Introduction to the Best Settings for PUBG
Trying to achieve the best settings for PUBG or PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds can be tedious for most of us who own low to midrange gaming rigs. The title, despite retaining its early access status, has reached over 20 million (and counting) gamers worldwide. This brings the majority of gamers who have modest specs the dilemma of tweaking the graphics settings perfectly to play this title smoothly. Of course, the best solution is to optimize your rig for PUBG. The best PUBG settings are not quite the same as for Fortnite.
The game runs on Unreal Engine 4 which is one of the best and most optimized platforms in game development, plus a reasonable benchmark for system requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300
GPU: Nvidia GTX 660 2GB or AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Memory: 6GB RAM
Storage: 30GB Available Space
Easy peasy for most, right? Both yes and no; because despite UE4’s maturity, your GPU has to deal with a lot of GPU killers such as foliage and varying terrain, including advanced 3D models. Just like GTA V, a sprawling landscape with no loading times plus multiple 3D objects require a lot of processing power and optimization. Here are some of the tricks you can apply to guarantee that trying to achieve that chicken dinner is smooth and free-flowing.
Preparing Your PC for PUBG
Update: Nvidia users who own a GTX 1060 or above should update to the latest Nvidia drivers which are optimized for PUBG v1.0. Kindly follow this link to know more.
Before anything else, make sure you have AMD and Nvidia’s latest drivers for improved efficiency. During PUBG’s early access phase, there were numerous fixes and optimizations from both companies, but there are also certain players who tested and applied some tweaks.
AMD RX GPU users only need to lower Tesselation from 8 to 4 to improve FPS and remove stutters, but Nvidia users need to apply a few adjustments in the Nvidia Control Panel. Follow these steps to try this yourself:
Right-click on Desktop – Select Nvidia Control Panel – Open Manage 3D Settings – Go to Program Settings Tab – Choose PUBG from menu (Add the main .exe file if not found)
After doing these steps, follow this template made by Steam User mXoff:
Graphics Settings for PUBG
As a reference to get the best settings for PUBG, the gaming computer specs we used emulates a reasonable, mid-range system most gamers have in their homes:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500
GPU: Asus GTX 970 4GB
Memory: GSkill Ripjaws V 8GB 2400 DDR4 RAM
Storage: Crucial 500GB SSD
This midrange gaming CPU assembled to try and achieve the best settings for PUBG is paired with a 1920 x 1080 144Hz monitor which is optimal for competitive PUBG play. We opted not to use 1440p and 4K monitors because these were simply too demanding for our test bed.
Veterans and newbies’ most straightforward solution to get the best settings for PUBG is to tinker with the game’s graphics menu. Each term can be confusing and optimization can get messy if you are unfamiliar, so here is a breakdown of our system’s sweet spot
1. Anti-Aliasing – This cleans and smoothens out the edges on objects such as buildings and weapons, but applying too much will drop your FPS. We recommend using HIGH to tidy up your visuals without sacrificing too much GPU power, without using the Ultra setting which doesn’t add a huge improvement.
2. View Distance – This one should be maxed out (ULTRA) since it will allow players to see more distant objects such as crates or incoming enemies. This is vital if you like to scout around with a scoped rifle before swooping in for the loot and the kill(s).
3. Texture – This affects the surface detail of objects in the game, including your avatar and its weapons. Selecting MEDIUM is the best and most acceptable compromise between eye candy and performance since High had too much impact on the FPS while Low sent us to the stone age.
4. Foliage – Another important aspect of the game which dictates how detailed the brush, shrubs, and grass that hides you and your opponents will be. Leave this one at HIGH, since bringing it down doesn’t affect the amount rendered nor the FPS.
5. Post Processing – This determines effects like Ambient Occlusion and Dynamic Lighting, but the former is already included at the LOW setting. The higher options only add depth of field and lighting blooms which are both unnecessary for competitive play.
6. Shadows – As the name implies, this setting will affect shadow quality. Seeing your opponent’s shadow in close quarter environments can spell the difference between a kill or kissing the floor, so use MEDIUM at least since Low will turn it off totally.
7. Effects – This is another aspect which you should treat with care since it can make gunfire and flames more realistic but will eat up your GPU’s power. To use it sparingly, select MEDIUM for a little eye candy or set it to low for a modest boost.
8. Screen Scale – AKA Supersampling, allows the game to render at a higher resolution and downscale it to your display’s native output. This makes games look exponentially crisper and detailed, but the FPS dip will be gruesome. Leave this at 100 for the best quality, but you can try and turn it down a few notches if stuttering persists.
9.Motion Blur – This will create blurring effects when moving quickly in-game to add a feeling of speed, but this is entirely up to you.
10. V-Sync – V-Sync will save you from tearing if you don’t have access to FreeSync or G-Sync, but you will suffer through input lag. We recommend turning this off and retrying some of the settings above if tearing is unbearable.
Note: We did not use a G-Sync monitor during our test run of the best settings for PUBG
Game Performance with the Best Settings for PUBG
After going through these options thoroughly, you are probably itching to try and take that Chicken Dinner to add to your gamer rep. After queuing for a match, the warm-up phase before the actual contest is a pretty good benchmark if your tweaking succeeded. This part of the game is the worst case scenario you can possibly encounter due to a lot of avatars punching each other and jumping around.
If your system achieves anywhere from 40FPS to the high fifties during warm up, 60FPS and above is guaranteed when you hit the battleground. Our best settings for PUBG listed above stayed well within an average of 70FPS, with dips into the fifties, which is already respectable if you want to play competitively. You can even use a 1080p monitor with a 75Hz native refresh for a bit of graphics advantage, but trying to reach 100FPS or more with this setup includes compromises which are not worth it for us.
If you want to push beyond an average of 60FPS to 70FPS, you will need a GTX 1060 which is more or less 10% faster and another round of tweaking. 1440p monitors need at least a GTX 1070 or an AMD Vega 56, and 4K will an AMD Vega 64, GTX 1080 or a GTX 1080 Ti. Following this formula, if you are playing competitively with a 1080p 144Hz monitor, a GTX 1060 is a decent upgrade while a GTX 1070 should be generous enough to allow for improved graphics or higher frame rates.
Editor’s Note: The results from the best settings for PUBG may vary for each of us due to the Early Access nature of the game and numerous other factors. PUBG or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is set to officially release on December 20, 2017, on the PC and the Xbox. If you haven’t optimized using our guide, now is the time!
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