How to improve FPS in Cronos: The New Dawn (PC)
Cronos: The New Dawn is Bloober Team's sci-fi survival horror (the studio behind Layers of Fear and the Silent Hill 2 remake), set in a dystopian New Húsov with a Soviet industrial aesthetic and time travel as the central mechanic of both its narrative and combat. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the game leans on dynamic global illumination via Lumen that lights corridors, abandoned facilities, and organic-mechanical fused creatures in very high contrast, backed by dense volumetric fog and dramatic shadows that are the studio's visual trademark. That combination of Lumen, fog, and Nanite-rendered detailed geometry makes Cronos one of the most GPU-demanding titles in the recent horror catalog, with the usual Unreal Engine 5 Achilles' heel: shader-compilation stutter and hitching, especially in the first few hours of 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 +45% free FPS.
Global Illumination (Lumen)
Lumen recalculates the indirect lighting of the industrial corridors and abandoned facilities in real time, generating the studio's characteristic dramatic contrast. It's one of the engine's most expensive settings, and lowering it to Medium keeps much of the oppressive atmosphere without the cost of Epic.
Shadow Quality
The very pronounced dynamic shadows, a hallmark of Bloober Team's art direction, are constantly recalculated with every light source in the dimly lit facilities.
Volumetric Fog
The volumetric fog wrapping the snowy exteriors and industrial interiors requires calculating light scattering through it in every scene, one of the most expensive effects in the whole game.
Motion Blur
Motion blur adds a post-processing cost with no benefit in a survival horror that depends on clearly reading the environment and creatures in the dark.
Particle/Effects Quality
The fused organic-mechanical creatures' effects and temporal anomalies generate noticeable particle spikes in fights and time-travel sequences.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Texture Quality
The Soviet industrial environment textures and creature designs are a pillar of the studio's art direction, and their cost falls mostly on VRAM rather than raw compute power.
Nanite/Mesh Quality
Nanite manages the virtualized geometry of industrial detail and debris in the facilities, allowing lots of detail without the traditional polygon cost.
Screen Space Reflections
Metallic and wet surfaces in the abandoned facilities generate reflections that are costly to calculate, especially combined with Lumen's high-contrast lighting.
Post-Processing / Depth of Field
Depth-of-field blur reinforces the game's cinematic feel, but at its highest level adds a post-processing cost that competes with Lumen and volumetric fog.
View Distance
Environments are mostly compartmentalized interiors with some snowy exteriors, so draw distance is rarely appreciated above High.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS 3
+32% FPSCronos integrates DLSS on top of Unreal Engine 5, especially useful at 1440p/4K to absorb the cost of Lumen and volumetric fog in the busiest scenes.
AMD FSR 3
+25% FPSFSR works on any GPU regardless of manufacturer and is the recommended alternative for those without a recent NVIDIA card.
Intel XeSS
+22% FPSIf the game includes Intel's upscaling plugin, common in recent Unreal Engine 5 titles, 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 Lumen without losing too much sharpness in the dark, foggy interiors.
- •Enable Frame Generation (DLSS 3) only if you already have a stable base without generation, since in a survival horror the extra latency can be noticeable in the tensest fights.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated; NVIDIA usually publishes specific optimizations for Unreal Engine 5 titles with Lumen shortly after launch.
AMD
- •If your GPU is RDNA 2 or older, consider lowering Lumen to Medium instead of Epic, since these cards tend to perform somewhat worse under hardware global-illumination loads.
- •FSR in Quality mode is a good option to recover FPS margin in the zones with the most volumetric fog and particle effects.
- •Check that Smart Access Memory (Resizable BAR) is enabled in the BIOS to better exploit CPU-GPU bandwidth in scenes with lots of Nanite geometry.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an NVMe SSD: streaming Nanite textures and geometry depends on read speed to avoid visual popping and reduce shader-compilation hitches when entering new zones.
- •Let the game precompile shaders if it offers that option at startup; skipping this step is usually the main cause of stuttering in the first few hours of play.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, capture software) during the foggiest, most particle-heavy sequences, since they can worsen the micro-stutters typical of Unreal Engine 5.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stuttering
As with most recent Unreal Engine 5 games, it's common to notice occasional hitches when entering new zones or triggering time-travel effects for the first time, while the engine compiles shaders on the fly. It usually improves after the first few hours of play or with post-launch patches.
High VRAM usage with Texture Quality on Ultra
Some players with 8GB of VRAM or less might notice hitches when combining the highest texture level with Lumen and volumetric fog active at once in the busiest scenes.
FPS drops in temporal anomaly sequences
Moments of visual distortion and timeline overlap, with multiple layers of effects and particles on screen, generate GPU load spikes that can translate into occasional framerate drops even on rigs that have headroom the rest of the playthrough.
6. Frequently asked questions
What setting gives the most FPS with the least visual loss in Cronos: The New Dawn?▾
Does Cronos: The New Dawn have DLSS, FSR, or XeSS?▾
Do I need a powerful GPU to play Cronos: The New Dawn well?▾
Why do I notice hitches entering new zones or during time travel?▾
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Calculate FPS for Cronos: The New Dawn →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →