Split Fiction is the latest co-op game from the creators of “A Way Out” and “It Takes Two.” Like its predecessors, it’s an instant hit among Steam gamers, reaching concurrent player counts of more than 200K. Built on the Unreal Engine 5, it doesn’t utilize Lumen, Nanite, or Virtual Shadows. The result is a well-optimized game that isn’t a VRAM hog, nor does it suffer from any shader compilation stutters.
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.
Split Fiction PC Specs
Min
- Resolution: 1080p
- Graphics: Low
- FPS: 30
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10/11
- CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K|AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970|AMD Radeon RX 470
- Memory: 16 GB
- Storage: 85 GB
Rec
- Resolution: 1440p
- Graphics: High
- FPS: 60
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10/11
- CPU: Intel Core i7-11700K|AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070|AMD Radeon 6700 XT
- Memory: 16 GB
- Storage: 85 GB
Split Fiction: Resolution Scaling
Split Fiction averages 68 FPS at 4K using the highest quality graphics settings. Scaling down to 1440p increases the frame rate to 100 FPS, a lofty 47% lift. Switching to 1080p results in a marginal 18% improvement to 117 FPS, indicating a CPU limitation.
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.
Shadows Quality & Detail Level
Shadow Quality is among the most taxing graphics settings in Split Fiction. The ultra quality option is 22%, while high is about 10% slower than low.
- Ultra renders the most detailed shadows, though the edges are a little too sharp for my liking. It’s more accurate than high (higher shadow bias?), notably along the wooden crates, fence, and houses.
- High and medium only differ in terms of shadow (map) resolution.
- Low further reduces the resolution. It uses prebaked shadows (static lighting) that are more performant but less accurate or detailed.
Detail Level adjusts the game’s LOD (level of detail). The ultra-quality option is up to 10% slower than low.
- High culls top grass detail near the tips, and a bit of crate complexity.
- Medium culls most of the mangoes and flowers in the distance.
- Low further reduces vegetation and architecture detail.
Effects & Shader Quality
Effect Quality sets the detail of particle effects, including sand, smoke, debris, and explosions. The performance and visual difference is subtle, primarily producing denser and more detailed particles at higher quality.
Shader Quality drastically impacts the game’s performance. The ultra quality is 23% slower, while high is 10-12% slower than medium.
- Ultra to medium primarily decreases the terrain quality by adjusting tessellation, displacement maps, and material blending.
- Low disables parallax occlusion mapping, which removes ambient shadows from the mangoes.
Anisotropic Filter & Post Processing
Anisotropic Filtering subtly improves texture clarity by sampling texture maps perpendicular to the screen. The performance hit varies from 4-6% and shouldn’t be reduced below 4x (or blurry textures).
Post-processing adjusts several late-stage shaders, reducing performance by up to 10% at the ultra-quality option. Much of the drop comes upon switching to medium or higher.
- High disables whatever low-resolution reflections are employed at ultra (cubemap or planar).
- Medium reduces exposure and bloom.
- Low disables ambient occlusion.
Upscaling: FSR 3 & TAA
Split Fiction features AMD FSR 3.1 and Unreal’s in-house temporal upscaler. The former is markedly slower, at least on NVIDIA GPUs, but produces sharper images. The same is possible by combining the TAA filter with a sharpening shader (ReShade), but that may or may not produce optimal results.
Temporal anti-aliasing is 10-12% faster than native FSR 3. Quality mode grants a >30% uplift, with FSR 3 retaining more detail due to its sharpen pass. Performance mode boosts frame rates by up to 50%, producing sub-par image quality.
Split Fiction: VRAM Usage
Thanks to the omission of Nanite and Virtual Shadows, Split Fiction goes easy on the graphics memory. We recorded a maximum VRAM usage of 6.35 GB, 7.10 GB, and 8.66 GB at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, respectively.
Split Fiction: CPU Bottlenecks
Like most Unreal Engine 5 titles, Split Fiction shows 0% GPU-Busy deviation across all our scenarios without stuttering or frame-pacing issues.
Split Fiction: Performance Summary
If you’re running low on performance, reduce the shadow quality and/or post-processing quality to high. The former will result in slightly less accurate distant shadows, while the latter disables low-resolution reflections.
Best Graphics Settings for Split Fiction PC
| Settings | High-end | Midrange | Low-end PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 3840×2160 (4K) | 2560×1440 (1440p) | 1920×1080 (1080p) |
| FPS Target | >60 FPS | >60 FPS | >60 FPS |
| Texture Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Shadow Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Detail Level | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Effects Quality | High | High | High |
| Shader Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| A Filtering | 16x | 16x | 16x |
| Post Processing | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Upscaling | FSR 3 AA | FSR 3 AA | FSR 3 Quality |
| High-end (4K) | Mid-range (1440p) | Low-end (1080p) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Core i7-13700K|Ryzen 7 7700X | Core i5-12600K|Ryzen 5 7600 | Core i5-12400 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 |
| GPU | GeForce RTX 4080 Super | GeForce RTX 4070 Super | RTX 3060|RTX 4060 |
| Memory | 32GB (dual-channel) | 16GB (dual-channel) | Less than: 16GB (dual-channel) |
