Turn Global Illumination down first. In the only per-setting benchmark we found that measures it, pcoptimizedsettings.com’s Marvel Rivals test, Ultra Global Illumination costs nearly 30% of your frame rate compared with switching it off. Shadow Detail came second at about 20%, with Reflection Quality at 7–8%, Effects Detail at 4–5% and Model Detail at 3%. That ordering matters most on the game’s official minimum spec, a GTX 1060, RX 580 or Arc A380 with 16 GB of RAM, where every percentage point is the difference between 40 and 60 FPS.
This guide ranks the settings by cost, gives a Low preset you can copy, and flags the one place where sources contradict each other. For the driver- and Windows-level tweaks that apply to every game, start with our PC game settings optimization guide. If your hardware is comfortably above minimum spec, our Marvel Rivals best PC settings guide is the better starting point.
Quick Start: The Low-End Preset in Six Steps
Work through these in order and stop as soon as you hold a steady 60 FPS in a team fight.
- Graphics Quality: Low. Raise individual settings later only if you have FPS to spare.
- Global Illumination: Off. If the scene looks too flat, try SSGI Low instead of any Lumen option.
- Shadow Detail: Low.
- Super Resolution Type: FSR, Mode: Quality. DLSS is not available on GTX cards. Drop to Balanced only if you are still under 60.
- Frame Generation: Off. It needs a healthy base frame rate to work.
- Install the game on an SSD and close browsers before you queue. Steam recommends an SSD and lists 16 GB of RAM as the minimum.
Source data runs from December 2024 to July 2026, and the per-setting percentages below come from an early-2025 build. Treat them as a ranking of which settings matter, not as promised FPS gains. Menu labels also shift between seasons, so check in-game before assuming a guide’s wording still matches.
What the Official Spec Tells You
A GTX 1060-class GPU is the floor, and the game expects 16 GB of RAM at every tier. The Steam store page lists the following.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | GTX 1060 / RX 580 / Arc A380 | RTX 2060 (Super) / RX 5700 XT / Arc A750 |
| CPU | Core i5-6600K / Ryzen 5 1600X | Core i5-10400 / Ryzen 5 5600X |
| RAM | 16 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 70 GB, SSD recommended | 70 GB, SSD recommended |
The practical takeaway is that the 16 GB RAM requirement is the one older systems trip over. PCGamesN pointed out that it could push older laptops and PCs to their limits, so if you are on 8 GB, add memory before you spend time tuning graphics. A PC below the GPU minimum, such as integrated graphics, is a different problem; our guide to games for integrated graphics and low VRAM covers realistic expectations there.
Which Settings Cost the Most FPS
Global Illumination is the most expensive setting, Shadow Detail is second, and everything else is a rounding error by comparison. The numbers below come from the pcoptimizedsettings test on an i9-12900K and RTX 4090 at 4K, comparing each setting’s top value with its lowest.
| Setting | Tested change | FPS cost at the top value | Low-end verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Illumination | Ultra to Off | Nearly 30% | Off first. SSGI costs only ~10% versus Off, Lumen High ~20% |
| Shadow Detail | Ultra to Low | About 20% | Low |
| Reflection Quality | Lumen to Off | 7–8% | Off or screen-space |
| Effects Detail | High to Low | 4–5% | Low |
| Model Detail | High to Low | 3% | Low, free FPS |
Why Global Illumination Costs So Much
Global Illumination is the calculation of light bouncing off surfaces, and Lumen does it by tracing rays every frame. Epic’s Lumen documentation describes screen traces first, then a more reliable software or hardware ray-tracing fallback, and puts its Epic-quality budget at around 8 ms per frame for global illumination and reflections at 1080p on next-generation consoles, for a 30 FPS target. A 60 FPS frame lasts only 16.7 ms, so the same work would take nearly half of it. Marvel Rivals is not necessarily running Epic’s console settings, but the arithmetic explains why a cheaper screen-space method makes such a large difference.
The same site’s low-end test shows it in practice: an RTX 3060 12 GB with a Ryzen 5 5600 averaged slightly over 60 FPS at 1080p Ultra, and about 113 FPS after Lumen Global Illumination was disabled. It also reported VRAM use falling from 9.5–10 GB at 1080p Ultra with frame generation to 7.7 GB after the Global Illumination change, which matters if you are on a 4 GB card.
Where the Sources Disagree
One source contradicts this ranking. TargetFPS, updated July 9, 2026, rates Shadow and Effects at 12% each, calls Effects the single highest-impact change, and says the engine uses a traditional deferred pipeline rather than Lumen. Its table also lists items such as Volumetric Fog and Motion Blur that do not map cleanly onto the Graphics tab we describe in our best-settings guide. Meanwhile PCGamesN’s June 2025 settings test shows a “Lumen GI High Quality” option in the menu and still reached 141.9 FPS average (84.3 FPS 1% low) at 1080p on an RTX 4070 with Shadow and Effects set to Low.
We cannot reconcile these from the outside, so test it on your own PC. Open the Global Illumination dropdown. If you see Lumen or SSGI entries, change that setting first. If you do not, start with Shadow Detail and Effects Detail. Change one setting at a time and compare average FPS over the same stretch of play.
The Low-End Preset, Setting by Setting
Use Low across the Graphics tab and keep Global Illumination off, with two exceptions: Texture Detail depends on your VRAM, and Shadow Detail can go to Medium if you have frames to spare.
| Setting | Value | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics Quality | Low | Sets every item below to its baseline |
| Global Illumination | Off (SSGI Low if too flat) | Largest measured cost |
| Shadow Detail | Low | Second-largest cost; PCGamesN’s competitive profile also runs it Low |
| Reflection Quality | Off / screen-space | Lumen reflections cost 7–8% |
| Effects Detail | Low | You lose sparks and debris, not hero outlines |
| Model Detail, Post-Processing, Foliage | Low | ProSettings recommends Low for all three |
| Texture Detail | Low on 4 GB cards, Medium on 6 GB+ | Our inference from the VRAM figures above, not a tested value |
The takeaway from the table is simple: nearly every Graphics tab entry goes to Low, and the only two with real decisions attached are Global Illumination and Texture Detail.
Upscaling Without DLSS
If you have a GTX 1060, GTX 1650 or RX 580, use FSR at Quality. NVIDIA’s DLSS page lists support for GeForce RTX GPUs only, so GTX cards cannot use the DLSS 4.5 presets added in the Season 8.5 patch notes. AMD says FSR works across “both AMD and select competitors” products, so check that it appears in your Super Resolution Type list. Our DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS comparison covers the differences in image quality.
The upscaler renders a smaller image and reconstructs it to your monitor’s resolution. Using AMD’s reference ratios from its FSR 3 documentation, a 1080p output looks like this, assuming the game follows those ratios.
| Mode | Scale per axis | Internal resolution at 1080p | Share of native pixels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native | 1.0x | 1920 × 1080 | 100% |
| Quality | 1.5x | 1280 × 720 | 44% |
| Balanced | 1.7x | 1129 × 635 | 35% |
| Performance | 2.0x | 960 × 540 | 25% |
Quality mode cuts the pixel count to under half, which is why it is usually the cheapest FPS you can buy. Do not lower your Windows resolution instead: the upscaler reconstructs detail from several frames, while a plain lower resolution is stretched by the monitor or GPU scaler and looks softer for the same performance. ProSettings makes the same point from the other direction, recommending 100% render scale and advising you to lower it only if you are struggling for frames.
Leave Frame Generation off. AMD states that FSR 3 Frame Generation runs best interpolating from a minimum of 60 FPS and that sub-30 FPS input should be absolutely avoided, so it multiplies a problem rather than fixing one on a budget card. Our frame generation guide explains the break-even point.
What to Expect by Hardware
A GTX 1650 lands around 45 FPS at 1080p on balanced settings, according to TargetFPS’s testing estimate, which is not developer data. Use the table to pick your starting point.
| Your hardware | Start here | If still under 60 FPS |
|---|---|---|
| GTX 1060 / RX 580 / Arc A380 (minimum spec) | Full Low preset, GI off, FSR Quality | FSR Balanced, then check RAM and SSD |
| GTX 1650 (4 GB) | Full Low preset, Texture Detail Low | FSR Balanced; see our GTX 1650 and 1660 settings guide |
| RTX 2060 / RX 5700 XT (recommended spec) | GI off or SSGI Low, Shadow Low, upscaler Quality | Effects Low, upscaler Balanced |
| RTX 4060 class | Medium preset; see the RTX 4060 game-by-game guide | Shadow Low, upscaler Quality |
Player type changes the order. Ranked players should keep Shadow Detail and Effects Detail on Low even when the GPU could handle more, because frame time matters more than looks. Casual and story-focused players on a Recommended-spec card can usually afford SSGI Low and Shadow Medium and should cut Effects Detail first if frames dip. If you are on minimum spec, the choice is made for you: everything Low.
FAQ
Can a GTX 1650 run Marvel Rivals?
Yes, but expect to work for 60 FPS. TargetFPS’s estimate is about 45 FPS at balanced 1080p settings, so the Low preset plus FSR Quality is the realistic route. The 4 GB of VRAM is the likely limit, which is why we suggest Low textures there.
Is it better to lower resolution than to use FSR?
No. FSR Quality renders at 720p internally on a 1080p screen, roughly the same pixel count as a 720p desktop, but it reconstructs detail instead of stretching a flat image. Use a lower desktop resolution only if FSR is missing from your menu.
Does lowering shadows hurt visibility in ranked?
Not in a way that matters. You lose soft shadow detail, not hero outlines, and PCGamesN’s competitive profile runs Shadow Detail at Low. The trade is a measurable FPS gain for a flatter-looking map.
Should I turn on Frame Generation to reach 60 FPS?
No. Frame generation needs roughly 60 FPS of real frames to work well. Fix the base frame rate with Global Illumination, shadows and upscaling first.
Sources
- Valve / NetEase Games. Marvel Rivals system requirements. Steam store page
- pcoptimizedsettings.com. Marvel Rivals PC optimized settings: every graphics option benchmarked (updated January 9, 2025)
- pcoptimizedsettings.com. Marvel Rivals graphics settings for low-end PC: RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 4060 (December 11, 2024)
- PCGamesN. Best Marvel Rivals settings for PC and Steam Deck (updated June 25, 2025)
- TargetFPS. Marvel Rivals best graphics settings (updated July 9, 2026)
- Epic Games. Lumen technical details in Unreal Engine
- NVIDIA. DLSS technology page
- AMD GPUOpen. FidelityFX Super Resolution 3
- ProSettings. Marvel Rivals best settings and options guide (updated April 11, 2025)
- PCGamesN. Marvel Rivals system requirements (July 31, 2025)
- NetEase Games. Marvel Rivals Version 20260612 patch notes, Season 8.5
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.