The Last of Us 2 Remastered comes to PC nearly 5 years after its initial release on the PlayStation consoles. There’s no ray tracing or high-fidelity geometry. Merely a last-generation title ported to PC with increased LODs, upscaling, and frame generation. The game performs well on contemporary hardware but not like a game from 2020. Here’s our optimization guide for the latest Sony exclusive ported by Nixxes. For the Steam Deck performance guide, click 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.
The Last of Us 2: PC System Specs
Low
- 720p @ 30 FPS
- CPU: Intel Core i3-8100|AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650|AMD Radeon RX 5500XT
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage: 150 GB SSD
Medium
- 1080p @ 60 FPS
- CPU: Intel Core i5-8600|AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060|AMD Radeon RX 5700
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage: 150 GB SSD
High
- 1440p @ 60 FPS
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700|AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070|AMD Radeon RX 6800
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage: 150 GB SSD
Very High
- 4K @ 60 FPS
- CPU: Intel Core i7-11700|AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080|AMD Radeon RX 7900XT
- RAM: 32 GB
- Storage: 150 GB SSD
The Last of Us 2: Resolution & Graphics Scaling
The Last of Us 2 scales well with the pixel count. We recorded an average of 70 FPS at 4K, 99 FPS at 1440p, and 114 FPS at 1080p using the highest quality preset. This indicates the workload is predominantly GPU-bound without any CPU bottlenecks.
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 performance varies less across the graphics presets, showing an 18% difference between the lowest and the highest. At 4K with DLAA, we recorded averages of:
- 85 FPS at Very Low.
- 82 FPS at Low.
- 78.5 FPS at Medium.
- 72.8 FPS at High.
- 70 FPS at Very High.
Level of Detail (LOD) Scaling
The Last of Us offers three different LOD settings. Each of these applies in different scenarios. For example:
- Environment LOD comes into play in the wilderness with limited impact indoors and within settlements.
- Characters LOD is relevant within settlements or when surrounded by a number of ferals.
- Dynamic Object LOD is pretty useless as you’ll always be near a few interactable objects at a time.
Environment LOD is the one you’ll want to consider, as it reduces performance by up to 5% at the highest quality option. The high quality option is only ~1% slower than the lowest. It affects vegetation, cars, and clutter.
Character LOD drops frame rates by a mere 1-2%, but this may increase with excess hostile characters onscreen.
Texture Filtering: Trilinear, Bilinear, & Anisotropic
Texture Filtering sharpens textures directly perpendicular to the screen. These are the ones farther away from your character at an inverted angle to the viewport. Costs almost nothing, so set it to 8x AF or higher.
Shadow Quality: Point, Spot & Directional Lights
The Last of Us 2 features four shadow types that can be adjusted in quality. These are cast by ambient, point, spot, and directional lights. Your PC will not be rendering more than two of these at a time:
- Directional Light is usually emitted by the sun and the moon. It consists of identical and parallel light rays that travel in a straight line. Their intensity remains the same throughout, hence they produce the same kind of shadows everywhere.
- Point Lights are omnidirectional and produce light equally in all directions. The intensity reduces the farther away you move away from the source. Examples include a candle or bulb that isn’t hooked to a wall.
- Spot Light represents the majority of artificial light sources in-game. They produce light along a cone that weakens as you move farther from its center and the light source. Candles, bulbs, lamp posts, etc., are spotlights.
- Ambient Light refers to diffuse lighting that illuminates every scene, especially indoors or one without any direct lighting.
Directional Shadows are rendered during the day, particularly when it is sunny. Their performance impact is trivial and should be set to the highest quality.
- Directional Shadow Distance sets the distance (from the player) to which shadows are rendered.
- Directional Shadow Resolution sets the detail of the shadow maps.
Ambient Shadows are employed to varying degrees in almost every scenario. It reduces frame rates by 2-3% at the highest quality option. They can be identified by their low-detail soft silhouettes, often overlapping with shadow maps.
Spotlight Shadows are the most commonly used shadows cast by artificial lights. Like the others, it negligibly impacts performance. Reducing the quality reduces the shadow map resolution.
Screen Space Shadows & Ambient Occlusion
Screen Space Shadows improve shadow coverage by rendering soft shadows along edges, crevies, and object boundaries. They’re limited to onscreen surfaces. They reduce frame rates by up to 5% at the highest quality option. Higher quality increases its resolution and threshold.
- Dynamic Screen Space Shadows are primarily cast by torchlight (mostly indoors).
- Contact Shadows are cast on NPCs and ferals along creases, shoulder pits, and other gaps.
- Neither impacts performance much.
Ambient Occlusion is applied solely to characters, including NPCs and ferals. Hence, the performance impact is dismal. Quality mode uses a more accurate shading algorithm.
Image Based Lighting & Bounced Lighting
Image Based Lighting is the primary reflection technique used in The Last of Us 2. It works by storing the lighting information for each scene in 360°, including color, intensity, and direction from all angles in an image map.
- It is mapped per scene and improves the reflection and shadow detail.
- IBL is 2-3% slower but almost a given.
Bounced Lighting employs some form of ray marching to implement diffuse lighting for the torchlight. It reduces frame rates by almost 10%, but it is highly recommended.
- BL drastically improves lighting accuracy indoors, illuminating adjoining/perpendicular and partially occluded surfaces.
- It supports color bleeding, enhancing realism.
- Since it’s only used indoors or at night, exclusively for torch lighting.
Screen Space Reflections
The Last of Us 2 includes screen space reflections and real-time reflections, but throughout our “Chaper 1” playthrough, we didn’t find any instances of them.
Subsurface Scattering, Particles & Volumetric Effects
Subsurface Scattering simulates light permeation through human skin but is hardly noticeable in this game. It reduces frame rates by 2-3% in sunlit scenes.
Particle Density, Lens Flare, and Refraction nominally impact performance by adding scarcely used effects. They’re only employed in select scenarios and do not affect frame rates elsewhere.
Volumetric Effects (mainly godrays) are heavily used in forested areas, reducing performance by up to 6% at the highest quality. Lower quality options reduce the resolution of the volumetric light rays.
- At the moment, there’s a bug that grants a 20% FPS uplift at the medium quality option.
- It only works in certain sunlit scenes.
Motion Blur notably impacts performance and should be disabled for a nifty 7% FPS boost. Depth of Field isn’t as taxing, but it isn’t really worth it outside the cinematics.
Upscaling & Frame Generation
The Last of Us 2 includes DLSS 3.7, FSR 3.1, and XeSS 2 upscaling technologies. They’re necessary on lower-end PCs or if you’re targeting ~100 FPS or higher. The quality mode grants a 39% uplift, while balanced and performance boost frame rates by 46% and 53%, respectively.
TAA is slightly faster than DLAA but produces a blurrier image. Furthermore, the in-game sharpening filter can’t be used with the former.
Frame Generation grants an additional 40% performance uplift over upscaling. When paired with upscaling, the FSR 3 implementation is up to 12% faster than DLSS. Upgrading to DLSS 4 alleviates the deficit, but there’s still a palpable difference with performance upscaling.
The Last of Us 2: VRAM Usage
The Last of Us 2 uses over 12 GB of graphics memory at 4K, approaching 13 GB when paired with frame generation. QHD or 1440p scales it down to 11 GB, while 1080p uses slightly less.
The VRAM usage doesn’t change much with the graphics settings. Switching from medium to high-quality textures increases it by 2 GB, with the highest option using an additional 500 MB or so.
The Last of Us 2: CPU Bottlenecks
The Last of Us 2 is completely GPU-bound on mainstream CPUs. However, the game should produce higher lows on faster CPUs, leading to a smoother experience.
The Last of Us 2 Performance Summary
- Setting Volumetric Effects to medium quality grants a 20% performance boost in certain scenes.
- Disabling Motion Blur boosts frame rates by 7-8%.
- Turning off Bounce Lighting can improve performance by up to 10%.
- FSR Frame Generation produces higher frame rates than its DLSS counterpart.
- Update DLSS to the latest version. Guide here.
Optimized Settings for The Last of Us 2 Remastered (PC)
| High-end | Midrange | Low-end PC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution/FPS | 4K @ 100 FPS+ | 1440p @ 90 FPS+ | 1080p @ 75 FPS |
| LOD | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Texture Filtering | 16x | 16x | 16x |
| Texture Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Shadow Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Screen Space Shadows | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Image Based Lighting | On | On | On |
| Bounced Lighting | On | On | On |
| Ambient Occlusion | Quality | Quality | Quality |
| Screen Space Reflections | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Real Time Reflections | High | High | High |
| Real Time Cloud Shadows | On | On | On |
| Sub Surface Scattering | On | On | On |
| Refraction Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Depth of Field | Off | Off | Off |
| Motion Blur | Off | Off | Off |
| Bloom | On | On | On |
| Particle Density | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Volumetric Effects | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Lens Flare | Full Res | Full Res | Full Res |
| Upscaling | DLSS Balanced | DLSS Quality | DLSS Quality |
| Frame Generation | On for >120 FPS | On for >120 FPS | On for 100 FPS |
| 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) |
| RTX 4090 | RTX 4080 S | RTX 4070 Ti | RTX 4070 S | RTX 4070 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution/FPS | 4K @ 100 FPS+ | 4K @ 75 FPS+ | 4K @ 75 FPS | 1440p @ 75 FPS | 1440p @ 60 FPS |
| LOD | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Texture Filtering | 16x | 16x | 16x | 16x | 16x |
| Texture Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Shadow Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Screen Space Shadows | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Image Based Lighting | On | On | On | On | On |
| Bounced Lighting | On | On | On | On | On |
| Ambient Occlusion | Quality | Quality | Quality | Quality | Quality |
| Screen Space Reflections | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Real Time Reflections | High | High | High | High | High |
| Real Time Cloud Shadows | On | On | On | On | On |
| Sub Surface Scattering | On | On | On | On | On |
| Refraction Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Depth of Field | Off | Off | Off | Off | Off |
| Motion Blur | Off | Off | Off | Off | Off |
| Bloom | On | On | On | On | On |
| Particle Density | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Volumetric Effects | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Lens Flare | Full Res | Full Res | Full Res | Full Res | Full Res |
| Upscaling (DLSS) | Balanced | Performance | Performance | Quality | Quality |
| Frame Generation | On for >120 FPS | On for >120 FPS | On for >100 FPS | On for >90 FPS | On for >90 FPS |
Low-end PC Settings: The Last of Us 2 Remastered
Here’s a link to our low-end PC performance guide.
| RTX 3060 12 GB | RTX 3060 Ti | RTX 4060 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution/FPS | 1080p 60 FPS | 1080p 60 FPS | 1080p 60 FPS |
| LOD | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Texture Filtering | 16x | 16x | 16x |
| Texture Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Shadow Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Screen Space Shadows | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Image Based Lighting | On | On | On |
| Bounced Lighting | On | On | On |
| Ambient Occlusion | Quality | Quality | Quality |
| Screen Space Reflections | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Real Time Reflections | High | High | High |
| Real Time Cloud Shadows | On | On | On |
| Sub Surface Scattering | On | On | On |
| Refraction Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Depth of Field | Off | Off | Off |
| Motion Blur | Off | Off | Off |
| Bloom | On | On | On |
| Particle Density | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Volumetric Effects | Medium | Very High | Very High |
| Lens Flare | Full Res | Full Res | Full Res |
| Upscaling/AA | DLAA | DLSS Balanced | DLSS Balanced |
| Frame Generation | Off | Off | Off |
The Last of Us 2: Steam Deck Optimized Settings
Here’s an in-depth look at the game’s performance on the Steam Deck.
| Steam Deck | |
|---|---|
| Resolution/FPS | 1280×720 |
| LOD | Medium |
| Texture Filtering | 4x |
| Texture Quality | Medium |
| Shadow Quality | Low |
| Screen Space Shadows | Off |
| Image Based Lighting | On |
| Bounced Lighting | Off |
| Ambient Occlusion | Off |
| Screen Space Reflections | Off |
| Real Time Reflections | Off |
| Real Time Cloud Shadows | Off |
| Sub Surface Scattering | Off |
| Refraction Quality | Medium |
| Depth of Field | Off |
| Motion Blur | Off |
| Bloom | On |
| Particle Density | Low |
| Volumetric Effects | Medium |
| Lens Flare | Full Res |
| Upscaling | FSR 3 Quality |
| Frame Generation | Off |
