How to improve FPS in Gothic 1 Remake (PC)
Gothic 1 Remake rebuilds the Khorinis penal colony on Unreal Engine 5, with Lumen for global illumination, Nanite for the mining valley's dense vegetation, and virtual shadows across the entire open world. Being a recent 2026 release, there's no broad independent benchmark database or mature community consensus on optimal settings yet: this guide is based on the official requirements published by Alkimia Interactive/THQ Nordic and on the typical behavior of other open-world UE5 titles (shader compilation stutter, Lumen's high cost, Virtual Shadow Maps). We'll refine the FPS percentages as more community data and our own benchmarks become available.
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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 +37% free FPS.
Global Illumination (Lumen)
Lumen recalculates indirect lighting in real time and is one of the most demanding systems in UE5. Dropping from Epic to High or Medium noticeably reduces GPU load with a moderate loss of quality in reflections and indirect lighting.
Virtual Shadow Maps / Shadow Quality
UE5's virtual shadows offer very precise shadows but are expensive, especially with dense environmental vegetation. Dropping to Medium slightly softens shadow edges without affecting visual readability much.
Vegetation Distance / Foliage
Nanite handles vegetation geometry, but foliage rendering density and distance still consume GPU and CPU during asset streaming. Slightly reducing distance improves performance in the mining valley's wooded areas.
Post-Processing (motion blur, depth of field, vignette)
These effects add little to gameplay, cost GPU resources, and many players turn them off out of visual preference as much as for performance.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Nanite / Geometric Detail
Nanite virtualizes geometry and usually scales well, but in very dense colony scenes it can still weigh on the GPU budget. Dropping from Epic to High frees up some performance with a perceptible visual impact on rock and structure detail.
Reflections (Lumen Reflections / Screen Space)
Lumen-based reflections add extra rendering cost on top of global illumination. Dropping to Medium reduces noise on water and metallic surfaces in the mine in exchange for more frames.
Texture Resolution
With less than 8GB of VRAM, dropping texture resolution one notch avoids streaming stutter and occasional framerate drops without sacrificing too much sharpness.
Anti-Aliasing (TSR)
TSR is UE5's native temporal anti-aliasing; at Epic it's demanding. Dropping it to Medium, or better yet replacing it with DLSS/FSR/XeSS in Quality mode, improves both performance and sharpness at the same time.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS (NVIDIA)
+30% FPSOn RTX GPUs, DLSS in Quality mode usually offers the best balance between sharpness and performance in UE5 games. If the GPU supports DLSS Frame Generation (RTX 40/50), it can double perceived FPS in GPU-bound scenes, though it doesn't reduce input latency.
FSR (AMD)
+25% FPSFSR 3/3.1 works on any recent GPU (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) and in Quality mode offers a noticeable FPS gain. Image reconstruction is slightly less sharp than DLSS in motion, especially in the game's dense vegetation.
Native TSR / XeSS
+18% FPSTSR is Unreal Engine 5's own upscaler and works on any hardware without relying on specific drivers; XeSS offers similar results with better performance on Intel Arc GPUs. Both are valid alternatives if DLSS or FSR aren't available.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS in Quality mode before touching graphics settings: it usually gives more FPS than lowering Lumen or shadows.
- •On RTX 40/50, only try Frame Generation if you're already starting from a stable base of 50-60 real FPS, to avoid increasing perceived latency.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated: the first few months after launch usually bring UE5-specific performance patches.
AMD
- •Use FSR 3 in Quality mode as your first optimization step; on RDNA2/RDNA3 cards with tight VRAM, dropping textures one notch avoids streaming stutter.
- •Check that Smart Access Memory (ReBAR) is enabled in BIOS: on UE5 games with asset streaming it can be felt in smoothness.
- •If you experience stutter, try capping FPS a few frames below your monitor's max to reduce frametime spikes.
Intel
- •On Arc GPUs, enable XeSS in Quality mode, which usually performs better than FSR on this type of hardware.
- •Update to the latest Arc drivers before playing: Intel usually publishes optimization profiles specific to recent UE5 launches.
- •If you're using a recent-generation Intel CPU, check the P/E core balance in the Windows scheduler if you notice occasional FPS drops.
Sistema
- •Let the game precompile shaders on startup (if it offers that option) and avoid closing the process during that step: it reduces traversal stutter in your first hours of play.
- •Install the game on an SSD (NVMe preferred): open-world asset streaming in UE5 is sensitive to disk read speed.
- •Close overlays and background recording software; in recently released UE5 games these processes can worsen frametime spikes.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stutter
As in most UE5 games, micro-stutters can appear when loading new zones or effects for the first time while the engine compiles shaders on the fly. It usually improves after the first few play sessions and with driver updates, but it's a structural engine issue, not just a matter of configuration.
Traversal stutter in the open world
When moving quickly through the colony or the mining valley (on horseback, running, or with fast travel), asset streaming and level generation can cause brief framerate drops. Lowering vegetation distance and using a fast SSD helps mitigate it.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does Gothic 1 Remake stutter even though my PC exceeds the recommended requirements?▾
Which setting has the biggest impact on FPS: Lumen, shadows, or vegetation?▾
Is it worth enabling DLSS/FSR Frame Generation in Gothic 1 Remake?▾
Does this guide have exact performance data?▾
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Calculate FPS for Gothic 1 Remake →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →