How to improve FPS in Avowed (PC)
Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment's first-person action RPG set in Eora, the world of Pillars of Eternity, and it's one of the first major releases built entirely on Unreal Engine 5. The engine brings dynamic global illumination with Lumen and virtualized geometry with Nanite, resulting in dense forests, caves with realistic reflections, and very striking magic effects, but also the usual UE5 toll: shader compilation, VRAM demands, and framerate drops in heavily vegetated zones. This guide covers the settings with the best FPS/visual-quality ratio tested in the Living Lands and the rest of the game's regions.
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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 +52% free FPS.
Lumen (Global Illumination and Reflections)
Lumen calculates indirect lighting and reflections in real time by continuously analyzing the scene. In dungeon interiors and in forests with heavy foliage (where Nanite generates very detailed geometry Lumen has to light) the cost rises considerably. Lowering from High/Epic to Medium reduces lighting-probe resolution and trace distance without the scene looking flat.
Shadows
Dynamic shadows on dense vegetation in forest zones are among the costliest to render in UE5 due to the volume of Nanite geometry casting shadow. Lowering to Medium reduces the resolution of distant shadow maps without noticeably affecting foreground character shadows.
Particle Effects
Reduces the density and number of simultaneous particles in area spells, explosions, and summons. It's the most cost-effective setting during massive magic combat, where several enemies cast elemental effects at once and frame time spikes.
Vegetation Distance
Controls how far detailed Nanite-generated foliage renders. In zones like the Living Lands, with very dense forests, this is one of the variables that loads the most geometry onto the GPU.
Motion Blur
Motion blur in Avowed consumes a small percentage of performance from the extra post-processing on each frame and also reduces perceived sharpness in fast first-person combat.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Texture Resolution
Unlike other settings, textures depend more on available VRAM than on raw GPU power. On cards with 8GB or less, lowering from Ultra to High frees video memory and avoids micro-stutters from texture streaming, especially in very detailed interiors.
Nanite / LOD Distance
Although Nanite virtualizes geometry to render only the necessary detail, the general view distance still determines how many objects and what level of detail the engine processes per frame. In open areas with heavy vegetation this setting carries considerable weight.
Post Processing
Groups effects like bloom, vignette, depth of field, and color correction. On Ultra it adds extra rendering passes that aren't always perceptible in motion, especially in combat.
Reflections (Lumen Reflections)
Reflections managed by Lumen on water, metal, and wet stone surfaces are among the most graphically expensive effects in zones like caves and rivers. Lowering their quality reduces reflection sampling resolution without eliminating them entirely.
Anti-Aliasing (TSR)
UE5's native TSR also acts as edge smoothing when not used for rescaling. Its internal quality has a variable performance cost; lowering it slightly helps on tighter systems without generating too much visible aliasing.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS (NVIDIA)
+35% FPSAvowed supports NVIDIA DLSS (Super Resolution) since launch on RTX GPUs. It's the scaling option with the best image quality in the game, especially in Quality mode, with detail reconstruction on foliage and textures superior to TSR. On RTX 40 series it also supports Frame Generation.
FSR (AMD)
+28% FPSAMD FSR is available as a cross-platform alternative, working on GPUs from any manufacturer. Image quality is somewhat inferior to DLSS, with more perceptible ghosting in fast-moving foliage and magic particles, but it's still a notable performance improvement over native resolution.
XeSS (Intel)
+26% FPSIntel XeSS is also integrated into the game. On Intel Arc GPUs it uses the hardware-optimized model (XMX) with better quality; on GPUs from other manufacturers it falls back to the DP4a model, lighter to compute but with results somewhat below DLSS and FSR.
TSR (native to UE5)
+22% FPSTSR is Unreal Engine 5's own scaler and works on any GPU without relying on proprietary technology. It's a solid option when DLSS/FSR/XeSS aren't available, though it usually shows somewhat more smoothing on fine vegetation detail compared to DLSS.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS in Quality mode as a first option before touching individual graphics settings: it's the most efficient performance improvement relative to visual quality loss.
- •On RTX 40 series, try Frame Generation in very Lumen-demanding zones to smooth out the experience, but avoid enabling it if the base framerate is already low because it increases perceived input lag.
- •Update to the latest Game Ready drivers before playing: Avowed has received several VRAM optimization and DLSS compatibility patches.
AMD
- •Use FSR in Quality mode rather than Balanced/Performance unless your GPU is very limited, since in Avowed FSR ghosting is more noticeable at aggressive scaling levels due to the amount of moving vegetation.
- •On RDNA2/RDNA3 GPUs with little VRAM, prioritize lowering Texture Quality before other settings: it frees memory and reduces texture-streaming stutters indoors.
- •Keep Smart Access Memory (Resizable BAR) enabled in the BIOS alongside a compatible Ryzen CPU: it measurably improves performance in scenes with lots of Nanite geometry.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD (preferably NVMe): it notably reduces shader compilation times and asset streaming in dense forest zones, minimizing initial stutter.
- •Let the game finish shader compilation on the first launch of each session without alt-tabbing or minimizing the window, to avoid the process getting cut short and causing recurring stutter mid-game.
- •Close background applications using VRAM before playing, since Avowed with Lumen and Nanite is especially sensitive to running out of available video memory.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stutter at startup
As in most Unreal Engine 5 games, Avowed compiles shaders the first time certain graphical effects run, causing noticeable micro-hitches during the first minutes of play or when entering new zones.
Estado: Post-launch patches (2025) have reduced the frequency and intensity of the stutter, though it persists to a lesser degree, especially the first time you enter a new zone.
Framerate drops in dense forests
The lushest forest zones, especially in the Living Lands, place a very high load on Nanite and Lumen simultaneously, causing FPS drops of up to 30-40% compared to urban zones or interiors.
Frame time spikes in large-scale magic combat
When several enemies cast area spells or summons simultaneously, the buildup of particle effects can cause occasional frame time spikes even on powerful systems, especially if Effects Quality is set to Ultra.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does Avowed lose so much FPS in forests compared to interior zones?▾
Is it worth enabling additional Ray Tracing on top of Lumen?▾
Which scaling method gives the best balance in Avowed?▾
Does Avowed's shader stutter fix itself over time or do I need to do something?▾
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Calculate FPS for Avowed →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →