Arc Raiders looks beautiful, but that beauty is not free. The game runs on a custom Unreal Engine 5 build that puts a lot of pressure on your CPU, not just your GPU. If your FPS is low or inconsistent, you feel it in every duel through late peeks, skipped frames, and awkward stutters.
Learning how to increase FPS in Arc Raiders is less about one magic toggle and more about a clear plan. You want smarter graphics settings, clean upscaling, a few safe config tweaks, and a Windows setup that stays out of your way.
This guide walks you through all of that step by step, using simple language and focusing on changes that actually help you win more raids, not just make screenshots prettier.
Core Graphics Settings For Higher FPS
Start with the in game video settings. These change how hard the engine works every frame and how much your CPU and GPU argue with each other.
Here is a solid baseline that works well on most mid range and high end PCs:
| Setting | Recommended Value | What It Does For You |
| RTX Global Illumination | Static | Big FPS gain and more stable visibility in interiors |
| Global Illumination Resolution | Low | Cuts lighting cost with small visual impact |
| Shadows | Low | Fewer CPU heavy draw calls and less noisy tiny shadows |
| Ambient Occlusion | Low or Off | Cleaner corners and a small FPS boost |
| Foliage Quality | Low | Less grass clutter so prone players are easier to spot |
| View Distance | Medium or High | Less object pop in without huge performance loss |
| Texture Quality | Epic / Medium / Low based on VRAM | Uses your VRAM well for a sharp image |
| Effects Quality | Low | More stable FPS during explosions and big fights |
| Motion Blur | Off | Clearer tracking when you flick and spray |
| Depth Of Field | Off | Keeps your whole screen sharp while aiming |
Two changes matter the most when you want to increase FPS in Arc Raiders:
- Set RTX Global Illumination to Static so the game stops recalculating lighting every moment.
- Put Foliage Quality on Low so the CPU has fewer objects to manage and enemies cannot hide as easily in grass.
If you prefer to start from a tested preset instead of building from scratch, you can look at the detailed breakdown in the community driven guide on Arc Raiders settings to improve FPS. That guide lines up with this baseline and goes deep into why each change helps.
Tribality often talks about how competitive games reward small technical edges. Their esports betting guide even calls out how shooter titles dominate tournaments partly because they reward mechanical skill and smart preparation. Smooth FPS is a big part of that preparation, and Arc Raiders is no different.
Upscaling And Frame Generation Settings
Upscaling lets you render the game at a lower internal resolution and then scale it back up, which gives a big performance boost if you set it up correctly.
For NVIDIA Cards
If you have an RTX card:
- Use DLSS Balanced at 1440p or DLSS Quality at 1080p. These modes keep the game sharp while taking a lot of pressure off the GPU.
- If your card supports it, stick to the newer DLSS model option that looks cleaner on foliage. You trade a very small amount of FPS for a clearer image, which is usually worth it in an extraction shooter.
For AMD Or Intel Cards
If you are on AMD or Intel:
- Try XeSS on Ultra Quality or Quality first if it is available.
- If you only have FSR, start on Quality and test how it looks around trees and fine detail. Lower modes can sometimes shimmer too much in motion.
What About Frame Generation
Frame Generation creates fake frames between real ones. It can make the FPS counter look impressive, but it also adds input lag because the engine has to wait before it shows you the final image.
For casual runs it can feel nice. For serious raids it usually hurts more than it helps. As a simple rule, keep Frame Generation off if you care about fast peeks, snap aim, and clean recoil control.
Tribality’s piece on why iconography matters in games explains how visual clarity affects decision making. Upscaling tuned for sharpness fits the same idea. You want enemies, cover edges, and important effects to stand out clearly while you move and shoot.
Config Tweaks For Sharper And Smoother Gameplay
If you are comfortable editing config files, Arc Raiders gives you a bit more control than the in game menu suggests.
Sharpening The Image
Unreal Engine 5 uses temporal anti aliasing, which can look slightly soft by default. You can add a gentle sharpen to fix that.
- Press Windows plus R, paste the Arc Raiders config path from the game docs, and open GameUserSettings.ini.
Add this line at the bottom:
- r.tonemapper.sharpen=0.5
- Save the file.
A value of 0.5 is a good balance. Lower values feel blurry, higher values start to look harsh.
Turning Off Lens Distortion
If the edges of your screen look bent or strangely colored, lens distortion is still active.
- In GameUserSettings.ini, search for LensDistortionEnabled=True.
- Change it to: LensDistortionEnabled=False
- Save and restart the game.
This makes your field of view feel more natural and helps you track targets that sit near the edge of the screen.
Optional Volumetric Cloud Change
If your GPU is struggling outdoors and you do not care much about sky detail, you can switch off volumetric clouds through Engine.ini with:
r.VolumetricCloud=0
The sky becomes simpler, but the GPU has more room for the action that actually matters.
System, Drivers, And Background Apps
Even with perfect in game settings, Windows and your drivers can bottleneck you. Arc Raiders is often CPU bound, so cleaning up the system environment is part of learning how to increase FPS in Arc Raiders.
Windows Settings
Make sure these are set:
- Game Mode on so Windows gives the game priority.
- Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling on if your card supports it so the GPU handles more scheduling work directly.
- High Performance or Ultimate Performance power plan so your CPU does not downclock between frames.
Overlays And Background Apps
Everything that hooks into the game can add delay or stutter. Close what you do not need:
- Disable overlays you are not using, like Discord or extra FPS counters.
- Quit browsers, launchers, and heavy background tools that keep the CPU busy while you are in a raid.
GPU Control Panel Tweaks
On NVIDIA cards:
- Set Low Latency Mode to Ultra.
- Keep Threaded Optimization on.
- If you use G Sync, cap your FPS a few frames below your monitor refresh so frame pacing stays smooth.
On AMD cards:
- Turn on Radeon Anti Lag or Anti Lag Plus.
- Use the Shader Cache reset button in Adrenalin after major driver or game updates to clear stutter from old shaders.
System level tuning like this is one reason tactical shooters feel so responsive. If you look at how a game like Valorant is presented on its official site, there is a clear focus on low input lag, high refresh rates, and clean visual language, because all of that feeds straight into better play.
Tribality’s overview of the best R6 operators touches the same theme. In high pressure matches you lean on every small edge you can get, and performance tuning is one of those edges.
FAQ
What Is The Best FPS Booster Software To Increase Performance In Arc Raiders?
If you enjoy tweaking settings yourself, you can get very far with the changes in this guide. If you prefer a tool that applies safe, game focused tweaks for you, Hone is one of the stronger options right now. It focuses on gaming PCs and automates things like high performance power plans, background service trimming, and network stack tuning while keeping a backup so you can roll changes back. It follows the same spirit as those best CS2 settings you see built from pro player habits, just applied at the system level instead of only inside the game.
Why Does Arc Raiders Stutter Even When My FPS Looks High?
You can have high average FPS and still feel stutter if frame times jump around. In Arc Raiders this usually comes from shader compilation or asset streaming. After big game or driver updates, let the game sit in the main menu for a few minutes so it can compile more shaders. Then, cap your FPS a little below what your system can hold so the CPU has room to stream in textures and geometry without causing hitches.
Is 16 GB Of RAM Enough For Arc Raiders?
Sixteen gigabytes of RAM is the practical minimum if you want consistent performance. It works if you close browsers and heavy background apps while playing so Windows does not start pushing game data into the page file. If you can move to 32 GB, you get more breathing room for busy raids with lots of AI, physics, and players on screen, which helps smooth out frame time spikes.
Should I Lower Resolution First To Increase FPS In Arc Raiders?
Dropping resolution helps if you are GPU bound, but Arc Raiders is often CPU bound in big fights. That is why starting with Foliage, Shadows, Effects, and Global Illumination settings is usually better than slamming resolution straight down. If your GPU is still at very high usage after that, then downscaling resolution or using a stronger upscaling mode is the next lever to pull.
Are Steam Launch Options Worth Using For Arc Raiders?
They can help a bit if you pick a few safe flags. A simple set many players use is -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -high -malloc=system. This nudges the engine to use all CPU cores, asks Windows to treat the game as a high priority process, and swaps to the system memory allocator. Keep -dx11 as a backup option only if you have crashes or strange behavior in DirectX 12, since DX11 removes some modern features and flattens the lighting.
How Do I Know If My PC Is CPU Bound Or GPU Bound In Arc Raiders?
Turn on an FPS overlay that shows GPU usage. If the GPU stays near full usage and FPS drops when you raise graphics settings, you are GPU bound. If the GPU sits well below full usage while FPS still feels low, the CPU is holding things back. In that case, lowering Foliage, Shadows, and other CPU heavy options plus cleaning up Windows and background apps will help more than changing resolution alone.