Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Best PC settings

Shreyansh Katsura

Shreyansh Katsura

Optimization is the key.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows' PC version boasts stunning visuals and includes next-generation graphics features like Ray-Traced Global Illumination, a first for an Assassin’s Creed game. 

It’s no doubt the best-looking game in the franchise. However, this GPU-intensive title isn’t the most optimized AAA release of 2025, especially on low to mid-budget PCs. 

There is no option to completely turn off the Ray-Traced Global Illumination feature, which affects game performance. To make matters worse, Assassin's Creed Shadows has third-party digital rights management (DRM) protection on all PC versions. 

That said, there are ways to bolster Assassin’s Creed Shadows' PC performance. Below, we break down the best display and graphics settings to play this game on high-end and low-end devices. 

Assassin's Creed Shadows is relatively well-optimized for high-end PCs (Image via Ubisoft)
Assassin's Creed Shadows is relatively well-optimized for high-end PCs (Image via Ubisoft)

Best display settings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PC: High-end settings

If you have an RTX 3080, RX 6800 XT, or higher GPU, these Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC display settings may allow you to achieve a constant 60 FPS to 75 FPS or higher in the game. 

  • Image Calibration: Default
  • Field of View: 85%
  • Display Mode: Borderless window
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (or 21:9 for ultrawide screens)
  • V Sync: off
  • Resolution: 2560 x1440 or 3840 x 2160
  • Frame Rate Limiter: Off
  • Frame Rate Target: Off
  • Dynamic Resolution: Disabled
  • Upscaler Type: DLSS / FSR
  • Upscaler Quality: Quality 
  • Frame Generation: Off
  • Motion Blur: Off

Field of View (FOV) can significantly impact performance, so you may not want to push it too much unless you don’t mind enabling Frame Generation, which in turn causes input lag. However, since we are not using Frame Generation in this setting, we suggest keeping FOV at or below 85%. 

Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. While we recommend sticking to 1440p resolution, you can push to native 4K for better picture quality, though expect some FPS dips in intense situations.

You can completely disable raytracing in Assassin's Creed Shadows (Image via Ubisoft)
You can completely disable raytracing in Assassin's Creed Shadows (Image via Ubisoft)

Best graphics settings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PC: High-end settings

As of publishing this guide, even the most high-end graphics cards, like RTX 5090, are struggling to run Assassin’s Creed Shadows at over 60 FPS at the ultra-high graphics preset. But with these settings, you can get a relatively decent performance.

  • Raytraced Global Illuminations: Diffused Hideout Only
  • Overall Preset: Custom
  • Raytracing Quality: Low / Medium
  • BVH:  Low
  • Screen Space Effects: Medium / High
  • Light Source Quality: High / Ultra High
  • Shadow Quality: Medium / High
  • Texture Streaming Pool: Medium
  • Post Effects: Low / Medium
  • Water Quality:  High
  • Particle Quality:  High
  • Loading Distance: High
  • Drawing Distance: High
  • Micropolygon: High
  • Terrain Quality: Medium / High
  • Deformation: Medium / High 
  • Scatter Density: High
  • Virtual Texture: Medium 
  • Character Quality: High
  • Hair Strands: High 
  • Cloud Quality: Medium / High
  • Fog Quality: Medium / High

To get 60 FPS or more consistently, you should enable Frame Generation and set RTGI to Diffused Hideouts Only. 

Assassin’s Creed Shadows' raytracing performance should improve with subsequent patches, but right now, you have to make a few adjustments to balance fidelity and performance. 

Hence, instead of going for ultra-high graphics settings, we recommend sticking to high and medium for certain attributes.   

In particular, you would want the Water and Particle Quality, Loading and Drawing Distance, and Character Quality set to high, as these can significantly improve the overall fidelity of the game. Anything below high can notably degrade the visuals.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is poorly optimized for mid to low-end PCs (Image via Ubisoft)
Assassin's Creed Shadows is poorly optimized for mid to low-end PCs (Image via Ubisoft)

Best display settings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PC: Low-end settings

If you own an RTX 3060 or RX 6700 XT graphics card, these display settings may allow you to get a stable 45 FPS to 60 FPS in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

  •  Image Calibration: Default
  • Field of View: 75%
  • Display Mode: Borderless window
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 
  • V Sync: on
  • Resolution: 1920 x 1080
  • Frame Rate Limiter: Off
  • Frame Rate Target: Off
  • Dynamic Resolution: Disabled
  • Upscaler Type: DLSS / FSR
  • Upscaler Quality:  Performance 
  • Frame Generation: On
  • Motion Blur: Off

You may want to trim down FOV to 75% and set the resolution to 1080p. Enabling V Sync may also be a good choice for reducing occasional screen tearing. 

We recommend setting the Upscaler Quality to Performance to further improve FPS. While RTX 3060 and equivalent graphics cards can achieve 45 FPS to 60 FPS without Frame Generation, you will need to enable it on anything lower than that to get a decent performance.

You can boost performance on low-budget PCs by enabling Frame Generation (Image via Ubisoft)
You can boost performance on low-budget PCs by enabling Frame Generation (Image via Ubisoft)

Best graphics settings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PC: Low-end settings

To get the best performance in Assassin’s Creed Shadows on low-end PCs, you should enable Frame Generation and set most graphics options at low settings.

  • Raytraced Global Illuminations: Diffused Hideout Only
  • Overall Preset: Custom
  • Raytracing Quality: Low 
  • BVH:  Low
  • Screen Space Effects: Medium / High
  • Light Source Quality: Low
  • Shadow Quality: Low
  • Texture Streaming Pool: Low
  • Post Effects: Low / Medium
  • Water Quality: Medium 
  • Particle Quality: Medium 
  • Loading Distance: Low
  • Drawing Distance: Low
  • Micropolygon: Low / Medium
  • Terrain Quality: Low / Medium
  • Deformation: Low / Medium
  • Scatter Density: Low
  • Virtual Texture: Low
  • Character Quality: Low
  • Hair Strands: Off 
  • Cloud Quality: Low
  • Fog Quality: Low

If you enable Frame Generation, you may go for medium settings for some graphics attributes, such as Water and Particle Quality. 

You can also set Terrain Quality and Micropolygon to Medium to further improve the environment textures. These shouldn't hamper the performance too much like some other attributes, such as the Shadow Quality and Texture Streaming Pool, so you can tweak them to your liking. 

That sums up our guide on Assassin’s Creed Shadows best PC settings. Stick around on esports.gg for more news, guides, and updates.