How to improve FPS in Once Human (PC)
Once Human mixes survival, crafting, and cosmic horror in an infected open world shared with hundreds of players in real time. It runs on Unreal Engine 4, and its performance challenge isn't so much its own graphical load as the number of other players' bases the engine must load and render simultaneously in each "scenario." That makes the CPU the usual bottleneck in populated areas, while volumetric fog and weather effects on the corrupted terrain do demand the GPU in open exteriors.
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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 +54% free FPS.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows in Once Human constantly recalculate due to changing weather and corrupted vegetation.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric fog is central to the game's cosmic-horror visual identity, but its layered calculation directly hits the framerate in exteriors.
Foliage/Vegetation Density
Corrupted vegetation and infected fields generate very high object density that stacks on top of multiplayer structure load in populated areas.
Anti-Aliasing (TAA)
TAA has a notable cost at high resolutions and can generate ghosting during fast movement in PvE combat.
Post-Processing
Post-processing effects reinforce the horror aesthetic but stack with fog and dynamic weather.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Building/Structure Detail Density
This is the single most decisive setting in Once Human: it controls how much detail from other players' structures and decorations is rendered in high base-density areas.
View Distance
View distance determines how many distant bases and corrupted-terrain elements load at once, which hits both CPU and GPU.
Texture Quality
Once Human's textures are well optimized, and their cost depends more on available VRAM than on raw compute power.
Weather Effects Quality
Pollution storms and dynamic weather events add particles and post-processing effects simultaneously.
Global Illumination
Dynamic global illumination helps sell the oppressive atmosphere of corrupted zones, but its constant recalculation has a relevant GPU cost.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS
+35% FPSOnce Human supports DLSS 2 (and DLSS 3 with Frame Generation on RTX 40-series GPUs) to upscale from a lower internal resolution.
AMD FSR
+28% FPSFSR 2 is available for any compatible GPU, including NVIDIA and Intel cards, and offers a solid FPS gain.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS in Balanced or Performance mode on mid-range GPUs to absorb load spikes in areas with many bases.
- •On RTX 40-series cards, try DLSS 3 Frame Generation only if you already have a stable 60 FPS baseline.
- •Update to the latest NVIDIA Game Ready drivers.
AMD
- •Use FSR 2 in Quality mode as a starting point on mid-range Radeon GPUs.
- •Check that Radeon Chill is disabled if you're aiming for maximum performance.
- •On Radeon APUs or integrated GPUs, prioritize lowering Building/Structure Detail Density and Foliage before resolution.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD (preferably NVMe): constant streaming of other players' structures penalizes HDDs heavily.
- •16GB of RAM is the real recommended minimum; on heavily populated servers, 32GB noticeably reduces stutters.
- •Close third-party overlays, since Once Human is sensitive to CPU load in a game that's already CPU-bound.
5. Known game issues
Severe FPS drops in heavily built-up settlements
On long-running servers, certain areas accumulate so many player structures that entity streaming causes drops of more than 50% FPS.
Stuttering after seasonal updates
Each new season introduces shader and cache recompilation that causes occasional hitches during the first sessions after the update.
Memory leaks in long sessions
After several hours of continuous play, especially traveling between multiple scenarios and bases, RAM and VRAM usage can grow abnormally.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why do my FPS drop so much near other players' bases?▾
Which setting gives the most FPS with the least visual loss in Once Human?▾
Is it worth using DLSS or FSR in Once Human?▾
Is this game more CPU- or GPU-demanding?▾
Want to know exactly how many FPS YOUR PC will get?
Enter your GPU and CPU in our calculator and measure the real impact of each setting.
Calculate FPS for Once Human →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →