Tested: Graphics settings and how they affect performance 

I thought I'd give a bit more explanation to the settings, for those interested on why these have the effect they do (source: I'm a technical artist & graphics programmer) Anti-Aliasing: Most modern AAA titles use deferred rendering of some sort. This means that, yes, anti-aliasing is either a post effect (applied across the screen after it has rendered, typically using edge detection techniques), or its a super-sample effect - which hits performance hard. Post effects are driven by screen resolution, so upping your game's resolution (or conversely, dropping it) will also affect how long it takes for the anti-aliasing computations to occur. As mentioned with shadows further down, doubling resolution isn't a linear hit on computations, but a square one (so 1280x720 is less than 1 million pixels, 1920x1080 = 2 million+ pixels. Texture Quality: Game textures are compressed in a way that they generate & store lower resolution versions (known as MIP maps). As an object is further is away, the game will sample a lower resolution texture version to save on graphics memory. Setting the texture quality lower simply forces the game to use one of these lower resolution textures (MIP levels) as the maximum resolution - so you end up with lower resolution textures closer to the camera. This saves on video memory usage. Anisotropic filtering: A cheap technique to reducing banding, always max out. Shadows! There are a lot to shadows. You typically have two types: baked and realtime Baked shadows cost almost nothing, but they don't work with dynamic lights (lights that move, change color, etc.). Some games use this more than others. Realtime shadows are expensive. Its a trade-off between shadow map resolution (i.e. how detailed the shadows are) and performance. Shadows done like this usually have 4 passes (or "cascades") - this works similar to MIP mapping in that there are 4 shadow maps that are projected on to objects, with objects further away getting less density from the shadow map (the resolution is the same for all "cascades", but cascades further away have more surface area to cover, perspective and all that). Usually realtime shadows can get you most of the way there on medium because the resolution is "good enough", and because each quality setting (i.e. medium, high, ultra) is twice the resolution of the previous. To explain why that hurts performance so much: this is because resolution is 2-dimensional, twice the resolution is 4x the pixels. That means, if 'Medium' was 1024^2, and 'High' was 2048^^2 and 'Ultra' was 4096^2, ultra requires 16 times more pixels to calculate. Realtime shadows need calculating each frame, so in that example, that's 16x more pixels on each cascade, and it does this EVERY FRAME. Hence, it hits performance hard. Ambient Occlusion This is usually a post effect, and not much more expensive than most other post effects. It can add nice depth to the scene. All post effects are done after geometry and shading is complete, so the bottleneck here is resolution (and is what the "Quality" setting controls). You can apply the ambient occlusion at a lower resolution than your game renders at, and get the effect with better performance than running at full resolution, but you'll get a blurrier result. Tessellation: This works by subdividing the geometry that the game artist's authored at runtime, and displacing it - unlike older approaches that don't change the geometry but "simulate" it. How much is tessellates can be drive by proximity to the camera, and a local quality setting. This can add a lot of detail, but its costly on older hardware & consoles.

imagine having a pc that lets you "drop" all the way down to *60 FPS*

This makes me want to mod the heaven benchmark so that tesselation is constantly adjusted in relation to currently playing music....

I’m so glad I watched this. Now I can squeeze more frames out of Minesweeper.

“Oh, it looks like I’m motorboating her.. I didn’t do that on purpose, I swear.” Gotta love that man!

Next do a video on how much an RGB power cable effects performance. I bet its a load.

Probably one of the most and useful videos ever to be made by JayzTwoCents and it is too short! MORE of this content please!

My graphics settings are always set to Low. there should be a graphics settings preset like "No Graphics Card" lol ✔️

"We just lost about 15 fps" I would have 0 fps after that.

Thank you for this Jay. It helped me a lot!! I never really understood all the bells and whistles.

Great video Jay, I've tinkered around with many of these settings myself just to see what happens. This gives me a more in depth analysis.

Nice video. I’ve been playing games for a couple of decades and never seen such a clear and concise explanation of the settings we spend so much time fiddling with for performance gains.

Great examples and explanations Jay! This is the "voodoo" most gamer's have zero clue about when setting up for each game they play. This video is on my short list when selling my rigs, it saves me a ton of talking/teaching after the sale, thank you 👍🍻

Dude how are you so fun to listen but so on point every video? I love your videos :)

I love how you make videos about exactly the questions I have in mind!

Awesome watch Jay, so many blanks filled in with this one. A very clear and precise explanation TY... Si

LMAO @ the bass test

The "bass test" was by far my favorite part of the video. Freaking love Jay!

The bass test part was hilarious! Love your videos Jay, keep 'em coming!

Great video Jay! I miss these types of videos, really helpful.

I Love these little sessions where I can walk away with new knowledge after watching one of your videos. Thanks Jay...

2 years later and still learning from these vids. Great job

Thank you so much for this video. I know understand my settings in which I didn't before. Keep up the great work, looking forward to the nest one.

Thank you for this video! I just got my first gaming pc a few weeks ago. I had an idea about what some of these setting do but this gives me an idea on how performance can change.

I love when you keep these funny moments in your videos, like when you were explaining the tessellation and when you forgot that guy's name haha

I would like to see a video with all the benchmark programs you use with a quick explanation on it's settings all in one video with the download links in the description . I recently got a hybrid aio cooler for my 2700x and would like to see if it's actually better than the stock amd cooler .

I like the new setup you have going on here with the kitchen in the back. Great work, keep it up!

Sub’d because of the bass demonstration. Brilliant (great content Jay. You’re videos are great)

You forget to mention Fast Sync and AMD Enhanced Sync for displays that don't support adaptive sync technologies! Probably could dedicate a video for AMD & Nvidia control panel settings too.

Actually, for the smoothest experience, you turn on V-sync, in game, with G-sync enabled in the Nvidia control panel. G-sync controls the monitors refresh rate when your graphics card is unable to meet the maximum refresh rate of the monitor, providing a smooth experience. Simply put, with G-sync enabled, if your graphics card is pushing 52fps, then your monitor refreshes at 52fps preventing tearing and stuttering. V-sync sets the absolute fps cap the card is allowed to push. So, if you can push 200fps on a 144hz panel, V-sync will stop you at 144fps preventing tearing. Your monitor cannot display faster than its maximum refresh rate, and neither G-sync or Freesync can change that. Freesync and G-sync are only designed to handle the fps when you cannot meet the monitors maximum refresh rate. Both technologies auto disable when you hit the monitors maximum refresh rate and re-enable when you drop below. With both V-sync and G-sync turned on, V-sync will have absolutely no effect on your fps or input lag until you reach the maximum refresh rate of the monitor. Be sure you have set the correct refresh rate in the Nvidia control panel. Now, if you don't mind some tearing when above your monitors refresh rate and you absolutely despise input lag, then yes, disable V-sync. Side note; There are two settings in the set up G-sync menu. They are "Enable G-sync for full screen mode" and "Enable G-sync for windowed and full screen mode". If you are running into stuttering or low fps issues, set this to "Enable G-sync for full screen mode", this should resolve the issue.

Thank you so much! About time a video for this came out

Thank you for all your work dude, I have confidence to build on my rig new card also water cooling all from your vids and to over clock my current card which helped a lot playing The Division can't sing your praises enough. Chris from the UK

The 2 most performance impacting settings are AntiAliasing and Shadows. (Some forms of AA have little to no impact on performance, but in general these options look significantly worse than when AA is just plain off)

Jesus, this is extremely more helpful than I thought. Thanks Jay. I should buy a new graphics card soon with more VRAM

One of the most informing videos of you in the last time. Keep up your excellent Work!

Thank you Jay for the explanations and descriptions of what the actual graphics settings actually do and what they actually do to our GPU's. Been wondering about some of them for quite some time.

11:35 NCS Equalizer 2.0

Images are made of millions of little triangles.....

That was great, so informative. Thanks mate. Also, I'm a big fan and love your videos champ.

Awesome job on this video. I am glad somebody asked also as this is something everyone can learn from. Thanks Jay.

I tweeted this one to you before but I will lay it out here for you. CPUs first broke the 1ghz mark around 2000 but 18 years later we seem to have hit a wall at 5ghz. Could you explain to us the difference between a 3ghz CPU from 10 years ago and a 3ghz available today.

Another Good video for budget gamers to help them tweak their settings required to get the FPS they need!

Thanks for this video. It answered questions I have had for a long time. Just subscribed. 👍👍

thanks for the video man... always wondered what most of the settings does... appreciate it

The way you talked about anti-aliasing makes it sound like it smoothes the in game models geometry. It actually deals with edges of pixels on screen, not triangles.

Once you try ambient oclusion and tesselation, you can't really go without them. It really adds to the graphical fidelity of the game.

Very helpful! I'm glad you used this game because coincidentally I'm playing this as well on my new rig that has a GTX 1080. I just maxed all the settings out assuming that the video card would be able to handle it. Now I have A MUCH better understanding on what each option does when the video card will eventually show its age. Thank you!

Thanks..interesting that people make entire videos for individual games testing the specific game's best settings . Very helpful review.

Hey Jay I may have a topic for your next video. Linus recently mentioned that video card manufacturers and game developers are paying less and less attention to multiple card configurations (SLI/Crossfire) and because of this scaling between 1 and 2 gpus is worse than ever. But he kind of passed over it without going too in depth. Maybe you can expand on this. So I ask you, do you think this is true? If so, how bad is it? (Maybe do a video testing a single 1080ti vs 2 1080ti in sli with a couple a modern games.) What do you think this means for the future? (Are game developers and/or video card manufacturers going to improve on dual card compatibility and drivers or do you think that this is something that eventually will disappear the same way nvidia eliminated 3-way and 4-way sli support.) Would you recommend, now in 2018, anyone to go with a dual card setup or if this is something that is more for bragging rights than actual benefit in performance? Also, what would you recommend: spending your money on a second gpu or on better cooling, meaning to water cool your gpu so it stays cooler and performs better because of this.

That bass test killed me lmao

I've seen a lot of Jayz videos but became a subscriber because of this specific video. Thanks~!

Jay, I really appreciate your: in-depth, "keepin' it real", and somewhat nutz approach to your videos. Of all your videos I have watched so far, this one was the one I personally needed to watch the most. So a very heartfelt thank you for taking the time. And I believe you explained it at the correct depth-of-understanding for the masses (something you once lamented in another video you had to remind yourself to do). I have a topic suggestion, one I have been looking for a video on from any PC Tech RU-vidr that I cannot seem to find. I've seen you cover PC cooling solutions as crazy as hooking up a portable AC unit to a PC water cooling loop, as well as your 4 x 480 panel fan radiator solution (Brillant, I want one!). But how about covering a much more practical topic that I have seen a lot of Internet debate over (more so in the past than nowadays)- Measuring the effects of using a shroud or a silicone/rubber gasket on radiator fans and CPU heatsink air cooling fans? There are two main points of contention. First, that all fans (of any type: AF or SP) must have a dead spot in front of their motor hub where air flow cannot pass through an adjoining radiator or heat sink; thus, using a shroud to move the fan away from the fins of the radiator or heat sink should theoretically increase the amount of fins surface area making contact with the air flowing through them. The second point is that a rubber or silicone gasket, might offer a smaller shroud-like effect, but also reduce or eliminate any airflow leakage that might escape between the edges of the fan and the radiator or heat sink. I would really love to see you break this topic down JayzTwoCents Style, and also use your incense smoke (go all zen on us) to show us the difference in where and how the air flows: A) no shroud or fan, B) Shrouds only, C) gaskets only, D) Shrouds and Gaskets. Again, thanks for providing informational and entertaining content!

11:32 is really all you need to know. Genius.

Poor Lara standing in agony for jay to explain to us about graphics settings.

This video was needed, it really answered a lot of questions we had

Thanks Jay!! I have always been a PC gamer with a decent rig, yet have never understood exactly how each setting impacted visual quality & performance! Your video is the first to put these into an easy-to-digest package, I owe you a beer!

Who else would just watch an hour of Jay making sub noises with the tesselation slider? Maybe he'll do it for us pleeeeeease!

I remember back in the day when changing the monitor was part of increasing the graphical setting. Like CGA, EGA, and VGA... Lol

The video I didn't realise I wanted. Thanks Jay, top job!

This video is awesome. Learned a lot. I was able to improve fps on my games significantly just by understanding what settings do what. Thanks Jay!

SSAO: *Let me introduce myself*

great video for noobs, showed this to my 14 year old brother and now he knows what he needs to play with to get his game playable for him

Im so glad i found your channel!! awesome content!!

Awesome Information!!!!!!!!!!!! Exceptional as always. This is why this is my first stop on RU-vid.

Hey Jay, can you do a video on how "Fullscreen" vs "Borderless Window" affects gaming performance?

Now in 2019 free sync monitors support g sync after a nvidia drivers update so turn v sync in game off

Awesome video Jay, loved it!

Very Helpful! Thanks Jay!

Instead of turning Vsync on. Turn supersampling x4 on. problem solved without input lag. :D or tweak settings in general to get the framerate down.

"We all like buying new graphics cards" "We all like selling a kidney"

Great video Jay! Really useful.

you rock j2! you gave me the courage to build my first rig, im on my third now, you should do some kinda readers rigs episode.. so your fans can show how you helped us all... CHEERS brother

Do a part 2 please. Cover more options

what i do turn down the graphic setting to lowest possible then increase the setting 1 by 1 to see which setting eating fps and then when i found a balance mixture of setting then i save the preset and boom

This actually answered a few questions that I had. Thank you.

Now this is the sorta content I subbed for. 👌 Good stuff.

Oh boy can't wait to see how taxing Raytracing will be for performance.

10:35 Lara's expression of a woman that was ninja motorboated.

Just the video i needed , Thanks Jay

One of the most helpful videos from you in a while! (Lately they've just been great entertainment, lol)

0:55 Zombie Mode

to know how tp tweak games go to lowspecgamer channel

That was very helpful. Thank you Jay!

Finally a video that explains all these things. Nice work Jay!

10:29 OMG!! I fell out of my chair and had to use my inhaler!!

But what about graphics option that are more CPU dependant

Very helpful and informative, thanks Jay

im glad you did this video. just got into pc gamin and was lost on what all the setting did. got a 1080ti so i just set everything to ultra/very high and called it good lol. keep up all the great videos man.

10:31 made my day

Graphatical

Awesome Video ! Thanks for the great information.

Loved this. As someone that usually just smacks everything to max to feel like a big boy, after a real understanding of the settings and what each contribute too has opened my eyes. Me and my computer both thank you

"I got this random tweet the other day." I really wish people would stop saying something is "random" when it's (obviously) not... It was a direct question on Twitter from a viewer to JayzTwoCents. It's directed at a specific person, as per goal, and within context of the channel. Nothing 'random' about that.

I max out Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy at 4K on my 1080, and that's my favourite game atm, so I don't care. :P

Love your video's Jay, never change!

Love your videos. This is a topic that deserves a part 2 and part 3. My RX 580 does not do as well as expected so perfecting its tunning is important.

You didn't even explain everything and what you did explain was not even complete. What about CSAA, MSAA, TXAA? What about water quality, post processing, what about other types of AO, like SSAO? What about vegetation quality, geometry, view distance. And what is the performance hit on each of these settings? I mean, if you are going to make a video like this, it should be a full guide, not a half assed "we talk about this stuff until we stop caring" type of video.

yeet

very good video always wondered abot those settings

Great examples and explanation. Thanks Jay!