How to improve FPS in Lords of the Fallen 2 (PC)
Lords of the Fallen 2 is the continuation of Hexworks' (CI Games) dark gothic-world soulslike, built once again on Unreal Engine 5 with Lumen for dynamic global illumination and Nanite for the massive geometry of its ruined cathedrals, rotten forests, and impossible architecture. The saga keeps its most ambitious technical trademark: the 'Umbral,' a mirror dimension rendered simultaneously with the real world that the player can cross at any moment, effectively doubling much of the lighting, shadow, and geometry load visible on screen. That double rendering, combined with the vegetation density and volumetric fog that define the game's tone, inherits from the first entry — which launched with notable performance issues and stuttering — the need to keep a close eye on shader compilation and VRAM management.
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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 +46% free FPS.
Global Illumination (Lumen)
Lumen recalculates the indirect lighting of the gothic cathedrals and the Umbral itself in real time, and having to potentially sustain two simultaneously lit scenes makes it one of the engine's biggest GPU consumers.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows over the detailed gothic architecture and dense vegetation are constantly recalculated, and their cost worsens when the Umbral introduces additional light sources that light the same geometry differently.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric fog is one of the game's visual trademarks of its gothic tone, present in both swamps and forests as well as in the Umbral itself, but its light-scattering calculation is GPU-costly.
Foliage/Vegetation Density
Dense, rotten vegetation in the outdoor areas requires Nanite to manage a lot of instanced geometry at once, a cost that's especially noticeable in large forest zones.
Motion Blur
Motion blur makes it harder to read enemy attack patterns and Umbral transitions, something critical in a soulslike where dodge timing depends on clear visuals.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Texture Quality
Armor, architecture, and Umbral environment textures cost mostly VRAM rather than raw compute power, so High is usually enough without needing Ultra.
Nanite/Geometry Detail
Nanite manages the virtualized geometry of cathedrals, ruins, and Umbral structures, allowing lots of architectural detail without the traditional polygon cost.
Ambient Occlusion
Reinforces the visual contact between characters and heavily detailed gothic environments, but at Ultra doubles its cost without a perceptible improvement during combat.
Screen Space Reflections
Puddled floors, polished surfaces, and the Umbral's own spectral glow generate reflections that are costly to calculate in real time.
Anti-Aliasing (TSR)
TSR, Unreal Engine 5's native temporal antialiasing, cleans up the engine's characteristic noise but at its highest level adds a notable sampling cost above 1080p.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS 3
+32% FPSBeing on Unreal Engine 5, it's expected that Lords of the Fallen 2 will integrate DLSS via NVIDIA's native plugin, especially useful to absorb the cost of rendering the Umbral at 1440p/4K.
AMD FSR 3
+26% 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, XeSS is a viable option on Arc GPUs and also compatible with NVIDIA and AMD hardware.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Let the game fully precompile shaders before your first session if it offers that option in the menu; the saga's first entry suffered notable stuttering by skipping this step, and it's reasonable to expect the sequel to follow a similar process.
- •Use DLSS in Quality or Balanced mode at 1440p/4K to offset the added cost of rendering the Umbral alongside the real world, instead of lowering native resolution.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated; Unreal Engine 5 titles with Lumen usually receive specific optimizations 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 software global-illumination loads.
- •Enable FSR in Quality mode if you notice FPS drops specifically when crossing into the Umbral, a moment where GPU load can spike sharply.
- •Check that Smart Access Memory (Resizable BAR) is enabled in the BIOS, since it usually brings a measurable improvement in Unreal Engine 5 games with lots of Nanite geometry.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an NVMe SSD; streaming textures and geometry between the real world and the Umbral depends on read speed to avoid popping and hitching when crossing dimensions.
- •Reserve more VRAM headroom than usual: the possibility of both dimensions keeping data loaded simultaneously can raise video memory usage beyond what its visual appearance suggests.
- •Expect some shader-compilation stuttering in the first few hours of play and after every major update, common behavior in Unreal Engine 5 that the saga's first entry suffered especially badly at launch.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stuttering
The first Lords of the Fallen entry was especially criticized for shader-compilation hitching at launch on Unreal Engine 5; it's reasonable to expect somewhat similar behavior in the sequel during its first weeks and patches, though there's no guarantee it will repeat to the same degree.
VRAM usage spikes when crossing into the Umbral
The mechanic of rendering the real world and its mirror dimension can generate occasional video memory spikes when transitioning between the two, especially noticeable on cards with 8GB of VRAM or less combined with textures on Ultra.
FPS drops keeping the Umbral active in heavily detailed zones
In areas with very ornate gothic architecture, volumetric fog, and dense vegetation, staying in the Umbral for extended periods can accumulate noticeably more lighting and geometry load than the real world, with the corresponding impact on framerate.
6. Frequently asked questions
Does Lords of the Fallen 2 have DLSS, FSR, or XeSS?▾
What setting gives the most FPS with the least visual loss?▾
Why does the game perform worse when I'm in the Umbral?▾
Will this sequel repeat the first entry's optimization problems?▾
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Calculate FPS for Lords of the Fallen 2 →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →