How to improve FPS in Total War: Warhammer III (PC)
Total War: Warhammer III pushes the Total War Engine 4 to its limit with massive battles where thousands of individually animated units can fight at once, giant monsters, and spells that flood the screen with particle effects. On top of that there's a turn-based campaign map that, in advanced games with many active factions, can slow down AI turn processing. The result is a game with two completely different performance profiles coexisting in the same title. Optimizing well means understanding which of the two bottlenecks you're actually suffering from. Here are the settings that really make a difference in both scenarios.
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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 +70% free FPS.
Unit Size
This is the single highest-impact setting in the whole game: it reduces the number of individual soldiers the engine has to animate and simulate per unit on the battlefield. Dropping from Ultra to Medium in battles with several full stacks can mean the difference between 30 and 60 FPS. It directly affects both CPU load (animation, collisions) and GPU load (model rendering).
Battle Effects (Particle Quality)
Controls the density and resolution of spell, fire, smoke, and explosion particle effects generated by magical factions like Kislev or Cathay's Grand Cathedrals. In fights with several active casters at once, this setting on Ultra can cause sharp framerate drops. Dropping it to Medium keeps the visual spectacle while reducing simultaneous particle load.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows for thousands of moving units are one of the most expensive tasks for the GPU in the Warscape engine. Reducing shadow resolution and range frees up VRAM and graphics bandwidth without it being too noticeable on the battlefield, where the camera is usually pulled back.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion adds subtle shading at the contact points between units and terrain, but in scenes with thousands of animated models its cost multiplies inefficiently. Disabling it is barely noticeable during active combat and frees up valuable frames at the most demanding moments.
Vegetation Quality (campaign map)
On the campaign map, detailed vegetation in every visible region adds a constant render load that competes with AI turn processing. Dropping it to Low speeds up both camera movement and wait times between turns in advanced games with many factions.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Unit Detail
Determines the level of detail in textures and models for each individual soldier, including monsters and unique hero units. On Ultra, with thousands of units on screen, VRAM usage and render cost skyrocket. Medium keeps a good look at typical combat camera distances without the cost of extreme close-ups.
Water Quality
Reflections and water simulation on maps with rivers or coastlines add a constant render cost that's rarely noticed amid the heat of battle. Reducing it to Medium frees up GPU on the most demanding water maps without visibly degrading the combat scene.
Anti-Aliasing
Edge smoothing in scenes with thousands of animated silhouettes and overlapping particle effects is especially costly for the GPU. Dropping from High/Ultra to Medium reduces jagged unit edges without penalizing framerate as much as the engine's higher settings.
Draw Distance (units and terrain)
Controls how far enemy units and terrain detail render on the battlefield. On open maps with several active flanks, dropping it to Medium reduces simultaneous draw load without affecting close-range tactical readability.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable optimal performance mode in the NVIDIA Control Panel to prioritize FPS over quality in the driver.
- •Update to the latest Game Ready drivers, since Creative Assembly and NVIDIA have released several performance-specific patches for Warhammer III.
- •On GPUs with limited VRAM (8GB or less), avoid raising Unit Detail and Shadow Quality together to prevent memory saturation in large battles.
AMD
- •Use Radeon Software to enable Radeon Chill limited to battles, avoiding power savings hurting load spikes in massive fights.
- •Verify you have the latest Adrenalin drivers installed, since the Warscape engine has historically had more stability issues on AMD than NVIDIA cards.
- •If you notice sharp drops during sieges, disable Anti-Lag and try again: in some cases it generates microstutter with this particular engine.
Sistema
- •Total War: Warhammer III benefits enormously from CPUs with good per-core frequency, since unit pathfinding and AI don't scale well across many cores.
- •Install the game on an SSD: load times between campaign turns and asset streaming in large battles improve noticeably over an HDD.
- •Close background applications that use CPU, especially during AI turn processing in advanced campaigns, where every free core helps shorten the wait.
5. Known game issues
AI turn slowdown in advanced campaigns
From turn 80-100 onward, with many factions and armies active on the map, AI turn processing time can lengthen considerably, causing waits of several seconds between turns.
FPS drops with area spells in multiplayer battles
In online battles with several casters from factions like Kislev, overlapping particle effects can cause occasional framerate drops even on powerful rigs, due to network sync being added on top of the graphics cost.
Stuttering when new units load on screen
When new reserves or reinforcements enter contact in large battles, some users report brief hitching while the engine loads the animations and textures of the newly visible units.
Estado: Update 5.2
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does my FPS only drop in large battles and not the rest of the game?▾
Is it worth lowering resolution to gain FPS in massive battles?▾
Why do AI turns get so slow in advanced games?▾
Does Total War: Warhammer III have DLSS or FSR?▾
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Calculate FPS for Total War: Warhammer III →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →