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The most reliable way to improve Valor Mortis performance is a controlled sequence: verify that your PC meets the currently published demo requirements, record a repeatable baseline, change one setting at a time, and judge frame-time consistency rather than a single peak-FPS reading. Start with the upscaling options and the heaviest GPU settings you can actually see in your build. Treat persistent low frame rate and brief hitches as different problems.
The game-specific recommendations available today come from an unofficial guide based on an Alpha demo, so they are provisional. Menu names, available upscalers and the best values can change before release. The official Steam listing also labels its requirements as demo specifications and says they may change for the full release.
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What the published Valor Mortis requirements actually tell you
Steam currently lists requirements for the demo, not a guaranteed final-release performance target. The listing says the specifications are subject to change. They identify hardware and software needed to run the demo; they do not promise a particular resolution, graphics preset or frame rate.
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| Specification | Minimum demo listing | Recommended demo listing |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 11 | Windows 11 |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel Core i7-11700 | AMD Ryzen 7 7700 or Intel Core i7-13700 |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon RX 6700 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super | AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 |
| API | DirectX 12 | DirectX 12 |
| Storage | 50 GB; SSD required | 50 GB; SSD required |
AMD’s own Valor Mortis page corroborates the AMD-side figures: Windows 11, a Ryzen 7 3700X at minimum, 16 GB RAM, a Radeon RX 6700, DirectX 12 and 50 GB of SSD storage; its recommended AMD configuration uses a Ryzen 7 7700 and Radeon RX 7900 GRE. That page is not a complete statement of NVIDIA requirements, so use the Steam listing for the cross-vendor comparison.
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If the game is installed on a mechanical hard drive, an internal SSD is a reasonable prerequisite check because the demo listing explicitly requires one. Confirm your motherboard’s interface, the drive’s capacity and the available free space before buying anything. An SSD can reduce storage-access delays, but the requirement does not prove that it will eliminate every shader or traversal hitch.
Establish a baseline before changing settings
A baseline prevents you from confusing a different scene, a warm-up effect or a driver change with an improvement. Pick an area you can revisit or a short route you can repeat. Write down the display resolution, current preset, upscaler and mode, frame cap, VSync state, and whether the problem is constant or intermittent.
- Use the same scene. Revisit the same room, outdoor route or combat encounter after each change. Avoid comparing a quiet corridor with a busy traversal section.
- Observe behavior for several minutes. Note the usual frame rate, the lowest-feeling moments and where pauses occur. A single number is less useful than whether motion feels even.
- Record image quality. Look for shimmer on thin geometry, foliage or railings, excessive blur and obvious changes in shadow detail. A faster setting that makes the image distracting may not be the best result.
- Change one variable. Return to the same scene after every setting change. If you alter an upscaler, shadows and effects together, you cannot tell which change helped.
Epic’s Unreal Engine documentation distinguishes frame rate from frame time: frame rate is how many frames are produced, while frame time is how long each frame takes. CPU work, GPU rendering, RAM, VRAM and storage access can all become limiting factors. That general engine guidance applies to the diagnosis method, not as proof that a particular Valor Mortis build has one specific bottleneck.
First decide whether you have low FPS or stutter
Sustained low frame rate
If motion is slow or uneven almost everywhere, suspect a continuing CPU, GPU or rendering limit, or settings that demand more than your hardware can sustain. Upscaling and reductions to GPU-heavy effects are the sensible first tests. A frame cap cannot create performance that the system does not have; it only limits output to a level the system can maintain.
Intermittent hitches
If play is normally smooth but pauses briefly during a new area, an effect or a camera movement, investigate frame pacing and resource access separately. A hitch can involve shader work, traversal, storage, memory or another transient task. Lowering every graphics slider may leave that cause untouched.
Use upscaling as the first major graphics test
The unofficial Valor Mortis DB guide reports an upscaler menu in the Alpha demo and recommends testing it as a major frame-rate lever. Use only the options exposed by your installed build; do not add configuration-file edits when a control is absent. The guide names DLSS, FSR, XeSS and TSR in its demo account, but official material available for this game does not confirm that every current build includes all four.
| Reported option | How to test it | Trade-off to watch |
|---|---|---|
| DLSS | If the menu offers it and you have a supported RTX GPU with a current driver, test a quality mode first, then a more performance-oriented mode only if necessary. | Reduced internal resolution can soften fine detail; compatibility depends on the hardware and build. |
| FSR | Select it only if it appears in your menu, compare quality and performance modes in the same scene. | Look for reconstruction artifacts, shimmering or loss of fine detail. |
| XeSS | Use the available mode shown by the game and repeat the same route. | Image stability and performance vary with the implementation and GPU. |
| TSR | Compare its available quality modes against the other choices. | The unofficial guide reports visible shimmering when TSR is disabled, so test the image rather than assuming off is better. |
Choose the least aggressive mode that produces a stable result. The goal is not the largest instantaneous FPS number; it is a frame rate your system can hold without objectionable blur or shimmer. The guide’s TSR observation is a reported Alpha-demo quality trade-off, not a guarantee for every release build.
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Reduce shadows, effects and post-processing in a deliberate order
After testing upscaling, move the settings that commonly increase GPU work. The fan guide specifically suggests moving shadows from High to Medium and lowering effects or post-processing when needed. Treat those values as starting points, not a universal Valor Mortis preset.
- Shadows: change High to Medium and replay the same scene. Watch contact shadows, distant structures and combat readability.
- Effects: lower the effects quality if particle-heavy encounters or large ability effects cause the drop. Compare a quiet view and a busy fight.
- Post-processing: reduce it if the game remains GPU-limited after the first two tests. Check whether the image becomes too soft or loses useful contrast.
- Other available options: test one at a time only when the controls exist in your build. Do not assume a setting has the same cost on every GPU.
Motion blur is mainly a visibility preference in the available guidance. The unofficial guide suggests disabling it for a clearer view of enemy movement, not as a measured frame-rate fix. Turn it off if blur interferes with tracking; leave it on if you prefer the presentation.
Cap the frame rate for steadier frame pacing
A cap can make a system feel smoother when it can hold the selected rate. The fan guide suggests choosing a cap slightly below the monitor’s refresh rate. Test that suggestion rather than treating it as an official recommendation. If the PC cannot sustain the cap, the result can still feel uneven.
- Check the frame-cap choices exposed by Valor Mortis and note your monitor refresh rate.
- Try a cap just below that refresh rate; for a 60 Hz display, a value in the high-50s is an example to test, not a promised optimum.
- Repeat the same route with VSync on and off if both choices are available.
- Keep the combination that produces the most consistent motion with acceptable tearing and responsiveness.
Epic’s VSync documentation explains why synchronization can alter tearing and perceived stutter: when a frame misses the presentation window, pacing can jump. A cap and VSync also affect input feel, so judge camera movement and combat response as well as the counter. Frame generation, if a later build offers it, should likewise be evaluated for latency and consistency rather than advertised peak output; no game-specific frame-generation result is established here.
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The unofficial Alpha-demo guide describes shader-compilation and traversal hitches and suggests allowing initial shader compilation to finish, disabling overlays for a test and using an SSD. Epic’s general engine documentation also identifies storage access as one possible bottleneck. These are troubleshooting hypotheses, not proof that every Valor Mortis pause has the same cause.
Allow first-run work to complete
After an update or a fresh installation, let any in-game shader-preparation process finish before judging repeat performance. If the game offers an explicit compilation screen, do not interrupt it. Repeating an area may make a later pass different, but it is not a guarantee that all hitches disappear.
Test overlays and background capture
Temporarily disable nonessential overlays, recording hooks and monitoring layers, then repeat the same route. If the hitch changes, re-enable tools one at a time to identify the conflict. Do not uninstall software or edit game files as a first response; this test is reversible and isolates one variable.
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Check storage and free space
Confirm that the game is on an SSD with enough free space and that the drive is operating normally. An SSD satisfies the published demo requirement, but it cannot compensate for an overloaded CPU, insufficient VRAM or a game-side hitch.
If the PC shuts down during compilation
A shutdown is a hardware-safety issue, not a graphics-setting nuisance. Stop the test and check temperatures, airflow, power delivery, overclocks or undervolts and graphics drivers. The fan guide raises these checks as possibilities, but a shutdown does not establish which one is responsible. Avoid continuing stressful tests until the system is stable.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Use a bottleneck-based decision tree
| Observed symptom | Next test | What a useful result means |
|---|---|---|
| Low performance in most scenes | Enable or strengthen upscaling, then lower shadows. | A substantial change points toward a sustained rendering or GPU limit. |
| Only effects-heavy fights slow down | Lower effects, then post-processing. | Improvement in busy scenes indicates those effects are expensive on your system. |
| Brief pauses while entering new areas | Allow shader preparation, test with overlays disabled and verify SSD installation. | A change suggests a transient workload or storage/overlay interaction, but does not prove a single cause. |
| Image shimmers after a change | Compare TSR and the other available upscalers at a higher quality mode. | You may have traded frame rate for temporal stability; keep the clearest mode you can sustain. |
| Motion tears or pulses despite adequate FPS | Compare a slightly-below-refresh cap with VSync alternatives. | The best choice is the one with steadier pacing and acceptable input response. |
When a hardware upgrade is justified
Do not buy a new graphics card before identifying the limit. First verify that the installed hardware is not below the currently published demo baseline and run the controlled settings tests. If the GPU is below the listed Radeon RX 6700 or GeForce RTX 2070 Super minimum examples, an upgrade may be necessary for a comfortable result, but the requirements can change before full release and still are not benchmark targets.
The same caution applies to the processor. A CPU-limited system may show little improvement when you lower resolution or enable upscaling. Watch whether reducing GPU quality changes the problem. If it does not, close background workloads, check CPU utilization and temperatures, and consider that the processor or another system resource may be limiting the frame time.
For storage, verify motherboard compatibility, interface, capacity and free space before selecting an internal SSD. Buy it to meet the published requirement or solve a storage bottleneck, not as a promise that every hitch will vanish.
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- Confirm the platform: Windows 11, DirectX 12 support, 16 GB RAM and the required-class CPU, GPU and 50 GB SSD space shown by the current demo listing.
- Prepare a clean test: close unnecessary applications, note your resolution and preset, and choose a repeatable scene.
- Classify the problem: decide whether the issue is sustained low FPS, isolated hitches or both.
- Test upscaling: use only the modes visible in your build and compare image stability.
- Lower GPU-heavy settings: test shadows, effects and post-processing individually.
- Test pacing: compare a cap slightly below refresh with the available VSync choices.
- Investigate hitches: finish shader preparation, disable overlays temporarily and verify SSD installation.
- Record the winner: keep the clearest setting combination that remains stable in the scenes you actually play.
Limits of the available performance advice
No named benchmark, measured FPS gain or developer-confirmed performance delta is available for these settings. The published CPU and GPU figures are requirements, not test results. The game-specific suggestions come from an unofficial Alpha-demo guide and may not match the final build. Use them as controlled experiments and report what your own repeatable scene shows.
Cloud-streaming availability is not established by the available material. A request for streaming support is not evidence that a provider currently supports Valor Mortis, so local settings and hardware diagnosis remain the dependable troubleshooting path.
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