How to improve FPS in Dead by Daylight (PC)
Dead by Daylight runs on Unreal Engine 4, an engine that by now (with over 40 killers, dozens of maps, and layers of effects accumulated over eight years of updates) carries a fair amount of technical debt in the form of shader compilation and asset streaming. It's not a game that demands a powerful GPU to hit high FPS, but it is sensitive to stutters when loading maps, generators, and skill effects like Nemesis, Alien, or whichever new chapter just dropped. This guide focuses on eliminating those stutters, stabilizing 1% lows (crucial in a 1v4 game where a stutter can cost you a chase), and squeezing out extra FPS without losing the readability of auras, generators, and other survivors' health states.
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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 +38% free FPS.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows from generators, hooks, and the Entity's fog are among the most CPU/GPU-intensive elements in DBD. Dropping to Low noticeably reduces frametime spikes on maps with heavy vegetation like Coldwind Farm or Mother's Dwelling.
Post-Processing Effects (Bloom/Motion Blur)
Motion blur and bloom add GPU load without any gameplay upside; in fact, many killers and survivors disable it because it makes it harder to detect movement during chases and loops.
Antialiasing
UE4's TAA in DBD is demanding at high resolutions. Dropping it to Medium keeps edges reasonably clean (important for reading silhouettes through bushes) without the full cost of the Epic setting.
View Distance
Reduces the LOD of distant objects on large maps like Mount Ormond or Rotten Fields without affecting the readability of nearby generators, which is what actually matters in the game.
Screen Space Reflections (SSR)
Reflections on wet surfaces (Léry's, MacMillan maps) are barely noticeable in the pace of a match and consume GPU disproportionately to their visual impact.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Texture Quality
On Ultra, DBD loads high-resolution textures for all killer and survivor cosmetics, which impacts VRAM more than raw FPS, but on cards with 4-6 GB it can cause micro-stutters from streaming.
Particle Effects
Abilities like The Nightmare's fog, Nemesis's acid, or the Alien's effects generate particle bursts that can tank frametime at specific moments, especially in 4v1 matches with lots of activity.
Ambient Occlusion (AO)
UE4's AO adds depth to corners and structures, visually pleasant but skippable; its cost on enclosed maps like the Asylum (Léry's) is noticeable.
Killer's Dynamic Shadow Resolution
The killer's cast shadow (key to "shadowing" as an informal terror radius reading technique) stays functional on Low without the rendering cost of Ultra.
Dynamic Global Illumination
Maps with fog and changing weather (Autohaven Wreckers, Backwater Swamp) constantly recalculate lighting; Medium reduces that cost while keeping the horror atmosphere recognizable.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
No official support (DLSS/FSR/XeSS)
+0% FPSDead by Daylight does NOT include native support for DLSS, FSR, or XeSS as of today: Behaviour Interactive hasn't implemented any upscaling technology on Unreal Engine 4. If you see "FSR" in third-party overlays (like AMD Software), that's driver-level forced upscaling, not officially supported by the game and with inconsistent results in the UI (blurry HUD, pixelated perk icons).
Resolution Scale (manual alternative)
+10% FPSThe real alternative is lowering the render resolution from the game's own display options (Resolution) or using your GPU panel's resolution scaling (NVIDIA Control Panel / AMD Software) instead of a dedicated upscaler. Combined with moderate sharpening in the GPU panel, it recovers sharpness without the cost of rendering at native resolution.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable NVIDIA Reflex from the control panel if your GPU is RTX; it reduces input lag during chases, which is critical in a game built on fast reactions.
- •Force the power management mode to "Prefer maximum performance" to avoid clock drops during load spikes when a match starts.
- •If you use an RTX 20 series or higher, enable Image Sharpening in the NVIDIA panel to visually compensate if you lower the render resolution.
AMD
- •Enable Radeon Anti-Lag to reduce input lag, especially useful when playing killer where hit precision matters.
- •Check that Radeon Chill isn't aggressively limiting FPS in menus: it can create a sense of input lag when entering a match.
- •Update to the latest Adrenalin drivers: DBD has historically had more reports of texture corruption on AMD GPUs after big patches than on NVIDIA.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD (preferably NVMe): map load times and customization texture streaming improve drastically compared to an HDD.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, active MSI Afterburner overlay) during competitive matches: DBD is sensitive to overlay hooks that cause micro-stutter.
- •Restart the game every 4-5 matches in long sessions to mitigate the known memory leak that causes progressive FPS degradation.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stutter after updates
Every mid-season patch or new chapter forces the engine to recompile shaders the first time a new killer, map, or effect appears on screen, causing noticeable stutters during the first matches after the update.
Memory leak in long sessions
Playing several matches in a row without restarting the client causes an accumulation of memory that isn't properly released, translating into progressive FPS drops and, in extreme cases, unexpected crashes.
Worse performance in menus and customization than in-match
The store, cosmetic customization screens, and the pre-match lobby tend to have worse framerate than actual gameplay, due to the simultaneous loading of 3D character models and showcase lighting effects.
Estado: Partially mitigated in patch 8.5.0
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does Dead by Daylight stutter only at the start of an update?▾
Is it worth enabling DirectX 12 mode in Dead by Daylight?▾
Do I need a powerful GPU to play Dead by Daylight at 144 FPS?▾
Why does my FPS drop as the match goes on in Dead by Daylight?▾
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Calculate FPS for Dead by Daylight →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →