How to improve FPS in No Man's Sky (PC)
No Man's Sky (Hello Games) is an open-world space exploration game with procedural generation: every planet, creature, plant, and star system is calculated on the fly from mathematical algorithms, not pre-built assets. After nearly ten years of free updates (Waypoint, Worlds Part I and II, Voyagers...) the proprietary engine has gained DLSS, FSR, and XeSS support, an optional VR mode, and multiplayer with persistent bases, but it still carries CPU spikes from generating terrain in real time.
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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 +36% free FPS.
Terrain Tessellation
Controls the geometric detail of procedural terrain. On Low it uses standard terrain with flat textures instead of vertex displacement, which greatly reduces CPU/GPU load while generating planets.
V-Sync
Disabling vertical sync (both in-game and in the GPU control panel) removes the artificial frame limiter and reduces input lag, especially when flying between atmosphere and space.
Motion Blur
Motion blur adds post-processing cost without contributing anything gameplay-wise; in a game with fast flight and constant camera turns, it also makes quite a few players motion sick.
Shadow Resolution
Dynamic shadows in procedurally generated outdoor areas are one of the engine's most expensive effects. Dropping from Ultra/High to Medium noticeably reduces GPU load without losing much detail from typical play distance.
Vegetation Density
Controls how many plants and procedural objects are rendered per square meter on the surface. Reducing it eases both CPU (position calculations) and GPU (draw calls) load on planets with lots of plant life.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Real-Time Reflections
Reflections on water and metal surfaces use screen-space reflections; on Low the internal resolution of these reflections is reduced.
Volumetric Effects (fog/clouds)
Dense volumetric fog and clouds in some biomes (acid storms, radiation) are expensive to render in layers. Dropping to Medium keeps the planet's atmosphere recognizable while reducing cost.
Anti-aliasing (TAA)
The default temporal smoothing is demanding at high resolutions. Dropping it one notch frees GPU without introducing too much aliasing, especially if DLSS/FSR is already in use (which brings its own smoothing).
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion adds contact shading in caves, bases, and ship interiors; on Medium the effect is kept indoors (where it's most noticeable) while reducing cost in procedural outdoor areas.
Terrain Draw Distance
Determines how far detailed procedural terrain is generated and rendered before switching to simplified versions (LOD). Reducing it eases CPU and GPU load on mountainous planets.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS (NVIDIA)
+30% FPSAvailable from RTX 20 series onward. In Balanced mode it offers the best sharpness-to-performance ratio; in Quality mode it's barely distinguishable from native.
FSR (AMD/cross-platform)
+25% FPSWorks on any GPU (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel). FSR in Balanced mode is the default setting recommended by the community; in scenes with heavy procedural terrain detail it can show a bit more ghosting than DLSS.
XeSS (Intel, compatible with other GPUs)
+22% FPSAn alternative to FSR on non-Intel GPUs, with better fine-detail reconstruction than FSR in most comparisons, though somewhat more demanding to compute.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS in Balanced or Quality instead of raising native resolution; the procedural engine benefits more from lowering pixels to render than from brute force.
- •On RTX 40 series, frame generation lets you play with everything on Ultra + DLSS Quality while keeping over 60 stable FPS at 1440p.
- •If persistent stutter appears with Frame Generation, try capping FPS with RTSS instead of the game's internal limiter.
AMD
- •Use FSR in Balanced as a starting point; on recent RDNA3/RDNA4 GPUs it can noticeably improve image stability in procedural vegetation.
- •AMD GPUs without native frame generation can use third-party tools to get unofficial frame generation.
- •Drop terrain tessellation to Low: on AMD GPUs the cost of this option tends to be higher than on NVIDIA equivalents.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD (ideally NVMe): procedural generation constantly reads and writes terrain cache, and an HDD amplifies the micro-stutters when landing.
- •Close overlays and background recorders; CPU spikes during planet generation leave little headroom if processes are competing for cores.
- •If you use mods or manual graphics config edits, tune the streaming threads to your CPU's number of physical cores to better distribute the load.
5. Known game issues
Micro-stutters when entering the atmosphere or landing
The jump from the space view to surface terrain generation causes a very characteristic CPU spike, consistently reported on Steam forums since launch. Lowering terrain tessellation and vegetation density reduces the effect, but doesn't fully eliminate it on any hardware.
FPS drops in heavily built bases
Bases with hundreds of construction pieces generate a rendering and collision load that scales poorly, especially in multiplayer when visiting elaborate bases belonging to other players.
Estado: Partially mitigated in the Worlds Part II update with base-object streaming optimizations
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does the game stutter when I land on a planet?▾
What graphics setup gives the most FPS without losing too much?▾
Is No Man's Sky more CPU or GPU demanding?▾
Is it worth enabling DLSS or FSR in No Man's Sky?▾
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Calculate FPS for No Man's Sky →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →