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Start with a stable frame rate, then spend performance on image quality. For a PC near the minimum requirement, use the Low preset, 1080p output, an upscaler and ray tracing off; aim for at least 30 FPS. With hardware around the recommended tier, use Medium at your monitor’s native 1080p or 1440p resolution, enable DLSS, FSR 3 or XeSS, and leave ray tracing off until the base frame rate is already steady. Turn motion blur off if you need to read enemy wind-ups clearly. These are starting points rather than a universal winning preset: change one option at a time and judge frame-time stability as well as the FPS counter.
Official targets and the hardware you need
Steam’s current Valor Mortis listing defines two useful performance targets. The minimum target is 30 FPS at 1080p on Low with upscaling; the recommended target is 60 FPS at 1440p on Medium with upscaling. The listing names an RX 5600 XT or GTX 1660 Ti as minimum GPUs and an RX 6800 or RTX 3070 as recommended GPUs. Those are targets, not guarantees for every combination of processor, memory, driver and background software.
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| Tier | GPU listed by Steam | Resolution and preset target | Upscaling | Practical interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | AMD RX 5600 XT or NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti | 1080p, Low | Required for the quoted target | Build for a stable 30 FPS or better; disable costly effects first. |
| Recommended | AMD RX 6800 or NVIDIA RTX 3070 | 1440p, Medium | Required for the quoted target | Start around 60 FPS, then test higher image quality or effects. |
Steam also lists Windows 10 or 11, 16 GB of RAM, DirectX 12, 60 GB of storage and an SSD requirement. The official wording is: SSD required. 30FPS @ 1080p on Low (with upscaling).
The companion recommended line reads: SSD required. 60FPS @ 1440p on Medium (with upscaling).
Both quotations come from the Valor Mortis Steam store listing. A separate AMD partner page lists 50 GB on an SSD, so published capacity figures can differ by page or update; use the current Steam listing when checking free space.
Why the SSD requirement matters
An SSD is a requirement rather than an optional acceleration. If the game is installed on a hard disk, asset streaming can produce stalls that a lower graphics preset cannot fully remove. Leave more free space than the listed 60 GB so the launcher, Windows and shader caches are not forced into a nearly full drive. A 1TB NVMe SSD is a sensible capacity for a system that lacks suitable fast storage, but check your motherboard’s M.2 generation and keying, or your laptop’s supported interface and physical size, before buying. Capacity alone does not turn an incompatible drive into a usable upgrade.
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The quickest setup: apply a profile in five minutes
Open the game’s Video menu and use this order. It prevents you from judging a sharp but unstable image or a high FPS number with poor frame pacing.
- Select the monitor’s intended output resolution. Use 1920×1080 for a 1080p display and 2560×1440 for a 1440p display unless you have a deliberate reason to render lower.
- Choose a base preset. Select Low for hardware near the minimum tier and Medium for hardware near the recommended tier.
- Enable an upscaler. Choose DLSS on a supported RTX card; otherwise start with FSR 3 or XeSS. TSR is a useful fallback when the other upscalers are unavailable or look worse on your system.
- Turn ray tracing off. Establish a stable base frame rate before measuring the cost of ray-traced effects.
- Turn motion blur off if clarity is the priority. This does not create a large performance miracle, but it keeps camera movement and enemy wind-ups easier to read for players who dislike blur.
Play the same demanding area for several minutes, watching for hitching and uneven delivery rather than reacting to a single peak FPS number. Once the result is stable, adjust only one control, test again, and keep the change only if it improves the image or responsiveness you actually value.
Recommended starting profiles by hardware and resolution
1080p on near-minimum hardware
- Preset: Low.
- Output: 1920×1080.
- Upscaler: start with FSR 3, XeSS or TSR when DLSS is unavailable.
- Ray tracing: Off.
- Motion blur: Off for clearer combat, or on only if you prefer the cinematic effect.
- Goal: a stable 30 FPS or higher, not a brief higher peak followed by stutter.
If the picture is too soft, raise the upscaler’s quality mode before raising the global preset. That preserves the performance savings of upscaling while restoring more detail. If the frame rate still falls below the target, lower resolution or choose a more performance-oriented upscaler mode before spending performance on ray tracing.
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1080p or 1440p on recommended hardware
- Preset: begin at Medium.
- Output: the display’s native resolution.
- RTX GPU: test DLSS Quality, then Balanced if necessary.
- AMD or other compatible GPU: test FSR 3 Quality or Balanced, or XeSS.
- Ray tracing: off until the non-ray-traced result is stable; test it as a separate change.
- Frame generation: optional. It can make camera motion look smoother, but it does not replace a sufficiently high underlying rendered frame rate for responsive controls.
At 1080p, Quality mode may preserve more fine detail than Balanced, while 1440p often gives an upscaler more source pixels to work with. Your GPU, monitor refresh rate and tolerance for reconstruction artifacts decide which mode is preferable; there is no single vendor-neutral winner.
Image-quality-first hardware with performance headroom
- Use the highest upscaler quality mode that maintains your chosen frame-rate floor.
- Use native rendering or DLAA when you have enough headroom to absorb the additional workload.
- Keep motion blur off if blur hides silhouettes or attack tells.
- Reduce post-processing when vignette, bloom or related effects obscure the edges of the scene.
- Test ray tracing only after the base image and frame pacing are satisfactory.
NVIDIA announced Valor Mortis with DLSS 4 technologies and ray tracing. DLAA is the image-quality option for a supported NVIDIA system when performance headroom is plentiful; it is not a sensible substitute for upscaling on a GPU already struggling to meet the target.
DLSS, FSR 3, XeSS, TSR and anti-aliasing: which should you use?
The documented menu includes DLSS, FSR 3 with Frame Generation, XeSS, TSR, FXAA/TAA and Off, along with resolution, window mode, motion blur, post-processing and ray-tracing controls. Pick according to hardware support, clarity and latency rather than brand loyalty.
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| Option | Best first use | What to watch for | When to move away from it |
|---|---|---|---|
| DLSS | Supported RTX card; start at Quality or Balanced. | Fine-detail reconstruction and the balance between sharpness and GPU load. | Use a different upscaler if it is unavailable or its image is less stable in your scene. |
| FSR 3 | AMD and other compatible hardware; start at Quality or Balanced. | Image softness, shimmering and the effect of Frame Generation on latency. | Try XeSS or TSR if the reconstruction is distracting. |
| XeSS | Alternative upscaler when DLSS is unavailable or FSR 3 is not convincing. | Detail stability at your selected quality mode. | Switch when another option gives the same frame-rate floor with a clearer image. |
| TSR | Fallback temporal reconstruction without the other vendor upscalers. | Temporal artifacts and softness during camera movement. | Try a supported vendor upscaler if it produces cleaner motion. |
| FXAA/TAA | Native-resolution anti-aliasing when you do not need reconstruction upscaling. | FXAA can leave edges softer; TAA can show temporal blur. | Use DLAA or native rendering only when the GPU has sufficient headroom. |
| Off | Diagnostic testing or a deliberate performance experiment. | Jagged edges and shimmering. | Re-enable an anti-aliasing or upscaling method for normal play. |
Frame Generation is not a substitute for a fast base frame
FSR 3’s Frame Generation can increase the displayed cadence and make pans look smoother. The generated images are built from underlying rendered frames, however, so a low base rate can still feel delayed or uneven when you move, aim or react. Treat Frame Generation as a second-stage option: first achieve a stable native-rendered or upscaled frame rate that feels responsive, then enable it and decide whether the smoother presentation is worth its latency trade-off. If controls feel less direct, disable it without changing the rest of the profile.
Settings that improve visibility without wasting performance
Motion blur
Set motion blur to Off when reading enemy wind-ups, tracking a moving target or scanning the edge of the screen matters more than cinematic camera movement. Players who prefer a film-like presentation can leave it enabled, but it should be a preference choice rather than a fix for low FPS.
Post-processing
Post-processing can add vignette, bloom and other screen-space effects. If those effects wash out silhouettes or hide scene edges, lower post-processing before sacrificing the entire preset. Make one change, return to the same area and check whether visibility actually improves; a darker or flatter image is not automatically a clearer one.
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Resolution and window mode
Use the monitor’s native output when possible. Dropping from 1440p to 1080p is a legitimate performance decision, but it changes text and geometry sharpness as well as load. Window mode is worth testing if you see focus or presentation problems, yet it is not a universal FPS cure. Keep the mode that gives you consistent input and a clean image on your desktop setup.
Ray tracing
Ray tracing is an optional visual cost, not a prerequisite for readable combat. Leave it off while establishing your frame-rate floor. Once that floor is reliable, enable ray tracing by itself and compare the same scene. If the result dips below your target or introduces hitching, turn it back off and keep the stable rasterized profile.
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Stuttering is a frame-time problem, so lowering every setting at once can hide the cause without solving it. Work through this sequence:
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- Verify the installation drive. Move the game to an SSD that meets Steam’s requirement. A mechanical drive can struggle with asset streaming even when the average FPS looks acceptable.
- Return to a known baseline. Use Low at 1080p, an upscaler, ray tracing off and motion blur off. This establishes whether the problem is primarily GPU load.
- Check the target, not just the peak. If the game repeatedly falls below 30 FPS on minimum-class hardware or below the 60-FPS recommended target on recommended-class hardware, reduce upscaler quality or resolution before adding effects.
- Test one expensive feature at a time. Re-enable Medium, then post-processing, then ray tracing in separate tests. The first change that creates recurring hitches identifies the feature to leave disabled.
- Compare upscalers. Test DLSS, FSR 3, XeSS and TSR at comparable quality settings. Keep the one that delivers the most consistent frame times and acceptable motion detail on your GPU.
- Evaluate Frame Generation separately. If the displayed FPS rises but input feels delayed or artifacts appear, disable Frame Generation while retaining the upscaler.
- Close competing workloads. Recording, browser tabs and other GPU- or storage-heavy applications can consume the headroom your target requires. Re-test after closing them so you are not tuning around a temporary load.
- Change only one variable per test. Record the setting, resolution and upscaler mode for each run. This avoids attributing a gain to the wrong change and makes it easy to return to the last stable profile.
No controlled publisher benchmark establishes a universal setting combination, so these troubleshooting steps are deliberately target-based. Your final choice should be the profile that keeps frame delivery consistent in the areas where you actually fight, not the one that produces the highest number in an empty room.
Choosing between 1080p and 1440p
| Decision factor | Choose 1080p when… | Choose 1440p when… |
|---|---|---|
| GPU headroom | You are near the minimum tier or need to protect a 30-FPS floor. | You have roughly the recommended GPU tier and can sustain the 60-FPS target with upscaling. |
| Display | Your monitor is 1080p or you prioritize refresh-rate stability over fine detail. | Your monitor is 1440p and you want native output without an unnecessarily low render resolution. |
| Image softness | You can use a higher-quality upscaler mode at the lower output resolution. | You want more source pixels for reconstruction and can accept a heavier GPU load. |
| Ray tracing | You are unlikely to have spare performance after meeting the base target. | You can test it after reaching a stable non-ray-traced frame rate. |
Do not select 1440p merely because the monitor supports it. Steam’s recommended 1440p target assumes Medium and upscaling on a substantially faster GPU than the minimum tier. Conversely, a 1080p display does not require Low settings if your hardware has headroom; raise the upscaler quality or preset gradually while protecting your chosen frame-rate floor.
A repeatable tuning method
Use this short worksheet whenever you change hardware, drivers or a display:
- Write down your output resolution, preset, upscaler and quality mode.
- Choose a target: 30 FPS minimum-class, 60 FPS recommended-class, or a higher personal floor if your monitor and hardware support it.
- Run through the same demanding route for several minutes.
- Note average smoothness, obvious hitches, image softness, shimmering and input feel.
- Change exactly one control: upscaler mode, resolution, preset, post-processing, ray tracing or Frame Generation.
- Repeat the route and keep the change only when it improves the result you value.
This method also makes vendor comparisons fairer. Compare DLSS, FSR 3, XeSS and TSR at the same output resolution and a similar quality intent, then judge both image stability and frame-time consistency. A higher displayed FPS number is not automatically better if the underlying rendered rate or responsiveness is worse.
When a hardware upgrade is the real answer
If Low at 1080p with upscaling and ray tracing off cannot hold the 30-FPS minimum target, settings alone may not provide a satisfactory experience. Check the SSD requirement and 16 GB RAM requirement first, then compare your GPU with Steam’s published minimum tier. For a 1440p/60 goal, the published reference is RX 6800 or RTX 3070, but a specific replacement depends on your budget, power supply, case, processor and monitor. Do not buy a card solely from the resolution label; confirm that the rest of the system can support it and that the game is installed on suitable storage.
Practical verdict
For most players, the best starting point is Medium at the display’s native resolution with an upscaler enabled, ray tracing off and motion blur off. Use DLSS Quality or Balanced on a supported RTX card; use FSR 3 Quality or Balanced, XeSS or TSR on other compatible systems. Near-minimum PCs should instead choose Low at 1080p and protect a stable 30 FPS. Raise upscaler quality before raising the global preset when the image is soft, and consider DLAA or native rendering only after you have clear performance headroom. Treat Frame Generation and ray tracing as optional finishing steps, not foundations for a responsive combat setup.
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