Marvel Rivals is Net Ease’s latest game to conquer the Steam charts. With a peak concurrent player count of 480K, the game is off to a momentous start with “Mostly Positive” ratings from players. Rivals is based on Unreal Engine 5, so the graphics settings won’t differ much for most gamers. Here’s our optimization guide for Marvel Rivals, with each graphics setting benchmarked, VRAM usage, and CPU bottlenecks.
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.
Marvel Rivals scales well across resolutions, averaging 57 FPS at 4K, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 110 FPS at 1080p using the “Ultra” quality graphics preset with DLAA. Like most Unreal Engine 5 games, it appears to be mostly GPU-bound.
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.
The graphics presets show less uniform scaling. We recorded an average of 57 FPS at 4K “Ultra,” with “High” being 32% faster at 75 FPS. Unfortunately, the “Medium” quality preset performed the same with higher lows, while “Low” produced 101 FPS on average.
Marvel Rivals leverages Lumen Global Illumination, a software ray-traced technique faster but less accurate than hardware ray-tracing. Ironically, it’s the most taxing graphics setting in the game:
Ultra reduces the average FPS by nearly 30%. It uses the high-quality mesh distance fields for objects closer to the player.
High is 24% slower than “Off,” but 10% faster than Ultra. It reduces the LOD of Lumen GI and only covers closeby surfaces. Intricate geometry like vegetation, occluded spaces, and layered objects aren’t included.
SSGI is accompanied by a drastic reduction in GI quality and coverage. However, it’s only ~10% slower than “Off” and 17% faster than high-quality Lumen.
Lumen, by default, uses software ray tracing. This implementation includes Screen Tracing, Mesh Distance Fields, and Global Distance Fields, each used on different sections of the scene. The Final Gather is resolved by the Skylight, combining atmospheric and local lighting.
Screen Tracing is the first step in the Lumen pipeline.
It is conducted against objects in the depth buffer or screen space.
It is primarily used for object boundaries and crevices as a higher quality SSAO replacement.
Objects missed are served by the distance fields.
Mesh Distance Fields are 3D representations of an object (or set of combined objects).
Each point in an MDF stores the nearest distance to an object surface within the volume.
This is computed offline, and allows skipping the empty space in the MDF when ray marching.
Ray marching is an optimized form of ray tracing used to calculate diffuse lighting.
You march along a ray’s path in small steps.
At each step, the distance to the closest surface is calculated using an MDF.
Shading is applied if a surface is detected in the ray’s proximity.
The amount of shading applied depends on the distance to the object.
Upon intersection, shadow, diffuse, and reflection rays are cast outwards towards light sources or probes.
Mip-maps: High resolution MDFs for nearer objects, and scaled down variants for the rest
Global Distance Fields are abstract volumes obtained by combining all the MDFs in the scene.
The result is a bare-bones geometrical representation with minimal per-object detail.
The GDFs are used for large-scale or “global” lighting.
GDFs are cached and updated only when required.
Surface Cache forms Lumen’s backbone:
It stores the material and lighting data for various surface points, called cards.
Upon intersection (see SDFs), the lighting at a point is referenced from this cache.
It is calculated, cached, and updated gradually over frames.
Up to 12 cards per mesh/object
Indirect Lighting is calculated using light probes placed in the scene. The distribution is scant (1 per 4×4 tile). For each texel, data is interpolated from the four closest probes and from previous frames.
The Final Gather backs the software ray-tracing results.
It is based on the Screen Space Radiance Cache. Instead of texels, light probes are placed on pixels, and their results are interpolated spatially and temporally.
A separate, low-resolution World Radiance Cache is used for distant lighting.
Areas with detailed geometry use a denser probe grid, and ambient occlusion is added to the temporally sampled lighting for a refined result.
Light tracing is optimized by prioritizing sections with luminance in the last frame.
Lumen Reflections aren’t as detailed as hardware ray-traced reflections, but they’re much more accurate than their screen-space predecessors. Moreover, the performance hit isn’t much larger either.
Lumen Reflections are up to 7% slower than “Off.” They render detailed reflections with distant object and off-screen object coverage, including micro-reflections along thin geometry.
Screen Space Reflections are 3-4% slower. However, they don’t reflect distant or far off objects. Coverage is also limited to larger glossy surfaces.
Model Quality sets the detail of character models and in-game geometry. It only subtly impacts visuals, granting a paltry 3% FPS boost when reduced to the lowest option. It’s best left at the default value.
Further reducing the model quality to “Performance” grants a 4% frame rate improvement over the ultra quality mode.
Post Processing enables late-stage shader effects, including motion blur, ambient occlusion, bloom, lens flare, and more. It doesn’t notably impact the game’s performance.
Shadows, Effects & Foliage
Shadow Quality is the second-most taxing graphics setting in Marvel Rivals, reducing the average framerates by up to 20%.
Ultra renders the most accurate shadows with contact hardening and complex geometry coverage (esp. multi-layered foliage). It’s 20% slower.
High reduces contact hardening quality, and detailed geometry coverage for all but the nearest objects. It’s 6-8% slower.
Medium drops detailed geometry coverage for nearby objects as well. Performs the same as high.
Low further reduces shadow map resolution. It also disables contact hardening and volumetric shadow fog.
Effects Quality sets the resolution of hero powers, consumables, collectibles, and other shiny effects used in Overwatch-styled competitive games.
Unreal Engine 5’s Niagara System powers the various effects in Marvel Rivals.
It reduces the average framerate by 4-5%, with lows dropping by up to ~10%.
Effects Quality
Foliage sets the draw distance and density of grass and other vegetation. However, since it’s absent from most battle areas, it doesn’t perceptibly impact the performance.
Upscaling & Frame Generation
Marvel Rivals features five upscaling technologies, including TAAU, TSR, NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS. DLSS is the best option for GeForce gamers. AMD and Intel users can choose between TSR, FSR, and XeSS. We found TSR and FSR the second and third-best upscaling options, respectively.
Frame Generation is available to all thanks to the inclusion of its FSR 3 implementation. Depending on your hardware and settings, it can boost framerates by 20-50%. It’s most potent when used without upscaling.
Marvel Rivals: VRAM Usage
Marvel Rivals uses over 12 GB of graphics memory at 4K “Ultra.” The high/medium-quality presets use between 10-11 GB, while the lowest option keeps the VRAM consumption under 8 GB. Reducing the resolution to 1440p reduces it to 11.3 GB, while 1080p maxes out under 11 GB.
Marvel Rivals: CPU Bottlenecks
Marvel Rivals is mostly GPU-bound, producing a GPU-Busy deviation of 5-10% on most mid-to-high CPUs. We recorded a maximum deviation of 12% when using the “Ultra Performance” upscaling mode at 4K.
Marvel Rivals: Performance Summary
There are three settings you need to look at when optimizing your graphics settings in Marvel Rivals:
Global Illumination: The most taxing setting, but also has a notable impact on visual quality. Grants a 31% FPS boost when reduced to SSGI.
Shadow Quality: Can improve average framerates by 20% when reduced to “Medium” or “Low.”
Effects Quality: Cheap special effects which can be lowered for a 4-5% FPS gain.
Marvel Rivals PC: Optimized Settings for FPS
Graphics Settings
High-end
Midrange
Low-end PC
Resolution
4K (3840×2160)
1440p (2560×1440)
1080p (1920×1080)
FPS Target
120 FPS|144 FPS
144 FPS|165 FPS
144 FPS
Limit FPS
x
x
x
V-Sync
Off
Off
Off
Upscaling
DLSS Performance
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
Frame Generation
On
On
On
Global Illumination
L Ultra|L High
L High|SSGI High
SSGI High
Reflections
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Model Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Post Processing
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Shadow Quality
Ultra
Ultra
High
Effects Quality
Ultra
Ultra
High
Foliage Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
CPU
Core i9-14900K/Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Core i7-13700K/Ryzen 7 7700X
Core i5-12600/ Ryzen 5 5600
GPU
GeForce RTX 4090
GeForce RTX 4070/Radeon RX 7900 GRE
GeForce RTX 3060/3060 Ti/4060
Memory
32GB (dual-channel)
16GB (dual-channel)
Less than: 16GB (dual-channel)
High-end
Midrange
Low-end PC
Graphics Settings
RTX 4090
RTX 4080
RTX 4070 Ti
RTX 4070 Super
RTX 4070
Resolution
4K
4K|1440p
1440p
1440p
1440p
FPS Target
120 FPS|165 FPS
120 FPS|180 FPS
180 FPS
>165 FPS|180 FPS
160 FPS|180 FPS
Limit FPS
x
x
x
x
x
V-Sync
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Upscaling (DLSS)
Balanced|Performance
Performance|Balanced
Balanced
Balanced
Balanced
Frame Generation
On
On
On
On
On
Global Illumination
Lumen Ultra|Lumen High
Lumen High|Lumen Ultra
Lumen High
Lumen High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Reflections
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Model Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Post Processing
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Shadow Quality
Ultra|High
High|Ultra
Ultra
Ultra|High
High
Effects Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Foliage Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Optimized Settings Without Frame Generation:
Graphics Settings
RTX 4090
RTX 4080
RTX 4070 Ti
RTX 4070 Super
RTX 4070
Resolution
4K
4K|1440p
1440p
1440p
1440p
FPS Target
130 FPS|160 FPS
100 FPS|165 FPS
144 FPS|170 FPS
130 FPS|155 FPS
120 FPS|144 FPS
Limit FPS
x
x
x
x
x
V-Sync
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Upscaling (DLSS)
Performance
Performance|Balanced
Balanced
Balanced
Balanced
Frame Generation
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Global Illumination
Lumen High|SSGI High
Lumen High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Reflections
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Model Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Post Processing
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Shadow Quality
High
High
High
High
High
Effects Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Foliage Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Marvel Rivals: Best Settings for Low-end PC
Marvel Rivals delivers satisfactory performance on budget PCs. The GeForce RTX 3060 + Ryzen 5 5600 combo averages slightly over 60 FPS at 1080p “Ultra.” Disabling “Lumen GI” increases the framerate to 113 FPS, and further enabling frame generation boosts it to 169 FPS. The takeaway is that 144 FPS or higher requires enabling frame generation.
Marvel Rivals uses 9.5-10 GB of graphics memory at 1080p “Ultra” with frame generation enabled. Disabling Lumen reduces the VRAM usage to 8.5 GB while switching to SSGI reduces it to 7.7 GB. Either way, you should be good with an 8 GB graphics card. For more details, here’s our low-end PC guide for Rivals.
Graphics Settings
RTX 3060
RTX 3060 Ti
RTX 4060
RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
Resolution
1080p
1080p
1080p
1080p
FPS Target
90 FPS|144 FPS
120 FPS|180 FPS
120 FPS|144 FPS
120 FPS|144 FPS
Limit FPS
x
x
x
x
V-Sync
Off
Off
Off
Off
Upscaling
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
Frame Generation
On
On
On
On
Global Illumination
Lumen Ultra|SSGI High
Lumen Ultra|SSGI High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Reflections
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Model Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Post Processing
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Shadow Quality
Ultra
Ultra
High
High
Effects Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Foliage Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Best Settings for Marvel Rivals on the Steam Deck: Optimized for 60 FPS
Processors, PC gaming, and the past. I have been writing about computer hardware for over seven years with more than 5000 published articles. Started off during engineering college and haven't stopped since. Find me at HardwareTimes and PC Opset.
