Final Fantasy 16 PC Optimization: Best Graphics Settings with Benchmarks

Final Fantasy XVI is out on Steam and Epic Games after a year-long exclusive reign on the PS5. We already tested the demo but weren’t satisfied with the range of environments available. And so, with the full release, we have tested Square Enix’s latest title across three different maps for a comprehensive optimization guide. We’ll have our low-end and Steam Deck guide up soon as well.

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.

Final Fantasy 16: PC System Requirements

Final Fantasy 16 comes with relatively hefty system requirements. Running the game at 1080p 60 FPS demands a GeForce RTX 2080 or Radeon RX 6700 XT alongside 16 GB of main memory. You’ll need 8 GB of VRAM, and 150 GB of SSD storage to run it without issues. Luckily, the CPU requirements are modest, asking for a Ryzen 7 5700X or a Core i7-10700 for 60 FPS.

Running the game at 720p 30 FPS requires a GeForce GTX 1070 or a Radeon RX 5700 alongside a quad/hex-core CPU launched in the last 10 years. The memory and storage requirements are the same as above.

Testing Methodology

• The “Ultra” quality graphics preset with DLSS set to “Quality” was chosen as the reference point at 4K.
• Benchmarks were conducted across Lostwig, the preceding forest, and the hideaway hideout.
• An overview of benchmarks:
  1. Resolution and upscaling.
  2. Graphics quality presets.
  3. Graphical fidelity & shadows.
  4. Terrain & clutter.
  5. NPC density & water quality.
  6. Ambient occlusion, reflections & bloom.
  7. Frame generation.
  8. VRAM usage.
  9. CPU bottlenecks.
  10. Optimized graphics settings for PC.
• Hardware setup used:
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.
  • Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360 AIO.
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 FE.
  • Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E Carbon WiFi.
  • Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.

Final Fantasy 16: Resolution & Upscaling Performance

Final Fantasy 16 scales remarkably well with resolution. Using the highest graphics settings, we observed an average of 116 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. These numbers indicate a predominantly GPU-bound workload.

Upscalers like DLSS and FSR work best in GPU-limited scenarios that aren’t bound by higher CPU frametimes. We recorded gains of +45%, +68%, and +85% using the quality, balanced, and performance presets, respectively. In other words, you can expect framerates of up to 100 FPS at 4K on a GeForce RTX 4090 and slightly lower on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

DLSS and FSR use similar resolution scaling factors, upscaling the input resolution by 1.5x, 1.7x, and 2x at the quality, balanced, and performance modes, respectively. The latest iteration of Intel XeSS features two more presets, namely “Ultra Quality” and “Ultra Quality Plus” that scale the input resolution by 1.3x and 1.5x. The quality, balanced, and performance modes scale by 1.7x, 2x, and 2.3x, respectively.

These adjustments make XeSS Ultra Quality, Quality, and Balanced comparable to the three DLSS/FSR modes. Ultra Quality Plus sits between Ultra Quality and Native AA with a slight FPS boost for when you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark. Unfortunately, XeSS performs worse than DLSS and FSR across all three presets.

Final Fantasy 16 Graphics Presets: Low, Med, High & Ultra

Final Fantasy 16 offers three options for most of its graphics settings, but the main graphics presets consist of four. The lowest disables ambient occlusion, bloom, and reflections, and sets the rest to low.

As you can see, there isn’t much of a performance uplift when shifting between low and medium. This will vary from region to region, with densely forested maps seeing a more noticeable bump in performance. Going from high to medium/low grants the largest gains (13%) while switching to ultra is only slightly more taxing.

Graphical Fidelity & Shadow Quality

Graphical fidelity controls the mesh complexity (polygon density) of the environment, adding more detail to characters and structures. This can have a substantial impact on quality as the added detail leads to more detailed shading in the form of shadows and ambient occlusion. Surprisingly, the performance tax is quite low.

Shadow quality sets the resolution of shadow maps which slightly impacts the framerates and VRAM usage. Like the previous one, the performance hit remains modest.

Terrain & Clutter Quality

Terrain quality adjusts the level of tesselation of certain ground meshes. The visual and performance impact is both minimal and drops to almost zero in many of the starting areas of the game.

Clutter density sets the density of grass and other ground vegetation, most noticeable in forests and village peripheries. It looks and performs about the same at “Medium” and “High,” with “Low” being up to 14% faster.

NPC Density & Water Quality

NPC density sets the LOD of NPCs in a scene. Lower quality options lead to increased pop-ins as NPCs are rendered only when you approach them. This setting is best left at the highest, as it doesn’t much impact the performance in most scenarios.

Water quality adjusts the resolution of caustics and underwater terrain/vegetation. It subtly impacts framerates with a nominal drop in visual quality. Best left at high.

Ambient Occlusion, Reflections & Bloom

Final Fantasy 16 features screen space reflections (SSR) and screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) which drastically improve the depth and realism of the world. Interestingly, SSAO only reduces the framerate by 1 FPS, without affecting the lows. Similarly, bloom brightens every scene at the cost of a single FPS.

Screen space reflections, on the other hand, are quite taxing, reducing the average FPS by nearly 10%, and all for low-resolution reflections.

Variable Rate Shading has an indetectable impact on quality and performance, and can mostly be observed in fast-paced scenes.

AMD FSR 3 & DLSS 3.7: Frame Generation

Final Fantasy 16 features frame generation for all GPUs, courtesy of FSR 3. Frame generation alone (with native AA) boosts the average framerates by 64% at 4K, with added upscaling pushing our RTX 4090 past 110 FPS at 4K “Ultra.” This is one of the few games where native AA/DLAA can be paired with frame generation for a comfortable 60 FPS without any apparent drop in quality.

Final Fantasy 16 VRAM Usage

Final Fantasy 16 uses up over 13 GB of graphics memory at 4K, and only slightly lower at 1440p and 1080p (11 GB). Reducing the texture quality doesn’t have a meaningful impact on VRAM usage.

Final Fantasy 16 CPU Bottlenecks

Final Fantasy 16 is well optimized for multi-core processors, remaining fully GPU bound even at 1080p with upscaling enabled. We observed a GPU-Busy deviation of only 1-2% across all our benchmarks.

Final Fantasy 16 Performance Summary

Best Graphics Settings for Final Fantasy 16 on PC

Link to full-resolution (lossless) 4K image comparisons.

Best Settings for Final Fantasy 16: Low-end PC

Here’s our mini-guide for optimizing Final Fantasy 16 on low-end PCs