Best Warframe Settings for FPS on PC (Every Video Option)

The best Warframe settings for FPS are the Low or Medium Quality Preset with GPU Particles, Volumetric Fog, SSAO and SSGI turned down, post-processing effects (Motion Blur, Depth of Field, Film Grain, Bloom) off, Texture Memory matched to your VRAM, and DLSS 4 or FSR 3.1 at Quality. Warframe’s frame rate falls hardest when a full squad spams abilities, so the settings that scale with effects on screen matter far more than texture or geometry detail. Every recommendation below uses the exact names from Warframe’s Options → Display menu.

Quick answer: what to change first

Priority	Setting	FPS-first value	Why it matters
1	GPU Particles	Low (or Disabled on weak GPUs)	Biggest cost in ability-heavy fights
2	Particle System Quality	Low	Number of particles from abilities and effects
3	Volumetric Fog Quality	Disabled or Low	Heavy in open landscapes and foggy tilesets
4	SSAO Quality + SSGI	Disabled / Off	Ambient occlusion and global illumination are expensive screen-space passes
5	Upscaling → Method	DLSS 4 (RTX) or FSR 3.1, Quality	Renders fewer pixels, then upscales
6	Shadow Quality	Low or Medium	Shadow resolution costs GPU time everywhere
7	Texture Memory	Match your VRAM	Prevents hitching when VRAM runs out

Change these, play one busy mission, and only then fine-tune the rest.

Display settings

These sit at the top of Options → Display.

Setting	Recommended	Notes
Display Mode	Fullscreen	Only Fullscreen lets you pick the Refresh Rate; Borderless Fullscreen always renders at desktop resolution
Video Resolution	Native	Use Upscaling instead of a lower resolution for better image quality
Refresh Rate	Your monitor’s maximum	Only available in Fullscreen
Vertical Sync	Off with G-Sync / FreeSync; On if you see tearing on a fixed-refresh monitor	VSync caps FPS to your refresh rate
Max Framerate	Your refresh rate (e.g. 144 Hz, 165 Hz, 240 Hz)	Options run from 30 Hz to 360 Hz plus No Limit
Field of View	Personal preference	Small FPS cost; wider shows more enemies
Show FPS	On while tuning	Shows FPS, frame time, RAM, VRAM and ping to the session host

Max Framerate matters more than it looks. A steady cap at your refresh rate gives more even frame pacing than letting FPS swing between 100 and 250 — see how to cap your FPS correctly for why.

Upscaling: DLSS 4 vs FSR 3.1 vs FSR 2.2

Warframe’s Upscaling section renders the game at a lower fixed resolution and upscales it with a temporal algorithm. Digital Extremes says upscaling is most beneficial at 1080p and above.

Method	Works on	Best use
DLSS 4	NVIDIA RTX cards only	First choice on RTX; usually the cleanest image
FSR 3.1	Any modern GPU	First choice on AMD, Intel Arc and GTX cards
FSR 2.2	Any modern GPU	Fallback if FSR 3.1 shows artifacts on your setup
Off	—	Native resolution with your chosen Anti-Aliasing

Set Quality to Quality first, then Balanced if you need more frames; Performance and Ultra Performance are for 4K or very weak hardware. While any upscaler is on, Warframe makes Anti-Aliasing and Dynamic Resolution unavailable, so the upscaler handles both. For the trade-offs between the three technologies, see DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS.

Graphics settings

Quality Preset sets everything below in one go (Low / Medium / High); changing any single option switches it to Custom. Pick the preset closest to your hardware, then adjust:

Setting	Options	FPS-first value
Geometry Quality	Low – Ludicrous	Medium (Low on weak GPUs)
Shadow Quality	Low – Ludicrous	Low or Medium
Texture Memory	Low / Medium / High	Low on 4 GB, Medium on 6–8 GB, High above
Particle System Quality	Low / Medium / High	Low
GPU Particles	Disabled – Ludicrous	Low (Disabled on integrated graphics)
Anti-Aliasing	Disabled / FXAA / SMAA / TAA 8X	SMAA (Medium) if not upscaling
Anisotropic Filtering	Off / 2 / 4 / 8	4–8 on a dedicated GPU; Off on Intel integrated graphics
Trilinear Filtering	Default / On / Off	Default

Anisotropic Filtering is cheap on a modern dedicated GPU, so keep it at 4 or 8 for sharp floors. On integrated graphics it’s worth turning off: DE added the Off option specifically because it improved performance by about 10% on Intel HD Graphics.

Ludicrous presets for geometry, shadows and GPU particles are for screenshots and high-end cards — they rarely look different in motion but cost real frames in big fights.

Advanced settings

The Advanced block is where most of the free FPS hides. These are mostly on/off effects:

Setting	FPS-first value	Why
SSAO Quality	Disabled or Low	Expensive screen-space pass
SSGI	Off	Needs SSAO Medium or above anyway
Volumetric Fog Quality	Disabled or Low	Heavy in open worlds
Volumetric Lighting	Off	Light rays and lit fog
Local Reflections	Off	Screen-space reflections
Dynamic Lighting	On (Off on very old hardware)	DE added the toggle for older hardware
High Shader Quality	Off on weak GPUs	Better shaders at a GPU cost
Sun Shadows	Off for max FPS	DE: can be disabled to improve performance
Character Shadows / Contact Shadows	Off for max FPS	Extra shadow passes on characters
Enhanced Decals	Off for max FPS	Bullet decals on surfaces
Motion Blur / Depth of Field	Off	Blur hides detail and costs frames
Film Grain / Distortions / Glare	Off	Visual noise, no gameplay value
Bloom	Off or low Bloom Intensity	Bright fringes that can hide enemies
Weapon Elemental FX	Personal preference	Cosmetic
Dynamic Resolution	Disabled (if upscaling) or Auto	Auto lowers resolution when FPS drops; unavailable with upscaling
Optimized Flip-Model	On	Improves DirectX 11 performance in Borderless and Windowed; needs a restart; not available on DirectX 12
Reduce Frame Latency	On with VSync off or a G-Sync / FreeSync display	Lower latency and less VRAM; on fixed-refresh monitors at low FPS slow pans can look less smooth

If you want Warframe to still look good, the effects most worth keeping are Dynamic Lighting and Sun Shadows — they change how the game reads more than film grain or bloom do.

Settings by PC type

PC	Quality Preset	Upscaling	Texture Memory	Key changes
Low-end / integrated graphics	Low	FSR 3.1 Balanced or Performance	Low	GPU Particles Disabled, Anisotropic Off, Volumetric Fog Disabled, Sun Shadows Off
Mid-range (GTX 1660 / RX 6600 class)	Medium	FSR 3.1 Quality (DLSS 4 on RTX)	Medium	SSAO Low, SSGI Off, Volumetric Fog Low, post-processing off
High-end (RTX 4070 / RX 7800 XT and up)	High	DLSS 4 Quality or Off	High	Keep effects, cap Max Framerate at your refresh rate

DirectX 11 or DirectX 12?

Warframe lets you choose DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 (Beta) in the launcher settings (gear icon), not in the in-game menu. Test both on the same mission type for 15 minutes and keep whichever gives steadier frame times — DirectX 12 can hitch briefly the first time new effects appear while shaders are prepared. DirectX 12 needs Windows 10 20H2 or Windows 11. The full comparison is in our Warframe stuttering fix.

Windows settings that help Warframe

• Update your graphics driver — Digital Extremes calls it the most important step for any performance issue. A clean install with DDU helps if problems started after an update.
• Install Warframe on an SSD so new areas load without pauses.
• Close overlays and apps that monitor system, disk or network activity; DE flags them as a common cause of performance problems.
• Check your power plan and Game Mode setting — see Windows Game Mode on or off for when it helps.

If Warframe still runs badly

Low FPS with every effect off usually means something outside the video menu: a laptop on integrated graphics, VRAM at its limit, or a squad host with a bad connection (which looks like stutter but isn’t a graphics problem). Work through the Warframe stuttering fix for frame-time spikes and the Warframe crash fix if the game closes or freezes. For Windows-side latency tuning that helps every game, see How to Minimize Input Delay for Competitive Gaming.