How to improve FPS in THE FINALS (PC)
THE FINALS is one of the most demanding competitive shooters on the market, and it's no accident: its Unreal Engine-based engine with proprietary real-time destruction tech puts a physics and networking load on the CPU that few games match. Every building that collapses, every floor that gives way, and every wall that shatters is calculated and synced live for every player in the match. This makes THE FINALS an outlier among free-to-play shooters: a powerful GPU isn't enough, the processor matters far more than usual. Embark Studios has kept optimizing the game every season, but the destructible nature of the environment remains its core technical bottleneck. This guide focuses on the settings that actually make a difference for sustaining 144+ FPS without sacrificing combat readability.
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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 +55% free FPS.
Global Illumination Quality
THE FINALS uses dynamic global illumination that recalculates light bounce every time a building collapses or a wall explodes, something that saturates even high-end GPUs on Ultra. Lowering it to Low drastically simplifies that recalculation without leaving interiors completely flat.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows are constantly recalculated as the level geometry gets destroyed, generating GPU load spikes every time the geometry changes. On Low, enemy silhouette readability is preserved without the cost of high-resolution shadows on objects that will disappear in seconds.
Reflections
Reflections on glass, water, and metallic surfaces use a tracing method that recalculates as the environment fragments. On maps with lots of glass, such as urban-themed ones, this is one of the biggest sources of microstutter.
Post Processing
Motion blur, vignette, bloom, and chromatic aberration not only consume performance but also make visual tracking harder in fast firefights. Lowering it to Low removes most of these effects while keeping image contrast.
Anti-Aliasing (TSR)
TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) is Unreal Engine's native smoothing method, but its temporal reconstruction cost is notable at high resolutions. On Low it reduces that cost without introducing aggressive aliasing, thanks to the temporal history it still applies.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Effects Quality
Explosions, smoke, debris, and destruction particles are the visual core of the game, so turning it all the way down hurts match readability. Medium is the sweet spot: it keeps threat information (fire, gas, grenades) visible without the full cost of high-density particles.
View Distance
With vertical maps and buildings that collapse, render distance affects how much debris and distant structure gets calculated at once. Medium reduces that geometry-streaming load without compromising visibility of flanking routes at mid-range.
Texture Quality
Unlike other settings, texture quality depends more on available VRAM than compute load, so its FPS impact is low unless the GPU has little memory. Keeping it high barely hurts if there's 6GB+ of VRAM free.
Volumetric Fog/Lighting
Volumetric fog and the light shafts piercing gaps in destroyed buildings require resampling in zones where geometry is constantly changing. It's one of the least-cited settings but with the biggest hidden frametime impact in partially destroyed interiors.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS
+35% FPSTHE FINALS supports DLSS (including Frame Generation on RTX 40 and newer), making it the highest image-quality option for NVIDIA cards. In Balanced or Performance mode it enables stable 144+ FPS at 1440p with no noticeable visual degradation, especially useful given how much destruction taxes the GPU during chaotic moments.
AMD FSR
+28% FPSFSR is available on any GPU regardless of brand, making it the best option for AMD cards and also for older NVIDIA GPUs without tensor cores. Its reconstruction quality is somewhat lower than DLSS in fast motion, but it's still a substantial FPS improvement with moderate visual cost.
Intel XeSS
+25% FPSXeSS works on both Intel Arc GPUs (with XMX hardware acceleration) and cards from other manufacturers in DP4a mode, though less efficiently. It's the recommended option for Arc users, and a valid alternative on systems with high-end integrated Intel graphics.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable Reflex in the game's options: it reduces input latency, something critical in THE FINALS' precision duels and with virtually no performance cost.
- •On RTX 40 GPUs, only use Frame Generation once you're already sustaining 60+ base FPS; below that it introduces noticeable input lag in such a fast shooter.
- •Update to the latest Game Ready drivers: Embark ships seasonal patches frequently, and NVIDIA usually optimizes specifically for the load spikes generated by mass destruction.
AMD
- •Enable Anti-Lag in the Adrenalin panel to offset the extra CPU load from destruction physics, especially on 6-core or lower processors.
- •Check that Radeon Chill is disabled during competitive matches: it can dynamically cap FPS right at the moments of heaviest destruction, when you need the most performance.
- •Use FSR in Quality mode on mid-range GPUs (RX 6600/6650 XT or lower) to absorb the load spikes during large building-collapse sequences.
Sistema
- •Prioritize a processor with strong per-core performance: THE FINALS depends more on the CPU than most shooters because of its physics simulation and real-time network sync.
- •Install the game on SSD (preferably NVMe): destruction-asset loading and geometry streaming during large structural collapses benefit noticeably from low access times.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, browsers) during matches: the game's intensive CPU use leaves very little headroom for background processes without causing frametime drops.
5. Known game issues
FPS drops during simultaneous mass destruction
When several players detonate charges or collapse large structures at the same time, CPU load spikes cause microstutters even on powerful systems. This is a structural issue of the destruction engine, not a one-off bug, though Embark has reduced its frequency with per-season network optimizations.
Shader compilation stutter on first launch after an update
After every seasonal patch, the first matches can suffer noticeable hitching while the game compiles shaders in the background. It's recommended to play a practice round in the shooting range before entering competitive after each major update.
Estado: Season 5
Memory leak in very long sessions
Some users report a progressive increase in RAM/VRAM usage and FPS degradation after several hours of play without restarting the client. Restarting the game every few hours of intensive sessions avoids the problem while Embark investigates the root cause.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does THE FINALS demand so much CPU compared to other shooters?▾
Which setting should I lower first if my FPS drops in firefights with destruction?▾
DLSS, FSR, or XeSS: which is best for THE FINALS?▾
Is it worth overclocking the CPU for THE FINALS?▾
Want to know exactly how many FPS YOUR PC will get?
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Calculate FPS for THE FINALS →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →