ARC Raiders runs on Unreal Engine 5, and it’s one of the better-optimized titles to launch on the engine. Mid-range gaming rigs can run it well out of the box, and the 130GB install is large but performs cleanly on both SSD and HDD — though an SSD is strongly recommended to avoid long loading times between raids.
That said, there’s significant room to tune beyond the defaults. Whether you want to maximize frames for competitive PvP or balance visual fidelity with performance, this guide covers the optimal PC settings for ARC Raiders in 2026.
Why Optimization Matters in ARC Raiders
Unlike single-player titles where a few dropped frames go unnoticed, extraction shooters demand consistent performance. When you’re in a tense standoff or dodging ARC machine attacks, every frame counts. Stutters can mean the difference between a successful extraction and losing all your hard-earned loot.
The settings below target two use cases. A competitive-focused profile prioritizes maximum FPS, reduced visual clutter, and minimal input latency. A balanced visual profile gives you great-looking gameplay while keeping frames well above 60fps. The Quick Reference table at the end includes both.
Display Settings: The Foundation
Window Mode: Borderless Fullscreen
Allows alt-tabbing without issues while maintaining near-fullscreen performance. Preferred over exclusive fullscreen for the flexibility it offers.
Display Resolution: Native
Always run at your monitor’s native resolution. Dropping below native introduces blurriness. If you need performance gains, use an AI upscaler instead (see Resolution Scaling below).
DLSS Frame Generation: Off (for mouse/keyboard) / Optional for controller
Frame Generation can dramatically boost FPS but introduces input latency — a meaningful disadvantage in firefights when using a mouse. For controller players, DLSS 4’s Multi Frame Generation (MFG) at 2x is viable and gives significant frame rate headroom without the same feel penalty. At 4x MFG you can push past 200fps on an RTX 40-series GPU, but the added latency becomes noticeable again. For mouse players, leave Frame Gen off entirely.
VSync: Disabled
VSync caps your framerate and adds input lag. Turn it off.
Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On
If you have an Nvidia GPU, enable this. It reduces system latency and makes inputs feel more responsive — crucial for competitive play.
Frame Rate Limit: 400
Setting a specific cap (such as 400fps) rather than Unlimited prevents your GPU from running unnecessary cycles when performance headroom exists, reducing heat and power draw without affecting gameplay. If your hardware peaks well below this, Unlimited is fine.
Resolution Scaling & Anti-Aliasing: The Smart Approach
This is where you’ll find the biggest performance gains without sacrificing visual quality.
Upscaled Resolution: 100%
Keep this at 100%. The upscaling method below does the heavy lifting — this slider controls the base render resolution before upscaling is applied.
Resolution Scaling Method: DLSS (Nvidia) or FSR (AMD / other)
- RTX GPU owners: Use DLSS — it delivers superior image quality over FSR on Nvidia hardware
- AMD GPU owners: Use FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution)
- Other GPUs: FSR works on any GPU
Both technologies render the game at a lower internal resolution and use AI to upscale it back to native. The result is significant performance gains with minimal visual loss.
DLSS Quality: Auto or Balanced
Auto lets the game decide the optimal quality tier for your resolution, which works well in most cases. Balanced mode is the manual equivalent — it hits the sweet spot between performance and image quality. Quality mode looks sharper but costs more FPS, while Performance mode maximizes frames at the expense of some clarity. For 1440p and above, Balanced or Auto is the right call.
DLSS Model: CNN vs. Transformer
This is a genuine trade-off in ARC Raiders. The Transformer model is newer and generally sharper in static scenes, but some players report distracting light trails and ghosting on fast-moving objects in this title. The CNN model delivers cleaner visuals during rapid movement and firefights at the cost of slightly lower peak sharpness in still moments. Start with CNN; switch to Transformer if the ghosting doesn’t bother you on your specific setup.
Graphics Settings: What Really Matters
Field of View (FOV): 80
The competitive sweet spot in ARC Raiders is 80. A wider FOV gives you better peripheral awareness — valuable in PvP — while 80 avoids the distortion that comes at extreme settings. The original default of 60 is too narrow for most players in an action-extraction context.
Motion Blur: Off
Motion blur adds cinematic feel but makes targets harder to track during movement and firefights. Turn it off for clearer visuals in combat.
RTX Global Illumination
The right setting depends on your priority:
- Competitive / max FPS: Static — removes dynamic lighting calculations entirely, the single biggest individual FPS saver in the game
- Balanced visual: High — looks significantly better than Static with a manageable performance cost on mid-to-high-end hardware
- Max fidelity: Dynamic High — only recommended if you have headroom to spare, as this is the most performance-intensive lighting mode
Quality Settings: The Performance-Critical Options
These settings have the most direct impact on FPS and visibility. Competitive and visual recommendations differ here more than anywhere else.
- View Distance: Epic – ARC Raiders’ maps are large. Epic prevents enemy and object pop-in at range, which matters both for awareness and for fair fights. Don’t compromise here regardless of your performance goal.
- Anti-Aliasing: Low – Since DLSS or FSR is handling upscaling and edge-smoothing, you don’t need aggressive anti-aliasing from this setting. Low is sufficient and saves meaningful FPS.
- Shadows: Low (competitive) / High (balanced) – At High, shadows help you spot enemies in daylight and read the environment. At Low, you gain significant FPS and reduce visual clutter that can obscure targets — many competitive players prefer Low for exactly this reason.
- Post-Processing: Low (competitive) / Epic (balanced) – Epic post-processing makes the game look polished with minimal FPS impact. For pure competitive play, Low strips distracting visual effects and reduces processing overhead.
- Textures: GPU VRAM Dependent
- 4GB VRAM: Medium
- 6GB VRAM: High
- 8GB+ VRAM: Epic
- Effects: Low (competitive) / Epic (balanced) – Weapon effects, explosions, and particles look impressive at Epic. For competitive play, Low reduces visual noise during firefights and helps you track enemies more clearly through heavy action.
- Reflections: Medium – Reflective surfaces can tank framerates at Epic. Medium gives adequate-looking reflections on water and metallic structures without the performance penalty. This is a good compromise for both play styles.
- Foliage: Low – One of the most impactful competitive settings in the game. Low foliage removes bushes and ground cover that enemies use to hide. You’ll spot player silhouettes much more easily, and you gain FPS at the same time. Lower foliage is an objective competitive advantage here, not just a visual trade-off.
- Global Illumination Resolution: Medium – Medium provides a good balance of lighting quality and performance. Low shows visible degradation in how light bounces through indoor environments; Epic is costly without proportional visual returns in most scenes.
- Volumetric Fog: Low – A newer setting not always highlighted in early guides. Volumetric fog creates atmospheric haze that can obscure enemies at range, especially during storm map conditions. Low removes most of this visual noise and is one of the clearest competitive advantages available in the settings menu.
Advanced Settings
A small section that’s easy to overlook:
- In-Game Performance Overlay: Off – Unless you’re actively benchmarking, disable this to keep your view clean. For monitoring, use the Nvidia App overlay (Alt+R) or AMD Radeon overlay (Ctrl+Shift+O) instead.
- Idle Energy Saving: Enabled – Reduces GPU draw when you’re in menus between raids. Has no impact on in-game performance.
- Inactive Window Energy Saving: Enabled – Limits GPU usage when the game window loses focus. Safe to enable for all setups.
Audio Settings: Don’t Skip These
ARC Raiders rewards positional awareness heavily, and audio is a major part of that. Two settings in particular make a meaningful difference:
Night Mode: On
This setting reduces the dynamic range of the audio mix — louder sounds become quieter, and quieter sounds become louder. The practical effect is that footsteps, distant loot sounds, and ARC machine movement become audible at volumes that won’t deafen you when a gunfight breaks out. Night Mode is especially valuable when playing with headphones.
Proximity Chat: Push-to-Talk
ARC Raiders defaults proximity chat to open mic, which means nearby players can hear your microphone passively. Switching to push-to-talk prevents accidental audio leaks to enemy players and is generally better practice. That said, proximity chat is a meaningful part of the ARC Raiders experience — consider using it actively rather than disabling it entirely, as it enables negotiation and coordination with strangers in the field.
Quick Reference Settings Table
For easy reference, here’s the full recommended setup across both profiles:
Display
- Window Mode: Borderless Fullscreen
- Resolution: Native
- DLSS Frame Gen: Off (mouse) / 2x MFG optional (controller)
- VSync: Disabled
- Reflex: On
- Frame Rate Limit: 400
Upscaling
- Upscaled Resolution: 100%
- Method: DLSS (Nvidia) / FSR (AMD)
- DLSS Quality: Auto or Balanced
- DLSS Model: CNN (recommended start) / Transformer (if ghosting not an issue)
Graphics
- FOV: 80
- Motion Blur: Off
- RTX GI: Static (competitive) / High (balanced)
Quality
- View Distance: Epic
- Anti-Aliasing: Low
- Shadows: Low (competitive) / High (balanced)
- Post-Processing: Low (competitive) / Epic (balanced)
- Textures: Based on VRAM (Medium / High / Epic)
- Effects: Low (competitive) / Epic (balanced)
- Reflections: Medium
- Foliage: Low
- GI Resolution: Medium
- Volumetric Fog: Low
Advanced
- In-Game Performance Overlay: Disabled
- Idle Energy Saving: Enabled
- Inactive Window Energy Saving: Enabled
Performance Expectations
ARC Raiders is genuinely well-optimized for a UE5 title. On a mid-range setup (RTX 4070, i7, 32GB RAM) at 1080p with the balanced settings above, you can expect over 100fps average with 1% lows well above 55fps — smooth enough for comfortable competitive play. At 1440p the same rig delivers around 78fps average at Epic settings, or higher if you drop to High and enable DLSS Quality mode.
With the competitive profile — foliage and shadows low, fog low, effects low, Static GI — expect a meaningful FPS uplift and cleaner enemy visibility regardless of hardware tier.
If you’re still seeing stutters after applying these settings, lower Shadows and Textures first, as these are the two settings most likely to cause memory pressure and mid-fight frame spikes.
Final Thoughts
Performance optimization in extraction shooters isn’t just about hitting high FPS numbers — it’s about maintaining consistent, stutter-free gameplay when it matters most. The competitive profile prioritizes visibility and latency above visual fidelity, while the balanced profile keeps ARC Raiders looking as good as it can without sacrificing a playable framerate.
Start with the competitive profile, raid for a few sessions, then gradually raise individual settings (shadows, post-processing, effects) until you find the visual quality ceiling your hardware can sustain without introducing frame drops.
Now that you’ve got your game running smoothly, make sure you know how to team up with friends across all platforms so you can tackle Topside together with optimal performance.
Also Check: Essential ARC Raiders Tips & Tricks
Best Skills to Unlock First in ARC Raiders
External Resources:
Good luck with your extractions, and may your framerates stay high!
