The Outer Worlds 2 PC Benchmarks: Best Settings, Ray Tracing Tips, and How To Hit 60+ FPS
The Outer Worlds 2 lands as a big step up from its 2019 predecessor, pairing Obsidian’s signature role-playing with Unreal Engine 5 and a long list of PC extras. Expect hardware-accelerated and software Lumen ray tracing, sharper textures, and a full suite of upscaling and frame-generation options from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. The result is a striking sci-fi RPG that can look fantastic on high-end rigs and still scale well for older systems—if you pick the right settings.
What’s new and what matters on PC
– Engine and RT: Built on Unreal Engine 5 with both software Lumen and hardware Lumen ray tracing for lighting, reflections, and shadows.
– Upscaling and frame generation: TAA, TSR, DLSS, FSR, and XeSS are all supported, along with DLAA/native AA modes. Frame generation is available and includes a multi-frame generation (MFG) mode up to 4X on compatible RTX 50-series GPUs.
– Deep settings menu: Quality presets (Low to Very High) plus granular controls for view distance, shadows, textures, foliage, global illumination, reflections, effects, anti-aliasing, screen effects, and crowd density. Field of View starts at 90 and goes up to 121. There’s also NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency, HDR, and chromatic aberration toggles.
Test bench and drivers
– CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K
– Motherboard: MSI MEG Z790 ACE
– Memory: 32 GB DDR5-7600 (CL36)
– Drivers: NVIDIA 581.57, AMD 25.10.1, Intel 32.0.101.8247
How the presets scale
The new visuals come with a steep cost at the top end, but the presets scale efficiently:
– Switching from Very High to High nets roughly a 28% uplift with software Lumen and around 34% with hardware Lumen enabled.
– Medium adds another 10–15% over High.
– Low gives an additional 10–11% bump.
In total, Medium is about 50% faster than Very High, and Low is roughly 65% faster. A Medium/High mix offers the best balance for older GPUs; Low starts to look noticeably flat with smeared textures and simplified geometry.
Native resolution performance
– 4K: Expect 60+ FPS only on the very top cards such as RTX 5090 or RTX 4090. Most other GPUs dip below 60, with some falling under 30.
– 1440p: 60 FPS is achievable on a wider range of hardware. GPUs around RX 9060 XT or RTX 4070 and above handle it well. Balanced upscaling is recommended for extra headroom.
– 1080p: 60+ FPS is within reach for nearly all GPUs above RTX 5060 or Arc B580, though entry-level cards benefit from Medium settings or enabling upscaling.
Upscaling and frame generation
The game integrates DLSS, FSR, and XeSS cleanly. Enabling frame generation with those upscalers delivered about an 80% performance boost in our testing. On an RTX 5090, MFG 4X can push well past 200 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh 4K OLED displays. On budget and mid-range PCs, upscaling plus frame generation is the easiest route to 60–100 FPS while preserving image quality.
VRAM usage and stutter
VRAM demands are modest for a modern UE5 title:
– Around 7–8 GB at 1080p
– About 8 GB at 1440p
– Roughly 10 GB at 4K
We didn’t encounter VRAM-induced hitching. Do expect a heavy shader compilation step on first launch that can cause stuttering; the second run is significantly smoother.
Ray tracing: hardware vs. software Lumen
Hardware Lumen currently has issues. In certain scenes, shadows on specific materials become extremely noisy, and software Lumen can actually look cleaner. Hardware Lumen also costs about 15–25% in performance on top of that.
Recommendation for now: leave hardware ray tracing off and use software Lumen until a patch addresses the visual noise. If you’re chasing high FPS, sticking to software Lumen is the safer bet.
Visuals and world design
The sequel serves up varied planets, dense cities, interiors, and striking skyboxes. Visuals scale well from Medium to Very High, and the world feels busy with props, NPCs, and fauna. However, the performance cost at the top settings doesn’t always feel justified compared to some recent shooters that run faster. Like many early UE5 releases, further optimization should help over time.
Best settings for smooth performance
– Quality preset: Start at Medium; bump Textures and View Distance to High if you have headroom.
– Lumen: Use software Lumen. Avoid hardware Lumen for now due to noise and the large performance hit.
– Upscaling: Balanced or Quality mode for DLSS/FSR/XeSS at 1440p and 4K; Quality or Native AA at 1080p on stronger GPUs.
– Frame generation: Enable on supported GPUs for an easy 60–100 FPS jump on mid-range systems and 120–200+ on high-end rigs.
– Shadows and Reflections: Set to Medium or High; Very High can be disproportionately expensive.
– Foliage and Effects: Medium provides a good visual/performance trade-off.
– Crowd density: Lower it if you see CPU-bound dips in busy hubs.
– Motion blur and chromatic aberration: Personal preference; disabling both improves clarity.
– FOV: 100–110 is a sweet spot for most displays without excessive performance loss.
Bottom line
The Outer Worlds 2 offers a strong PC feature set and meaningful visual upgrades, but the top-end settings are demanding and hardware Lumen needs work. With software Lumen, sensible presets, and the excellent upscaling/frame-gen support, you can tailor the game to your rig and hit smooth frame rates from 1080p through 4K. Expect patches and driver updates to improve performance and ray tracing quality in the weeks ahead. For now, tune smart, upscale when needed, and enjoy an engrossing new sci-fi adventure.
