High shadow detail settings produce smoother character shadows that more accurately mirror their host object. Lowering this setting produces a “marching ants” effect, where shadows can look pixelated and less smooth. We are unsure if this also impacts fog / smoke detail related to player character abilities. Local Fog Detail: Changes LOD of fog / cloud / smoke FX that exist naturally in maps. This is the quickest place to gain FPS, just like changing resolution is the quickest place to gain FPS – effectively the same thing, just one natively scales the entire screen, the other supersamples / downsamples. Scaling to higher scales will produce near-equivalent performance deltas as scaling actual resolution to 1440p or 4K (or downward). We strongly recommend leaving this option to “High” (100%), as that will be the most “normal” to what you're usually experiencing.
High – 100% (this is what you generally want, and what we used in test).Render Scale: Scales total game graphics render resolution up or down (supersampling and downsampling). We tested each preset's performance below. Adjusts all “advanced settings” automatically. Graphics Quality: Settings available: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Epic. Limit FPS: Lock the FPS to the refresh rate or to 30FPS.
We strongly recommend disabling this for best framerate, which is generally more important to a first-person shooter than smoothness of frame delivery. This can aid in smoothness of frame delivery, but greatly impacts performance and VRAM consumption. Learn more about this in our V-Sync dictionary entry.Įnable Triple Buffering: Loads more frames into the framebuffer on the GPU. This reduces tearing from mismatched frametime delivery, but can create stuttering in scenarios where the GPU cannot keep up with the display's demand for new frames (at 60Hz, that's every 16ms at 120Hz, every 8ms, and so on). Wider FOVs can introduce some “GoPro effect” distortion toward the edges of the view if too high on a particular aspect ratio or resolution.Įnable VSync: Locks the framerate to the monitor's vertical refresh rate (often 60Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz). Overwatch uses a slider instead of a numeric measurement, a decision with which we disagree, with the right-most position being the widest FOV. We have provided our best, informed answers below.Īdvanced Settings which don't require a restart to apply: Render scale, refractions, ambient occlusion, local reflections, texture filter quality, dynamic reflection, and anti-aliasing.įield of View: This can be thought of as a scaling of a “wide angle lens.” Field of View adjusts how wide the player's camera is. We are also limited on settings knowledge to our own experience and understanding of graphics technologies some of these settings, until we can speak to Blizzard's tech graphics folks, have left us a little limited on detail.
We do not have finalized drivers from either major GPU manufacturer, meaning there is presently no driver-side optimization for Overwatch. Remember that Overwatch is in beta, so this test is not necessarily representative of the final product. This graphics card benchmark looks at the best GPUs for Overwatch (beta), testing 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions across “Epic” and “Ultra” settings. For now, the goal was to provide a foundation upon which to base our GPU test methodology with Overwatch. This is the basis of our eventual graphics optimization guide (see: Black Ops equivalent), something we'll finalize at the game's launch. We performed some initial settings analysis – shown further down – to determine top-level performance impact on a per-setting basis. Overwatch isn't particularly GPU intensive, but it does make use of some advanced shadow and reflection techniques that can impact FPS. This weekend's test was, according to Overwatch PR Manager Steven Khoo, an attempt at learning “how Overwatch runs on your system” and a reach-out for “technical feedback.” We figured we'd throw ten video cards at the game and see how it does. The game is still going through closed beta testing, with select accounts receiving invites to play-test the game over a few weekends.
That, at its core, is what we'd call a “team shooter,” a genre that's been popularized most recently by Team Fortress 2. Forthcoming team shooter Overwatch is Blizzard's first new IP in years, fusing familiar FPS and team-based elements with MOBA-like playable characters.