Diablo 4’s first-ever expansion Vessel of Hatred just dropped on October 7th, showcasing the next chapter in its story and adding a suite of things such as a new class (Spiritborn), a new region (Nahantu), and “endless evil”. We covered the optimization process for Diablo 4 back when it was released on PC Game Pass along with ray-tracing features. In this guide, we’ll quickly go through the options to customize the game specifically for low-end rigs and squeeze maximum performance with graphical fidelity out of it. We also have a guide for general optimization for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred here.
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.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred PC System Requirements
The official PC specs require an Intel Core i5-2500K/AMD FX-8350 along with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660/Intel Arc A380/AMD Radeon R9 280. The game takes up to 90 GB of storage space (preferably an SSD), and a broadband connection for the always online requirement. Coupled with 8 GB RAM for 1080p 30 FPS at “Low” graphics settings.
Our Test Setup
Motherboard | CPU | GPU | Memory |
---|---|---|---|
GIGABYTE B450M DS3H WIFI ($84) | AMD Ryzen 5 5600 ($116) | NVIDIA RTX 3060 12 GB ($269) AMD Radeon RX 6600 ($200) NVIDIA RTX 4060 8 GB ($284) | 8GB x2 D4 ($40) |
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred – Low-end Benchmarks
The Diablo 4 base game ran pretty well on low-end PCs too, Vessel of Hatred on the other hand tanks performance due to the dense forest environment.
Without any RT features turned on, our Ryzen 5/RX 6600 pushes out over 90 FPS on the “High” preset. Pushing it to “Ultra” drops it to the 70s. Our Ryzen 5/RTX 3060 PC averages the same but with the added benefit of handling RT features better when turned on.
Using our optimized settings, we get over 120 FPS at 1080p (without RT or upscaling). Turning on FSR 2 upscaling to Performance mode pushes our frames to 170 FPS with the optimized settings.
Introducing RT features, the frames severely tank on our Ryzen5/RX 6600 machine. Even the “RT Low” preset nets us an average of 87 FPS while the rest are all below 60, with “RT Ultra” giving us an abysmal 8.3 FPS. Introducing our optimized settings for ray tracing, we get a sweet 110 FPS. The RTX 3060 can handle a higher RT setting and still reach 76 FPS with our settings. The 4060 can additionally benefit from Frame Generation turned on as well.
QHD or 1440p is understandably more taxing; the RX 6600 averages 95 FPS even on the “Low” Preset. Using our optimized settings yields a sweet 115 FPS. Using ray-tracing features at this resolution on our low-end machine yields below 60 FPS even at the “RT Low” preset. Using our optimized settings, we can push an average 75 FPS which is more than playable as well. The 3060 also pushes out a 71 FPS average with higher RT features turned on. The 4060 as before can utilize Frame Generation to get a further boost.
VRAM Usage and CPU Bottlenecks
As noted in our primary optimization guide, Diablo 4 has a serious VRAM consumption issue with textures just gobbling up space for even the bare minimal visuals. It consumes nearly all 8 GB of VRAM on the 6600 and beyond 10 GB of graphics memory on the RTX 3060 (12 GB) on the optimized settings with “Medium” textures.
As for CPU bottlenecks, turning on RT features introduced a 6% GPU-Busy deviation at 1080p on the Ryzen 5 5600/ RX 6600 combo. Turning off ray tracing brings it down to 5%. There is a noticeable form of stutters while using RT features and we recommend keeping them off for the smoothest experience on a low-end rig.
Best Graphics Settings for Diablo 4: Low-end PC
Optimized Settings | AMD RX 6600 | NVIDIA RTX 3060 | NVIDIA RTX 4060 |
---|---|---|---|
Resolution | 1080p/1440p | 1080p/1440p | 1080p/1440p |
Target FPS | 75 FPS/60 FPS | 75 FPS/60 FPS | 90 FPS/60 FPS |
Texture Quality | Medium | High | Medium |
Anisotropic Filtering | 16x | 16x | 16x |
Shader Quality | High | High | High |
Geometric Complexity | High | High | High |
Terrain Geometry Detail | High | High | High |
Clutter | Medium | Medium | High |
Fog Quality | Medium | Medium | High |
Fur Quality | Medium | Medium | High |
Reflection Quality | High | High | High |
Screen Space Reflections | On | On | On |
Anti-Aliasing Quality | High | High | High |
Ambient Occlusion | Off | Off | Low |
Shadow Quality | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Contact Shadows Quality | High | High | High |
Particles Quality | High | High | High |
Water Simulation Quality | Low | Low | Low |
Physics Quality | Low | Low | Low |
Distortion | Off | Off | Off |
Low FX | On | On | On |
Ray Traced Shadows Quality | Low | Medium/Low | High |
Ray Traced Reflections Quality | High | High | Ultra |
Ray Traced Particles | On | On | On |
Vertical Sync, Limit Cutscene FPS | Off, Personal Choice | Off, Personal Choice | Off |
Max Foreground FPS | 400 | 400 | 400 |
Upscaling (DLSS/FSR) | FSR 2 Balanced/Performance | DLSS Quality/Balanced | DLSS Quality/Balanced |
Frame Generation | Off | Off | On |