Best Overwatch 2 Settings PC 2024: Optimized for 240 FPS

Overwatch 2 is among the most-played competitive shooters on Steam, with a daily concurrent player count of over 40K. This is despite its “Mostly Negative” player reviews, and a long list of scathing comments from thousands of users. It’d be fair to assume that the F2P nature of the game has kept it afloat even a year after its official release. Here’s our optimization guide for attaining 240 FPS or higher in Overwatch 2 on PC (2024).

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.

Overwatch 2: PC System Requirements

Contents & Testing Methodology

• Contents:
  1. Graphics Presets and Resolution Scaling.
  2. Textures & Local Fog Quality.
  3. Shadow and Model Detail.
  4. Lighting & Effects Quality.
  5. Ambient Occlusion & Reflections.
  6. Upscaling & Anti-Aliasing.
  7. VRAM usage.
  8. CPU bottlenecks.
  9. Overwatch 2: Performance Summary.
  10. Best Settings for Overwatch 2 PC in 2024: 240 FPS
• 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.

Overwatch 2 Graphics Presets & Resolution Scaling

Overwatch 2 is among the best-optimized titles we’ve ever tested for CPU scaling. The framerates approximately double from 4K (293.5 FPS) to 1080p (156 FPS), which bodes well for low-end and budget processors.

The graphics settings show a similar degree of scaling with an average framerate of 156.5 FPS at “Epic,” 200 FPS at “Ultra,” and 348 FPS at “Low.” Each preset grants a 50 FPS gain or more at 4K. Most modern PCs shouldn’t have trouble attaining over 100 FPS with upscaling.

Textures & Local Fog Quality

Overwatch 2 uses over 7 GB of graphics memory at 4K “Epic” while “Ultra” utilizes a bit over 5 GB. The “High” and “Medium” settings use up to 5 GB, and “Low” keeps it under 4.5 GB at 4K (native). Texture Filtering has a minimal impact on performance and is best left at the default value.

Local Fog Quality sets the resolution of environmental fog. It only impacts the framerates in select maps, most notably Nepal. Barring the highest (Ultra) setting, it trivially impacts the game’s performance.

Shadows & Model Detail

Shadow Quality is among the more taxing graphics settings, reducing the average framerate by 10% at the highest setting. The medium and low-quality options are more forgiving, only marginally impacting the performance.

Model Quality sets the 3D object or mesh quality by altering the polygon count. Reducing it to the lowest option grants an average performance boost of 5-6% at 4K. Disable it only if you’re struggling to get the bare minimum framerates.

Lighting & Effects Quality

Lighting Quality sets the resolution of lighting shaders, subtly changing the game’s tone. Fortunately, it doesn’t notably impact the framerates, with an average recorded drop of 2-3% at 4K.

Effects Quality adjusts the resolution of various character “ability” effects, especially those produced by the “Ultimate” abilities. It reduces the performance by ~7% at the “Ultra” quality setting, though lower quality options are more forgiving.

Ambient Occlusion & Reflections

Ambient Occlusion renders self-contained shadows along edges, corners, and object boundaries. Completely disabling it grants an 11% FPS boost, though we recommend leaving it at “Medium.”

Dynamic Reflections is the most taxing setting in Overwatch 2, tanking framerates by over 20% at the highest quality option. Luckily, the “Medium” and “Low” alternatives perform well within acceptable parameters for Screen Space Reflections.

Local Reflections enable pre-baked cube-mapped reflections, impacting the performance by 6% at 4K. You can disable them for a quick FPS boost without a notable loss in visual fidelity.

Upscaling & Anti-Aliasing

Overwatch 2 features NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR 2.2 (+ FSR 1) upscaling technologies for GeForce RTX and Radeon GPU owners. Upscaling is instrumental for attaining 200 FPS and above, and even the “Ultra Performance” presets aren’t off-limits due to the game’s simpler art style. That said, don’t forget to update the DLSS .dll files for the best experience.

The DLSS “Quality,” “Balanced,” “Performance,” and “Ultra Performance” presets grant a 32%, 49%, 61%, and 85% FPS uplifts at the highest quality settings at 4K.

Overwatch 2 Performance Summary

Overwatch 2 is a highly optimized competitive shooter. Its most taxing graphics settings include:

• Dynamic Reflections: Screen Space Reflections can grant a 25% performance boost when disabled. You can reduce it to “Medium” if you’d like to keep low-resolution real-time reflections.
• Ambient Occlusion & Shadows: These are among the fundamental graphics effects of any video game and we recommend leaving them at medium quality.
• Effects & Local Reflections: Effects can be reduced to the lowest if you don’t care for the colorful ability animations. The same goes for Local Reflections.

Overwatch 2: VRAM Usage

Overwatch 2 uses a modest amount of graphics memory, peaking under 6 GB at 1080p and 1440p using the “Epic” quality setting. 4K UHD consumes up to 5 GB at “Ultra” and 7.2 GB at the highest quality graphics preset.

Maxing out the Texture Quality at 1080p and 1440p, you need a 6 GB VRAM buffer, while 4K requires 8 GB of dedicated graphics memory. Otherwise, it’s best to stick to the medium-quality setting.

Overwatch 2: CPU Bottlenecks

Overwatch 2 is completely GPU-bound at every resolution and setting, at least it was on our test setup. We recorded a maximum GPU-Busy deviation of 1% at 1080p “Epic” and nothing higher.

Best Overwatch 2 Settings for PC 2024: Optimized for 240 FPS

Overwatch 2: Best Settings for Low-end PC

Overwatch 2 runs remarkably well on low-end hardware, averaging 130 FPS on the GeForce RTX 3060 at 1080p with DLSS set to “Balanced.” Increasing the resolution to 100 FPS reduces the framerate to 100 FPS, though the “Performance” upscaling preset might offset the loss. Reflections and ambient occlusion were disabled to attain the desired performance.

The GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU on the Alienware x14 is among Steam gamers’ most popular graphics processors. Paired with the Core i7-13620H, it produces an average framerate of 182 FPS and 131 FPS at 1200p and 1600, respectively.

Overwatch 2 was completely GPU-bound on our low-end systems and gaming laptop. It used close to 6 GB of graphics memory at 1080p and 1440p, using the settings below.