With the right graphics settings, you can significantly increase your FPS in Arc Raiders – with almost no visible loss of quality.
Arc Raiders is the new darling of the PC community: The shooter from Embark Studios has not only risen to the top of the Steam bestsellers , but has also received strong reviews: Over 90 percent of players currently give it a thumbs up.
With a peak of around 264,000 simultaneously active players, it is also one of the seven most played games on Steam at the moment.
No wonder, then, that many gamers want to get the most out of the game, especially in terms of performance.
Arc Raiders impresses with its detailed sci-fi world based on Unreal Engine 5, and also shows that the much-criticized game engine can be quite efficient and performant.
Despite the elaborate effects and dynamic lighting, the game runs surprisingly smoothly on many systems. In this article, we’ll show you how to get a few extra FPS out of it anyway.
Graphics settings
Here is an overview of the options that have the greatest impact on performance and how to set them optimally:
| Setting | Recommendation (mid- to high-end, 4K) | FPS impact* | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-aliasing | TAAU | Very high | Modern upscalers offer a clean image with significantly better performance than classic anti-aliasing. |
| DLSS model | Depends on the GPU | High | The newer Transformer model delivers sharper, more stable upscaling, but at a noticeable performance cost compared to the CNN version. |
| Motion blur | Off | Low | Provides a cinematic look, but reduces clarity and can be distracting during fast movements. |
| View distance | High to Epic | High | Determines how far objects, vegetation, and details remain visible. |
| Anti-aliasing | Epic | None | Effectively smooths edges, costs little performance, but visibly improves the overall image. |
| Shadows | Medium | High | Strong impact on FPS – medium level provides a good balance between sharpness and performance. |
| Post-processing | Medium | Very High | Bloom, lens flare, and motion blur add a more cinematic look, but cost a lot of performance. |
| Texture | Epic | Low | Hardly any loss of performance, but significantly sharper surfaces – almost always worthwhile. Especially since the game is very memory-friendly. |
| Effects | Medium to High | Low to Medium | Less smoke and particles ensure more stable FPS in action-packed scenes. |
| Reflections | Medium | Medium to High | Realistic reflections look good but are GPU-intensive, especially on water surfaces. |
| Foliage | High | Medium | Controls how plants are rendered – higher values look more natural but cost GPU performance in open areas. |
| Global illumination | Medium | Medium to high | Strongly influences lighting mood and dynamics, but consumes comparatively moderate computing power. |
Very high
(over +10 percent), High
(+7.5 to +10 percent), Medium
(+2.5 to +5 percent), Low
(+1 to +2.5 percent), None
(0 to +1 percent).
*Always based on Epic
compared to Low
.
Ray tracing: Only useful for high-end systems
Arc Raiders offers optional ray tracing for more realistic global illumination
. The visual difference is noticeable, but not game-changing – and it comes at a noticeable performance cost (around 20 percent).
If you don’t have an RTX 4080, RX 7900 XTX, or better card, you should disable ray tracing in 4K resolution. Unless the following options are available:
Frame Generation: More Images
The Steam hit supports (multi-)frame generation, which calculates additional intermediate images to significantly increase the visible frame rate. The result: smoother movements, especially in GPU-limited scenes.
However, latency (input delay) increases slightly, and minimal artifacts may occasionally be visible. This is hardly noticeable for single-player or co-op PvE, but it can be a disadvantage in competitive PvP scenarios.
DLSS and other upscalers: More FPS with the same sharpness
The game supports DLSS (Nvidia), FSR (AMD), XeSS (Intel), TAAU, and TSR (internal UE5 upscaling).
All methods noticeably increase the frame rate by rendering at a lower resolution and intelligently upscaling the image. The performance gain is dramatic.
For most systems, the following applies:
General quality level: basis for fine-tuning
Like many games, ARC Raiders offers several presets (Low
, Medium
, High
, Epic
). These are a good starting point for quickly finding the right performance baseline.
Recommendation:
- “Epic” for high-end devices (RTX 4090, RTX 5090)
High
for upper-class systems (RTX 5070 Ti, RX 9070 XT).Medium
for stable FPS on mid-range GPUs (RTX 4060, RX 7600).Low
only for weaker setups (RTX 2070, RX 5700).
Ideally, you should use a preset and then adjust individual options as needed. This will help you quickly find the perfect balance between graphics and performance.
Conclusion: Highly optimized, even better with fine tuning
ARC Raiders impressively proves that games based on Unreal Engine 5 don’t necessarily have to be performance killers. The developers have optimized the shooter excellently; even on mid-range hardware, it runs amazingly smoothly.
However, if you adjust a few options, you can get even more out of your system: Reduced shadow quality, adjusted viewing distance, and activated upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS / TSR) ensure stable FPS without compromising the impressive visuals.
With features such as (multi-)frame generation and the new Transformer-based DLSS model, ARC Raiders also demonstrates how modern AI technologies can improve image quality and performance at the same time. The result: a dynamic, fluid shooter that sets new visual standards without any stuttering.
