Mafia: The Old Country has no volumetric lighting or fog slider, so there is nothing to turn down by that name. Hangar 13’s own option list contains Global Illumination, Shadows, Reflections, View Distance, Textures, Foliage, Effects, Post Processing and Motion Blur, and none of the settings guides I read lists a volumetric option either. The settings that do cost frames, in the two tests that measured them one at a time, are Foliage (Epic to Low gained 46%), Shadows (11% to 16%, or 30% in another test) and Global Illumination (about 12%).
The config that actually reached 60 FPS in a published test was on an RTX 4060, not a 3060: Karan Benchmarks measured 68 FPS on average at 1080p with DLSS Quality, against 34 on Ultra. I found no measurement of an RTX 3060 holding 60 in this game, and the frame-time arithmetic below says it will not, so the 3060 section ends with a 40 FPS plan instead. Every number here comes from a third-party test, and I have not clocked any of it myself.
Verified 19 October 2026 against the September 2026 update of 1 September, the newest entry on 2K’s patch notes page and on the game’s Steam news feed that day. All the cost figures are from August 2025 to December 2025 tests, so they predate the August 2026 update that moved the game to DLSS 4.5. The patch section says what that does and does not change.
Quick start: the 2-minute setup
Set these in order. Each choice is explained in the sections below.
- Quality Preset: Custom, starting from High. Epic is the one preset to avoid.
- Resolution and upscaler: your monitor’s native resolution, with DLSS, FSR or XeSS on Quality (1080p) or Balanced (1440p and up). Compare against Unreal TSR for two minutes in a grassy area before you commit.
- Frame Generation: off while you tune. Turn it on afterwards only if your base frame rate is already comfortable.
- Foliage: Medium. It is the biggest single saving for the least visible loss.
- Shadows and Global Illumination: High for both.
- Textures: High on an 8 GB card, Epic on 12 GB or more.
- Cinematic Framerate: Unlimited, and Motion Blur off if you dislike it.
- Gameplay Frame Rate: 60, or 40 on a 120 Hz screen if 60 is out of reach.
The game offers nine quality options, and Global Illumination has only two levels. This is the list from 2K’s PC page; the third column is where I could not find any measured cost.
| Option | Levels in the menu | Measured cost found? |
|---|---|---|
| Global Illumination | High, Epic | Yes (GameGPU, PC Optimized) |
| Shadows | Medium, High, Epic | Yes (GameGPU, PC Optimized) |
| Foliage | Low, Medium, High, Epic | Yes (GameGPU, PC Optimized) |
| Reflections | Low, Medium, High, Epic | Partly: percentages in one guide only |
| View Distance | Near, Medium, Far, Epic | No: “barely affects performance” in one test, no figure |
| Textures | Low, Medium, High, Epic | VRAM figures, not FPS |
| Effects | Low, Medium, High, Epic | No: called negligible |
| Post Processing | Medium, High, Epic | No: called negligible |
| Motion Blur | Off, On | No |
If the dusty, sun-shafted look of the Sicilian streets is costing you frames, the likely lever is Global Illumination, not a fog toggle that does not exist. That is my inference: GameGPU’s overview says nothing about fog or volumetrics, and the two guides that rate Effects call its cost negligible or minor. The takeaway from the table is that you have four options worth touching (Foliage, Shadows, Global Illumination, Reflections) and the rest are close to free.
What each setting costs in FPS
Foliage is the biggest single saving in the only test that measured settings one at a time: GameGPU took it from 57 FPS on Epic to 83 FPS on Low, a gain of 46%. The table sets that test next to the other published claims, and it shows where they disagree.
| Setting (Epic to lower) | GameGPU (RTX 4070 Ti, 1080p) | PC Optimized (RTX 4090) | My call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foliage | High +11%, Medium +26%, Low +46% | “Up to 20%”; Medium recommended | Medium |
| Shadows | High +11%, Medium +16% | High “30% FPS uplift” | High; Medium if short of frames |
| Global Illumination | High +12% | High “10-12% boost” | High |
| Reflections | No FPS figure | High costs “a couple of FPS”; Medium and Low use screen-space only | Medium if short of frames |
| View Distance | No FPS figure; Medium and Near cut the horizon and cause pop-in | “Barely affects performance” | Far or Epic |
| Textures | Epic and Low “nearly indistinguishable”; no FPS figure | Epic uses about 1.5 GB more VRAM than High | Set by VRAM |
| Effects, Post Processing | Not tested | “Negligible” and “mostly not noticeable” | Leave alone |
The preset-level numbers are blunter. PC Optimized found Epic to High worth 50%, High to Medium 17% and Medium to Low only 4%, so the big step is Epic to High and the returns shrink below it. DSOGaming saw an RTX 4090 dip below 60 FPS at 1080p on Epic and land at 42 to 51 FPS at 1440p in its stress scene, against “way above 60” on High.
The Shadows disagreement
The two tests disagree on Shadows by a factor of three: 11% for Epic to High in GameGPU’s numbers (75 to 83 FPS) against 30% in PC Optimized’s. PC Optimized’s low-end guide adds 40% for Medium on a laptop RTX 4060. Different GPUs and different scenes would explain a gap this size, and neither site published its route, so I cannot tell you which is right for your card. My rule: take High, which both agree is cheap in visual terms, and drop to Medium only if you are still short.
Frame-time view: how many milliseconds each step saves
Percentages mislead because they do not add up; milliseconds are closer to additive. Converting GameGPU’s frame rates (1000 ÷ FPS) shows Foliage Low frees 5.5 ms per frame, more than Shadows Medium (1.8 ms) and Global Illumination High (1.6 ms) combined. That is my arithmetic, and each row in GameGPU’s chart has a different Epic baseline (66, 75 and 57 FPS), so the scenes were not identical and the savings should be read as a ranking, not a sum.
| Step | FPS (Epic to new) | Frame time | Saved per frame |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foliage Epic to Low | 57 to 83 | 17.5 to 12.0 ms | 5.5 ms |
| Foliage Epic to Medium | 57 to 72 | 17.5 to 13.9 ms | 3.6 ms |
| Foliage Epic to High | 57 to 63 | 17.5 to 15.9 ms | 1.7 ms |
| Global Illumination Epic to High | 66 to 74 | 15.2 to 13.5 ms | 1.6 ms |
| Shadows Epic to Medium | 75 to 87 | 13.3 to 11.5 ms | 1.8 ms |
| Shadows Epic to High | 75 to 83 | 13.3 to 12.1 ms | 1.3 ms |
Foliage Low is not free. GameGPU warns it leaves “bald spot” gaps on the ground, which is exactly what the right half of the picture below shows, so I stop at Medium.
Video memory: why 8 GB cards fall off a cliff
On an 8 GB card the safe move is Textures High, because the sources disagree on whether 8 GB is enough and the cost of being wrong is stutter. PC Games Hardware says 8 GB cards show clear reload stutter even at 1080p with upscaling, and that Radeon and Arc cards stutter until about 10 GB; its sentence does not name the preset. Karan says an RTX 4060 8GB stayed under 8 GB even at 1440p with no micro-stutter (the page does not say for which preset). PC Optimized logged 11 GB at 1080p and 11.4 GB at 1440p on Epic, and GameGPU’s annual benchmark shows Epic at native 1080p using 8 GB on a 12 GB card.
Read together, Epic outgrows 8 GB and the trimmed preset fits, so the preset matters more than the resolution. The suggestive number is in Karan’s table: at 1440p native the RTX 4060 managed 18 FPS on Ultra and 36 on the optimized settings, exactly double. That is a whole bundle of changes, not one setting, and I cannot prove a memory spill, but a result that lopsided where Epic needs over 11 GB is what one looks like.
| Your VRAM | Textures | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | High (Medium if you still see reload stutter) | PC Optimized: Epic textures use about 1.5 GB more than High and High about 800 MB more than Medium |
| 12 GB | Epic at 1080p and 1440p | PC Optimized: fine at 1440p; avoid Epic with frame generation at 4K |
| 16 GB or more | Epic | GameGPU: Epic at native 1080p uses 9 to 10 GB on 16 to 32 GB cards |
The config that hit 60 FPS (measured on an RTX 4060)
This is Karan Benchmarks’ optimized preset on an RTX 4060 8GB with a Core i5-13600K, which averaged 68 FPS at 1080p with DLSS Quality and 52 FPS at native resolution. The second published 60: PC Optimized measured 60.5 FPS on a laptop RTX 4060 at balanced upscaling after dropping from 17 FPS on Epic. Both are averages, not 1% lows.
| Setting | Value | Why | If you are still short |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution / upscaler | 1080p, DLSS Quality | Measured: 68 FPS average | Balanced: about 4% more at 1080p in GameGPU’s test |
| Frame Generation | Off | Karan kept it off to avoid input lag and artifacts | None |
| Global Illumination | High | About 12% for a minor quality loss | None: Epic is the only other level |
| Shadows | Medium | Karan’s choice; guides rate the visual drop minor | None |
| Foliage | Medium | Biggest saving short of Low | Low, accepting bare ground |
| View Distance | Far | Minimal detail loss | Medium adds pop-in |
| Post Processing / Motion Blur | Medium / Off | Little visual change | None |
| Textures, Effects, Reflections | Epic | Karan lists Textures as no cost and Effects as minor; Reflections at Epic costs “a couple of FPS” per PC Optimized | Textures High if you stutter; Reflections Medium for 5-10% (PC Optimized) |
Karan’s frame rate went from 34 to 52 FPS at native 1080p, which is 29.4 to 19.2 ms, a saving of about 10 ms from the whole bundle. A 60 FPS target is a 16.7 ms frame, and that is why upscaling is part of the answer: DLSS Quality took the same settings to 68 FPS (14.7 ms). My reading: the settings get you to the doorstep, and the upscaler walks you through it.
RTX 3060 and weaker: what the frame-time math says
An RTX 3060 will not hold 60 FPS at 1080p in this game on any settings I can support with data, and the honest target is about 40. The guides disagree sharply here, and none of them publishes a measurement:
| Guide | RTX 3060 settings | Frame rate claim |
|---|---|---|
| Deltia’s RTX 30 guide | 1080p, DLSS Balanced, GI High, Shadows Medium, Reflections Medium, View Near, Textures High, Foliage Medium, Effects and Post Low | “60 FPS” (also says RTX 3050/3060/3060 Ti are “somewhat inadequate” for a smooth 60) |
| Sportskeeda | 1080p, DLSS Ultra Performance, lowest preset, Textures Medium, Foliage Low, Frame Generation not available | 30 to 60 |
| PC Optimized (low-end guide) | 1080p, Balanced, Frame Generation On, Textures High, Foliage Medium | 75 target |
Frame generation is the clearest conflict. PC Optimized’s table sets it On for the 3060, while Sportskeeda says the 3060 has no frame generation. 2K’s page says frame generation works “on supported hardware only”, and DSOGaming found that DLSS Frame Gen cannot be used together with TSR in this game. If your menu does not show a Frame Generation toggle for DLSS, trust the menu.
Here is the arithmetic, labelled as back-of-envelope. GameGPU’s annual benchmark says the RTX 3060 is the card level that reaches a 25 FPS average at 1080p on Epic with no upscaling, which is 40 ms per frame. Karan’s optimized bundle saved about 10 ms on a faster card, taking that to roughly 30 ms (33 FPS). GameGPU’s upscaler test gives DLSS Balanced about +22% (+26% for Performance), so 33 FPS becomes about 40 to 42. Nothing in the data gets a 3060 to 60 without cutting the image below what any of these guides would call acceptable.
What I would do: use the 60 FPS config above, set Gameplay Frame Rate to 40 (the menu offers 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, 144 and Unlimited), and run a 120 Hz or variable-refresh display so that 40 FPS is an even 25 ms every frame. On a fixed 60 Hz monitor, cap at 30 instead of letting it hover between 40 and 50. Our frame cap guide explains why an even cap feels smoother than a higher, uneven average, and our RTX 3060 best settings guide covers the card across other games.
Stutter the sliders cannot fix
If you stutter at a sensible setting, suspect the CPU and the streaming system first. PC Games Hardware measured a Ryzen 5 5600 at 68.4 FPS on average but only 36 or 30 FPS in the frame-time metrics, and says only the Ryzen 7 9800X3D reached 60 FPS in its 1% low figure. A Core i5-14400F showed spikes above 40 ms. The site blames Unreal Engine 5’s streaming running in the background, which lowering the graphics settings softens but does not remove.
That contradicts the impression from PC Optimized, which found the game “predominantly GPU-bound” on a Ryzen 9 7950X, and Karan’s no-stutter result on a 13600K. The reconciliation is the CPU class: a fast CPU hides the streaming cost, a mid-range one shows it. Deltia’s adds that the GPU should have at least 8 GB of VRAM or the game may stutter. If your averages look fine but the game feels uneven, read our frame pacing and stutter fix guide before touching more sliders.
One cutscene fix is in the settings. Game Rant‘s launch review called the stutter when gameplay hands over to a 30 FPS cutscene “a major issue”. The Day 0 patch added a Cinematic Framerate option (30, 60 or Unlimited) and the 20 August 2025 hotfix made Unlimited the default “for new players”, per 2K’s patch notes. The wording says new players, so if you installed at launch, open the graphics menu and check the option yourself.
Upscalers: TSR, DLSS, FSR and XeSS
At 1080p on an RTX 4070 Ti, all four upscalers land within a few FPS of each other at the same mode, so pick on image quality. GameGPU’s figures are below; the sources disagree on which looks best.
| Mode | TSR | DLSS | FSR | XeSS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native | 82 | 87 | 86 | 87 |
| Quality | 101 | 102 | 104 | 105 |
| Balanced | 105 | 106 | 109 | 109 |
| Performance | 110 | 110 | 114 | 111 |
| Ultra Performance | 118 | 120 | 120 | 116 |
The takeaway is that going from Quality to Ultra Performance adds only about 17% (TSR 101 to 118), far less than the drop in render resolution would suggest. My reading is that at 1080p on this card something other than pixel shading is setting the pace, which fits PC Games Hardware’s streaming and CPU findings. Visually, GameGPU says DLSS sets the benchmark in every mode while TSR and FSR lose fine detail; DSOGaming reached the opposite verdict in August 2025, finding TSR sharper and more stable than DLSS 4 Super Resolution.
Neither verdict is current. The 14 August 2026 update raised DLSS to 4.5, FSR to 4.0.3 and XeSS to 3.05, and I found no test of the game after that. Treat both as open: stand in a grass field, switch between TSR and your vendor’s upscaler at the same mode, and keep what shimmers less. Our DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS comparison explains the differences, and our frame generation guide covers when to switch it on.
What the September patches fixed, and what no patch has touched
Neither September update changed performance in a way the notes describe. The 1 September 2026 update’s only graphics line is “improved visual stability, addressing reported issues with unintended geometry appearing during gameplay”, and the 22 September 2025 update fixed pixelated shadows in the Chapter 9 factory plus a generic stability line. This table lists every entry that touches graphics or upscaling, from the patch notes archive and the Steam hotfix post.
| Date | Graphics or PC entry | Does it change your settings? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Sep 2026 | “Improved visual stability”, unintended geometry fixed | No. This may be the “random geometry blobs” Game Rant saw at launch, but the notes do not say |
| 20 Aug 2026 (PC hotfix) | Distorted visuals fixed when DLSS and HDR were on together at lower frame rates | Only if you use both |
| 14 Aug 2026 | DLSS 4.5, FSR 4.0.3 and XeSS 3.05 | Re-test your upscaler |
| 4 Dec 2025 | Frame Generation could be disabled after certain menu transitions | If it switches off, check the menu |
| 20 Nov 2025 | FSR 4 ghosting and DLSS+DLAA instability on some GPUs; stretched textures in Chapter 3 | Only for those modes |
| 22 Sep 2025 | Pixelated factory shadows (Chapter 9); generic performance line | No |
| 28 Aug 2025 | Frame Generation randomly stopping fixed; upscaling ghosting in cinematics | No |
| 20 Aug 2025 (PC hotfix) | Cinematic Framerate default to Unlimited for new players; better cinematic transitions with TSR | Check the option |
| 7 Aug 2025 (Day 0) | Cinematic Framerate option added; “general improvements to framerate” | Check the option |
No note says that what any single graphics setting costs has changed, so the 2025 cost figures have not been contradicted. They have also not been repeated, and I found no 2026 per-setting benchmark, so treat the percentages as a ranking rather than an exact promise.
Which settings for which player
| If you are | Do this | Skip this |
|---|---|---|
| On an RTX 3060 or similar at 1080p | The 60 FPS config, DLSS Balanced, a 40 FPS cap on a 120 Hz or VRR screen | Chasing 60 and Epic textures |
| On an RTX 4060 or similar | The measured config as it stands; DLSS Quality at 1080p | Native resolution, the Epic preset |
| On an 8 GB card at 1440p | Textures High, DLSS Balanced, Foliage Medium | Epic anything; assume a memory spill if frame rate halves |
| On a 12 GB card or better, 1440p | Epic Textures, Global Illumination Epic if frame rate allows; High Shadows; Foliage High | Frame generation until base FPS is stable |
| CPU older than a Ryzen 5 5600 | A frame cap you can always hold; lower Foliage and View Distance | Expecting settings to remove stutter |
If the frame rate sits far below the guides, count your VRAM first, then your CPU, then your sliders. For the same cost-first approach on other games, see our Resident Evil 9 settings guide and our 007 First Light settings guide, and for the general method our guide to optimizing PC game settings.
Once the game runs the way you want, our Mafia: The Old Country beginner’s guide covers the choices the menu does not explain: which difficulty to pick, when to use the knife instead of the gun, how Free Ride unlocks its weapons and where the Man of Honor chapters fit in the story.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a volumetric fog or lighting setting in Mafia: The Old Country?
No. The official option list has no volumetric, fog or cloud slider, and no settings guide I read shows one. Whatever drives the atmosphere is bundled into the nine listed options, and the closest lever is Global Illumination, which is worth about 12% going from Epic to High.
Should I use the Epic preset?
No. PC Optimized put Epic to High at a 50% gain, and DSOGaming saw even an RTX 4090 dip below 60 FPS at 1080p on Epic, so the preset costs a large share of your frames for visuals most people cannot spot in motion. Take High and set Foliage to Medium for the best value.
Can an RTX 3060 run it at 60 FPS?
Not on any evidence I found. One guide claims 60 without a measurement, and the frame-time arithmetic points to about 40 FPS with the optimized settings and DLSS Balanced. A 40 FPS cap on a 120 Hz screen feels smoother than a 60 target that drifts.
Sources
- 2K / Hangar 13. Mafia: The Old Country PC specs and features (presets, graphics options list). mafia.2k.com (https://mafia.2k.com/the-old-country/news/pc-specs/)
- 2K / Hangar 13. Mafia: The Old Country patch notes archive (September 2026 update, Man of Honor update of 14 Aug 2026, 2025 updates and hotfixes). mafia.2k.com (https://mafia.2k.com/the-old-country/patch-notes/)
- 2K. PC Hotfix – Aug 20, 2026. Steam Community announcements (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1941540/view/1841579228666304)
- GameGPU. Mafia: The Old Country – An overview of graphics settings and their impact on performance (RTX 4070 Ti, Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 1080p) (https://en.gamegpu.com/test-gpu/action-fps-tps/mafia-the-old-country-obzor-i-sravnenie-graficheskikh-nastroek-vliyanie-na-proizvoditelnost)
- GameGPU. Mafia: The Old Country – Final Annual Benchmark 2025 (31 Dec 2025) (https://en.gamegpu.com/test-gpu/action-fps-tps/mafia-the-old-country-itogovyj-godovoj-benchmark-2025)
- PC Optimized Settings. Mafia: The Old Country PC Optimization + Settings Guide (RTX 4090 test, Areej Syed, 9 Aug 2025) (https://pcoptimizedsettings.com/best-settings-for-mafia-the-old-country-optimization-guide/)
- PC Optimized Settings. Mafia The Old Country Settings for Low-End PC: RTX 3060, 3060 Ti and RTX 4060 laptops (9 Aug 2025) (https://pcoptimizedsettings.com/mafia-the-old-country-settings-for-low-end-pc-rtx-3060-3060-ti-rtx-4060-laptops/)
- Karan Benchmarks. Mafia: The Old Country – PC Optimization Guide (RTX 4060 8GB, i5-13600K, 9 Aug 2025) (https://karanbenchmarks.in/mafia-the-old-country-pc-optimization-guide/)
- DSOGaming. Mafia: The Old Country – First PC Performance and DLSS 4 Impressions (RTX 4090 and RTX 5080) (https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/mafia-the-old-country-first-pc-performance-dlss-4-impressions/)
- PC Games Hardware. Mafia: The Old Country – Performance und Benchmarks (22 GPUs, CPU test, in German) (https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Mafia-The-Old-Country-Spiel-74877/Specials/Test-Grafikkarte-CPU-Systemanforderungen-Release-1479397/2/)
- Game Rant. Mafia: The Old Country PC Settings and Performance Review (Anthony Taormina, 7 Aug 2025) (https://gamerant.com/mafia-the-old-country-pc-settings-performance-review/)
- Deltia’s Gaming. Mafia The Old Country: Best Settings for RTX 30 Series (9 Aug 2025) (https://deltiasgaming.com/mafia-the-old-country-best-settings-for-rtx-30-series/)
- Deltia’s Gaming. Mafia The Old Country PC Optimization Guide: Best Settings For Optimal Performance (9 Aug 2025) (https://deltiasgaming.com/mafia-the-old-country-pc-optimization-guide-best-settings-for-optimal-performance/)
- Sportskeeda. Best Mafia: The Old Country settings for low-end GPUs (Arka Mukherjee, modified 17 Aug 2025) (https://www.sportskeeda.com/gaming-tech/mafia-old-country-best-settings-low-end-pc)
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.