Escape from Tarkov has been in Early Access since August 2016 and is still in beta at the moment. So, naturally, the game is not without its performance flaws, but this article will help you fix those in no time.
Keep reading this guide to optimize your Escape from Tarkov settings and enjoy a much smoother gaming experience.
By following this guide, you can expect to fix Escape from Tarkov performance issues such as lagging, freezing, low FPS, stuttering, lag spikes and FPS drops.
The first thing you need to do is ensure that you meet the recommended system requirements listed below. If you don’t, then you can expect some issues. We recommend that you upgrade your PC in that case.
Escape from Tarkov is a CPU-intensive game, so you can expect to boost your performance by freeing up CPU resources or upgrading your processor.
Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit)
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo/Intel Core i3 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon/Phenom 11 2.6 GHz
- RAM: 6 GB
- GPU: DX9-compatible graphics card (1 GB VRAM)
- HDD: 20 GB
Recommended System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit)
- CPU: Intel Core i5/Intel Core i7 3.2 GHz, AMD FX/AMD Athlon 3.6 GHz
- RAM: 8 GB
- GPU: DX11-compatible graphics card (2 GB VRAM)
- HDD: 20 GB
GPU requirements usually list one or multiple GPUs but not in this case. To check if your GPU is DX9-compatible or DX-11 compatible, follow these steps:
- Open the Windows start menu
- Typedxdiag and press Enter
- If it asks permission to check whether your drivers are digitally signed, we recommend that you pressYes
You should now be able to see your DirectX version — refer to the image below:
There are multiple ways to increase your performance in Escape from Tarkov (EFT). Let’s start with the most obvious one.
Table of ContentsShow
Update Your GPU drivers
This may sound generic but updating your drivers is the first thing you must check as both AMD and NVIDIA usually release new drivers that can drastically increase FPS. It’s as easy as updating a piece of software on your PC.
Open up AMD Radeon Software (for AMD GPUs) or NVIDIA GeForce Experience (for NVIDIA GPUs) and check for updates. If there is an update available, download and install it.
Best Graphics Settings For Escape From Tarkov
The next step is to optimize your settings in the game itself. This is probably what you came here for, so let’s get started.
Note that these settings prioritize HighPerformance. If you have a PC that barely meets the minimum or recommended system requirements, you can skip this step. If you have a powerful PC and don’t want to sacrifice your visual settings for extra performance, keep on reading.
Without any further ado, here are the steps:
- Open upEscape from Tarkov
- Go toSettings and then click on theGraphics tab
- SetScreen resolution to your monitor’s native resolution
- SetScreen mode to Fullscreen
- Make sure VSync is unchecked
- SetTexture quality to medium
- SetShadows quality to low
- SetObject LOD quality to 3.5
- SetOverall visibility to 3000
- SetShadow visibility to 75
- SetAntialiasing to TAA
- SetResampling to 1x off
- SetHBAO to off
- SetSSR to off
- SetAnisotropic Filtering to per texture
- SetSharpness to 1.3
- SetLobby FPS Limit to 60
- SetGame FPS Limit to 120
- Make sureZ-Blur is unchecked
- Make sure Chrom. aberrations is unchecked
- Make sureNoise is unchecked
- Make sure Grass Shadows is unchecked
Best Game Settings For Escape From Tarkov
We’ll now list the best game settings for Escape from Tarkov. Simply follow these steps:
- While still in theSettings view, click on theGame tab
- If you’re having performance issues and you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you should uncheckEnable NVidia Highlights
- Make sureAuto RAM Cleaner is checked
- Make sure the setting Use only the physical cores is checked if you have a processor with hyper-threading or SMT
- SetFOV to 75 (or higher if you prefer it and have that option)
- SetHead Bopping to 0.2
Optimize NVIDIA Control Panel Settings
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you can optimize the NVIDIA Control Panel by following these steps:
- OpenNVIDIA Control Panel
- Click onAdjust Image Settings with Previewon the left side under 3D Settings
- Click onUse my preference emphasizing and move the slider toPerformance if it’s not there already
- Click onApply
All good! Let’s now manage some settings specific to Escape from Tarkov:
- Click on Manage 3D Settings
- Click onProgram Settings
- SelectEscape from Tarkovin the dropdown menu. If you can’t find it, click on Add and findEscapeFromTarkov.exe.
- SetPower management mode toPrefer maximum performance. You may want to split test this and the Optimal power as this setting’s effect depends on your GPU.
- SetPreferred refresh rate toHighest available
- SetShader Cache to On
- SetTexture filtering – Quality toHigh performance
- SetTriple buffering to Off
- SetVertical sync to Off
- SetVirtual Reality pre-rendered frames to 1
If you have a laptop, make sure you have selectedHigh-performance NVIDIA processoras the preferred graphics processor.
Optimize AMD Radeon Settings
If you have an AMD graphics card, then follow these steps to optimize your AMD Radeon settings.
- Open upAMD Radeon Settings
- Click on the Gaming tab
- Click onGlobal Settings
- SetAnti-aliasing Mode toOverride application settings
- SetAnti-aliasing Level to 2X
- SetAnisotropic Filtering Mode to On
- SetAnisotropic Filtering Level to 2X
- SetTexture Filtering Quality to Performance
- SetWait for Vertical Refresh toAlways Off
- SetTessellation Mode to Override application settings
- SetMaximum Tessellation Level to 32x or lower
Disable Windows Update Delivery Optimization
Moving on, here’s a simple trick that will help you free up some resources:
- Open the Windows Start Menu, enterWindows Update settings and click on the search result for it
- Click onAdvanced Options
- Click onDelivery Optimization
- Make sure that the Allow downloads from other PCs setting is off
Disable OneDrive
We also recommend that you disable OneDrive if you’re not using it. Right-click on the OneDrive icon on your taskbar and click on Exit.
Optimize Discord
If you’re playing Escape from Tarkov, you’re most likely using Discord for communication or just running it in the background while you’re playing solo.
Let’s optimize Discord. Here’s how:
- Open up Discord and go to theUser Settingspage
- Click on the Appearance tab and uncheck theHardware Accelerationsetting
- Click on theOverlaytab
- Make sure thatEnable in-game overlay is unchecked
Optimizing Google Chrome
If you use Google Chrome, you can turn off hardware acceleration as well. We recommend doing this and here’s how:
- Open Google Chrome and go to the Settingspage
- Scroll down to the end and click on the Advancedtab
- Again, scroll all the way down and make sure that the setting Use hardware acceleration when availableis switched off
- Make sure that the settingContinue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed is switched off
- Relaunch Google Chrome
High-Performance Power Plan
You can boost performance by enabling the high-performance power plan on your PC. Just follow these simple steps:
- Open the Windows start menu
- Typepowercfg.cpl and press Enter
- Select theHigh performance option
Enable Game Mode
Windows 10 has a setting calledGame Mode that we recommend you turn on. Here’s how you do it:
- Open the Windows start menu
- TypeGame mode settings and press Enter
- Make sure that the Game Mode option is turned on.
Move The Game To An SSD
If you have Escape from Tarkov installed on your HDD (which we don’t recommend), you can get much faster loading times by moving the game to an SSD if you have one.
Final Thoughts
That’s it! Hopefully, you’ll get much higher frame rates now.
You might also be dealing with network lag or high ping. In that case, we recommend checking out this guide on how to reduce ping in all games.
Also, since Escape from Tarkov is very CPU-intensive, you can look into investing in a new processor. Or perhaps a new graphics card or more RAM if you have the required budget.
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