How to improve FPS in Hogwarts Legacy (PC)
Hogwarts Legacy arrived in February 2023 as one of the worst PC ports of that year — a stunning Unreal Engine 4 game capable of pushing even an RTX 4090 to its limits in certain areas. The core problem is twofold: heavy CPU load in Hogsmeade from NPC simulation, and Ray Tracing with an absolutely brutal performance cost. With the right settings, however, it runs perfectly well on mid-range hardware.
This is what you'd gain with a NVIDIA RTX 4060
Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks). Calculate your exact FPS with your own hardware →
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +61% free FPS.
Ray Tracing
This is the single most impactful change in the game. RT in Hogwarts Legacy is excessively expensive — even an RTX 3090 sees its performance cut in half with RT active. Disabling it gives an immediate +30-40% FPS boost.
Motion Blur
Hogwarts Legacy has aggressive motion blur, especially during broomstick flight. Off gives a sharper image and saves a few FPS.
Depth of Field
Depth of field during cutscenes looks great, but in gameplay you barely notice it. Off frees up GPU with zero impact on the experience.
Ambient Occlusion
Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO) is brutally expensive. HBAO delivers nearly identical results visually at a fraction of the cost. If RT is active, switching just AO to HBAO gives +15-20% FPS.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Foliage Quality
Vegetation at Ultra is one of the heaviest settings in the game, especially in the open world surrounding the castle. Medium keeps acceptable density with a notable GPU saving.
Shadow Quality
Shadows at High use considerable GPU. Medium is still visually strong in Hogwarts Legacy, where the castle architecture dominates the scene.
Population Quality (People Size)
Controls the density and quality of NPCs. Dropping to Medium alleviates the CPU bottleneck in Hogsmeade, where character density is at its maximum.
Texture Quality (8 GB VRAM)
With 8 GB of VRAM, Ultra Textures overflow memory and cause stuttering. High is the recommended cap for RTX 4060, RX 7600, and similar cards.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric fog around the castle and its grounds is costly. Medium preserves the iconic atmosphere at lower cost.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS Quality (NVIDIA RTX 20-series y superior)
+28% FPSEssential in Hogwarts Legacy for any GPU. DLSS Quality at 1080p is virtually lossless visually and delivers the best bang-for-buck in the game.
DLSS Frame Generation (RTX 40-series)
+80% FPSWith Frame Gen + RT active, an RTX 4070 Ti can sustain 60+ FPS at 1440p. Without Frame Gen, RT is only viable on RTX 4080+.
FSR 2 Quality (AMD y NVIDIA no-RTX)
+22% FPSThe main option for AMD. Quality mode is recommended — Performance introduces noticeable artifacts in the castle's fine detail.
XeSS Quality (Intel Arc)
+20% FPSAvailable on Arc A-series and B-series. Quality close to DLSS in Hardware mode. Recommended over FSR 2 for Arc GPUs.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •DLSS Quality is the first setting to enable — practically mandatory in this game.
- •Ray Tracing is only usable with RTX 40-series + DLSS Quality + Frame Generation. Below an RTX 4070, RT is unplayable.
- •With an RTX 4060 at 1080p Medium-High (no RT) + DLSS Quality, expect 60-70 stable FPS.
- •Frame Generation requires a base of 50+ FPS: enable it after confirming the game runs well without it.
AMD
- •Smart Access Memory (SAM) active: Hogwarts Legacy clearly benefits from improved data transfer.
- •FSR 2 Quality is your main upscaling option — more effective here than in many other UE4 titles.
- •Avoid Ray Tracing on RX 6000 and RX 7000 — the cost is disproportionate even on the RX 7900 XTX.
Intel
- •XeSS Quality on Arc B580/A770 delivers better results than FSR 2 in this title.
- •Keep drivers updated — Intel improved UE4 performance on Arc across several iterations.
- •RT on Arc is extremely slow: disabling it is essential for any Arc GPU.
5. Known game issues
Traversal stuttering (engine limitation)
UE4 has a well-known traversal stutter when loading new open-world zones. It's not fully resolved — installing the game on an NVMe SSD significantly reduces it but doesn't eliminate it entirely.
Estado: Partially improved in post-launch patches
CPU bottleneck in Hogsmeade
NPC density in the village causes a severe CPU bottleneck. Reducing 'Population Quality' to Medium is the only configuration-level fix. Expect drops to 35-45 FPS even on top hardware with RT active.
Shader compilation on startup
First launch and after major patches compiles shaders for several minutes. Wait at the main menu. Stutter during this process is normal.
Estado: Improved in patch 1.05
VRAM overflow at 8 GB with Ultra textures
Ultra Texture Quality on 8 GB GPUs (RTX 4060, RX 7600) causes severe stutter from VRAM overflow. High is the maximum recommended setting for 8 GB cards.
6. Frequently asked questions
How many FPS will I get with an RTX 4060 at 1080p?▾
Is Ray Tracing worth it?▾
Why does it drop so much in Hogsmeade?▾
How much VRAM do I need?▾
DLSS or FSR 2 in Hogwarts Legacy?▾
Want to know exactly how many FPS YOUR PC will get?
Enter your GPU and CPU in our calculator and measure the real impact of each setting.
Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →