by their CPU. It’s worth reiterating that each player may experience different outcomes based on their specific combination of hardware, so if you find that your rig falls short of some of the recommended specs, it might be worth considering an upgrade. If that’s not feasible right now, try playing with some of the settings noted above, and see what you can achieve in terms of a balanced outcome with consistent FPS and visual quality in mind.