Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Graphics Settings Guide (Updated)

In this guide, we will show you how to Boost FPS and the Best Graphics Settings for Baldur’s Gate 3. These tweaks will hopefully enable you to enjoy the game in all its glory.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Graphics Settings Guide

baldurs gate 3 best pc graphics settings

It will increase performance and bump up the Frame Rates by some margin. Ensure you meet the minimum system specs for Baldurs’ Gate 3.

Also, refer to my test rig to better understand how you can do the best settings for the game. For the entire information, read on…

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Graphics Settings (In-game)

These are the best Baldur’s Gate 3 Graphics settings for the shown system specs:

Fullscreen Display

Native – I seldom change this to any other setting unless the performance drop is significant. Usually keeping the setting to fullscreen helps optimize the CPU and GPU to the maximum extent for most games.

Resolution

Native – Unless you are running on a low-end system (In that case run at 720p), run the game at the native resolution of your monitor for full clarity.

Display Mode

Fullscreen – Having this on borderless settings can help you in ALT-Tabbing quickly. But Fullscreen gives the most performance.

Vsync Mode

Disabled – If you face screen tearing or jittery graphics, turn this ON. I keep this OFF since I check BG3 for FPS fluctuations, and Vsync caps the FPS.

Frame Rate Cap

Enabled – Cap this to the native refresh rate of the monitor if you face FPS fluctuations or screen tearing. Otherwise, you can keep this Disabled for high-end systems like RTX 3080 and above with an equivalent CPU.

Frame Rate

Use monitor refresh rate to run the game smoothly. You can also use your values since this is a flexible option.

Model Quality

Medium – A good balance between performance and visual quality of models.

Instance Distance

Low – This is the detailing of the draw distance of objects in the game. This requires decent computing power, hence it is CPU intensive. I keep this low to take the load off the CPU. If you have enough resources, I would recommend a balanced or high setting.

Texture Quality

High – This helps with the quality of rendered textures. Keep this high unless you are facing major FPS drops. This gives more clarity to objects and textures overall.

Texture Filtering

Anisotropic x16 – 16x filtering results in a smoother line, helping to reduce jagged edges and improving the overall visuals of the game.

Lighting Quality

Medium – This worked for me and I was not able to face any visual downgrades in Medium Light Quality Settings.

Shadows

Off/ON for better Visual Quality [suggested by gamertagzero user Shadow]

Light Shadows

Off – This takes up a lot of CPU resources, and if you are on a medium-end CPU like mine, it is better to keep this OFF.

Shadow Quality

Low – This tends to take up a lot of resources for both GPU and CPU so Low is a much better option.

Anti-aliasing

SMAA – Just enough balance to keep clearer edges and images while playing BG3.

Ambient Occlusion

Off – Not that prominent for me hence I kept this OFF.

Depth of Field

None – DOP is generally resource intensive since it renders or omits the entire background and how far a player can look in the game. I have kept this to None.

God Rays

Off – This option is preferential. I should keep this OFF for more FPS.

Bloom

Off – Again, an optional setting to change to keep.

Subsurface Scattering

Off – This involves the path of the lights, and how much it is absorbed and shown in the game. This can be somewhat resource-intensive, so I kept this off.


FPS Boost for Performance in BG3

These settings will hopefully boost FPS for Baldur’s Gate 3 and fix crashes, lags, or stutters:

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1. Optimizing Windows Settings

  • Go to the search bar and type “Game Mode”
  • Open the window and make sure the option is “OFF”
  • Also, make sure that the “XBOX Gamebar” is set to OFF
  • In the Captures Tab, Turn off all the options.

2. Updating NVIDIA and AMD Drivers

ensure your respective drivers are up to date and ready to go! These Driver releases can sometimes fix entire lag or stuttering issues.


3. Change Windows Graphics Settings

Turn on Hardware Graphics Acceleration from Windows. To do this, go to the search bar and type “GPU.” Open “Graphics Settings” and Turn on Hardware Acceleration.


4. Game Launch Settings

Go to the game launch window and click on the cogwheel next to it.

  • You can turn on both Vulcan and DirectX 11.
  • If you face launch issues, switch to “DirectX 11 ONLY”. That should fix the issue.

Baldur’s Gate 3 System Requirements

Make sure you meet the minimum system requirements for the game

WINDOWS

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 150 GB available space

Additional Notes: Default API is Vulkan 1.1. Directx11 API is also provided. The minimum requirements might decrease throughout Early Access, as performance improves.

Recommended:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 150 GB available space

Additional Notes: Default API is Vulkan 1.1. Directx11 API is also provided. The recommended requirements might decrease throughout Early Access, as performance improves.

MAC OS X

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: macOS 10.15.6
  • Processor: 2.6GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon460 4GB or Intel(R) Iris(TM) Plus Graphics
  • Storage: 150 GB available space

Additional Notes: For example MacBook Pro 15 inch 2016, MacBook Pro 13 inch 2018

Recommended:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: macOS 10.15.7
  • Processor: 2.3GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB
  • Storage: 150 GB available space

Additional Notes: For example MacBook Pro 15 inch 2019 and up, MacBook Pro 16 inch, iMac from 2017

source: steam


PC Specifications Used to Test

  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM DDR4
  • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1660 6GB
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 1TB HDD 7200 RPM

Results and Conclusion

The above settings are done, to test the stability of your system. We have capped the FPS and set the Native refresh rate. We managed a stable Frame Rate (60Hz for us) at the above settings.

With little fluctuations in graphically intense scenarios. For those facing Launch errors or who cannot launch the game, try to use the DirectX 11 option only.


That will be all for this guide. Your questions/suggestions are welcome in the comments below. Thanks for dropping by, and we will see you soon.

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Last Updated on January 12, 2024

4 thoughts on “Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Graphics Settings Guide (Updated)”

  1. information like “Instance Distance – Low” or ” Off/ON for better Visual Quality” is just low effort. I assume you make money as a game journalist? at a time when Hardware Unboxed benchmarks every single setting in the game and compares the optimized overall setting to the ultra setting at the end, this is absolutely ridiculous. and this is the first thing google spits out at me. mr. computer science graduate by qualification

    1. I am sorry that the information is limited as per your preference. I will follow it up with more detailed explanations in this one and future settings guides. Thanks for your valuable feedback. I appreciate it!

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