Best Elden Ring Settings for FPS and a Stable 60
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The best Elden Ring settings for FPS are simple: turn Ray Tracing Quality off, turn Motion Blur and Depth of Field off, and leave most other options on High — then drop Shadow, Grass, Volumetric and Effects Quality to Medium only if you still dip below 60. Elden Ring on PC is locked to 60 FPS, so the target is a frame rate that never falls under 60, not the biggest average. Ray tracing is the only setting that costs a lot on its own; every other slider costs a few percent.
What makes Elden Ring different
Three facts change how you tune Elden Ring compared with most PC games:
- The 60 FPS cap. Gameplay is locked to 60 FPS. Extra GPU headroom does not raise the frame rate; it only protects you from dips.
- No upscaling. Elden Ring has no DLSS, FSR or XeSS, so you can’t buy back FPS with an upscaler the way you can in newer games.
- CPU and streaming stutter. Many drops come from shader compilation and asset streaming when you enter new areas. Graphics settings don’t fix those; see the Elden Ring stuttering fix.
That’s why the settings below protect the 60 FPS floor rather than chase averages.
Best Elden Ring settings
Set these in System → Graphics. Set Quality Settings to Custom to edit the advanced options.
| Setting | Recommended | Weaker GPU | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen Mode | Fullscreen | Fullscreen | Most consistent frame pacing |
| Resolution | Native | Native or one step down | 16:9 only; ultrawide is not supported |
| Auto-detect Best Rendering Settings | Off | Off | Lets you control each option |
| Texture Quality | High | Medium | Low VRAM cost: around 5 GB at 1440p |
| Antialiasing Quality | High | Medium | Small cost |
| SSAO | High | Medium | Small cost |
| Depth of Field | Off | Off | Blurs the scene for no gameplay gain |
| Motion Blur | Off | Off | Hides detail during camera movement |
| Shadow Quality | High | Medium | Larger cost on weaker GPUs |
| Lighting Quality | High | Medium | Small cost |
| Effects Quality | High | Medium | Spell and particle-heavy fights |
| Volumetric Quality | High | Medium | Fog and light shafts; one of the bigger raster costs |
| Reflection Quality | High | Medium | Small cost |
| Water Surface Quality | High | Low | Negligible outside water areas |
| Shader Quality | High | Medium | Small cost |
| Global Illumination Quality | High | Medium | Small cost |
| Grass Quality | High | Medium | Matters most in open fields and the Erdtree DLC |
| Ray Tracing Quality | Off | Off | The single biggest FPS cost |
On a mid-range or better GPU from the last few generations, this table holds 60 FPS at 1080p and 1440p with ray tracing off. If you still drop below 60 in the open world, lower Shadow, Grass and Volumetric Quality first.
Ray tracing: the setting that matters
Ray Tracing Quality is the only Elden Ring setting with a large cost on its own. Benchmarks of the ray tracing update measured roughly a 10% FPS loss at 1080p, 14% at 1440p and about 40% at 4K with ray tracing at maximum. What you get back is mostly softer shadows and ambient occlusion, and it adds to the CPU load that already causes Elden Ring’s hitching.
| Ray Tracing Quality | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Off | Default for a stable 60, any GPU |
| Low or Medium | High-end GPU with headroom at 1080p or 1440p |
| High or Maximum | Only if you hold a steady 60 with it on and want the visuals |
On AMD GPUs, ray tracing costs more than on NVIDIA, so keep it off unless you have clear headroom.
Everything else costs a few percent
Outside ray tracing, each Elden Ring graphics option costs only a few percent of FPS on its own in benchmarks on modern GPUs. Shadow, Grass, Volumetric and Effects Quality are among the larger raster costs. Together they add up, which is why dropping four of them to Medium is the right move on a weaker GPU. Dropping one to Low rarely makes a visible difference to the frame rate.
The reverse also holds: if you are comfortably above 60 with headroom, there is no performance reason to run Medium on settings like Lighting, Reflection or Shader Quality.
Shadow of the Erdtree needs more headroom
Shadow of the Erdtree’s open areas are heavier than the base game, with dense foliage and complex lighting. A setup that holds 60 in Limgrave can dip in the DLC. If it does:
- Turn Ray Tracing Quality off if it isn’t already.
- Drop Grass Quality and Shadow Quality to Medium.
- Drop Volumetric Quality and Effects Quality to Medium.
These four cover most DLC dips that settings can fix. CPU-side hitching in the DLC needs the stutter fixes, not lower settings.
No DLSS or FSR: your options
Elden Ring has no built-in upscaler, and no patch has added one. If your GPU can’t hold 60 at native resolution:
- Lower the resolution and use driver scaling. NVIDIA Image Scaling (NVIDIA Control Panel or NVIDIA App) or AMD Radeon Super Resolution (Adrenalin) upscale a lower render resolution in fullscreen.
- Lower the settings first. Ray tracing off plus the “Weaker GPU” column above is usually enough on mid-range cards.
- Community upscaling mods exist (DLSS/FSR/XeSS injectors), but they modify game files and need Easy Anti-Cheat off, which means offline play only.
The 60 FPS cap and FPS unlockers
Elden Ring’s 60 FPS cap can’t be removed officially. Community tools such as Elden Ring FPS Unlocker raise the cap, but they only work with Easy Anti-Cheat disabled, so you are limited to offline play. Using modified files online risks a ban. If anti-cheat is already blocking your launch, see the Elden Ring Easy Anti-Cheat error fix.
For the 60 FPS cap itself, the best experience on a high-refresh monitor is G-SYNC or FreeSync on so that any dip below 60 doesn’t tear or judder. See how to set up G-SYNC and FreeSync correctly.
Windows-side checks
- Install Elden Ring on an SSD. Streaming from a hard drive makes traversal hitching worse; see NVMe vs SATA SSD for gaming.
- Keep your GPU driver current, and clean-install it if problems started after an update.
- Close background apps — browsers, recording software and RGB suites compete for the CPU time Elden Ring needs.
- Enable XMP or EXPO so your RAM runs at its rated speed; Elden Ring is sensitive to CPU and memory performance.
- Windows timing: a consistent system timer helps frame pacing in CPU-limited games; the timer resolution guide explains how and when it helps.
Summary
Turn Ray Tracing Quality off, Motion Blur and Depth of Field off, and keep the rest on High. If you dip below 60, drop Shadow, Grass, Volumetric and Effects Quality to Medium — that covers most cases, including Shadow of the Erdtree. Hitching when entering new areas is a stutter problem, not a settings problem, and the Elden Ring stuttering fix covers it.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What are the best Elden Ring settings for FPS?
Turn Ray Tracing Quality off, set Motion Blur and Depth of Field off, and use High for most other options, dropping Shadow, Grass, Volumetric and Effects Quality to Medium if you still miss 60 FPS. Ray tracing is the only setting with a large cost on its own; the rest cost a few percent each. Because Elden Ring is capped at 60 FPS, the goal is a frame rate that never drops below 60, not the highest average.
Can you unlock the 60 FPS cap in Elden Ring?
Not officially. Elden Ring on PC is locked to 60 FPS and FromSoftware has never added a higher cap. Community tools such as Elden Ring FPS Unlocker remove the cap, but they only run with Easy Anti-Cheat disabled, which means offline play only. Using modified files online risks a ban, so treat an unlocker as an offline-only option.
Does Elden Ring have DLSS or FSR?
No. Elden Ring has no built-in DLSS, FSR or XeSS, and no post-launch patch has added them. You can lower the render resolution and use driver-level scaling such as NVIDIA Image Scaling or AMD Radeon Super Resolution, or use community upscaling mods offline. On most modern GPUs it is easier to reach 60 FPS by turning ray tracing off.
How much does ray tracing cost in Elden Ring?
Ray tracing is the most expensive setting in Elden Ring. Benchmarks of the ray tracing update measured roughly a 10% FPS loss at 1080p, 14% at 1440p and about 40% at 4K with Ray Tracing Quality at maximum. The visual gain is modest, mostly softer shadows and ambient occlusion, so turn it off if you are not holding a steady 60 FPS.
Why does Elden Ring drop below 60 FPS with good settings?
Many Elden Ring drops are CPU-side or come from shader compilation and asset streaming, not from graphics settings, which is why lowering presets often does not remove them. They are worst when entering new areas and in dense Shadow of the Erdtree zones. Install the game on an SSD, keep your GPU driver current, close background apps, and see our Elden Ring stuttering fix for the hitching itself.