Dragon's Dogma 2 offers a significant leap in graphical fidelity from its predecessor, which results in much higher system requirements. If you're looking for a performance increase, here are the best settings for high FPS on Dragon's Dogma 2 PC.
Best in-game settings for high FPS in Dragon's Dogma 2 PC
With Dragon's Dogma 2's RE Engine, it looks like a lot of players are having a difficult time maintaining a consistent framerate throughout their journey. Here are the best in-game settings for increased FPS and stability:
Related: How to mod Dragon’s Dogma 2
| Settings | Recommended Setting | FPS Effect |
| Vertical Synchronization | Off | It's not worth the trade-off, as the game will keep aiming for your framecap and constantly reduce the resolution to do so. |
| Dynamic Resolution | Off | No FPS difference between Off and SDFAO. SDFAO gives much more life to the characters and objects with little to no tradeoffs. |
| Optional: FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 | Quality (automatically disables Anti-Aliasing) | +2-3 FPS on Quality Mode. FSR3 is very usable in Dragon's Dogma 2, however, it still has issues when in-motion. |
| Optional: DLSS Super Resolution | Quality (automatically disables Anti-Aliasing) | +2-3 FPS on Quality mode. Other options are too blurry for my taste. |
| DLSS Nvidia Reflex Low Latency | On+Boost or Off | 1-2 FPS decrease if on. |
| Ambient Occlusion | SDFAO | No FPS difference between Off and SDFAO. SDFAO gives much more life to the characters and objects with little-to-no tradeoff. |
| Anti-Aliasing | TAA or FXAA+TAA | Anti-aliasing is so nauseating due to the flickering of grass and other thin-structured objects like shadows. It's visually better to have TAA or FXAA+TAA. |
| Screen Space Reflections | Off | +2-3 FPS on Quality Mode. FSR3 is very usable in Dragon's Dogma 2. However, it still has issues when in motion. |
| Mesh Quality | Mid for low-end cards (GTX 1070-RTX 2060) Max for mid & high-end cards (>RTX 3070) | There is not much FPS difference between low and max, but it can have a discernable impact in massive towns. |
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| Texture Filtering | High (ANISO x16) | Significantly improves texture clarity with little to no impact on performance. |
| Texture Quality | Medium (0.25GB) for 6 GB cards High (2 GB) for 8 GB Cards High (3 GB) for > 8 GB Cards | No FPS hit, but it can severely induce stutters if your GPU does not have enough memory. |
| Grass/Tree Quality | Low | 2-3 FPS hit in forests with minimal to no visual difference unless closely inspecting the trees and grass. |
| Resource-intense effects quality | High | No hit in FPS and GPU Memory Usage |
| Shadow Quality | Mid | Max setting tanks FPS by 50% High setting decreases FPS by 30% Low and Mid barely has any FPS difference |
| Shadow Cache | On | Less FPS drops since Shadows are pre-loaded |
| Contact Shadows | On | 1-2 FPS decrease when On |
| Motion Blur | Personal Preference | Oddly, FPS increases when Motion Blur is on. |
| Bloom | On | No FPS increase or decrease |
| Depth of Field | Personal Preference | No FPS increase or decrease |
| Lens Flare | On | No FPS increase or decrease but increases GPU memory usage by a few MB |
| Lens Distortion | Off | No effect on FPS |
| Subsurface Scattering | On | No effect on FPS |
| Motion Quality | High | No discernable effect on FPS/Visuals |
Based on my recommended settings versus all settings turned on, I gained a decent additional 15-17 FPS on average while playing Dragon's Dogma 2 while roaming around the open areas. Towns, especially very populated cities like Vernworth, are a whole different mess.
The problem with Dragon's Dogma 2 is it's very CPU-heavy, meaning your PC can't push your GPU as fast as it should. In my case, I have an actual GPU bottleneck during exploration with the RTX 2060. When it comes to towns, my Ryzen 5700X suffers massively, as even I get as low as 30FPS, and I don't even get a full 100% GPU usage due to how the A.I. works in this game.
In cases where you barely see any FPS difference when changing graphics settings on other and much more recent cards, it's likely that the CPU is the limiting factor based on Capcom's statement. With that said, your mileage may vary with these recommended graphical settings.
How to get more stable FPS in Dragon's Dogma 2
The first ideal thing to do is to update your GPU drivers to the latest version, as this provides all the necessary information to ensure Dragon's Dogma 2 runs smoothly on your system. For Nvidia users, you can easily do so through the Nvidia App or Nvidia Geforce Experience or download it manually through Nvidia's website. For AMD and Intel you can go to their respective websites to download the latest drivers for your cards: AMD & Intel.
Related: How to Increase Carrying Capacity in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Although Dragon's Dogma 2 is unoptimized, Capcom already acknowledged the low frame-rate situation and is looking to optimize the game down the line. With performance across all platforms leaving players disappointed, Dragon's Dogma 2 is still a diamond in the rough, and we can only hope for the devs to fix the game state throughout the upcoming months.
How to enable Frame Generation in Dragon's Dogma 2 for higher FPS
There are two options for Frame Generation in Dragon's Dogma 2 until Capcom officially releases their official patch. Here are both of them:
Frame Generation on any GPU in Dragon's Dogma 2
One of the most basic ways to implement Frame Generation is by using a program called Lossless Scaling. Here's how to set it up for Dragon's Dogma 2:
- Open Lossless Scaling on Steam.
- Scaling Mode should be set to Auto and Aspect Ratio. Scaling Type can be LS1 or Off (if you want Native Resolution). Frame Generation should be LSFG.
- Open Dragon's Dogma 2 and head to settings. Set Display Mode to Borderless Window and Screen Resolution to your liking (if you have Scaling Type to off, set it to your monitor's Native resolution). In my testing, I switched my resolution to 1600x900 from a 1080P display.
- Use the Scale button on Lossless Scaling or use a Hotkey to activate it while Dragon's Dogma 2 is off.
- You'll see Dragon's Dogma 2's window flash for a bit, and Frame Generation will be active.
The problem with this method is that it causes a lot of ghosting on the characters, which can be distracting for the player, especially during tense moments of combat. If you don't have an RTX GPU, I recommend using this to further boost your FPS in towns and while in combat in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Related: What is the save file location for Dragon’s Dogma 2?
Frame Generation on any RTX GPU in Dragon's Dogma 2
Dragon's Dogma 2 DLSS3 Enabler 01
DLSSG-to-FSR3 (Required for RTX 30 and 20 Series GPUs)
If you read our Best Mods article, then you've likely come across the DLSS3 Enabler mod, which is only available for the RTX 4000 series GPUs. The problem with the mod is not everyone has an RTX 4000 series on their PC. To make the mod work for RTX 30 and 20 Series GPU, you'll need another mod, DLSSG-to-FSR3. Here's how you do it.
- Download both mods from the links above and extract them.
- From the Dragon's Dogma 2 DLSS3 Enabler folder, copy the sl.interposer.dll to the root of your DD2 folder, where you can find DD2.exe.
- If you have an RTX 4000 Series GPU, you can stop at this step.
- From the DLSSG-to-FSR3 folder, run the DisableNvidiaSignatureChecks.reg and say yes to every prompt. Afterward, copy dlssg_to_fsr3_amd_is_better.dll and nvngx.dll to the root folder of DD2.
- In the root folder of Dragon's Dogma 2, delete the file shader.cache2.
- You need to do this step every time you boot up Dragon's Dogma 2 to avoid crashes!
- Disable NVIDIA Overlay as well, as it seems to crash the game with this mod.
- Launch Dragon's Dogma 2 and go to settings.
- Turn on DLSS (any preferred setting) and Nvidia Reflex (On/On+Boost).
- Load your character, and press End on your keyboard to enable Frame Gen.
Applying this mod made my FPS jump from 20-30 to 50-60 FPS in Vermund, Vernworth city. While out in the wild and during combat, I get a stable 70-80 FPS from 30-40 FPS (without the mod) on my RTX 2060, which is a huge leap from what I was getting before.
The problem with this mod is the UI ghosting, which is a stark contrast to the Lossless Scaling method. However, the biggest advantage of this method over Lossless Scaling is its much better FPS increase. From my experience, I got used to the UI ghosting better than the character ghosting in Lossless Scaling.
For more guides on Dragon's Dogma 2, check out How height and weight affect your character in Dragon’s Dogma 2 only here at Pro Game Guides!
Published: Mar 23, 2024 11:32 am