How to improve FPS in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Resynced (PC)
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Resynced is Ubisoft's revision of the 2013 pirate classic, rebuilt on an updated graphics engine that modernizes lighting, textures, vegetation, and above all the dynamic ocean that was always the original game's trademark. The result is a huge Caribbean open world split between sea navigation with ship physics, naval combat with cannons and boarding actions, and on-foot exploration across densely vegetated tropical islands and colonial cities full of NPCs. Being a remaster that rebuilds the rendering systems rather than just bumping texture resolution, the load splits unevenly: the ocean with its real-time waves, foam, and reflections, along with dynamic weather and storms, pulls mostly on the GPU, while cities with high NPC density and the ship's own simulation demand quite a bit from the CPU.
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Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks).
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +46% free FPS.
Ocean/Water Quality
Ocean rendering — the remaster's most technically ambitious feature, with dynamic waves, foam, and real-time reflections — is by far the game's biggest GPU consumer, especially during open-sea navigation and storms.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows from tropical vegetation, colonial buildings, and the ship itself are constantly recalculated, especially with the Caribbean sun at low angles during sunrises and sunsets.
Vegetation Density
The Caribbean's tropical islands are covered in dense vegetation (palm trees, brush, grass) rendered in considerable detail by the new engine, which is a notable GPU load while exploring on foot.
Motion Blur
Motion blur adds nothing gameplay-relevant during naval combat or urban parkour, and adds a post-processing step per frame.
NPC Density (cities)
Population density in colonial cities like Nassau or Havana is one of the points where the game demands the most CPU, since each NPC carries its own routine AI and animation.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Draw Distance
Draw distance is especially relevant in a game with open maritime horizons, where seeing distant islands and ships is part of naval exploration.
Texture Quality
The remaster's reworked textures cost mostly VRAM rather than raw compute power; on cards with plenty of memory there's little reason to lower them.
Weather Effects / Storms
Naval storms combine rain, lightning, amplified swell, and dynamic fog, all at once on an ocean that's already demanding, generating some of the game's biggest load spikes.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion adds depth to fort and colonial city interiors, but its highest level has a cost that isn't always justified over Medium.
Anti-Aliasing
Edge smoothing especially helps with the ship's rigging and vegetation silhouettes, though its highest level adds a notable sampling cost at 1440p/4K.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS
+30% FPSThe remaster's updated graphics engine is a natural candidate to include DLSS, especially useful at 1440p/4K where the dynamic ocean and storms raise GPU load considerably.
AMD FSR
+24% FPSFSR works on any GPU regardless of manufacturer and is the recommended alternative for those without a recent NVIDIA card.
Intel XeSS
+20% FPSIf the remaster includes Intel's upscaling plugin, XeSS is a viable option on Arc GPUs and also compatible with NVIDIA and AMD hardware.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Use DLSS in Quality or Balanced mode at 1440p/4K to offset the cost of the dynamic ocean and storms without lowering native resolution.
- •Enable Resizable BAR from the BIOS and control panel; it especially helps in coastal scenes with lots of water geometry and vegetation loaded at once.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated, since remasters with rebuilt engines usually receive specific optimization profiles after launch.
AMD
- •If your GPU is mid-range or lower, consider lowering Ocean/Water Quality to Low instead of Medium during storms, since these cards tend to notice the cost of amplified swell more.
- •FSR in Quality mode is a good option if your CPU has headroom and you're after more FPS margin while sailing in open water.
- •Check that Smart Access Memory (Resizable BAR) is enabled in the BIOS to better exploit CPU-GPU bandwidth in the most populated cities.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD; streaming vegetation, city textures, and ocean geometry depends on read speed to avoid visual popping when sailing near the coast.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, capture software) during long voyages, since the ship's physics simulation and dynamic weather already demand CPU on their own.
- •Expect an occasional hitch when entering very populated cities like Nassau or Havana right after loading the zone; it's typical behavior for rebuilt engines handling a lot of NPC density at once.
5. Known game issues
CPU spikes in cities with high NPC density
When entering very populated colonial cities like Nassau, Havana, or Kingston, simultaneously simulating AI, routines, and animations for dozens of NPCs can generate occasional framerate drops, even on rigs with GPU headroom to spare.
FPS drops during naval storms
Storms combine rain, amplified swell, lightning, and dynamic fog on an already demanding ocean, generating some of the game's biggest GPU load spikes, especially during active naval combat in bad weather.
Occasional stuttering while streaming islands and cities
When sailing quickly between zones or approaching the coast from open sea, some players report brief hitches while the engine loads vegetation, textures, and urban geometry on the fly, common behavior in rebuilt open worlds of this scale.
6. Frequently asked questions
What setting gives the most FPS with the least visual loss in Black Flag Resynced?▾
Does the game have DLSS, FSR, or XeSS?▾
Why does the game slow down when entering cities like Nassau or Havana?▾
Is the game more CPU- or GPU-demanding?▾
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Calculate FPS for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Resynced →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →