Highguard Optimization Guide: Best Settings for Max FPS

If your frame rate in Highguard is stuttering or your inputs feel heavy, it is likely due to bloated graphics presets putting too much load on your hardware. These adjustments strip away unnecessary visual fidelity to prioritize responsiveness and raw frame count.

Why this happens

Games often default to high-fidelity graphics presets that prioritize visual flair over performance, which chokes your GPU and introduces input latency.

Steps

1. 01
   Navigate to the display settings menu and set Windowed Mode to 'Fullscreen' or 'Windowed Fullscreen' to ensure the game has exclusive priority over your monitor.
2. 02
   Set VSync to 'Off' to prevent unnecessary input lag, and leave Max FPS either 'Uncapped' or locked to your monitor's specific refresh rate.
3. 03
   Adjust your Internal Resolution to '50' and select 'DLSS' if using an NVIDIA GPU or 'TSR' if using an AMD GPU to leverage hardware upscaling.
4. 04
   Set Shadow Quality, Global Illumination, Reflections, Anti-aliasing Quality, Foliage Quality, and Shading Quality all to 'Low' to reduce GPU overhead.
5. 05
   Set Texture Quality to 'Medium' and ensure Post-Processing is set to 'High' to maintain visual clarity, as lower settings for post-processing often introduce unwanted blur.

Still not working?

If you are still seeing low FPS after applying these settings, check your GPU driver software for a global 'Game Mode' or 'Power Management' setting and ensure it is set to 'High Performance'. If your hardware is older, consider reducing your monitor resolution further, as these settings rely on your GPU being able to handle the internal render scale.

Frequently asked questions

Will changing these settings make the game look unplayable?

While you will notice a reduction in environmental detail, these settings are balanced to keep the game crisp and readable while significantly increasing your framerate.

Does internal resolution affect my screen quality?

Yes, lowering internal resolution decreases the sharpness of the image, but it is the most effective way to gain significant FPS if your graphics card is struggling.