Best Hunt: Showdown Settings for FPS and Performance

The fastest way to boost FPS in Hunt: Showdown is to set Global Illumination and Shadow Quality to Medium or Low, enable DLSS or FSR on Quality if you’re GPU-limited, and run a stable FPS cap. The 1896 update moved Hunt to a heavier CryEngine, so these changes recover the most frames while keeping long-range enemies readable. This guide covers the best graphics, upscaling, and Windows settings for smoother frames and stable 1% lows.

The goal is stable frames and clear sightlines across the bayou — not maxed Global Illumination that tanks your FPS in a firefight.

Best Hunt: Showdown settings

Set these in Settings → Video and Advanced:

Setting	Recommended value
Display Mode	Fullscreen
V-Sync	Off
Frame Rate Limit	Cap slightly below refresh
Upscaling	DLSS / FSR — Quality (if GPU-limited)
Global Illumination	Medium or Low
Shadow Quality	Low–Medium
Object Detail	Medium
Texture Quality	High (Medium on 8 GB VRAM)
Texture Filtering	High (cheap, keep it up)
Effects Quality	Medium
Volumetric Fog	Low
Post Processing	Low
Motion Blur	Off
Depth of Field	Off

The most expensive settings are Global Illumination, Shadow Quality, Object Detail, and Volumetric Fog — lower these first for the biggest FPS gain with the least visual loss. Keep Texture Filtering high and Texture Quality as high as your VRAM allows for sharp long-range detail.

Why Hunt is more demanding after 1896

The 1896 update rebuilt Hunt: Showdown on a newer CryEngine with upgraded lighting and streaming. That raised both VRAM and CPU load, so hardware that maxed the old engine now needs lower Global Illumination and Texture settings to hold the same frame rate. Most of the new stutter is shader compilation and asset streaming under that heavier load — the settings above ease it, and the checklist below frees up the CPU. For hitching specifically, see Hunt: Showdown Stuttering Fix.

Display and frame pacing first

These give the biggest improvement instantly:

1. Use Fullscreen for the lowest input delay.
2. Turn V-Sync off — cap your FPS instead to avoid added latency.
3. Cap your frame rate for even frame times (see caps below).
4. Turn Motion Blur and Depth of Field off for a cleaner, more responsive image.

Good FPS cap starting points

• 60 FPS for 60 Hz
• 117 FPS for 120 Hz
• 141 FPS for 144 Hz

A stable cap below your refresh keeps frame times even between quiet traversal and loud compound fights. For the reasoning, see How to Cap Your FPS Correctly.

Upscaling in Hunt: Showdown

Hunt supports DLSS (NVIDIA RTX) and FSR (AMD and older cards). Use it when you’re GPU-limited:

• Start with DLSS/FSR on Quality at 1440p and 4K for a large FPS boost with minimal clarity loss.
• Drop to Balanced at 1080p only if Quality still isn’t enough — Hunt rewards clear sightlines, so don’t over-upscale.
• On a strong card at 1080p, leave it off and lower Global Illumination and shadows instead.

For which upscaler to pick, see DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS for Gaming.

Best settings by goal

Smoother 1080p on a weaker PC

• Global Illumination, shadows, and object detail to Low
• FSR/DLSS Balanced on, textures down a step if VRAM is tight
• sensible FPS cap, motion blur and depth of field off

Cleaner high-refresh setup

• DLSS Quality, Global Illumination and shadows to Medium
• Texture Quality High, Object Detail Medium
• prioritize stable frame times and clear sightlines over ultra lighting

Windows-side checks worth doing

1. Install Hunt: Showdown on an NVMe SSD with 15–20% free space — traversal stutter is worse on slow drives.
2. Let shaders compile on a fresh session and clear the shader cache after big patches. See Clear Shader Cache to Fix Stuttering.
3. Update to the latest stable GPU driver and verify game files after each update.
4. Disable VBS for extra CPU headroom — Hunt is CPU-bound in dense compounds.
5. Close overlays, browsers, and capture tools you don’t need.

For deeper system tuning, use How to Minimize Input Delay for Competitive Gaming and The Ultimate Guide to Timer Resolution for Gaming + Tier1Suite.

Build your Hunt: Showdown cluster

• Hunt: Showdown Stuttering Fix
• Hunt: Showdown Lowest Input Lag Settings
• Hunt: Showdown Stretched Resolution Guide

Related guides

• How to Cap Your FPS Correctly
• DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS for Gaming
• How to Disable VBS to Fix Low FPS in Games

The best Hunt: Showdown settings keep your frame rate stable and your sightlines clear after the 1896 engine change. Drop Global Illumination, shadows, and object detail first, keep textures high if your VRAM allows, lean on Quality upscaling when GPU-limited, and cap your FPS to smooth out the traversal and fight swings.