How to improve FPS in Civilization VII (PC)
Civilization VII is Firaxis Games' new entry in the 4X series, and like its predecessors, it poses a very different performance challenge from a shooter or action game. During active play, with a top-down camera and relatively simple units, almost any modern GPU runs the game smoothly at high framerates. The real bottleneck appears in advanced games on large maps with many civilizations: "turn processing," where the AI calculates movement, diplomacy, and pathfinding for dozens of units and cities, can turn the simple act of clicking "next turn" into a several-minute wait. This guide first covers how to minimize those simulation waits (the number one complaint from 4X players) and then the graphics settings that do affect actual FPS during active play.
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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 +36% free FPS.
Terrain Detail
Controls the geometric detail and textures of visible terrain on the map. In Civilization VII's typical top-down view, dropping this setting from Ultra to Medium is barely noticeable because the camera rarely gets close enough to appreciate the difference.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows for units, buildings, and landscape elements consume more than they appear to in a strategy game. Lowering to Medium reduces render cost without it being noticeable at the game's standard zoomed-out view.
Water Reflections
Water reflections on oceans, rivers, and lakes use a relatively costly calculation for how little they're appreciated from the game's usual camera. Lowering to Low frees up framerate on maps with lots of coastline or archipelagos.
Anti-Aliasing
Edge smoothing in a map-and-icon game with lots of straight lines matters for sharpness, but the heavier variants cost performance without adding much over standard TAA. Keeping TAA instead of more aggressive options balances sharpness and FPS well.
Unit and Leader Model Detail
Affects the level of detail of 3D unit models on the map and of leaders in diplomacy scenes. On Medium, units remain perfectly identifiable from the standard game camera, and detail is only lost in close-ups of leader scenes.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Vegetation Detail
Controls the density and detail of forests, jungles, and other plant elements on the map. It's one of the settings with the biggest framerate impact on maps with dense biomes like extensive jungles or boreal forests, though the density reduction is more noticeable than with other settings.
Ambient Occlusion
Adds contact shading between buildings, units, and terrain to give a sense of depth. It's a nice but dispensable effect in a mostly top-down, zoomed-out view.
Post-Processing Effects
Includes bloom, vignette, and other final image composition effects. Its cost isn't huge, but on modest GPUs it adds extra frames without substantially changing the map's overall look.
Texture Quality
Unlike other settings, texture quality depends more on available VRAM than raw GPU power. Keeping it on High rarely hurts framerate except on cards with very limited memory, where dropping to Medium avoids microstutter.
View Distance
Determines how far full map detail renders when the camera zooms out. Reducing it slightly helps on huge continental maps without affecting the game's tactical readability.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable Performance Mode in the NVIDIA control panel to prioritize FPS over quality in driver options, since Civilization VII doesn't rely on DLSS for its performance.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated; Firaxis usually releases compatibility patches after each major content update that interact with driver optimizations.
- •If you use a GPU with little VRAM (RTX 3050 or lower), watch memory usage on large maps with many active civilizations simultaneously, since the number of loaded assets grows with each player in the game.
AMD
- •Only enable Radeon Chill or Radeon Boost for power savings on laptops; in Civilization VII they bring no real gain because the FPS ceiling is usually already far above what's needed.
- •Check that Smart Access Memory is enabled if your AMD CPU/GPU combo supports it, since it helps slightly on maps with lots of loaded terrain geometry.
- •Update the Adrenalin driver after each major game patch; stability improvements matter more here than raw FPS ones.
Sistema
- •CPU and, above all, RAM speed and SSD storage are far more decisive than the GPU for reducing turn-processing times in advanced games.
- •Close background applications (browsers, overlays, launchers) before long games; every free CPU core helps the AI calculate turns faster.
- •If you play marathon sessions on large maps, consider reducing the number of AI civilizations or the map size: it's the variable that most impacts wait time between turns, well above any graphics setting.
5. Known game issues
Growing turn times in advanced games
From the industrial or modern era onward, with large maps and 8 or more civilizations, wait time between turns can exceed a minute due to the volume of AI, diplomacy, and pathfinding calculations. No graphics setting fixes this; it depends on the CPU, RAM, and the game's own design.
Memory usage spikes in very long games
In sessions that go beyond 4-5 hours without restarting the game, some players report a progressive increase in RAM and VRAM usage that can lead to occasional hitches. Saving and restarting the game periodically mitigates the problem.
Single-core bottlenecks in the AI phase
Part of the AI's turn calculation isn't optimally distributed across all CPU cores, so processors with high per-core frequency perform better in this phase than processors with many cores but lower frequencies.
Estado: Patch 1.1
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does my turn take so long to process if my FPS during gameplay is good?▾
Does lowering resolution or graphics reduce the wait time between turns?▾
Which is more important for Civilization VII, the GPU or the CPU?▾
Does Civilization VII have DLSS, FSR, or any kind of upscaling?▾
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Calculate FPS for Civilization VII →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →