Best Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC Settings (2026)

The best Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC settings for most players start with three changes: turn on DLSS, FSR or XeSS at Quality, set Raytraced Global Illumination to Diffuse (Hideout Only) unless you own a high-end RTX card, and match the Texture Streaming Pool to your graphics card’s VRAM. Those three moves recover more frame rate than every other slider combined, and the image still looks close to the Ultra High preset in normal play. Below you will find presets for entry, mid-range and high-end GPUs, a setting-by-setting cost table, and the fixes for the stutter problems players still report in 2026.

Verdict at a glance

• Best overall setup: High preset, Raytraced Global Illumination on Diffuse (Hideout Only), upscaler on Quality, Texture Streaming Pool matched to VRAM, Hair Strands off.
• Best value tweak: Dropping Raytraced Global Illumination from an “Everywhere” mode to Hideout Only. Several settings guides put the gain at roughly 20 to 30 FPS in open-world play.
• Best for high-end RTX cards: Diffuse Everywhere global illumination with DLSS Quality or Balanced and frame generation, which Digital Foundry showed can run well with the right companion settings.
• Best for entry-level cards: Medium preset, upscaler on Balanced, frame generation only if you can already hold around 50 to 60 FPS.
• Biggest mistake to avoid: Leaving the Texture Streaming Pool above what your card can hold. That is the main source of hitching on 8GB cards.

Why Assassin’s Creed Shadows is so demanding on PC

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the first mainline entry built around real-time ray-traced lighting in Ubisoft’s updated Anvil engine. Digital Foundry’s engine deep dive described the biggest change as a move from offline baked indirect lighting to real-time ray-traced global illumination, which is why the lighting looks so much better than in Valhalla or Mirage, and also why the game hammers GPUs that older entries never troubled.

The numbers back that up. PCOptimizedSettings measured an RTX 4090 paired with a Core i9-12900K at 56 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p and 35 FPS at 4K on maximum settings with no upscaling. Esports.gg noted that even an RTX 5090 struggled to stay above 60 FPS on the Ultra High preset around launch. Notebookcheck recommends an RTX 4080 or RX 9070 class card for native 1440p at maximum detail and found that even an RTX 4070 briefly dropped under 30 FPS in heavy scenes with everything turned up.

The flip side is that the game scales well. TechPowerUp’s 30-GPU benchmark review concluded that, while Ultra with ray tracing is very demanding, performance scales sensibly across hardware tiers, and the game offers DLSS, FSR and XeSS upscaling plus full frame generation support. It can use more than 10GB of VRAM at higher resolutions and presets, which is the second big constraint after raw GPU power.

The settings that matter most

Not every slider in the Graphics menu is worth worrying about. These are the ones that actually move your frame rate, ordered from most to least important.

1. Raytraced Global Illumination

This is the single biggest lever. The game offers a Hideout-only diffuse mode, where ray-traced lighting is limited to your hideout and a cheaper method is used in the open world, plus “Everywhere” modes that apply ray-traced diffuse lighting across the whole map, and a top mode that adds ray-traced specular reflections on top. PCOptimizedSettings measured the diffuse ray-traced GI cost at 10 to 12 percent and the specular component at another 8 to 10 percent, with the diffuse cost peaking at night when many artificial light sources are active.

PC Gamer’s performance analysis found the cost varies sharply by GPU brand: the RX 6750 XT lost up to 32 percent of its average frame rate when RTGI was enabled everywhere, while the RTX 4050 and RTX 5080 lost up to 22 percent and the RTX 3060 Ti only around 11 percent. Cards without ray-tracing hardware, such as the RX 5700 XT, cannot enable the Everywhere modes at all and fall back to a shader-based solution.

Recommendation: Diffuse (Hideout Only) on entry and mid-range cards and on older Radeon cards. Diffuse Everywhere on RTX 4070 Super class and above if you also use DLSS. Reserve the specular option for flagship cards.

2. Upscaler and Upscaling Quality

Ubisoft designed the game assuming most players will upscale. Use DLSS on GeForce RTX cards, FSR on Radeon cards (FSR 4 on RX 9000 series where supported) and XeSS on Intel Arc. Quality mode gives the best balance at 1080p and 1440p, while Balanced or Performance makes sense at 4K. Leave Dynamic Resolution off unless you are on a handheld or a weak laptop GPU, because it can produce visible softness when the scaler drops resolution during fights.

3. Texture Streaming Pool

Texture Quality itself costs little frame rate, but the streaming pool decides how much VRAM the game reserves for high-resolution textures. If the pool is bigger than your card can hold, you get stutter and texture pop-in when moving quickly through Kyoto or on horseback. Tier1Settings and Hone.gg both recommend Low for 6GB cards, Medium for 8GB cards and High for 12GB or more.

4. Light Source Quality

Easy to overlook, but PCOptimizedSettings measured up to a 20 percent difference between Ultra and Low, with the hit concentrated at night in towns full of lanterns and fires. High is a good compromise on most hardware.

5. Shadow Quality

PCOptimizedSettings measured High at about 9 percent slower and Ultra at about 17 percent slower than Low. Tier1Settings notes that Very High looks almost identical to the top setting while running around 10 percent faster, so step down one notch from the maximum.

6. Hair Strands

Strand-based hair looks great on Naoe and Yasuke in cutscenes but costs 6 to 8 percent per PCOptimizedSettings’ measurements. Turn it off on anything below a high-end card.

7. Water, Terrain and Screen Space Effects

Water Quality costs up to 8 percent near docks and coasts. Terrain Quality averages around 3 percent but PCOptimizedSettings found it can lower 1 percent lows by up to 10 percent, so drop it a notch if you notice traversal hitching. Screen Space Effects cost around 4 percent at their highest setting.

Cheap settings you can leave high

Fog Quality is close to free, so Tier1Settings recommends leaving it on Very High. Loading Distance and Drawing Distance also cost little and reduce pop-in, so High is a sensible choice. Cloud Quality is more expensive than it looks; Medium is fine unless you have plenty of headroom.

Setting cost reference table

Best settings by GPU tier

These presets are starting points built from manufacturer requirements and the independent measurements named above. Run the built-in benchmark from the Graphics menu after applying them, then adjust one setting at a time.

Entry-level GPUs

Esports.gg reports that cards like the RTX 3060 can reach 45 to 60 FPS without frame generation at sensible settings, while anything weaker needs frame generation to feel smooth. PCOptimizedSettings is blunter and says entry cards are effectively unplayable at 60 FPS without frame generation. Ubisoft’s own minimum specification targets 1080p at 30 FPS on Low with a GTX 1070 or RX 5700 class card, and an SSD is listed as required.

Reasons to pick this preset: It keeps the lighting model intact in your hideout, protects VRAM on 8GB cards and keeps frame times steady in towns.

Reasons to skip it: If you play at 1440p on an RTX 4060, you will need Performance upscaling, which softens foliage noticeably.

The catch: Frame generation from a 35 FPS base still feels sluggish, so do not use it to rescue a frame rate that is already too low.

Mid-range GPUs

Overclock3D measured the RTX 4070 and RX 6800 at or around 60 FPS at 1440p on High without RTGI everywhere, and around 100 FPS with frame generation enabled. It also found that 1440p is not much more demanding than 1080p in this game, so mid-range owners should not hesitate to run their monitor’s native resolution. Ubisoft’s published specs list an RTX 3080 for 1440p at 60 FPS with selective ray tracing.

Reasons to pick this preset: It delivers most of the visual punch of the High preset at a consistent 60 FPS or more.

Reasons to skip it: Radeon RX 6000 owners should stay on Hideout Only global illumination given PC Gamer’s measured RTGI penalty on that architecture.

The catch: 12GB cards can run High streaming at 1440p, but 8GB versions of the same GPU tier cannot without hitching.

High-end GPUs

PCOptimizedSettings lists the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 4080 Super as the 4K 60 FPS tier with DLSS 4 frame generation and Balanced upscaling. Digital Foundry’s optimised settings video for the PC version argued that ray-traced global illumination, strand-based hair and good performance can coexist when the rest of the menu is tuned. Hone.gg suggests Diffuse Everywhere only on RTX 4080 class cards or faster.

Reasons to pick this preset: You get the full lighting model across the open world, which is the biggest visual upgrade the PC version offers.

Reasons to skip it: If you prefer a high-refresh experience at 1440p over maximum lighting, Hideout Only plus frame generation will push well beyond 100 FPS.

The catch: Even on flagship hardware, native 4K without upscaling is not a realistic 60 FPS target with every option maxed.

Display menu settings

A few display options affect clarity and input feel more than frame rate. Deltia’s Gaming recommends a Field of View around 100, Borderless Window mode, V-Sync off, Sharpen Strength around 0.25, and Motion Blur and Chromatic Aberration off for a cleaner image. PCGamesN takes the opposite view and leaves motion blur on for a more cinematic look, so treat those two as personal taste rather than performance settings.

Turn V-Sync off and use a frame-rate cap instead if you have a variable refresh rate monitor. Set the cap a few frames below your refresh rate to stay inside the G-Sync or FreeSync window and keep input latency down.

Driver and Windows settings

NVIDIA

• Set Low Latency Mode to On or Ultra if you are not using Reflex in game.
• Increase Shader Cache Size to 10GB or Unlimited so the driver does not discard compiled shaders and force recompilation.
• Set Power Management Mode to Prefer Maximum Performance for the game’s profile.

AMD

• Enable Anti-Lag 2 where supported.
• Disable Radeon Boost, which several guides report conflicts with FSR upscaling.
• Reset the shader cache in Adrenalin if stutter appears after a driver update.

System

• Enable XMP or EXPO in the BIOS so your RAM runs at its rated speed. Guides report a 5 to 10 percent gain in CPU-limited towns.
• Install the game on an NVMe SSD. Ubisoft lists an SSD as required for a reason: the open world streams aggressively.
• Keep Windows and GPU drivers current. This matters more than usual for Shadows, as the next section explains.

The Windows update performance bug, and why your driver version matters

If Shadows suddenly ran far worse on a GeForce card in late 2025, it was not your settings. Microsoft’s October 14, 2025 cumulative update for Windows 11 (KB5066835) caused a large performance regression in some games on GeForce RTX cards. Digital Foundry measured Assassin’s Creed Shadows dropping by at least a third and by half or more in the worst cases; in one scene a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 5090 fell from 72 FPS to 34 FPS at 4K with DLSS Quality.

NVIDIA released GeForce Hotfix Display Driver 581.94 on November 19, 2025 to address it, and Tom’s Hardware reported user measurements showing a gain of roughly 47 percent in average frame rate in Shadows after moving to the hotfix. Ubisoft’s bug tracker also listed uninstalling the related Windows updates as a temporary workaround. Every current NVIDIA driver includes the fix, so the practical lesson is simple: if performance falls off a cliff after a Windows update, update your GPU driver before you start lowering settings.

Fixing stutter and hitching

1. Let shaders finish compiling. After a driver or game update, give the game time on the main menu before loading a save, and expect a rougher first few minutes.
2. Lower the Texture Streaming Pool. If the stutter happens when you ride fast or arrive in a new town, this is the most likely cause.
3. Drop Terrain Quality one step. It has a bigger effect on 1 percent lows than on average frame rate.
4. Cap the frame rate. Wild swings between 50 and 90 FPS feel worse than a steady 60, especially with frame generation.
5. Close overlays and capture tools. Recording software and browser hardware acceleration can compete for VRAM on 8GB cards.
6. Check the GPU driver version first if a recent Windows update coincides with the problem.

Common mistakes

• Judging performance in the hideout. The hideout has its own lighting path, so test in a town at night instead.
• Using frame generation to fix low base frame rates. It adds smoothness but also latency; Tier1Settings recommends it only from a 50 to 60 FPS base.
• Maxing textures on 8GB cards. It looks fine for ten minutes, then hitching starts as VRAM fills.
• Ignoring Light Source Quality. Players often lower shadows first when lights cost more at night.
• Copying a 4K preset to a 1080p laptop. Laptop GPUs with the same name run with lower power limits and usually need one tier lower.

Products Mentioned in This Guide

These are specific models from the GPU tiers and system advice discussed above for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12G

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12G (REV2.0) Graphics Card, 3X WINDFORCE Fans, 12GB 192-bit GDDR6, GV-N3060 Video Card

Included for 'Best Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Settings' as a representative home product in this roundup; selection reflects the product set returned for this topic.

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The entry-level card Esports.gg reports at 45 to 60 FPS at 1080p with the Medium preset, Hideout Only global illumination and Balanced upscaling.

ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5070 12GB OC Edition

ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GDDR7 OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card

Included for 'Best Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Settings' as a representative home product in this roundup; selection reflects the product set returned for this topic.

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A mid-range pick for the High preset at 1440p, with the 12GB of VRAM the guide pairs with a High Texture Streaming Pool.

XFX Speedster MERC319 RX 7800 XT 16GB

XFX Speedster MERC319 RX 7800 XT Black Gaming Graphics Card 16GB GDDR6 HDMI 3xDP, AMD RDNA 3 RX-78TMERCB9

Included for 'Best Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Settings' as a representative home product in this roundup; selection reflects the product set returned for this topic.

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Named in the mid-range column for the High preset at 1440p with Hideout Only global illumination and Quality upscaling.

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G Graphics Card, 16GB 256-bit GDDR7, PCIe 5.0, WINDFORCE Cooling System, GV-N507TGAMING OC-16GD Video Card

Included for 'Best Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Settings' because the listing adds cooling or gel-infused layers, which is the attribute this article compares.

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PCOptimizedSettings lists the RTX 5070 Ti in the 4K 60 FPS tier with DLSS 4 frame generation and Balanced upscaling, the start of the high-end column.

Samsung 990 PRO 2TB NVMe SSD

Samsung SSD 990 PRO 2TB, PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280, Up to 7,450 MB/s

Included for 'Best Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Settings' as a representative home product in this roundup; selection reflects the product set returned for this topic.

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Ubisoft requires an SSD, and the guide recommends an NVMe drive because the open world streams aggressively.

How we compared

We compared these settings using Ubisoft’s published system requirements, the in-game menu options, and independent measurements from the sources named throughout this article, including TechPowerUp, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, Overclock3D, Notebookcheck and PCOptimizedSettings, along with owner reports from the Steam community. We did not bench-test these settings ourselves. Performance figures are attributed to the outlet that measured them, and most were recorded in 2025, so later patches and drivers may shift results slightly.

Sources

• TechPowerUp: Assassin’s Creed Shadows Performance Benchmark Review, 30 GPUs Compared
• Digital Foundry: Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC review and optimised settings; Anvil engine deep dive
• Digital Foundry and Tom’s Hardware: coverage of the Windows 11 KB5066835 regression and NVIDIA hotfix 581.94
• PC Gamer: Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC performance analysis
• Overclock3D: Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide
• Notebookcheck: Assassin’s Creed Shadows technical review
• PCOptimizedSettings: Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC Settings Optimization Guide
• Tier1Settings, Hone.gg, Deltia’s Gaming, Esports.gg and PCGamesN settings guides
• Ubisoft: official PC system requirements and bug reporter notes

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single best setting to change for more FPS in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

Raytraced Global Illumination. Switching from an Everywhere mode to Diffuse (Hideout Only) is commonly reported to add around 20 to 30 FPS in open-world play, with little visual loss outside interiors and night scenes.

Should I use DLSS or FSR in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

Use DLSS on GeForce RTX cards, FSR on Radeon cards and XeSS on Intel Arc. Quality mode is the best default at 1080p and 1440p; Balanced is fine at 4K. The game was designed with upscaling in mind.

How much VRAM does Assassin’s Creed Shadows need?

TechPowerUp found it can use more than 10GB at high resolutions and presets. Eight gigabyte cards should use the Medium Texture Streaming Pool and 6GB cards should use Low to avoid hitching.

Is frame generation worth it in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

Yes, when your base frame rate is already around 50 to 60 FPS. It makes motion look smoother on high-refresh monitors, but it does not reduce input latency and feels poor from a low base.

Can an RTX 3060 run Assassin’s Creed Shadows well?

Esports.gg reports 45 to 60 FPS at 1080p on an RTX 3060 with tuned settings and no frame generation. Use the Medium preset, Hideout Only global illumination and Balanced upscaling.

Why did Assassin’s Creed Shadows suddenly run worse after a Windows update?

The October 2025 Windows 11 update KB5066835 caused a large regression on GeForce cards. NVIDIA fixed it in hotfix driver 581.94 and later drivers, so update your GPU driver first.

Does Assassin’s Creed Shadows have a built-in benchmark?

Yes. Use it after each change so you are comparing like with like, then confirm with a ride through a busy town at night, which is the heaviest real-world scenario.

Should I turn Hair Strands on?

Only on high-end cards. PCOptimizedSettings measured a 6 to 8 percent cost, and the difference is mostly visible in close-up cutscenes rather than normal gameplay.