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 be much different for most gamers. Here’s our optimization guide for Marvel Rivals, with each graphics setting benchmarked, VRAM usage, and CPU bottlenecks.
Note:The Jan 9 update improves general performance by 10-15% on most PCs.
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.
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.
Graphics Presets Compared
Global Illumination & Reflections
Marvel Rivals leverages Lumen Global Illumination, a software ray-traced technique capable of rendering accurate lighting at highly performant framerates. Regardless, it’s the most taxing graphics setting in the game, reducing the average FPS by nearly 24%. Switching to SSGI (Screen Space GI) drastically reduces the visual fidelity, but is compulsory on older and lower-end PCs.
Lumen, by default, uses software ray tracing. This implementation includes Screen Tracing, Mesh Distance Fields (MDFs), and Global Distance Fields (GDFs) which are used on different sections of the scene depending on the object type, distance from the screen, and lighting complexity.
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 intersections and thin crevices as a higher quality SSAO replacement. Misses are serviced by the SDFs.
Mesh Distance Fields are traced for the objects up to 2 meters away from the camera, and hold sparse details near the objects’ surface. Mipmaps are used to accelerate the ray marching process, employing higher-quality maps for closer objects and vise versa. MDFs are updated with each frame.
Once the rays hit an SDF, the lighting for that hit cache is obtained using the surface cache
Global Distance Fields are the fastest but also the least accurate. This works to their advantage as they are traced against coarse clipmaps obtained by merging all the MDFs. These clipmaps are cached and only the bricks with non-static objects are updated. GDFs are mainly used for flat geometry.
Surface Cache stores the material properties for each mesh from different angles, called Cards. It is used to accelerate the lighting calculations at ray hit points in the scene. Lumen then calculates the direct and indirect lighting for these points which is cached and gradually updated across frames.
The Final Gather leverages a screen-space radiance cache to downsample the global illumination calculation. The downsampled indirect lighting and full-resolution material maps are integrated to produce full-resolution lighting. The radiance cache reduces noise by filtering the newer lighting data and reusing traces between adjacent pixels.
Previous Frame data is used to optimize light tracing by prioritizing regions with bright lighting in the last frame. This improves quality while maintaining performance.
World Space Radiance Caching is yet another cache used to improve the lighting quality. It resolves distant lighting by tracing additional rays, reducing noise and producing more accurate sky lighting indoors.
Reflections on rough surfaces are calculated using the screen-space radiance cache. Specular reflections require additional rays which are shared between adjacent pixels and accumulated across frames to improve quality.
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 is trivial, so leave it enabled.
Lumen vs Screen Space Reflections
Models & Post Processing
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.
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%. The highest option renders detailed soft shadows for large and small objects, while the lowest produces blocky, pre-baked silhouettes. It can be reduced in quality without substantially impacting the game’s visual appeal.
Shadow Quality
Effects Quality sets the resolution of hero powers, consumables, collectibles, and other shiny effects used in Overwatch-styled competitive games. It reduces the average framerate by 4-5% at 4K. Consider reducing to the lowest setting if facing poor FPS or drops.
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 perceivably 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.
DLSS P vs FSR P vs TSR P vs XeSS B
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 your average framerate 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 3080 Ti
RTX 4070
Resolution
4K
4K|1440p
1440p
1440p
1440p
1440p
FPS Target
>120 FPS|165 FPS
>120 FPS|180 FPS
>165 FPS
>144 FPS|180 FPS
>144 FPS|180 FPS
144 FPS|180 FPS
Limit FPS
x
x
x
x
x
x
V-Sync
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Upscaling (DLSS)
Balanced|Performance
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
DLSS Balanced
Frame Generation
On
On
On
On
On
On
Global Illumination
Lumen Ultra|Lumen High
Lumen High
Lumen High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Lumen High|SSGI High
Reflections
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Lumen
Model Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Post Processing
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Shadow Quality
Ultra|High
High|Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
High
Effects Quality
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Ultra
Foliage Quality
Ultra
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.
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.
