WARDOGS Performance FPS Optimization Settings

★

Goal: Hold a stable frame rate in a 100-player fight on the big map, not a high number in the menu. Testers keep saying the drops happen when vehicles, smoke, construction, and bodies stack. Smooth 60-90 fps in that chaos beats 140 fps that hitch every few seconds. Do not judge settings in an empty spawn. Change one thing, then test the same busy sightline.

Pick a Target, Then a Preset

Your Situation	Target	Starting Point
GTX 1660 / RX 590, 1080p	Locked ~60 in fights	Potato or Low + upscaling
Mid PC (RTX 3060-3070 / 6700 XT), 1080p-1440p	Stable 80-120	Custom: Medium-ish, expensive stuff cut
High-end 1440p / 4K	120+ without hitching	Medium-High + DLSS/FSR Quality

Potato vs Low: Potato is the official low-end floor. Players also use it because shadows and effects vanish and enemies pop. Others call that an unfair visibility exploit. If you care about spotting more than looks, Potato or Low shadows is what people are actually running. If you want a fairer image, stop at Low, not Potato.

1Display and Latency (Before Pretty Sliders)

1
Display mode: Windowed Fullscreen (borderless).
Fullscreen is fine if you want a few extra frames and do not alt-tab.
2
Resolution: Native to the monitor.
Do not drop to 720p first. Use the upscaler instead.
3
VSync: Off. Frame limit: Unlimited while testing.
Once fights are stable, cap just under your monitor refresh (e.g. 141 on 144 Hz).
4
Nvidia Reflex: Enabled.
Use Enabled + Boost only if the CPU is pegged (old 6-core or laptop).
5
Main menu FPS limit: On.
Stops the menu from cooking the GPU between matches.
6
Motion blur, DoF, lens flare, bloom: Off.
They cost frames in explosions and hide movement.

2Turn Upscaling On First

This is not a last resort. Minimum spec is written as 1080p Low 60 fps, upscaled. Players who skip this and then crush every quality slider are fighting the design.

1
Nvidia: Anti-aliasing method = DLSS.
Start Quality. If fights still dip, Balanced, then Performance. DLAA = native + AA, looks best, costs the most. High-end only.
2
AMD: FSR 3 Quality first, same ladder.
3
Do not stack driver extras on top.
Radeon Boost, AFMF, NIS. AMD testers report 140 fps on the counter with micro-stutter, heavy mouse, and distant smear until those are off.

3Cut the Settings That Scale With Map Size

1
View distance: biggest single lever on a huge streaming map.
Drop until you still ID infantry and vehicles at fight range. Do not nuke it so far you get shot from fog.
2
Shadows: Low. Second biggest cost.
Potato if you need the last 10-15 fps or you want max visibility.
3
Global illumination: Off for FPS or competitive.
Testers report a large hit, about 20% in one breakdown. Leave On only if the GPU has headroom after fights are stable.
4
Reflections: Low.
5
Effects and particle spawn rate: Medium or Low.
Potato particles if smoke and explosions tank you in cap fights.
6
Post-processing and volumetrics: Low.
These spike during contested fights, which is when the fps number matters.
7
Shading: Medium.

Leave these higher if VRAM allows: Mesh and character High (cheap, helps ID people). Textures and streaming High until you hitch when turning. Hitching on camera swing means VRAM overflow, drop textures one step. Texture filtering Medium.

Practical Presets

Mid PC 1080p

Custom (community default)

DLSS/FSR Quality. Mesh High, View Distance Medium-High. Shading Medium. GI Off. Shadows Low. Reflections Low. Effects Medium, Particles Low. Post-process Low. Motion blur/DoF/flare/bloom Off. Textures High, filtering Medium.

Low-end / laptop

Potato + Performance

Potato or Low across the expensive list. Upscaler on Performance. 1080p. Reflex Enabled (+ Boost if CPU maxed). Testers said Potato on a laptop held a locked 60.

High-end 1440p

Medium-High + DLSS Quality

Same Custom list but Shadows Medium, View Distance High, DLSS Quality or DLAA. Frame gen (3x) for 400 fps only after a solid base. Do not enable FG if base fight fps is unstable, it multiplies hitching.

4If FPS Is High but the Game Still Feels Bad

Settings will not fix stutters. This is the other half of the troubleshooting.

1
Kill overlays: Discord, Steam, NVIDIA/AMD overlay, RivaTuner.
2
Windows: turn Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS) off, reboot.
3
Clear shader cache, reboot, launch once and sit in a match so shaders compile.
4
Disconnect extra controllers (EAC/input weirdness).
5
Verify game files. Delete Easy Anti-Cheat folder and verify or re-run installer as admin.
6
Steam launch options if it will not start cleanly: -Windowed and -DisableInitialFrontEndFlow.
7
Fresh driver with DDU if you still hitch after the above.
8
AMD: disable Radeon Boost + AFMF. Do not overclock past stock.

Periodic hitch every 30-60 seconds on otherwise strong PCs (example: 3080 Ti + 9850X3D) was reported as unfixed in the megathread. That is a build issue, not a slider you missed.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

✗
Tuning in the menu or empty base then wondering why a point fight drops to 45. Test in a live cap or vehicle fight.
✗
Leaving GI + High shadows + High reflections on then dropping textures. Wrong cost order.
✗
Skipping upscaling because "native looks better" then slashing view distance until you cannot see the fight.
✗
Enabling every driver boost (AFMF, Radeon Boost, extra FG) on an already stuttery frame time.
✗
Potato everything including mesh and textures. You lose player readability. Potato the expensive stuff (shadows, GI, particles, post), keep mesh and character readable.
✗
Uncapped 400 fps with FG while 1% lows are garbage. Cap to a stable fight number.

Pick a Target, Then a Preset

1Display and Latency (Before Pretty Sliders)

2Turn Upscaling On First

3Cut the Settings That Scale With Map Size

Practical Presets

4If FPS Is High but the Game Still Feels Bad

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Video Walkthroughs

More WARDOGS Guides