After multiple delays, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is finally out on PC and consoles. It’s the first AC game to feature ray tracing in the form of global illumination, both diffuse and specular. It includes various upscaling technologies, including DLSS 4, FSR 3.1, and XeSS 2. Frame generation technologies based on DLSS 4 and FSR 3 are also supported. Unfortunately, the game performs poorly with Ubisoft resorting to downgrading the upscaling preset to achieve playable frame rates. Here’s our optimization guide for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
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.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows PC Specs
1080p 30 FPS
- Low graphics preset.
- OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600|Intel Core i7-8700K.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700|NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070|Intel Arc A580.
- RAM: 16 GB (dual-channel).
- Hard drive SSD required.
1080p 60 FPS
- Medium graphics preset.
- OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X|Intel Core i5-11600K.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT|NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060Ti|Intel Arc B580.
- RAM: 16 GB (dual-channel).
- Hard drive SSD required
1440p 60 FPS
- High graphics preset.
- OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X| Intel Core i5-11600K.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT|NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.
- RAM: 16 GB (dual-channel).
- Hard drive SSD required
4K 60 FPS
- High graphics preset.
- OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D|Intel Core i7-12700K.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT|NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super.
- RAM: 16 GB (dual-channel).
- Hard drive SSD required
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Graphics & Resolution Scaling
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows performs miserably, averaging 56 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K using the maximum quality graphics settings. The limited scaling from 1440p to 1080p indicates a CPU bottleneck or pre-pixel shaders tanking the GPU.
Test Setup
- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K @ 5.3 GHz.
- Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420.
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 FE.
- Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI.
- Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.
Fortunately, the graphics presets exhibit ample scaling, averaging 96 FPS at low, 76 FPS at high, 64 FPS at ultra, and 49 FPS at the maximum quality graphics settings at 4K.
(Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider)
Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks pretty even at the lowest settings. Except for the advanced lighting shaders and distant LOD, much detail is retained at the lower-quality presets.
Ray Traced Global Illumination: Diffuse + Specular
Assassin’s Creed Shadows features ray-traced global illumination. It can be completely disabled outside the player hideout but not within. RTGI includes diffuse and specular lighting. The former handles GI and ambient occlusion, while the latter renders reflections and refractions.
Ray Traced Diffuse GI drastically improves scene lighting, rendering highly accurate and detailed shadows. It produces deeper shadows with precision light scattering and varying levels of occlusion across adjoining surfaces.
- RT Diffuse GI is most taxing at night in areas with numerous artificial light sources.
- It reduces frame rates by 10-12%.
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
Ray Traced Specular GI renders reflections and refractions. It’s less evident than diffuse lighting and primarily produces low-resolution specular reflections.
- RT Specular GI is most taxing around water bodies and inundated surfaces.
- It reduces frame rates by 8-10%.
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
Ray Tracing & BVH Quality
Ray Tracing Quality sets the resolution and distance of RTGI. Unfortunately, it doesn’t scale well, and the lowest preset is only 6% faster than the highest.
- Low disables finer object shadows, with only the large-scale occlusion for distant surfaces.
- Medium and higher options improve distant surface GI (longer rays) and resolution (more rays).
- Specular lighting is dismal at low with little to no reflection detail.
- Going below medium isn’t recommended.
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
BVH Quality defines the objects considered for ray tracing as part of the BVH representation. It minimally impacts performance. Users on older CPUs should see larger uplifts at lower-quality options.
- Low disables RTGI for the majority of intermediate and distant objects.
- Medium disables RTGI for most distant objects.
- High disables RTGI for many distant and some of the smaller, complex objects.
- Leave it at “Very High” or “Ultra High.”
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
- Click here for 4K Interactive Image Comparison Slider.
Screen Space Effects
Screen Space Effects enable screen space reflections and ambient occlusion. They complement ray-traced global illumination and are more evident without it. The high-quality option is 4% slower than the rest.
Light Source & Shadow Quality
Light Source Quality sets the propagation distance of light, which adjusts the range of shadows and other effects cast by light sources. It mainly affects artificial sources like candles and torches lit at night.
- Most high-resolution micro-shadows are lost at high and below.
- “Ultra” is 20%, while “Very High” is 12% slower than “Low.”
Shadow Quality sets the resolution and draw-distance of shadows. Beyond this distance, they are replaced by low-resolution placeholders. High-quality shadows are 9% slower, while Ultra-quality shadows are 17% slower than “Low.”
Water & Particle Quality
Water Quality sets the detail of waves and ripples produced along the surface of water bodies and underwater effects. It can reduce frame rates by up to 8% along docks and coasts.
Particle Quality adjusts the particle count and resolution, including rain, smoke, fire, etc. It nominally impacts performance but may tank lower-end CPUs.
Loading & Draw Distance
Loading Distance sets the distance at which objects are rendered. Lower values increase pop-in and partial shadows/occlusion for distant objects. The highest quality option reduces performance by 6-7%.
Draw Distance adjusts the distance at which objects lose detail and shading, including shadows, global illumination, tessellation, etc. The highest quality reduces frame rates by up to 7%.
Micropolygon sets the memory budget for LOD calculations. Reducing it leads to the loss of shadow detail for distant objects, mainly vegetation. It barely impacts performance. Like the previous two settings, it’s best left at the highest.
Terrain Quality
Terrain Quality sets the terrain detail using tessellation, displacement, and parallax mapping. It only reduces frame rates by 3% on average. The 1% lows are up to 10% lower. The very high quality is the sweet spot here.
Scatter Density sets the amount of clutter (flowers, vegetation, pollen, etc) scattered upon interaction with the player, NPC, or weather elements. Lower-quality options decrease foliage density. The performance impact is minimal. The same can be said for deformation and virtual texture quality.
Character Quality & Hair
Character Quality sets the LOD of character shadows and outfit detail, including creases, folds, and patterns. It reduces the game’s performance by 3% on average.
Hair Strands enable the rendering of high-fidelity individual hair strands for the player character and NPCs.
- High enables it for all NPCs
- Medium scales it down to nearby characters.
- Low disables it for most.
- The performance hit ranges from 6-8%.
Cloud & Fog Quality
Cloud Quality sets the detail of volumetric clouds. Higher-quality options render more layered clouds, incorporating more depth and realism. This doesn’t appreciably impact performance.
Fog Quality sets the detail and density of volumetric fog. Higher quality options produce denser and thicker fog cover. The performance penalty ranges from 2-3%.
Upscaling & Frame Generation
Ubisoft has deceptively downgraded the upscaling quality in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. From 66%, 59%, and 50%, the input resolution for the quality, balanced, and performance presets has been reduced to 44%, 35%, and 25%. The resulting images are blurry and unplayable at lower resolutions.
For whatever reason, upscaling barely improves the performance in Shadows. The real quality preset grants a mere 19% uplift, while performance is 34% faster than native.
Update from Ubisoft:
- NVIDIA, AMD and Intel present resolution scale with a value per dimension, showing how much pixels in width or height are preserved.
- If you have 1080p with 50% upscale ratio we will end up having 1080p x 50% = 540p. We are showing the percentage of pixels preserved for the entire screen.
- If resolution scale is 50% per dimension, we will have 25% pixels preserved for the entire screen. 50% x 50% = 25%, and that’s what we are showing in the menu.
- The description that we have for resolution scale parameters contains this wording: The resolution represented as a ratio of the surface of pixels of the full resolution screen.
- We query upscale factors for different quality levels directly from upscale technology, it’s not something we add ourselves. Thus it is false to say that we have downgraded the upscaling presets, we have simply exposed them differently, as explained in the option description.
Apologies for the confusion. It looks like the game is using the pixel percentage for the entire screen rather than a single dimension. The quality preset is 37% faster while performance upscaling grants a 54% boost over native.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows requires frame generation for acceptable frame rates with ray tracing. It features DLSS and FSR-based frame interpolation for a variety of setups. Frame generation nearly doubles the performance, producing 2.5x the frame rates when paired with upscaling.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: VRAM Usage
Assassin’s Creed Shadows uses up to 12 GB of graphics memory at the maximum quality settings at 4K. It scales down to 11.5 GB at 1440p and 11 GB at 1080p. Ergo, you’ll need a 12 GB VRAM buffer for the highest quality settings at any resolution.
The VRAM usage drops to 10 GB at “Ultra High,” 9 GB at “Very High,” 7 GB at “High,” and 6.4 GB at the “Medium” quality graphics preset.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: CPU Bottlenecks
Assassin’s Creed Shadows shows no CPU bottlenecks with rasterization. Ray tracing introduces a mild bottleneck, depending on your resolution and upscaling preset.
We observed a GPU-Busy deviation of 8% at 4K which dropped to 3% using the balanced upscaling mode. This correlates to the ray budget set per the input resolution.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Performance Summary
If you’re struggling to hit 60 FPS, adjust the following graphics settings:
- Ray-Traced Global Illumination: Ray-traced specular GI minimally impacts visual quality, and can be disabled for an 8-10% performance uplift.
- Light Source Quality: If you’re experiencing FPS drops at night, reduce this to the very high or high-quality option.
- Shadow Quality: The “Very High” preset looks almost as good as “Ultra” while performing 10% faster.
- Loading & Draw Distance: If you’re facing stutters (and have an older CPU), reduce these a notch.
Optimized Settings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows
| Graphics Option | High-end | Midrange | Low-end PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K (3840×2160) | 1440p (2560×1440) | 1080p (1920×1080) |
| Target FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Upscaler | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4/FSR 3 | DLSS 4/FSR 3 |
| Upscaler Preset | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced |
| Frame Generation | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 or FSR 3 | DLSS 4 or FSR 3 |
| Raytraced GI | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse Everywhere |
| Raytracing Quality | Ultra High | Very High | High |
| BVH Quality | Ultra High | Very High | High |
| Screen Space Effects | High | High | High |
| Light Source Quality | Ultra High | Very High | High |
| Shadow Quality | Ultra High | Very High | Very High |
| Texture Streaming Pool | Ultra High | Ultra High | Very High |
| Post Effects | High | High | High |
| Water Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Particle Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Loading Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Draw Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Micropolygon | High | High | High |
| Terrain Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Deformation | High | High | High |
| Scatter Density | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Virtual Texture | High | High | High |
| Character Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Hair Strands | All High | All High | All High |
| Cloud Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Fog Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| High-end (4K) | Mid-range (1440p) | Low-end (1080p) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Core i7-13700K|Ryzen 7 7700X | Core i5-12600K|Ryzen 5 7600 | Core i5-12400 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 |
| GPU | GeForce RTX 4080 Super | GeForce RTX 4070 Super | RTX 3060|RTX 4060 |
| Memory | 32GB (dual-channel) | 16GB (dual-channel) | Less than: 16GB (dual-channel) |
| Graphics | RTX 4090 | RTX 4080 Super | RTX 4070 Ti | RTX 4070 Super | RTX 4070 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K | 4K | 4K | 1440p | 4K | 1440p | 4K | 1440p |
| Target FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Upscaler | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 |
| Upscaler Preset | Quality | Balanced | Performance | Quality | Performance | Balanced | Performance | Balanced |
| Frame Generation | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 |
| Raytraced GI | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse+Specular |
| Raytracing Quality | Ultra High | Very High | Very High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High |
| BVH Quality | Ultra High | Very High | Very High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High |
| Screen Space Effects | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Light Source Quality | Ultra High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Shadow Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High | Very High | Ultra High |
| Texture Streaming Pool | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Post Effects | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Water Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Particle Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Loading Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Draw Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Micropolygon | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Terrain Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Deformation | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | |
| Scatter Density | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Virtual Texture | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Character Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Hair Strands | All High | All High | All High | All High | All High | All High | All High | All High |
| Cloud Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Fog Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
Optimized Settings without Frame Generation
| Graphics | RTX 4090 | RTX 4080 Super | RTX 4070 Ti | RTX 4070 Super | RTX 4070 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K | 4K | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p |
| Target FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Upscaler | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 |
| Upscaler Preset | Quality | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced |
| Off | Off | Off | Off | Off | |
| Raytraced GI | Diffuse+Specular | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse Everywhere |
| Raytracing Quality | Ultra High | High | Very High | Very High | High |
| BVH Quality | Ultra High | High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Screen Space Effects | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| Light Source Quality | Ultra High | High | High | High | |
| Shadow Quality | Ultra High | Very High | Very High | High | High |
| Texture Streaming Pool | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Post Effects | High | High | High | High | High |
| Water Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Particle Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Loading Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | High |
| Draw Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Micropolygon | High | High | High | High | High |
| Terrain Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Very High | Very High |
| Deformation | High | High | High | High | High |
| Scatter Density | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Virtual Texture | High | High | High | High | High |
| Character Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Hair Strands | All High | All High | All High | All High | All High |
| Cloud Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Fog Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Best Settings for Low-end PC
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is unplayable on entry-level GPUs without frame generation. Even if you disable ray tracing, and reduce the more taxing settings to high/medium, you’ll experience sub-50 FPS drops. Here’s our mini-guide for budget and low-end PCs.
| Graphics Option | RTX 3060 12 GB | RTX 3060 Ti | RTX 4060 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 1080p (1920×1080) | 1080p (1920×1080) | 1080p (1920×1080) |
| Target FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Upscaler | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 | DLSS 4 |
| Upscaler Preset | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced |
| Frame Generation | FSR 3 | FSR 3 | DLSS 4 |
| Raytraced GI | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse Everywhere | Diffuse Everywhere |
| Raytracing Quality | High | Very High | Very High |
| BVH Quality | High | Very High | Very High |
| Screen Space Effects | Medium | High | Medium |
| Light Source Quality | High | High | High |
| Shadow Quality | High | High | High |
| Texture Streaming Pool | Ultra High | Very High | High |
| Post Effects | High | High | High |
| Water Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Particle Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Loading Distance | High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Draw Distance | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Micropolygon | High | High | High |
| Terrain Quality | Very High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Deformation | High | High | High |
| Scatter Density | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Virtual Texture | High | High | High |
| Character Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Hair Strands | All High | All High | All High |
| Cloud Quality | Ultra High | Ultra High | Ultra High |
| Fog Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
