How to improve FPS in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PC)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was one of the biggest surprises of 2025: a turn-based RPG with hand-painted art direction that surprised even those who expected nothing from a small studio like Sandfall Interactive. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the game combines Lumen and Nanite to achieve that moving-oil-painting aesthetic, but that also means it inherits the engine's typical problems: on-the-fly shader compilation and microstutters during transitions into combat. The good news is that, being a turn-based game, you don't need a constant 240 FPS to enjoy it, just stability during attack animations and heavy visual effects. With the right settings you can eliminate most of the stutter and keep a smooth experience even on modest hardware. This guide focuses on what to touch first and what to leave alone so you don't sacrifice the art that makes this game unique.
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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 +63% free FPS.
Global Illumination (Lumen)
Lumen is responsible for much of the GPU cost in scenes with lots of indirect light, like the painted environments with dramatic lighting. Dropping from High/Ultra to Medium noticeably reduces load without global illumination losing its character, since the game's art relies more on color design than hyperrealistic light bounce.
Shadow Quality
High-resolution dynamic shadows heavily penalize performance in Lumière's open environments, where vegetation and complex structures are constantly casting shadows. Lowering to Medium slightly softens shadow edges but frees up a notable FPS margin in outdoor zones.
Anti-Aliasing (TSR)
TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) is Unreal Engine 5's own reconstruction system and consumes more GPU the higher its internal setting. Lowering it a notch reduces render cost without introducing obvious aliasing thanks to the game's painted finish, which disguises jagged edges well.
Effects Quality
Special attacks and Gradient Attacks generate an enormous volume of simultaneous particles and post-processing effects, which is precisely where FPS drops the most during combat. Lowering this option to Medium keeps attacks visually readable while avoiding sharp framerate drops during the most intense moments.
View Distance
Draw distance in Lumière and Gestral's exploration maps doesn't need to be maxed out to preserve the coherence of the painted art, which already uses fog and stylized depth of field to disguise pop-in. Dropping from Ultra to High frees up FPS in open zones without the distant-detail trim being noticeable.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Post Processing / Bloom
Post-processing and bloom are a core part of the game's painted visual identity, so lowering it too much is noticeable. Medium offers a good balance, keeping the characteristic glow of magical effects without the cost of the heaviest passes on Ultra.
Texture Quality
Hand-painted textures are central to the game's appeal, so lowering them directly affects the sharpness of the art. It's recommended to keep them on High and only drop to Medium if the GPU's VRAM is limited (6GB or less), since the impact on raw FPS is small compared to other settings.
Nanite / Geometry Detail
Nanite manages the ultra-detailed geometry of the environments, and while it's usually efficient, in zones with lots of vegetation or baroque architecture it can cause GPU usage spikes. Dropping from Ultra to High reduces those spikes without affecting the overall silhouette of the models much.
Motion Blur
Motion blur adds extra rendering cost without contributing much to a turn-based game where the camera rarely moves abruptly except in cutscenes. Disabling it also improves perceived sharpness during combat quick-time events.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS 3 (NVIDIA)
+35% FPSDLSS 3 with Frame Generation is the most powerful option on RTX 40 and 50 series cards, allowing you to play in Quality with a huge FPS margin thanks to the generated frames. In Balanced or Performance mode at 1440p/4K it offers a substantial gain while keeping a sharp image, especially fitting given the painted style that disguises reconstruction artifacts well.
FSR 3 (AMD)
+25% FPSFSR 3 works on any modern GPU, not just AMD, and its Frame Generation especially helps smooth over shader stutter by keeping a higher perceived framerate during load spikes. Image quality in Quality mode is solid, though somewhat less sharp than DLSS in fast motion.
XeSS (Intel)
+22% FPSXeSS is a valid alternative on both Intel Arc GPUs and cards from other brands, with a temporal reconstruction algorithm that works reasonably well with the game's painted art style. Quality mode is recommended to avoid losing detail in the finest textures.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable Reflex in the graphics menu to reduce input latency during combat quick-time events, where timing is critical.
- •Only use DLSS Frame Generation if you already have a real base of 50-60 FPS, since at lower bases it can increase perceived input lag.
- •Update to the latest Game Ready drivers: NVIDIA has released several optimization profiles specifically for UE5 games with Lumen that reduce shader stutter.
AMD
- •Enable Anti-Lag+ from Adrenalin to offset the latency added by FSR Frame Generation during attack sequences.
- •If you have an RX 7000, prioritize FSR 3 in Quality mode before raising Effects Quality, since it gives a better net result in combat.
- •Check that your driver is on the latest version: AMD has published specific patches to reduce shader-compilation hitching in UE5 titles like this one.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD (NVMe if possible): shader loading and painted-texture streaming benefits enormously from low access times.
- •Let the shader precompilation at game startup finish completely before playing; interrupting it is the most common cause of persistent stutter in the first hours.
- •Close recording overlays and background applications (Discord, browsers) during combat transitions, which are the moments of heaviest CPU and disk demand.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stutter entering combat
The transition from exploration to turn-based combat triggers real-time compilation of new shaders, causing noticeable microstutters especially in early playthroughs before the cache fills up.
Estado: Patch 1.3 (precompilation improvement)
Framerate drops in Gradient Attacks with heavy VFX
Expedition 33's special attacks generate a large amount of simultaneous particles and post-processing, causing occasional FPS drops on mid-range GPUs when several effects overlap on screen.
High VRAM usage with Ultra textures at 1440p/4K
With Texture Quality on Ultra, the game can exceed 8GB of VRAM at high resolutions, causing visible texture streaming (pop-in) on cards with limited memory.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stutter even though my PC is powerful?▾
Is it worth enabling DLSS or FSR in this game?▾
Which setting should I lower first if my GPU is limited?▾
Do I need a powerful CPU to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 well?▾
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Calculate FPS for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →