[Mid to High-End PC] Performance Tweaks: System Configuration & Examples for Graphic Settings
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These tweaks, especially example settings in-game, are meant for midrange to high-end PC's, where the GPU has enough headroom to prefer a clear picture over downscaling. (reminder: the RTX 2080 / i9 9900k are turning seven)
I will make 3 seperate Spoilers: - Windows+Nvidia - Windows+AMD - Linux Since I am mostly on a Windows+AMD machine and my Linux Laptop is more on the low-end, i apprechiate any input from Linux users to fill gaps or remove false statements. The general structure will be System first, game later. Since the settings for the game itself do not vary between systems, they will not be listed under each individual spoiler. Bios -- Activate Resizeable BAR [only for newer PCs (2020+)] -- CPUs: Intel 10th gen and above as well as AMD Zen 3 (5000) and above should support Resizeable BAR. For GPUs its Nvidia RTX 3000-series and above, as well as AMD RX 6000 and above. You may need to go into your bios and activate the feature. The feature is usually named "Re-size BAR Support" or something like that. " [It might also help to disable CSM/Legacy mode] Windows & Nvidia-GPU
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-- System Settings - Graphics -- Press Windows-Key + R to open the Run Dialog copy paste ms-settings:display-advancedgraphics and hit enter (Enable Hardware Acceleration) Under "Graphics performance preference" click Browse -> Locate the PoE2.exe and add it Click "Options" on the new entry for PoE2 -> then select "High Performance", which will most likely also include the name of your GPU -- Power Options -- Press Windows-Key + R to open the Run Dialog copy paste powercfg.cpl and hit enter Select "High Performance" ONLY IF your CPU happens to get extremely hot afterwards, it has been suggested to change the maximum processor state from 100% to 99% -> Change plan Settings -> Click "Change advanced power settings" in the new window expand "Processor power management" Change Maximum processor state from 100% -> 99% *note* if you set your power profile to always be on "high performance" your PC might draw a bit more power. There are also tools to automate changing profiles. -- Enabling Resizeable BAR -- Nvidia has its own tool https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5165/~/nvidia-resizable-bar-firmware-update-tool Or as an alternative the Nvidia Inspector - please use at your own risk! It is not an official Nvidia tool, but widely used. This is the repo of the maintainer: https://github.com/Orbmu2k/nvidiaProfileInspector Open Nvidia Inspector - scroll down to "5 - Common" set rBAR - Feature to enabled set rBAR - Options to 0x00000001 ser rBAR - Size Limit to 0x0000000040000000 If you enabled Resizeable BAR in your bios and it is not shown in nvidia inspector (although you have an RTX3000-series/above card, you might have to scroll down to "unknown" where you can find the options. [here you can also set your Shadercache - Cachesize and Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames, but these can also be set in the Nvidia Control Panel] -- Nvidia Control Panel -- Open Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings Make the following changes, preferably only to the PoE2.exe (select it from the drop-down-menu, make sure it is the right one [to find the right .exe, go to taskmanager while the game is running, find PoE under "Details" -> rightclick -> Properties - there youll find the full path with the name of the executable] 1. Shader Cache Size => set 10–100 GB instead of "default" 2. "Pre Rendered Frames" => set this to 3 Explaining pre-rendered frames: Setting it to 3 would basically be tripple buffering, but ensured through the driver. I suspect that some shooter-players have it set to 1 in their global profile, which is quite common to reduce input delay. This option overrides the application setting, which is very bad, since this instructs your CPU to only render the next frame. By default PoE uses double-buffering, with the option to use tripple-buffering. Especially CPU-intensive titles - like PoE - produce much more stable Frames when tripple-, or at least double-buffering is allowed. Have you played Shooters in the past and followed any advice to optimize FPS/lower input delay? Please take a look at it. // In case the option cannot be found in the Nvidia Control Panel, try using Nvidia Inspector - this tool also works for setting the shader cache. -- Launch option - Exclusive Fullscreen -- Steam: Rightclick Path of Exile 2 in your Steam Library -> Properties... -> copy+paste it under General-> Launch Options -window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen For Standalone: Right-click PathOfExile_x64.exe ->Click "Create Shortcut". Right-click the shortcut -> "Properties". In the "Target"-field, add the launch option after the path like this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Grinding Gear Games\Path of Exile\PathOfExile_x64.exe" -window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen This even seems to work with “Windowed Fullscreen” - My CPU latency improved a lot when trying this option. With this launch option, you ensure the game runs in exclusive fullscreen – this can especially help if you have hardware‑accelerated apps open on a second monitor. Additional information can be found here: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/demystifying-full-screen-optimizations/ =>My system runs best with fullscreen optimization disabled Even while playing full-screen video on a second monitor. Windows & AMD-GPU
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-- System Settings - Graphics -- Press Windows-Key + R to open the Run Dialog copy paste ms-settings:display-advancedgraphics and hit enter (Enable Hardware Acceleration) Under "Graphics performance preference" click Browse -> Locate the PoE2.exe and add it Click "Options" on the new entry for PoE2 -> then select "High Performance", which will most likely also include the name of your GPU -- Power Options -- Press Windows-Key + R to open the Run Dialog copy paste powercfg.cpl and hit enter Select "High Performance" ONLY IF your CPU happens to get extremely hot afterwards, it has been suggested to change the maximum processor state from 100% to 99% -> Change plan Settings -> Click "Change advanced power settings" in the new window expand "Processor power management" Change Maximum processor state from 100% -> 99% *note* if you set your power profile to always be on "high performance" your PC might draw a bit more power. There are also tools to automate changing profiles. -- Enabling Resizeable BAR -- Open the AMD Software, click "Performance" -> "Tuning" -> Enable "Resizeable BAR" [in the Pro-version its called "AMD Smart Access Memory"] while we are here... Disable Radeon Anti-Lag (Amd Software -> "Gaming" -> Toggle "Radeon Anti-Lag" off) This is basically the AMD-equivalent of having pre-rendered frames set to 1. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get rid of this, if you have set it in the past. This is basically the same as setting pre-rendered frames to 1 in the nvidia driver If i activate "anti-lag" for fun, i lose around 20 FPS in Hideout and mapping becomes a terrible experience. -- Launch option - Exclusive Fullscreen -- Steam: Rightclick Path of Exile 2 in your Steam Library -> Properties... -> copy+paste it under General-> Launch Options -window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen For Standalone: Right-click PathOfExile_x64.exe ->Click "Create Shortcut". Right-click the shortcut -> "Properties". In the "Target"-field, add the launch option after the path like this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Grinding Gear Games\Path of Exile\PathOfExile_x64.exe" -window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen This even seems to work with “Windowed Fullscreen” - My CPU latency improved a lot when trying this option. With this launch option, you ensure the game runs in exclusive fullscreen – this can especially help if you have hardware‑accelerated apps open on a second monitor. Additional information can be found here: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/demystifying-full-screen-optimizations/ =>My system runs best with fullscreen optimization disabled Even while playing full-screen video on a second monitor. For AMD additional settings can be accessed via the registry.
Warning-if-you-mess-up-you-are-on-your-own
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000\UMD
most entries are 30 = off, 31 = AMD Optimized, 32 = On Linux
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If you are on an AMD-GPU its easy. Open the AMD Software, click "Performance" -> "Tuning" -> Enable "Resizeable BAR" [in the Pro-version its called "AMD Smart Access Memory"] For Nvidia on Linux, see https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/enabling-resizable-bar-on-rtx-30-series-gpus-in-linux/239950 for help with enabling Re-sizeable BAR. If the link says you got no privileges, remove <br> or wharever is not supposed there from the link (fk me i wanna quit, lol) For Shader Cache on Linux i quote user "Sadaukar" from another Post here on the Forums: " Priority: should work with "nice -n -5 %command%" as a steam launch option without elevated privileges -5 is already higher priority than normal, if you run it elevated you can go up to -20 sudo nice -n -10 "/path/to/PathOfExile2.exe" If you are on a CPU with a dozen of cores, you might wanna play with this: sudo nice -n -10 taskset -c 0,2,4,6,8,10,12 wine "/path/to/PathOfExile2.exe"" by putting the game on "every other core" you are kind of avoiding hyperthreaded(or the AMD-equivalent) cores. I think linux handles this better than windows with windows it often feels like shooting yourself in the foot when interacting with the task scheduler. -- Logs -- PoE 2 tracks everything in a single text file. This can get unnecessarily large, which could cause issues. This still seems to develop an issue when playing for a couple of hours while being in an active global/trade chat, even with the chat being hidden. The simple test: Join a global chat, hide it if you want and play for a while type /clear in the chat. Did your FPS just increase increase? Then consider this workaround: Join "unpopular chats", for instance: /global 12345 /trade 54321 [Maximum seems to be 64000, so stay below] Next we need to either delete or rename the "logs" folder. (I name mine logs.old1, logs.old2... on every big update) Renaming/deleting prevents the game from interacting with a unnessesarily large file to store everything. steamapps\common\Path of Exile 2\steamapps\common\Path of Exile 2\logs (rightclick PoE2 -> manage -> browse local files) standalone => wherever you installed it -- Shader Cache - Currently automatically clears on every launch, deleting this likely wont do anything - Press Windows-Key + R to open the Run Dialog, then type %appdata% and hit enter. This will open your explorer with "C:\Users\YOUR-USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\", then locate the Path of Exile 2 folder and delete it. Win+R type %appdata% scroll to Path of Exile 2 -> rightclick -> delete[/quote] Linux: Wine usually mimics the windows structure, you'll find it, i believe in you. -- In-Game -- - Sound Settings - In PoE2, open Options -> Sound Change Channel count from High to Medium/Low -- Graphic Settings: -- "Dynamic Culling"-Setting seems to be toggled on by default. This is an experimental feature (you can mouse-over and read the description). I personally leave it disabled, since there is no difference in having it on vs off on my PC. There have been changes made to it in 0.3c, maybe it does help in some cases. I personally think this feature has been born in the depths of console-optimization and simply does no good on a half-decent computer. Enable Tripple-Buffering Enable Engine-Multithreading *a note on Tripple-Buffering* Enabling Tripple-Buffering wont improve anything if your driver is overriding it. (For example: Nvidia "pre rendered frames"[possibly also Reflex] and for AMD "Radeon Anti-Lag" - you gotta get rid of all that.) How to decide between Vulkan and DX12?
bonus-read
Press F1 to enable the performance metrics. Then compare your CPU latency between Vulkan and DX. Choose the one that gives you the lowest and most consistent numbers. (DX11 is likely outdated, mainly compare between Vulkan and DX12) Now you have to compare the numbers if you want to optimize for your Setup. What Upscale Mode should I use? What Setting is best for Image Quality? To see if you are CPU or GPU limited, look at the latency in on the Performance Graph (F1 by default) If the number for CPU is constantly higher than for the GPU => CPU-bound If the number for GPU is constantly higher than for the CPU => GPU-bound What to do when CPU-bound? Sadly there are not many settings that influence CPU-load. But we kind of want to be CPU-bound anyways, so no worries here [as long as you are on a midrange CPU from the last 4-6 years]. What to do when GPU-bound? If your GPU is the limiting factor, then Upscaling (FSR/DLSS/XeSS(/NIS)) will take some load off your GPU, allowing for overall higher FPS. It is effectively the same as reducing render resolution, but looks less muddy. Dynamic Resolution is enabled by default. That means the game already tries to balance the GPU load when there is a lot going on, but this setting is what often causes the game look "muddy". If your GPU latency is constantly lower than your CPU Latency on the performance graph, then you likely do not need to upscale at all! The game looks much better without upscaling. This might be the case if you have an older CPU paired with a fairly new GPU (example: older intel i5 or i7 paired with an rtx 5070 or 9700xt) The different upscale methods produce very differet results - FSR/XeSS/DLSS produce different image quality on their settings. Imo FSR Quality looks quite crisp - I cannot compare it to XeSS or DLSS at the moment since I am on an AMD card. In order to "min-max" your FPS, you want to find a Setting that constantly produces slightly lower latency for the GPU than the CPU. Example: > After disabling fullscreen optimizations, CPU latency is around 5-10 ms [Vulkan, 3440x1440] > Without upscaling, my GPU latency is around 8-10 ms [FSR-no Upscale] > In order to optimize the overall fluidity and FPS, i now want to get my GPU latency to be slightly lower than the CPU latency > Using FSR with "quality" is enough to reduce load for a GPU latency of 5-8ms >> this translates to around 140-165 FPS "idle" in hideout with 70-90 during heavy combat with abyss encounters >>> Since I am already using FSR Quality to reduce load, i can get by without selecting "dynamic resolution". Selecting only one variant to reduce load on the GPU seems to produce a better picture. It is a lot less blurry compared to leaving it on. (On my Setup FSR Quality by itself is enough to "keep up" with the CPU) Keep in mind that using "Dynamic Resolution" by itself already dynamically lowers the resolution in order to prevent the framerate from dipping too much when there is lots of action on the screen. I think most people with a RTX 4070 or above can get by with using either FSR/DLSS or Dynamic Resolution. Both together often tend to make the game look blurry. -- In-Game Settings - example [Display] Renderer: Depends on your Setup, you have to manually compare the numbers for Vulkan/DX Mode: Both Windowed Fullscreen and Fullscreen seem to work the same with using the launch option above/fullscreen optimization disabled [on my setup] VSync: Off, unless you experience tearing Dynamic Resolution: Check [warning: this is what makes the game look muddy, but it "balances" GPU-load when there is a lot going on] -> selecting either upscaling (FSR/DLSS/XESS(NIS)) OR dynamic resolution likely is enough on a strong GPU. both=mud [I prefer FSR without Dynamic resolution] Upscale Mode & Image Quality: see above [Detail Settings] Stick to Default [Advanced Settings] NVidia Reflex: Off Tripple Buffering: On Dynamic Culling: Off Engine Multitreading: On - not under Graphic: Limit Sound Channel to low/medium [setup examples didnt make post lenght, youll figure it out] Последняя редакция: noxxxus#0380. Время: 18 сент. 2025 г., 00:58:05 Last bumped17 сент. 2025 г., 17:46:18
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Good job. Thank you. Make sure that Above 4G memory/Crypto Currency mining option in BIOS is also enabled. That helped in my case.
Последняя редакция: LukaszKesicki#0515. Время: 12 сент. 2025 г., 12:15:44
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Imagine having to do all this garabge just to run the game.
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" I kind of agree, but since there are thousands of different system configurations and user-error is also a thing, we cant blame the developers for everything. For instance, one of the issues seems to be that the nvidia driver does not allow pre-caching all necessary shaders when the shader cache size is set to default. No idea how the nvidia driver decides what "default" should be, probably depends on the size of your drive and some other voodoo. Whos fault is that, Windows, Nvidia, GGG, user's? I dont know and i really dont care because we got the option to manually tell the driver how large it is allowed to be - and that seems to do the trick. Power profile generally allows the CPU to consume more power and clock higher. Its kind of outside GGG's reach to change your power profile and allow your hardware to actually pull juice. Just a reminder: its mostly people with midrange to high-end PC's who notice that something is off, cause they know that their hardware should be able to produce more fps. Setting the screen mode to exclusive is also just a helpful thing when you run more applications on a second screen. If you want to read more: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/demystifying-full-screen-optimizations/ I personally do not fully understand why "-window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen" even gave me a lot better results while still using borderless window. I used to get fps drops whenever i was watching a video on a second screen, this launch option just fixed it and made my frametimes more stable. I would assume that "-window-mode exclusive" just tells DWM that it is an important window, thus it gets more resources. I remember from playing FPS-games that setting "pre-rendered frames" was among the most frequent tips and tricks to reduce input latency - but if someone has set it in the global profile instead of a specific game profile, where they want to achieve low latency, it overrides all application settings. This could hurt the frame stability a lot, since usually the the game renders 2-3 frames ahead [double-buffering / tripple-buffering] Последняя редакция: noxxxus#0380. Время: 12 сент. 2025 г., 21:50:14
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Seems like currently the game clears the shader cache on every launch:
" So i think i can remove it from the post, i guess? Последняя редакция: noxxxus#0380. Время: 13 сент. 2025 г., 00:37:34
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" You mean, "no worries", as long you're on a recent / mid-range desktop ? But if you're on a weaker/older desktop, or a thermally limited laptop, you're kind of screwed, with no way to trade visuals for performance ? https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3789238/page/4#p26198517 " (For me Act2 town isn't even the worst offender, since you're not fighting in the town − the worst offenders would be Act 3 The Drowned City and Utzaal, which, for some reason, are for me CPU-limited to 30-40 FPS even after shader calculations, and with spikes lower than 30 FPS once enemies show up. Compare with Diablo 4, fluid for me (even at max settings), or even (mostly) PoE1.) A shame, compared to how PoE1 was supposedly designed to run (at release) on « an everyday [2012] laptop ». (I need to try PoE1/2 on the Steam Deck, especially these areas, since PoE2 supposedly « runs smoothly at 40 FPS » on it.) Последняя редакция: BlueTemplar85#0647. Время: 13 сент. 2025 г., 07:21:15
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Yeah you're screwed if you have a weak CPU, the game is more CPU bound than GPU bound...meaning you need a good CPU first.
Tech guy
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" You got me there, yep - that is "kind of" the case. Especially the thermally limited laptop would be a tough one. I'd say its most impotant to prevent it from thermal throtteling. In some cases - depending on age of the device - changing thermal paste could help, but that is not alwas easy on a laptop. When i tried it on my steam deck, the performance wasnt too great. Campaign was possible[it ran, playing however..], but that was on patch 0.1 This might sound like shit advice, but in that case i would just use 'geforce now' and stream the game... I didnt realy get what CPU was used in the screenshot. intel 12400? Последняя редакция: noxxxus#0380. Время: 13 сент. 2025 г., 07:45:56
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They say
" ---- " I might understand if I was complaining about ridiculous endgame situations with literally thousands of enemies tracked by the game, like in Spring-Recoil games... but in Utzaal with no enemies on screen yet, there should be hardly anything for the CPU to even do ! EDIT : my own screenshot :  Последняя редакция: BlueTemplar85#0647. Время: 13 сент. 2025 г., 07:56:18
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" here is my Utzaal (i5-12600k @4,4GHz currently ~155€ but should perform the same as a 12400f with OC)  What is your CPU temperature? I think it could be thermal throtteling. Does it have decent air flow? Did you clean the vents recently? Последняя редакция: noxxxus#0380. Время: 13 сент. 2025 г., 08:20:47
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