The best Silent Hill 2 Remake PC settings are simpler than most guides make them: turn ray tracing off unless you own an RTX 4070-class GPU or better, run DLSS or TSR on Balanced, drop shadows one notch, and leave everything else high. The fog is the one thing you can’t tune, because the game’s Advanced Quality Settings menu has no fog or volumetric slider. The benchmark data says the settings that really cost frames are ray tracing and shadows. This guide separates the real levers from the placebo ones and gives a settings table by GPU tier. It’s a spoke of our complete PC game settings optimization guide.
Verified against the Steam system requirements, patch 1.04 (21 October 2024) and October 2024 benchmark data. Later patches may shift the numbers, so treat percentages as directional.
Quick Start: Best Silent Hill 2 Remake Settings in Six Steps
- Open Display & Graphics, set Render Quality Preset to Custom, then open Advanced Quality Settings (the menu path Game8 documents).
- Set Ray Tracing to Off unless you’re on an RTX 4070 / RX 7800 XT or better.
- Pick DLSS (RTX cards) or TSR (everyone else) on Balanced.
- Set Shadow Quality to Medium, or High if you have headroom.
- Leave Textures, Shaders and Effects on High. Their measured cost is marginal.
- Turn SSR off if you care about 1% lows, and leave motion blur to taste.
Is There a Fog Setting in Silent Hill 2 Remake?
No. Menu walkthroughs from Game8, PC Optimized Settings, TheBackDash and Twisted Voxel list the same Advanced Quality Settings: Anti-Aliasing, Resolution Scalability, Shadows, Textures, Shaders, Effects, Separate Translucency, Lens Flares, Global Motion Blur, SSAO, SSR, SSS Quality and Image Sharpening. None contains a fog or volumetric entry. A few aggregator guides do list a “Volumetric Fog Quality” dropdown, but it doesn’t appear in any of those four menu listings, so treat it as unverified.
That changes how to think about the town’s look. Bloober said the game uses Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen for lighting (PlayStation Blog). That suggests fog is shaded by the same system rather than tuned on its own, though no source states it outright. The controls that shape the mood are therefore indirect: the ray tracing toggle, shadows and your output resolution. No benchmark we found isolates fog’s frame cost, so a claim that fog is the biggest FPS lever is a guess. The DSOGaming PC analysis even argues the fog should have been denser, which makes its thickness a design choice rather than a quality tier.
One more wrinkle: patch 1.07 (7 August 2026) changed how the fog renders. GameGPU and PlayStation Universe describe it as a PS5 and PS5 Pro update, while UpdateCrazy lists PS5 and PC. We found no Steam announcement for it. If your fog looks different from older screenshots, that patch is a possible reason, but PC delivery is unconfirmed.
What Each Setting Costs: Measured on an RTX 4090
Ray tracing and shadows are the only two settings with a double-digit FPS cost; everything else is close to rounding error on a high-end GPU. The figures below come from PC Optimized Settings‘ per-setting runs on an RTX 4090 with a Ryzen 9 7950X, tested before patch 1.04.
| Setting | What it actually does | Measured cost | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ray Tracing | Ray-traced reflections and global illumination, one toggle | About 20% average; 24% uplift when off | Off below RTX 4070-class |
| Shadow Quality | Soft shadows, mostly visible indoors | Medium vs High: 4-6%; lowest setting: up to 17% | Medium |
| Render Quality Preset | Bundle of the options below | Medium ~15% and Low ~30% faster than Epic; High is about equal to Epic | Custom |
| Shaders | Scene lighting indoors, AO-like shading | Minimal | High |
| Effects | Decals and weathering stains | Marginal | High |
| SSAO | Contact shadows (only with ray tracing off) | Nominal; lows can dip up to 10% | On |
| SSR | Diffuse screen-space reflections (most reflections are cube maps) | Minor; turning it off helps 1% lows | Off if chasing lows |
| Textures | Streaming detail, distant surfaces first | About 600 MB VRAM from Low to High, negligible FPS | High |
Guides disagree about Shaders and Effects. Game8 recommends dropping them and a few lists call them among the heaviest. PC Optimized is the only source here with per-setting benchmark runs, and it measured both as marginal. We side with the measured data, with a caveat: one GPU, one test area, pre-patch. Because shadows are mostly visible indoors and fog hides much of the outdoor detail, Medium shadows give up very little in the town streets.
Ray Tracing: When the 20% Is Worth It
Ray tracing is the only toggle with a clearly visible price and payoff. On the RTX 4090 test rig, native Epic ran at 132.5 / 97 / 56 FPS at 1080p / 1440p / 4K, and ray tracing dropped those to 103 / 76.4 / 45. The DSOGaming benchmarks saw the same card average about 37 FPS (low of 24) at 4K Epic with ray tracing, recovering to roughly 60 average (low of 46) with DLSS 3 Quality. Guru3D reports ray tracing cutting frame rates by up to 50% in some scenes, and an RX 6900 XT managing only 59 FPS at 1080p without it. The cost varies by scene and vendor.
A rule of thumb derived from the 20% figure: if your ray-tracing-off average at your target resolution is below about 75 FPS, keep it off, because 20% off 75 lands you at 60. The visual gain is mostly interiors and reflective surfaces. Steam’s own recommended spec (RTX 2080 or RX 6800 XT) targets Medium at 60 FPS in 1080p and says nothing about ray tracing.
Upscaling and Frame Generation: Patch 1.04 Changed the Advice
Use DLSS if you have an RTX card. If you don’t, try TSR or XeSS before FSR 3. PC Optimized found TSR retains as much detail as DLSS and XeSS, while FSR 3 gave the worst image quality of the five upscalers (TSR, FSR 1, FSR 3, DLSS, XeSS). In-game anti-aliasing only works with upscaling off, and TXAA looks slightly worse than upscaling without the speed gain, so stay on an upscaler even when your frame rate is already high.
Frame generation used to need an Engine.ini edit. Since patch 1.04, the game adds a DLSS frame generation option when DLSS is your supersampler (with NVIDIA Reflex active alongside it), supports FSR 3.1.1, and adds an AMD Fluid Motion Frames option when FSR 3.1 is selected. Skip the launch-week Engine.ini workarounds. As a general guideline, only enable frame generation once your real frame rate is already around 60. Community reports on Steam after the patch were mixed: an RTX 4080 owner saw near-solid 120 FPS, while an RTX 3080 Ti owner reported FSR 3.1 crashing the game.
Best Silent Hill 2 Remake Settings by GPU Tier
Ray tracing is the dividing line: on at RTX 4070 / RX 7800 XT and above, off below. The tiers below follow PC Optimized’s tested configurations and Steam’s stated targets, with our own adjustments where noted.
| Your GPU (target) | Ray Tracing | Upscaler | Shadows | Textures / Shaders / Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 4080 / RX 7900 XTX (4K, 60 FPS) | On | DLSS or TSR Balanced | High | High / High / High |
| RTX 4070 / RX 7800 XT (1440p, 60 FPS) | On | Balanced | High, Medium if short | High / High / High |
| RTX 3060, RTX 4060, RX 6600 (1080p, 60 FPS) | Off | DLSS or TSR Balanced | Medium (Low on RX 6600) | High / High / High |
| GTX 1070 Ti, RX 5700, Arc A750 (Steam minimum, 1080p, 30 FPS) | Off | TSR or XeSS Balanced to Performance | Low | Medium / Medium / Low |
The last row is our extrapolation: Steam says the minimum spec manages Low/Medium at a stable 30 FPS, and no source benchmarks those cards. On 8 GB cards, start with High textures and drop to Medium only if you see hitching. That is a heuristic; the usage figures (about 9 GB at 1080p max) are what the game uses when available, not a hard requirement.
If you want atmosphere first, keep ray tracing and High shadows and accept Quality-mode upscaling at 45-60 FPS on a variable refresh display. If you want frame rate first, go ray tracing off, Medium shadows and Balanced upscaling. NVIDIA owners can pair this with our NVIDIA Control Panel guide, and the V-Sync and frame cap choice is covered in our V-Sync on or off guide.
What Settings Can’t Fix: Traversal Stutter
Digital Foundry traced the PC stutter to traversal, meaning objects loading and unloading as you move, rather than shader compilation (Wccftech’s summary). DSOGaming saw it mainly in the town and also saw stuttering in the main menu during initial shader compilation. Patch 1.04 fixed sky-map stuttering and added an HZB culling on/off option aimed at stutter on some AMD and Intel GPUs. The notes don’t say which state helps, so test both on the same street in town. Install the game on an SSD, as Steam recommends, and don’t expect a graphics setting to remove stutter entirely.
Audio: No 3D Audio Toggle or Footstep Slider
We found no 3D audio switch or footstep volume slider in any menu listing, and Game8’s audio walkthrough documents only two extra options. The 3D audio Bloober’s creative director described was a PS5 hardware feature (“Thanks to PS5’s 3D audio capabilities, players will be able to determine the exact direction where the sound is coming from”), so don’t expect it as a PC toggle.
What the PC menu does offer is Night Mode, which Game8 says reduces loudness dynamics, and the Radio State Indicator under Accessibility > Audio. Game8 describes the indicator as picking up nearby sounds. Automaton says it shows on screen when the radio’s static is playing. We trust Automaton’s more specific description. It also notes the static doesn’t reveal direction, so rotate the camera to find the threat.
For headphone users, the useful fix is in Windows, not the game. Two players on the Steam forums cured an echo-like audio delay by turning off Windows spatial audio, which is anecdotal but matches the lesson in our audio settings guide: fix the Windows pipeline before blaming the game. Our own judgment, not tested: leave Night Mode off unless you play late at night, since compressed dynamics likely flatten the quiet-to-loud contrast the game builds its scares on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Silent Hill 2 Remake have a fog setting on PC?
No fog or volumetric slider appears in the Advanced Quality Settings listed by Game8, PC Optimized Settings, TheBackDash or Twisted Voxel. The frame cost of the fog comes through lighting, so ray tracing and shadows are the settings to adjust.
Should I turn ray tracing on in Silent Hill 2 Remake?
Only on an RTX 4070 / RX 7800 XT class GPU or better. It costs about 20% of your frame rate on average, and up to 50% in some scenes per Guru3D, so if your no-ray-tracing average is under roughly 75 FPS, leave it off.
Does Silent Hill 2 Remake still stutter on PC after patches?
Some, yes. Patch 1.04 reduced the stutter and added an HZB culling toggle for some AMD and Intel GPUs, but Steam reports stayed mixed and no graphics setting removes traversal stutter entirely.
Settings and performance figures reflect Silent Hill 2 Remake on PC as of patch 1.04 and October 2024 benchmarks, plus the August 2026 patch 1.07 reports noted above. Values may change with updates, so verify in-game.
Sources
- Konami / Valve. SILENT HILL 2 system requirements and release details. Steam
- Areej Syed. Silent Hill 2 Remake Optimization: Best Settings for PC (10 Oct 2024). PC Optimized Settings
- DSOGaming. Silent Hill 2 Remake PC Performance Analysis. DSOGaming
- DSOGaming. Silent Hill 2 Remake Ray Tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 3 and AMD FSR 3.0 Benchmarks. DSOGaming
- Game8. Best Settings for PC and HDR, Silent Hill 2 Remake. Game8
- Deltia’s Gaming. Silent Hill 2 Remake Update 1.04 Official Patch Notes. Deltia’s Gaming
- Wccftech. Silent Hill 2 Remake PC Is Yet Another Unreal Engine Case of ‘Stutter Struggle’. Wccftech
- Guru3D. Silent Hill 2 Remake GPU Performance: Challenges in Achieving 60 FPS. Guru3D
- Automaton West. The importance of Silent Hill 2 remake’s radio and how to get the Radio Silence achievement. Automaton
- Mateusz Lenart, Bloober Team. Silent Hill 2 remake revealed, first gameplay details and design changes announced (19 Oct 2022). PlayStation Blog
- Steam Community. Audio echo issue? (Oct 2024). Steam Community
- Steam Community. New patch discussion (22 Oct 2024). Steam Community
- GameGPU. Update 1.07 improved fog rendering and frame rate in Silent Hill 2 (7 Aug 2026). GameGPU
- PlayStation Universe. Silent Hill 2 PS5 Update 1.07 Out Now: Full Patch Notes Listed. PlayStation Universe
- UpdateCrazy. Silent Hill 2 Patch 1.07 Update Notes for PS5 and PC. UpdateCrazy
- TheBackDash. Best Silent Hill 2 remake PC settings. TheBackDash (menu listing)
- Twisted Voxel. Silent Hill 2 Remake Best Settings Guide for PC. Twisted Voxel (menu listing)
Game names, trademarks and any imagery referencing them are the property of their respective publishers and are used here for editorial and identification purposes. Illustrations in this article are AI-generated and are not captures from the game.
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.