How to improve FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PC)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider closes out Lara Croft's reboot trilogy with the Foundation engine pushed to its limit: dense jungles in Peru and Mexico with volumetric vegetation that sways with the wind, underground tombs lit almost entirely by Lara's torch, and one of the earliest shadow ray tracing implementations, added via a post-launch patch. It's a game that punishes the CPU in open jungle zones due to the sheer number of simulated plant objects, and punishes the GPU indoors because of dynamic lighting and volumetric effects. With the right tuning of vegetation, shadows, and the resolution-scaling options (including DLSS in the updated versions), it's perfectly playable at a stable 60 FPS even on mid-range hardware like an RTX 3050.
This is what you'd gain with a NVIDIA RTX 3050
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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 +49% free FPS.
Vegetation
Controls the density and draw distance of the volumetric vegetation covering the jungle zones of Peru and Mexico. On Ultra, the Foundation engine renders extra layers of grass and foliage that generate simultaneous CPU and GPU load.
Pure Hair
The TressFX simulation of Lara's hair consumes a disproportionate amount of GPU for its visual impact, especially in scenes with wind and water where it constantly recalculates physics.
Screen Space Reflections (SSR)
Screen-space reflections are noticeable mainly in the water areas of rivers and cenotes; on High/Ultra the rendering cost doesn't pay off compared to Low.
Tessellation
Affects the geometric detail of rocks and irregular surfaces in the tombs; the jump from Medium to Ultra is barely perceptible except in close-ups of rocky terrain.
Anti-Aliasing
The game's native SMAA/TAA has a higher cost than in other Foundation-engine titles due to the amount of fine detail in leaves and branches; FXAA is cheaper though somewhat less sharp.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Shadows
The dynamic shadows from Lara's torch in the underground tombs are one of the elements that consume the most CPU and GPU simultaneously, since they're recalculated in real time with every flicker of the flame.
Ray-Traced Shadows
Added via patch after the original launch (it wasn't available on day one), shadow ray tracing improves shadow contact and softness inside tombs, but has one of the highest performance costs of the RT catalog of its era.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion on Ultra adds an extra contact-shadow pass on vegetation and stone structures that is very costly for the actual visual improvement.
Volumetric Effects
The tombs use fog and volumetric dust lit by the torch to reinforce the atmosphere; on Ultra, the resolution of these volumes doubles and GPU cost grows non-linearly.
LOD Distance
Controls the distance at which maximum-detail models and textures load in the open jungle zones; on Ultra, long-distance asset streaming adds constant load to the CPU.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS (Quality)
+35% FPSShadow of the Tomb Raider was one of the first games to include DLSS, and it later received an update with an improved version of the algorithm that fixed much of the blur and vegetation ghosting present in the original implementation. In Quality mode it's the recommended option for the RTX 3050 at 1440p, since it reconstructs fine leaf and branch detail well.
DLSS (Balanced)
+45% FPSA good balance of sharpness and performance for 1080p/1440p on entry-level GPUs; the jungle's dense foliage especially benefits from AI upscaling compared to the game's simple resolution scaling.
Native Dynamic Resolution
+15% FPSThe game includes its own dynamic resolution system (no AI) that adjusts the render resolution in real time to maintain a target FPS; it's a valid alternative on AMD or Intel GPUs without access to DLSS, though with lower image quality than AI upscaling.
No FSR/XeSS Support
+0% FPSShadow of the Tomb Raider doesn't include native support for AMD FSR or Intel XeSS; on AMD or Intel Arc GPUs the only available scaling route is manually lowering the render resolution or using the game's native dynamic resolution.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS in Quality or Balanced mode before touching anything else: on an RTX 3050 it's the single setting with the highest FPS return in the game.
- •Avoid shadow ray tracing below an RTX 3060 Ti; the performance cost doesn't pay off against rasterized shadows on High.
- •Use the NVIDIA overlay (Alt+Z) to confirm DLSS is actually active, since in some versions of the game the menu doesn't reflect the change until you restart the level.
AMD
- •With no native FSR, use the game's internal dynamic resolution combined with Radeon Anti-Lag to keep a sense of smoothness in jungle zones.
- •Lower vegetation to Medium and shadows to High as a first step: these are the two settings that penalize mid-range AMD GPUs the most in open jungle scenes.
- •Update to the latest Adrenalin drivers: Shadow of the Tomb Raider had several RDNA-specific compatibility patches for volumetric-fog interiors.
Sistema
- •Dense vegetation in the Peru and Mexico zones also loads the CPU, not just the GPU: on 4-core processors it's common to see FPS drops in open jungle even when the GPU isn't at 100%.
- •Install the game on an SSD if possible: the underground tombs continuously load high-resolution textures as Lara advances with the torch, and on HDD micro-stutters are frequent.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, MSI Afterburner) during climbing sequences, where the game already reserves a good chunk of VRAM for asset streaming.
5. Known game issues
Stuttering when entering tombs with the torch
It's common to experience a sudden FPS drop or micro-stutter when crossing the threshold between jungle exteriors and tomb interiors, caused by the simultaneous switch in lighting systems (from dynamic sunlight to torch lighting) and the loading of new textures. It affects HDD-based systems more.
Estado: Partially mitigated in post-launch patches, but persists to a lesser degree on entry-level hardware.
Ghosting with DLSS in the original version
The initial 2018 DLSS implementation produced noticeable ghosting or trailing on moving vegetation and on Lara's hair during combat, especially with fast camera movement.
Estado: Significantly fixed with the DLSS model update Eidos Montréal rolled out following the broader adoption of DLSS 2.x across the Foundation engine catalog.
Performance drop with shadow ray tracing enabled
Shadow ray tracing, added via patch and not present at original launch, causes disproportionate FPS drops compared to other RT titles of the same generation, especially in tombs with multiple light sources.
6. Frequently asked questions
Does Shadow of the Tomb Raider have DLSS?▾
Is it worth enabling shadow ray tracing on an RTX 3050?▾
Why does the game run worse in the jungle zones than in the tombs?▾
Does it support AMD FSR or Intel XeSS?▾
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Calculate FPS for Shadow of the Tomb Raider →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →