Best PC Settings for Marathon (Optimization Guide)

Marathon is Bungie’s first-person extraction shooter that will take players to Tau Ceti IV and its incredible biomes. Players will step into the shell of a Runner and blitz through both PvE and PvP enemies as they rush to acquire loot and extract safely. Since the high-stakes gameplay of Marathon is fast-paced, you’ll need your PC to run the game at maximum FPS to increase your odds of surviving a raid. So, here’s an optimization guide for Marathon that showcases the best graphics settings you can use to improve the game’s performance on your PC.

The following optimization guide for PC is based on the Marathon Server Slam event. The guide will be updated to reflect the changes/improvements made in the final release.

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By Viraaj Bhatnagar

Best PC Settings for Marathon (Optimization Guide)

Marathon offers several graphics settings that will allow players to adjust the quality of visuals to get the desired performance they need on their PC. All graphics settings are divided into different categories, and we'll be focusing on balancing visual quality with performance to avoid compromising on either.

With that said, here are the best PC settings for Marathon.

Type	Graphics Option	Best Settings	Notes
Video	Window Mode	Fullscreen	While there's no option for Borderless Fullscreen, normal Fullscreen should work fine for players.
	Resolution	Native	Use your monitor's native resolution to avoid blurry textures.
	VSync	Off	Make sure to keep Vsync off to avoid input lag in matches.
	Frame Rate Cap	Off	There's no need to cap your FPS, unless you're playing off a laptop's battery power.
	Field of View	Players Preference	While you can raise the field of view to whichever number you like, it's recommended to keep it anywhere between 80–95 to avoid taxing FPS.
Advanced Video	Graphics Quality	Custom	There's no need to use a pre-determined graphical preset, as we'll be fine-tuning all graphics settings individually.
	Anti-Aliasing	Nvidia DLSS/AMD FSR	Players with Nvidia RTX series GPUs can use DLSS, while others can safely opt for AMD FSR and get similar results.
	Resolution Scaling	Balanced	Balanced will keep your base resolution to 50%, and upscale it to your preferred resolution, which will result in major performance improvement in Marathon.
	Screen Space Ambient Occlusion	High	High is the best setting here, which will add noticeable depth to the environments in Marathon.
	Anisotropic Filtering	16x	-
	Texture Quality	GPU VRAM Dependent	6GB VRAM: Low, 8GB VRAM: Medium, 12GB+ VRAM: High-Highest
	Shadow Quality	Medium	Medium is the best setting preset for Shadow Quality in Marathon, as it'll display shadow properly without flickering or causing a major load on your GPU.
	Environment Detail Distance	Low	While using the low preset will reduce the distance environments will be rendering, the trade-off will be worth it as your game won't suffer from random FPS when entering denser areas of the map.
	Character Detail Distance	High	This will ensure any PvE enemies or hostile players will be properly rendered at a distance, allowing you to take precise shots at their heads.
	Foliage Detail Distance	Lowest	Keeping the foliage render distance to the lowest will actually be advantageous, as you'll be able to see less vegetation at a distance to easily spot any players using them as cover in Marathon. It'll also have a huge impact on your average FPS.
	Light Shafts	Players' Preference	Light Shafts are aesthetic effects that don't affect your PC's performance. Use them according to your own taste.
	Motion Blur	Off	There's no need to use Motion Blur, as it'll prove to be a disadvantage during fast-paced combat encounters.
Additional Video	Chromatic Aberration	Players' Preference	Another one of those aesthetic post-processing effects that you can turn on or off without impacting Marathon's performance on your PC.
	Nvidia Reflex	On	If you're using an Nvidia GPU, turning on Nvidia Reflex is a no-brainer to keep your inputs accurate and snappier, minimizing input lag.
	UI Refresh Rate	High	Will slightly cost performance, but will help your in-game UI displays from glitching out during intense fights.

So, these were the best settings for Marathon, which are geared towards optimizing the game on your PC. These settings were tested on a PC with an Intel i9-14900HX CPU, Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU, and 32GB RAM. The FPS averaged around 80–90, with 1% lows being at 66, which only occurred during scenes with several effects going off at once.

Extraction Shooter

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Multiplayer

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Released: March 5, 2026
ESRB: Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s): Bungie
Publisher(s): Bungie
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op