Apex Legends is the third most popular eSports game on Steam after Counter-Strike 2 and PUBG (we’ve tested both). With a daily concurrent player count of ~180K, it’s one of the defining “Hero Shooters” on the market. Built on Valve’s Source engine, the game features numerous graphics settings for players to customize per their hardware. The game runs well even on the Steam Deck, maintaining an average of 90 FPS at 800p. Let’s look at how Apex performs on midrange and high-end PCs.
Windows/System Settings to Optimize
- Enable Resizable BAR.
- Turn on Game Mode.
- Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) and Windowed Optimizations.
- Use the Windows “High Performance” power profile and set your GPU power management mode to the same.
- Disable Memory Integrity. Windows Menu->VBS->Device Security.
- Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
- Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
- Here’s a guide with more detailed instructions.
Apex Legends: Resolution Scaling
Apex Legends scales remarkably well with resolution, indicating a GPU-bound workload, uncommon for competitive shooters. Unfortunately, the game has a hard FPS lock of 300 FPS which can’t be bypassed. To get around this, we tested the game at 5K (5120 x 2880) to keep it from approaching that limit.
Apex Legends comes with a 144 FPS cap on PC. This can be removed (extended to 300 FPS) using either of the following methods:
On Steam
- Launch the Steam client.
- In your game library, right-click on Apex Legends->select properties.
- In the general tab of the “Properties” window, go to “Launch Options.”
- Add the following command to the text box:
- +fps_max FPS, replace FPS with your target frame cap.
- For example, +fps_max FPS 300.
- Click on “Ok” and you’re done.
On EA Client (formerly Origin)
- Launch the EA client, and go to your game library.
- Right-click on Apex Legends, and select “Game Properties.”
- Click on “Advanced Launch Options” and enter the following in the “Command Line Arguments” box:
- +fps_max FPS, replace FPS with your target frame cap.
- For example, +fps_max FPS 300.
- Click on “Apply” and you’re set.
We observed an average of 143 FPS at 5K, 227 FPS at 4K, and 280 FPS at 1440p using the maximum quality graphics settings. Adaptive resolution was disabled, VSync was disabled, and FOV was set to 90 (the default).
Contents & Testing Methodology
- We tested the game in the “Bot Royale” mode at 5K.
- Benchmarks at a glance:
- Resolution scaling.
- Textures and anti-aliasing.
- Texture filtering and ambient occlusion.
- Sun shadow coverage and detail.
- Spot shadow detail and volumetric lighting.
- Model and map detail.
- Effects and impact marks.
- Ragdoll and FOV.
- VRAM usage.
- CPU bottlenecks.
- Optimized graphics settings for Apex Legends.
- Hardware setup used:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.
- Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420.
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 FE.
- Motherboard: MSI MPG B650 Edge WiFi.
- Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.
Textures & Anti-Aliasing
The texture streaming budget sets the resolution of in-game textures, primarily affecting the VRAM usage instead of the framerates. Completely disabling textures yields a small 5.5% FPS boost which can be handy on low-end PCs.
Apex features temporal anti-aliasing which can drastically improve the texture smoothness at the cost of a marginal FPS drop. Best left enabled.
Texture Filtering & Ambient Occlusion
Texture filtering has a similar impact as the texture streaming budget. However, instead of setting the texture resolution, it resamples the texture maps oblique to the screen, making them clearer and more defined. You can probably get by without this, but “4x Anisotropic” is recommended to avoid muddy textures. Consider dropping to “Bilinear” filtering if you’re short of playable framerates.
Ambient occlusion is the most taxing setting in Apex Legends, improving framerates by up to 18% when disabled. Compared to your usual RPG or survival shooter, the visual impact is more subtle too.
Sun Shadow Coverage & Detail
Sun shadows coverage controls the draw distance of natural shadows, reducing the details past a certain distance. Sun shadow detail sets the definition of sun shadows, rendering fuller, more drawn-out silhouettes at “High.” The performance impact ranges from subtle to mild.
Spot Shadow Detail & Volumetric Lighting
Spot shadows are cast by artificial (man-made) lighting, and are mainly relevant indoors or in dark spaces. Spot shadow detail reduces performance by up to 6%, with “High” or “Very High” offering a steady balance between performance and quality.
Volumetric lighting produces godrays or light shafts along tree branches or the edges of buildings. It’s a subtle improvement in quality but comes with a notable 4-5% FPS drop. It’s best to disable it.
Dynamic spot shadows are cast by artificial lights capable of movement. In most cases, the visual and performance impact is nominal.
Model & Map Detail
Model quality sets the LOD of other players, terrain, vegetation, and objects in the scene. It makes the scene more realistic and has a subtle impact on performance.
Map detail renders additional objects in the game maps, including rocks, lighting, decals, and ventilation shafts. The framerates are marginally lower with it enabled.
Effects & Impact Marks
Effects quality adjusts the detail of explosions, smoke, embers, and gunfire effects. You’ll mostly feel its impact when a frag or smoke grenade is detonated, or a “Legend” ability or ultimate is used. Reduce it to “Medium” or “Low” if you framerate tanks any of those times.
Impact marks are produced by weapons fire, leading to bullet marks, burn marks, and other decals on walls and object surfaces. It doesn’t notably impact performance.
Ragdolls & FOV Scaling
Ragdolls refer to the corpse animation of downed “Legends” and bots. The “High” setting produces more accurate animations versus “Low.” It doesn’t have a notable impact on framerates.
Increasing the Field of View (FOV) slider to 100 or 110 reduces the average FPS by 2-4% but can grant a tactical advantage to some players. It’s left to personal choice.
Apex Legends: VRAM Usage
Apex Legends used a generous 13 GB of graphics memory at 5K “Ultra,” dropping to 10.9 GB with the textures disabled. The game uses over 11.5 GB of VRAM at 4K, and 10.66 GB at 1440p. The memory usage will vary from map to map.
Apex Legends: CPU Bottlenecks
Apex Legends is GPU-bound on most mid and high-end PCs. We observed a GPU-Busy deviation of 3% on our setup running the game at 280 FPS at 1440p “Ultra.”
Apex Legends: Performance Summary
Best Graphics Settings for Apex Legends
| Optimized Settings | High-end | Midrange | Low-end PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K (3840×2160) | 1440p (2560×1440) | 1080p (1920×1080) |
| Target FPS | 240 FPS | 180 FPS | 120 FPS |
| FOV | Up to you | Up to you | Up to you |
| Texture Streaming | Ultra | Ultra | High |
| Anti-Aliasing | TSAA | TSAA | TSAA |
| Ambient Occlusion | High | High | Low |
| Texture Filtering | 16x AF | 16x AF | 4x AF |
| Sun Shadow Coverage | High | High | High |
| Sun Shadow Detail | High | High | High |
| Spot Shadow Detail | Ultra | High | Disabled |
| Dynamic Spot Shadows | Enabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Volumetric Lighting | Enabled | Enabled | Disabled |
| Model Detail | High | High | High |
| Effects Quality | High | High | Medium |
| Map Detail | High | High | Low |
| Impact Marks | High | High | Low |
| Ragdoll Quality | High | High | Low |
| CPU | Core i7-12700K/Ryzen 7 7700X | Core i5-12400/Ryzen 5 5600 | Core i5-11400 Ryzen 5 3600 |
| GPU | RTX 4080/RX 7900 XTX | RTX 4060 Ti/RX 7700 XT | RTX 3050/GTX 1660 Ti |
| Memory | 8GB (dual-channel) | 8GB | 4GB (dual-channel) |
| High-end | Midrange | Low-end PC |
Apex Legends: Best Steam Deck Graphics Settings
Here’s a link to our dedicated performance guide for the Steam Deck.
| Optimized Graphics Settings | Steam Deck OLED |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 800p (1280 x 800) |
| V-Sync | Off |
| Adaptive Resolution | 0 |
| Adaptive Supersampling | Off |
| Anti-Aliasing | TSAA |
| Texture Streaming Budget | Very Low (2 GB) |
| Texture Filtering | 2x AF |
| Ambient Occlusion | Low |
| Sun Shadow Coverage | Low |
| Sun Shadow Detail | Low |
| Spot Shadow Detail | Disabled |
| Volumetric Lighting | Disabled |
| Dynamic Spot Shadows | Disabled |
| Model Detail | Low |
| Effects Detail | Low |
| Impact Marks | Disabled |
| Ragdoll | Low |
