Ghost of Tsushima PC: Best Settings for Max FPS

Your frame rate is dipping or stuttering in Ghost of Tsushima, making combat feel unresponsive. Most performance issues in this port come down to specific heavy graphics settings like Level of Detail being pushed too high for your hardware.

Why this happens

The 'Very High' preset creates massive overhead for your GPU, particularly regarding Level of Detail, which can account for up to 36 percent of your frame loss. Using the wrong upscaling method or frame generation can also introduce instability and visual artifacts.

What you will need

Ensure you have your GPU drivers updated and an overlay like MSI Afterburner active to track your frame times while testing these adjustments.

Steps

1. 01
   Navigate to the Options menu, select Display, and ensure Vsync is set to Off to prevent input lag.
2. 02
   Set Upscale Method to DLSS and choose Quality mode for the best balance of image clarity and performance.
3. 03
   Set Frame Generation to DLSS, avoiding FSR 3 due to reported crashes and inconsistent performance.
4. 04
   Under Graphics, set Texture Quality to High if your card has 8GB of VRAM, or Very High if you have 10GB or more.
5. 05
   Set Level of Detail to High, as the Very High setting is the primary culprit for significant frame drops.
6. 06
   Configure Shadow Quality, Rain Detail, Volumetric Fog, and Screen Space Reflections to High to maintain stable frame pacing.
7. 07
   Press Apply to save your changes and monitor your performance using an external frame counter to verify the gain.

Still not working?

If you are still experiencing stutters after these changes, disable frame generation entirely as it can cause visual tearing or instability on certain driver versions. Verify your GPU driver version, as outdated drivers often fail to handle the game's specific upscaling implementation. If FPS remains low, check that no background processes are consuming VRAM, as this title is highly sensitive to memory allocation.

Frequently asked questions

Why should I avoid FSR 3 in this game?

Users consistently report that FSR 3 causes erratic frame times, visual artifacts on the user interface, and frequent application crashes.

Will changing these settings make the game look blurry?

By using DLSS set to Quality mode, you maintain a sharp image while offloading the rendering work from your GPU to gain significant performance.

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