How to improve FPS in Ready or Not (PC)
Ready or Not tests your rig in an unusual way: it isn't a reflex shooter where only raw FPS matters, but a tactical SWAT assault game where suspect, hostage, and teammate AI makes constant decisions (taking cover, surrendering, firing, panicking) while you move through highly detailed interiors with realistic lighting. The Unreal Engine splits the load between a CPU that struggles with pathfinding and behavior simulation, and a GPU that drowns under Global Illumination, dynamic shadows, and reflections in enclosed spaces. This guide helps you find the balance between FPS stability and the visual clarity you need to tell a weapon from a phone in a split second.
This is what you'd gain with a NVIDIA RTX 3060
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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 +47% free FPS.
Global Illumination
Dynamic global illumination is, along with shadows, the game's biggest GPU consumer, especially in dark interiors with multiple light sources.
Shadows
Dynamic shadows from NPCs and furniture are constantly recalculated in every room, the second-biggest GPU consumer after global illumination.
Fullscreen
Borderless windowed mode keeps Windows' compositor and other background applications active, taking performance away from the engine.
Foliage and Vegetation Density
In outdoor maps (courtyards, streets, gardens) detailed vegetation adds rendering cost that rarely provides useful tactical information.
Screen Space Reflections
Reflections on polished floors, glass, and puddles are expensive to calculate and add visual noise in interiors already packed with detail.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Shadow Distance
Controls how far dynamic shadows from NPCs and objects render, something of little relevance in the game's typical enclosed interiors.
Volumetric Fog Density
Volumetric fog in scenes with tear gas or flashbang smoke is GPU-demanding and builds up in long engagements.
Texture Quality
With enough VRAM (8GB or more) this setting barely costs performance because it depends more on video memory than compute power.
Ambient Occlusion
Reinforces contrast in room corners, useful for spotting silhouettes but costly in spaces with lots of furniture.
Particle Effects
Shell casings, dust, muzzle debris, and smoke generate extra load during intense firefights with several NPCs shooting at once.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS Quality
+25% FPSOn NVIDIA RTX GPUs it's the recommended option: it keeps the sharpness needed to identify weapons and objects in suspects' hands at medium range while freeing up GPU headroom for Global Illumination and shadows.
FSR 2.2 Quality
+20% FPSA valid cross-platform alternative for AMD and Intel; recommended over FSR 3 with Frame Generation, which introduces perceptible stutter on GPUs without RDNA 3 architecture.
DLSS Frame Generation
+45% FPSAvailable on RTX 40 series and above, it practically doubles the FPS shown on screen with a minimal latency increase, very useful given the game rarely demands millisecond reactions like an arena shooter.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Update to the 555.xx driver branch or later (2026): it fixes a known memory leak in Unreal Engine 4.27-based titles that caused progressive FPS drops in long sessions.
- •Enable Reflex if your GPU supports it to reduce input latency during fast flashbang assaults.
- •With 8GB of VRAM or more, keep textures on High: the real bottleneck is the rendering GPU, not memory.
AMD
- •Use FSR 2.2 instead of FSR 3 Frame Generation unless you have an RDNA 3 card (RX 7000): on earlier generations frame generation worsens indoor stutter.
- •Enable Anti-Lag in the Adrenalin panel to offset the latency added by upscaling in close-range combat.
- •Check that Smart Access Memory is enabled if your CPU+GPU combo supports it, since it helps with streaming loads on the detailed maps.
Sistema
- •Delete the *.ucas and *.utoc files from pakchunk0 in the Content/Paks folder and verify file integrity on Steam to force a clean shader recompile if you notice micro-hitches after an update.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, Steam) during missions: mass AI spawning in waves is sensitive to any interruption of the main thread.
- •Install the game on an SSD: the interior maps constantly load textures and AI behavior data as doors open, and a slow drive produces noticeable micro-stutter.
5. Known game issues
FPS drops from mass AI in waves
In missions with many suspects and hostages in the same room (for example, interiors like Brisa Cove), the simultaneous AI behavior recalculation can saturate a CPU core and cause sharp framerate drops regardless of the GPU used.
Stutter after shader updates
Every major Unreal Engine patch can leave cached shaders outdated, causing intermittent micro-hitches during the first matches until the game fully recompiles the cache.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why do my FPS drop only when I enter a room with several suspects?▾
Is it worth enabling Ray Tracing in Ready or Not?▾
What GPU do I need to play at 1080p with good stability?▾
Why doesn't the game use all of my CPU's cores?▾
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 Ready or Not →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →