Best Avowed Settings for FPS (PC): Optimized Graphics Guide

The best Avowed settings for FPS keep Global Illumination and Shadows on High, Effects on High, ray tracing off, and DLSS or FSR at Quality — Global Illumination is the single biggest lever because it drives Lumen. Avowed is an Unreal Engine 5 game, so a few heavy settings dominate performance and the rest barely move the needle. This guide gives you a complete optimized configuration plus the reasoning behind each choice.

The fast answer: recommended Avowed graphics settings

Set these in Settings → Graphics. They target a smooth, stable 60+ FPS on mid-range hardware while keeping the look intact:

Setting	Recommended value	Why
Upscaling (DLSS / FSR)	Quality	~57% faster than native; biggest free gain
Frame Generation	On (RTX 40+), if base is stable	Smoothness boost, adds slight latency
Ray Tracing	Off	Experimental; tanks FPS and stutters
Global Illumination	High	Heaviest setting — drives Lumen
Shadow Quality	High	2nd-heaviest; Epic not worth the cost
Effects Quality	High	Medium/Low cause blocky edges
Environment/Texture Quality	High (drop 1 notch if VRAM-limited)	High unless you see pop-in
View Distance	High	Cheap; keep it up
Volumetric Fog / Clouds	Medium	Moderate cost, small visual change
Motion Blur	Off	Personal preference; costs frames
Depth of Field	Off	Blurs the image, small FPS cost

If you are chasing a specific refresh target, lower Global Illumination first, then Shadows, then Volumetric Fog — in that order — and leave everything else alone.

The three settings that actually matter

Avowed’s frame rate is decided by a short list of settings. Change these and ignore the rest.

Global Illumination — the #1 lever

Global Illumination is the single largest FPS cost in Avowed because it drives Unreal Engine 5’s software Lumen lighting. Dropping it from Epic to High recovers the most GPU headroom of any setting, and during normal play the difference is hard to see. This is the first setting to lower on any GPU.

Shadow Quality — the #2 lever

Shadows are the second-biggest GPU drain. High looks nearly identical to Epic in motion while costing far less; Epic only adds fine shadow detail you rarely notice during combat. Set Shadows to High and don’t go back to Epic unless you have frames to spare.

Effects Quality — the setting to keep high

Unlike most games, you should not lower Effects in Avowed. Medium and Low Effects introduce blocky, aliased edges around objects that look worse than the handful of frames they save. Keep Effects on High — it is the exception to the “lower everything” instinct.

Upscaling: your biggest free FPS gain

Avowed ships with DLSS 4 (NVIDIA) and FSR 3 (AMD). Set upscaling to Quality — it runs roughly 57% faster than native with minimal image loss and is the single biggest performance gain available. Enable it before you touch any quality setting. Only drop to Balanced if you still need frames at 4K. See DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS to choose the right upscaler for your GPU.

Frame Generation is available natively on RTX 40-series and above. Treat it as a smoothness multiplier on an already-stable frame rate, not a fix for low FPS — it adds a little input latency, as explained in frame generation input lag explained. If your base frame rate is below ~50, lower settings first, then turn frame gen on.

Storage, VRAM, and RAM

• Install on an SSD. Avowed streams the Living Lands continuously; an HDD causes pop-in and traversal stutter. NVMe with DirectStorage is best — see NVMe vs SATA for gaming.
• Match Texture/Environment quality to your VRAM. If textures pop in or stutter worsens over time, drop this one notch. 8 GB cards should stay at High/Medium at 1440p.
• Enable XMP/EXPO so your RAM runs at rated speed — it stabilizes 1% lows in this streaming-heavy game.

Fix the stutter, then cap your frame rate

If Avowed hitches badly in the first minute or two of a session, add D3D12.PSO.DriverOptimizedDiskCache=1 to Engine.ini — the full walkthrough is in our Avowed stuttering fix. Once frame times are smooth, cap your FPS to a value your PC holds steadily; a stable capped rate feels far better than an uncapped one that swings. See how to cap your FPS correctly and best FPS cap for low latency.

Windows-side wins

• Update your GPU driver (or clean-install with DDU when upgrading).
• Disable VBS for a measurable FPS bump.
• Set a high-performance power plan and confirm Game Mode.
• Show an FPS overlay so you can verify each change is helping.

Next steps

With graphics dialed in, the last gains are in responsiveness. Lower system input lag with the timer resolution guide and the input delay guide. If you are still getting hitches, work through the Avowed stuttering fix step by step.