Nathan Round is part of The Best War Games's talented Game Guides Team and the leading voice for Call of Duty guides. From meta loadouts to the best weapons for each season, he takes pride in crafting top-notch guides. He also writes strategy guides for other popular titles, including Fortnite, XDefiant, Apex Legends, and Once Human.
Ubisoft's XDefiant is here, and although the game's launch was plagued with server stability issues, players can now hop in and battle it out in this fast-paced, free-to-play shooter. While many players may be looking for the best weapons to use and testing out the game's various factions to decide which one to play, there is another way players can level up their gameplay.
XDefiant is an action-packed multiplayer shooter that plays remarkably smoothly on both PC and console. However, players who want to boost their framerate and performance can benefit by optimizing their in-game settings to ensure the game runs at its absolute best. Here are the best settings for better performance in XDefiant.
As far as gameplay settings go, the only setting that affects your game's performance is Field Of View. Though maxing out your Field Of View is often preferred to increase your visibility of the battlefield, having this setting on high can negatively impact the framerate. If you find that your overall FPS is taking a hit, try setting your Field Of View anywhere from 90 to 100.
Best Video & Graphic Settings
Video Settings
Display Mode
Set to Fullscreen. Yields the best results for a consistent framerate.
Display Resolution
Set to your monitor's native resolution. PC players can check their native resolution by heading to the Display Settings on their device.
Refresh Rate
Set to your monitor's native refresh rate to eliminate screen tearing. For example, if you have a 60HZ monitor, then set it to 60.00HZ.
Display Monitor
All down to personal preference, and it only applies to players running a dual monitor setup.
Triple Buffering
Set to Off. Although Triple Buffering does improve framerate, this is at the cost of increased input latency.
Reduced Latency
Set to On. Though it may lower framerate by a small amount, input latency is reduced.
NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency
Only applicable to NVIDIA Devices. Set to On. On will enable low latency mode, thus reducing latency and improving PC responsiveness. Setting to On + Boost will optimize latency for CPU-bound cases, but will draw more GPU power as a result.
Brightness
Preference-based
Contrast
Pick any setting that you prefer
Graphics Settings
DX12 Renderer
Only Set to On for devices with Windows 10 or newer. Otherwise, Set to Off.
HDR
Set to Off to avoid reducing framerate.
HDR Peak Brightness
Preference-based
HDR Peak Brightness for UI Elements
Preference-based
Graphics Quality
Essentially, it offers preset values for many of the latter graphic settings. For most devices, Medium is recommended. However, altering other graphic settings will set this value to Custom.
V-Sync Mode
Setting to Off is recommended to reduce input latency. If players experience screen tearing, then consider turning this on.
Framerate Limit
Setting to Off is often recommended to achieve the highest framerate possible. If players experience severe fps fluctuations or screen tearing, then turn this setting On.
Custom FPS Limit
Only applies if Framerate Limit is set to On. In this case, set to the highest value possible to achieve the highest framerate.
Shadow Quality
Can impact performance. Medium is often recommended. For low-end devices, set to Low.
Spot Shadows
Likewise, Medium is also recommended for better performance. Set to Low for low-end devices.
Spot Shadow Resolution
Again, it can impact performance. Medium provides a good middle ground. Set to Low for low-end devices.
Contact Shadows
Off to Sun Low is recommended to keep the framerate high.
Resolution Scale
85% to 100% is recommended for most devices. Lower-end devices can benefit from a performance boost if set to 50% or 75%.
Sharpening
This setting does not impact performance. Set to whatever value is preferred
Particle Quality
For a better framerate, set to either Medium or Low.
Volumetric Fog
Low is recommended to improve framerate.
Global Reflection Quality
Medium or Low will work great for boosting fps.
Local Reflection Quality
Set to Off or Low for a performance boost.
Vegetation Quality
Does not have a huge impact on performance. With that being the case, set to Medium.
Sub-Surfacing Scattering
Mostly down to personal preference. Setting to either On or Off does not have a huge impact in performance.
Ambient Occlusion
For boosting framerate, Medium or Low is recommended.
Object Detail
Mostly down to personal preference. To mitigate lowering performance, any value from 20 to 58 is ideal.
Extra Streaming Distance
Heavily reliant on RAM. A longer object streaming distance will use more memory. 10 is recommended for high-end devices, 5-8 for medium, and 5 and below for low-end devices.
Lens Flare
Has relatively little impact on performance. Set to Off for improved visibility.
Water Quality
For a better framerate, set to Medium or Low.
Chromatic Aberration
Preference-based.
Terrain Quality
For a higher framerate in XDefiant, set to either Medium or Low.
