How to maximise settings to improve frames per second?

I recently bought a 144hz monitor (Asus VG248QE) and I have a GTX 960 card.

I get ~80 FPS with everything in ultra, and I guess I can get more by lowering these settings; problem is, I don't really know what everything means.

What would be an optimum setting to get more FPS but without sacrificing every game detail?

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1 Answer

There is a very good guide for that here. The part of it you're interested in is:

RENDER SCALE – 100% – Anything below looks pixellated, go lower only if you have no other settings to tweak. Should you go above 100% your FPS will decline drastically and the difference isn’t overly noticeable.

TEXTURE QUALITY – Turning it up all the way doesn’t make a noticeable quality difference in-game. On top of that you will drop more FPS. Keeping it on medium will give you decent looking textures without crippling your FPS. If you still need more FPS switch it to low, textures will look heavily pixellated.

TEXTURE FILTERING QUALITY – Change in quality not actually noticeable. When you raise it up you get a roughly 4% FPS reduction. Keep it at low – 1x.

LOCAL FOG DETAIL – Do you want less FPS and Fog blocking your vision?

DYNAMIC REFLECTIONS – Roughly 20% lower FPS when turned up. Gives no kind of advantage when used. Disable it.

SHADOW DETAIL – You can’t turn off shadows in Overwatch. What you can do is disable Shadow Detail. This will raise your FPS by around 30%. Shadows don’t look as detailed but the FPS yield is well worth it. But shadows of enemies only start to show when you turn Shadow Detail to atleast low. If you care about potentially seeing enemies who are around corners earlier because of their shadows then put Shadow Detail on low. Since seeing shadow of enemies is not to be taken lightly in a competitive environment the reccomended value of Shadow Detail is set on low.

MODEL DETAIL – Everything beyond low model detail, bushes appear in certain parts of the maps. They deter your line of sight, so put it at low. You will also have slighty more FPS.

EFFECTS DETAIL – Effects will still be clearly visible at low settings. Free FPS without giving up crucial information about the enemy.

LIGHTING QUALITY – Overwatch’s forced bloom is already really high. If you increase the Lighting Quality on top of that you will get blinded when looking at light or the parts that are covered by light. Turning it to low also boosts your FPS.

ANTIALIAS QUALITY – Smoother edges – FXAA is recommended since you will only experience a 3% FPS loss. In contrary to the other options, they diminish your FPS by around 10%-13%. If you still want more FPS turn it off completely, edges will look pretty bad though.

REFRACTION QUALITY – Refraction quality refers to the quality of light when it bends as it passes through specific conditions or objects you can see through. Because of Overwatch’s forced bloom most people have to squint in-game when looking at light or at areas that are covered by light. Since you don’t want to wear sunglasses when playing Overwatch you should lower it as much as possible. Your FPS will also rise a little bit.

SCREENSHOT QUALITY – Related to the quality of screenshots you take in-game.

LOCAL REFLECTIONS – No noticeable change except a 5% FPS loss when looking at reflections. Turn Off.

AMBIENT OCCLUSION – Adds a certain depth to shadows and lighting in general. Lessens FPS by roughly 15% when turned on. More FPS, so it is worth turning off.

Source: Overwatch Video Settings you should Enable, Disable or Tweak – Best Overwatch Competitive Play Video Settings - On-Winning.com

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