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Help: How does a gaming PC work in terms of settings?

Cyborg

Cyborg

Member
Hi guys,

As some of you may know, I bought my son a PC last year (RTX 5080 / Ryzen 7 7800X3D / 32 GB RAM and a 4K 160 Hz monitor). He initially used it mainly for Roblox, but he has since switched (thankfully 😄) to more "serious" games. At the moment, he's playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which is obviously far more demanding than Roblox.

I'm a console player myself, and my last PC experience dates back to the Battlefield 2 days, so I'm feeling a bit lost with all the modern settings like DLSS, ray tracing, and frame generation.

Here's what I've tested so far:

  • I tried native 4K with Ultra settings, without DLSS. The game couldn't maintain a locked 60 FPS, even though I didn't see any obvious bottlenecks on the GPU, CPU, or memory.
  • I then kept the resolution at 4K, enabled DLSS set to Quality, and turned on 2× frame generation. I now see two FPS counters in the overview tab. Performance is generally above 60 FPS and often sits around 120 FPS (which I assume is due to the 2× frame generation). The visual impact of frame generation seems minimal, and the game still looks amazing.
  • I haven't touched ray tracing yet, but I assume it will have a noticeable impact on performance.
So, in general, what is the best way to approach game settings?

Is it smarter to run native 4K and lower some settings to High (and keep a few on Ultra) to maintain 60 FPS or higher? Or would something like 1440p with DLSS set to Quality and ray tracing enabled make more sense? Is there a good video or explanation somewhere that breaks down the best scenarios and trade-offs?

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
You can try using the NVIDIA App Automatic Game Optimization.

And don't be afraid of using DLSS4 upscaling. Even in the performance mode, it will still look good at 4K.
 
Cyborg said:
Hi guys,

As some of you may know, I bought my son a PC last year (RTX 5080 / Ryzen 7 7800X3D / 32 GB RAM and a 4K 160 Hz monitor). He initially used it mainly for Roblox, but he has since switched (thankfully 😄) to more "serious" games. At the moment, he's playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which is obviously far more demanding than Roblox.

I'm a console player myself, and my last PC experience dates back to the Battlefield 2 days, so I'm feeling a bit lost with all the modern settings like DLSS, ray tracing, and frame generation.

Here's what I've tested so far:

  • I tried native 4K with Ultra settings, without DLSS. The game couldn't maintain a locked 60 FPS, even though I didn't see any obvious bottlenecks on the GPU, CPU, or memory.
  • I then kept the resolution at 4K, enabled DLSS set to Quality, and turned on 2× frame generation. I now see two FPS counters in the overview tab. Performance is generally above 60 FPS and often sits around 120 FPS (which I assume is due to the 2× frame generation). The visual impact of frame generation seems minimal, and the game still looks amazing.
  • I haven't touched ray tracing yet, but I assume it will have a noticeable impact on performance.
So, in general, what is the best way to approach game settings?

Is it smarter to run native 4K and lower some settings to High (and keep a few on Ultra) to maintain 60 FPS or higher? Or would something like 1440p with DLSS set to Quality and ray tracing enabled make more sense? Is there a good video or explanation somewhere that breaks down the best scenarios and trade-offs?

Thanks in advance for the help!
Click to expand...
I would use DLSS without framegen and use raytracing and high settings. Some settings cost a lot but barely make any difference to a games image quality. I would look out for those and lower them.
 
Today most games already use pretty good pre defined settings.

As winjer mentioned, probably the easiest way is just to use the Nvidia App and let it set it up for you.

Set the resolution to 4k and let the DLSS / Frame Gen handle the rest.
Your son will / should not be sensible to resolution etc.

More importantly: If your TV/Monitor has VRR/GSYNC, enable it.
even if the fps fluctuates a bit, VRR will smooth it out.

Depending on the game 60 FPS is mire than enough (slow gamds or story focused ones)
For online esport style game you want as much fps as possibld ... in theory
 
I recommend DLAA ( if the game supports it ) at native resolution. A RTX5080 can easily get great frames at 1440p with DLAA, max settings with RT.
80+ fps is more than for smooth gameplay for majority of games ( singleplayer ).

If you're failing to reach that fps, upscale ( choose a resolution above the native ) and use DLSS Quality or Balanced.

Framegen is good but usually comes with a considerable lag. If you're getting 100+ fps, it's fine as the lag becomes minimal. If you're getting 30-40 fps without framegen, it's bad as you'll just have a laggy game even though it'll run at 60fps+ with framegen ( hello, stalker 2 ).
 
Cyborg said:
Any examples?
Click to expand...
For example normally shadows. setting shadow settings to Ultra is just a complete waste in my opinion. Often it looks barely any different to high yet has a >25% cost in performance. Just not worth it in my opinion. Some settings are really just wasteful.
Look at the 10minute mark in this video for example:
 
Max everything, use DLSS+framegen (2x), make sure ray reconstruction is enabled. Drop your DLSS to Balanced or Performance mode as appropriate to stay above 120fps. Enjoy.

That should give you the best visual fidelity+clarity to enjoy the game. You can disable framegen if you want, but the gains in visual clarity is well worth the slight increase in latency, which you won't notice.
 
Last edited:
Cyborg said:
Hi guys,

As some of you may know, I bought my son a PC last year (RTX 5080 / Ryzen 7 7800X3D / 32 GB RAM and a 4K 160 Hz monitor). He initially used it mainly for Roblox, but he has since switched (thankfully 😄) to more "serious" games. At the moment, he's playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which is obviously far more demanding than Roblox.

I'm a console player myself, and my last PC experience dates back to the Battlefield 2 days, so I'm feeling a bit lost with all the modern settings like DLSS, ray tracing, and frame generation.

Here's what I've tested so far:

  • I tried native 4K with Ultra settings, without DLSS. The game couldn't maintain a locked 60 FPS, even though I didn't see any obvious bottlenecks on the GPU, CPU, or memory.
  • I then kept the resolution at 4K, enabled DLSS set to Quality, and turned on 2× frame generation. I now see two FPS counters in the overview tab. Performance is generally above 60 FPS and often sits around 120 FPS (which I assume is due to the 2× frame generation). The visual impact of frame generation seems minimal, and the game still looks amazing.
  • I haven't touched ray tracing yet, but I assume it will have a noticeable impact on performance.
So, in general, what is the best way to approach game settings?

Is it smarter to run native 4K and lower some settings to High (and keep a few on Ultra) to maintain 60 FPS or higher? Or would something like 1440p with DLSS set to Quality and ray tracing enabled make more sense? Is there a good video or explanation somewhere that breaks down the best scenarios and trade-offs?

Thanks in advance for the help!
Click to expand...
As a fellow owner of rtx 5080 (and 9800x3d but thats like 10-15% faster in super rare cpu bottlenecked moments that happen not even in 1% gametime since we both got 4k monitors, basically more or less irrelevant) i strongly suggest to use dlss, from the time of dlss 4.0 it became literally black magic(way above even pssr 2.0 thats around as good as fsr 4.0).

To put it in layman terms dlss is ai upscaling from lower internal resolution to ur monitor resolution aka 4k, if u need more frames i would definitely suggest to go lower with dlss from quality to balance to performance which would be internal 1080p, usually its not worth it to go lower than performance tho coz u will start noticing worse(more blurry/softer) image quality at ultra perf(since thats 720p to 4k, aka ai has to figure out from 1 native pixel whole 9, at perf setting it only figures out 4 pixels from 1).

Framegenwise- some ppl are more prone to feel it, some less, personally like u said, as long as i play on joypad 2x is what i can tolerate altho ofc real frames do feel better- this feature is heavily subjective to tolerate and if u control games with mouse&kb it gets worse for sure.

Raytracing- usually its not just 1 option turned on/off in games but its a spectrum, usually the max rt(or pt aka path tracing, most advanced rt) is super demanding, easily halving or even quartering ur fps compared to no rt- but here dlss comes to the resque, usually dlss perf(1080p internal res) will give u enough of additional fps that even using max rt will keep ur fps at high lvl, hell u can even see and test with dlss quality/balance too, depending on the game it will be fine, since ur 5080 is 3rd strongest gpu avaiable currently(after bis 5090 and former bis 4090).

Settings wise- currently just keep everything at max, so beyond ultra even, thats how good 5080 is, ofc once more demanding games come around sooner or later u will have to lower them but even then dlss quality/balance or even perf and max settings is usually better option than lowering settings to high and running game in native 4k.

TLDR: In most cases(older/less demanding games) u will be able to run everything at maxed, including rt even in native 4k no framegen, in most demanding cases(and new games) just get additional perf thx to framegen x2 or/and dlss quality/balance/perf, only when game stops feeling smooth even with the help of those i would start lowering setting going from max to ultra and from max rt to high/medium rt.

And congrats on ur kid leaving that fricken roblox game in the dust, fk that shit and fk roblox "devs" if u know what i mean ;)
 
Many suggestions here but I would never ever set the resolution at 1440p in a 4k monitor. Monitors have incredibly poor resolution scalers, anything but native looks horrendous. Set the resolution at 4k and then use DLSS to do the scaling.
 
Cyborg said:
  • I tried native 4K with Ultra settings, without DLSS. The game couldn't maintain a locked 60 FPS, even though I didn't see any obvious bottlenecks on the GPU, CPU, or memory.
  • I then kept the resolution at 4K, enabled DLSS set to Quality, and turned on 2× frame generation. I now see two FPS counters in the overview tab. Performance is generally above 60 FPS and often sits around 120 FPS (which I assume is due to the 2× frame generation). The visual impact of frame generation seems minimal, and the game still looks amazing.
  • I haven't touched ray tracing yet, but I assume it will have a noticeable impact on performance.
Click to expand...
Test this first. otherwise, those settings are worthless.

 
Cyborg said:
Hi guys,

As some of you may know, I bought my son a PC last year (RTX 5080 / Ryzen 7 7800X3D / 32 GB RAM and a 4K 160 Hz monitor). He initially used it mainly for Roblox, but he has since switched (thankfully 😄) to more "serious" games. At the moment, he's playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which is obviously far more demanding than Roblox.

I'm a console player myself, and my last PC experience dates back to the Battlefield 2 days, so I'm feeling a bit lost with all the modern settings like DLSS, ray tracing, and frame generation.

Here's what I've tested so far:

  • I tried native 4K with Ultra settings, without DLSS. The game couldn't maintain a locked 60 FPS, even though I didn't see any obvious bottlenecks on the GPU, CPU, or memory.
  • I then kept the resolution at 4K, enabled DLSS set to Quality, and turned on 2× frame generation. I now see two FPS counters in the overview tab. Performance is generally above 60 FPS and often sits around 120 FPS (which I assume is due to the 2× frame generation). The visual impact of frame generation seems minimal, and the game still looks amazing.
  • I haven't touched ray tracing yet, but I assume it will have a noticeable impact on performance.
So, in general, what is the best way to approach game settings?

Is it smarter to run native 4K and lower some settings to High (and keep a few on Ultra) to maintain 60 FPS or higher? Or would something like 1440p with DLSS set to Quality and ray tracing enabled make more sense? Is there a good video or explanation somewhere that breaks down the best scenarios and trade-offs?

Thanks in advance for the help!
Click to expand...
You never actually get to the point of playing the games, because you're too busy with tinkering with settings. Then you move on to the next game and repeat.
 
Three said:
For example normally shadows. setting shadow settings to Ultra is just a complete waste in my opinion. Often it looks barely any different to high yet has a >25% cost in performance. Just not worth it in my opinion. Some settings are really just wasteful.
Look at the 10minute mark in this video for example:
Click to expand...

Just follow this guy and play with optimized settings.
 
Trying to be a bit simple here.

Game Resolution should always be native unless using 1080p on a 4K panel with Integer Scaling. Or any other exactly square resolutions e.g 720p to a 1440p Panel.(Works really well(perfectly) with games that dont have DLSS)
In your case just stick to 4K resolution.
DLSS at Performance or Balanced using Preset M.
Preset M is good enough right now that id just use DLSS Performance and forget about it.

Now set the game to Ultra settings and see your frame rate.

Sub 60?
Start turning down settings. (some are game dependent)

  • Anti Aliasing - Just turn it off, let DLSS handle it (Some games will NOT grey out the Anti Aliasing option even when using DLSS)
  • Shadows - If there is an Ultra, go down to high, if is starts at high go down to medium. (The highest shadow setting is almost always pretty much indistinguishable from the one down)
  • Volumetric Resolution - turn this down to medium or high. (usually you arent staring at any volumetrics long enough to ever notice a difference)
  • Reflections - Go down one, again you are unlikely going to be staring at any Screen Space Reflections long enough to notice they are lower resolution.
  • World Detail/Draw Distance - Depending on the game this can give you a nice bump for free as a lot of the time the things loaded in wouldnt be reliably visible anyway.

RayTracing.
  • Avatars highest RT setting (Path Tracing) is super taxing, youll still get a visual feast using "regular" raytracing.......this is true for all games that have a Path Tracing option.
  • Reflections - You could probably gain some good frames turning this down one and not miss it too much.
  • The other Raytracing effects I find are really powerful, like Shadows and GI can transform how a game looks entirely.
 
Not much point in native when DLSS4 is a thing. You can lower shadow quality a bit to see how much fps that nets you. Just play around with it, not everything needs to be ultra.
 
Black_Stride said:
RayTracing.
  • Avatars highest RT setting (Path Tracing) is super taxing, youll still get a visual feast using "regular" raytracing.......this is true for all games that have a Path Tracing option.
Click to expand...
How does one get the pathtraced option for Avatar? I remember using the unobtanium unlock, but dont think ive seen any settings like that. Does the Ashes DLC have some extra settings?
 
T4keD0wN said:
How does one get the pathtraced option for Avatar? I remember using the unobtanium unlock, but dont think ive seen any settings like that. Does the Ashes DLC have some extra settings?
Click to expand...

Cant remember which update brought in Ray Reconstruction..........think it was the major December update.
 
...and never forget about the 4horsemen of "always off":

jBGPUx2.jpeg
 
pudel said:
...and never forget about the 4horsemen of "always off":

jBGPUx2.jpeg
Click to expand...

a961575cc3b9ddf1993587d5cefdbc51.gif


Love me some high quality per pixel motion blur in my games.
If its a racing game, then motion blur is on regardless.

Film Grain, as long as I can edit the amount im keeping it on.

Vignetting........darken my sides!!!!!!!

CA......okay you can go......maybe......sometimes.
 
Black_Stride said:
a961575cc3b9ddf1993587d5cefdbc51.gif


Love me some high quality per pixel motion blur in my games.
If its a racing game, then motion blur is on regardless.

Film Grain, as long as I can edit the amount im keeping it on.

Vignetting........darken my sides!!!!!!!

CA......okay you can go......maybe......sometimes.
Click to expand...
You do you I guess. For me these filters just fck up the picture. I like my picture clean & crisp.
 
If you are using DLSS then the resolution should be set to 4k. It isn't native 4k, it is using DLSS to get you a 4k image from a lower native resolution.
For framegen, I wouldn't use it unless you need to. It isn't generating frames for free, it takes GPU headroom. If you want 120fps and can only get there with framegen then yeah go for it, but if your kid can't tell the difference between 60 and 120, you might be better off with 60fps with higher settings.
 
pudel said:
You do you I guess. For me these filters just fck up the picture. I like my picture clean & crisp.
Click to expand...

A good implementation of Object motion blur does nothing but enhance how good the game looks .
Full screen(Camera) Motion Blur sure that shit 99.9% time is utter trash as it literally smears the whole screen.

But turning off object motion blur in games like Nier Automata or pretty much any modern fighting game should be a sin as it ironically enhances the motion fluidity of the game.

Unless you are gaming at 10000000fps you are gonna spot the gaps in motion of objects moving quickly.....which to me is worse, because im spotting the object "jump" from frame to frame, the blur masks thats jumping.
Think about helicopter propeller blades........in a videogame each frame will have a perfectly still propeller blade.....just imagine how weird that shit will look, so having object motion blur when you are playing a game where there are objects making large movements across the scene will look more natural(?) as even when you catch the "frame" the object still seems to be moving as it should.

The other effects are purely stylistic, there are some games I like having them on as they give the game some identity in same games I want a more pristine look.

Ill never not like the explosion motion blur from Lost Planet Extreme Conditions even if it was actually a "bad" implementation.......but it made every explosion feel like it had real force behind it
 
Signalis said:
You never actually get to the point of playing the games, because you're too busy with tinkering with settings. Then you move on to the next game and repeat.
Click to expand...
Or just let the Nvidia app set settings if you can't be bothered to spend a few minutes tinkering.
 
I use the nvidia app and rarely change a thing.

Generally have to launch a game once and quit as games generate the initial settings files on first boot.
 
Black_Stride said:
a961575cc3b9ddf1993587d5cefdbc51.gif


Love me some high quality per pixel motion blur in my games.
If its a racing game, then motion blur is on regardless.

Film Grain, as long as I can edit the amount im keeping it on.

Vignetting........darken my sides!!!!!!!

CA......okay you can go......maybe......sometimes.
Click to expand...

Film grain destroys black level on OLED. But I can totally agree with per object motion blur - I love it (I also can live with subtle camera blur).
 
For most AAA games I personally use Digital Foundrys optimised settings to see how it looks and runs on console as a baseline and then increase the settings from there.
 
Cyborg said:
So, in general, what is the best way to approach game settings?
Click to expand...
Depends on how confident you are lol.

My computer isn't the best, so my starting point is 1440p, DLSS set to Quality and all the graphical settings set to MAX. If the game doesn't run at 60fps, I lower DLSS to Balanced and, if it still doesn't run at 60fps, I start lowering the graphical settings. RTX might be the first thing to go out the window, depends on the game since it barely makes a difference in some while in others it makes a very big difference. After that, comes shadows, lightning and specially volumetric effects, since I believe those can take away a lot of performance.

So basically: start at a point you feel confident with, then start tweaking up or down depending on the performance you are getting.
 
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