Best The First Descendant Settings for FPS and Performance
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The best The First Descendant settings turn ray tracing off, enable DLSS or FSR upscaling at Quality, and keep textures below your VRAM limit — that combination gives the biggest, most stable FPS gain in this Unreal Engine 5 shooter. The First Descendant is mostly GPU-bound at 1440p and 4K, so the wins come from cutting the two expensive costs (ray tracing and upscaling load) rather than chasing every slider.
Do this first: the shader cache and settle time
Before you touch a graphics slider, fix the thing that silently caps performance. Unreal Engine 5 compiles shaders on demand, and a too-small GPU shader cache makes it re-compile the same ones repeatedly.
- NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → Shader Cache Size → 100 GB (or Unlimited).
- After any settings change, play 15 minutes before judging — The First Descendant recompiles shaders in the background when settings change, so the first few minutes always look worse than the real result.
Skipping this makes every other setting below look worse than it is.
Best The First Descendant graphics settings
Set these in Settings → Graphics / Display. Exact labels may shift slightly between patches, but the categories are stable:
| Setting | Recommended | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Display Mode | Fullscreen (exclusive) | Lower latency than borderless |
| Ray Tracing | Off | Only affects ambient occlusion; costs ~30% FPS — biggest single win |
| Upscaling | DLSS / FSR / XeSS — Quality | Large FPS gain; DLSS sharpest on NVIDIA, FSR softer |
| Frame Generation | Off until 60+ real FPS | Adds latency and can hitch on zone loads |
| Textures | High — but below where VRAM fills | Keep off the VRAM limit to avoid spikes |
| Shadows | Medium | Meaningful cost, little visible loss |
| Effects Quality | Medium | Helps in dense boss fights |
| Visibility / Object Quality | High | Little FPS cost, big clarity gain — spend budget here |
| Anti-aliasing | Handled by upscaler (DLSS/FSR) | No need to stack extra AA |
| Motion Blur | Off | Hides target detail, adds perceived latency |
Watch VRAM in an FPS overlay during real play. If it sits at 95-100%, drop Textures one tier — that removes the slow-building spike pattern more reliably than any other single change.
Upscaling and Frame Generation, explained simply
- Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS) renders the game at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs it to your display resolution. On Quality the image loss is small and the FPS gain is large — leave it on. On NVIDIA prefer DLSS; FSR works everywhere but can look softer and noisier in The First Descendant.
- Frame Generation is different: it inserts generated frames between real ones. It raises the counter but does nothing for input latency, and in The First Descendant it can hitch every time you load a new area. Turn it on only once your real frame rate is already above 60. The trade-off is covered in frame generation input lag explained.
Windows and system settings
Graphics settings only go so far if the system underneath is fighting you:
- Enable XMP/EXPO so your RAM runs at its rated speed — a UE5 streaming game is sensitive to memory bandwidth. See how to enable XMP or EXPO.
- Install on an SSD (NVMe ideally) and keep 15-20% free — mechanical drives cause traversal hitches. See NVMe vs SATA SSD for gaming.
- Use the High Performance / Ultimate power plan so the CPU doesn’t downclock mid-fight.
- Lower a very high mouse polling rate (8000 Hz → 1000 Hz) if your FPS dips when you move the mouse fast — see mouse polling rate explained.
- Cap your FPS a few frames below your worst-case low with RTSS — a steady cap feels smoother than a swinging average. See best FPS cap for low latency.
For the deeper input-latency layer — timer resolution, low-latency mode and frame pacing — start with how to minimize input delay for competitive gaming.
If it still stutters
Higher FPS and smooth frame time aren’t the same thing. If you’re getting the frame rate but still feel hitching, that’s the shader cache, Frame Generation, or VRAM — walk through the dedicated The First Descendant stuttering fix, which covers frame-time diagnosis, the Frame Generation zone-load hitch, and FPS caps in detail.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What are the best The First Descendant graphics settings for FPS?
Turn Ray Tracing off, set Upscaling to DLSS or FSR Quality, keep Textures as high as your VRAM allows, drop Shadows and Effects to Medium, and turn Motion Blur off. Ray tracing only affects ambient occlusion but costs about 30% FPS, so disabling it is the biggest single gain. Then spend your remaining budget on Visibility and Object Quality, which barely cost FPS but sharpen the image.
Should I turn off ray tracing in The First Descendant?
Yes, for almost everyone. Ray tracing in The First Descendant only changes ambient occlusion and costs at least 30% FPS on most systems, which is a bad trade in a fast horde shooter where a stable high frame rate matters more than subtle shadow contact. Even RTX 40-series owners get smoother, more consistent frame time with it off. Leave it off and put the frames into refresh rate instead.
Is DLSS or FSR better in The First Descendant?
On NVIDIA GPUs use DLSS — it reconstructs a sharper image than FSR in The First Descendant, where FSR can look blurry or noisy. On AMD and Intel GPUs, FSR or XeSS is your option and still gives a large FPS boost at Quality. Start on Quality at 1080p and 1440p, and move to Balanced at 4K if you need more frames. Upscaling also handles anti-aliasing, so you don't need to stack extra AA on top.
Should I use Frame Generation in The First Descendant?
Only if you already hold 60+ real FPS. The First Descendant's Frame Generation can double the number on your counter but adds latency and often hitches when you load into a new area, so at a low base frame rate it makes the game feel worse. Above 60 real FPS it smooths high-refresh play; below that, leave it off and raise your real frame rate with ray tracing off and upscaling on first.
Why is my The First Descendant FPS low on a good GPU?
Usually ray tracing, the shader cache, or VRAM. Ray tracing costs ~30% and is easy to leave on by accident. A too-small NVIDIA Shader Cache Size makes Unreal Engine 5 re-compile shaders constantly, capping performance — set it to 100 GB. And textures above your VRAM limit cause spikes on 8 GB cards. Turn ray tracing off, raise the shader cache, drop textures one tier, and give the game 15 minutes to settle after any change.