Every settings guide tells you to turn off ray tracing for more FPS. That’s true, but it’s not the biggest lever in The Finals — destruction physics is. When a wall collapses or a floor gives way, Embark’s engine isn’t just tearing down geometry; it’s recalculating how light bounces through the new gap in real time, because RTX Global Illumination is built to react to exactly that kind of change. That’s a structurally different, and heavier, workload than ray tracing a static room, and it’s why your FPS can nosedive mid-fight even with ray tracing off entirely [1][8].
This guide is verified against Patch 11.7.0 (August 26, 2026), which fixed a batch of crashes and an AMD FSR3 performance bug introduced by the mid-August upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.7 [2][3] — settings advice written before that patch may be chasing problems the update already solved.
Quick Start: Set These First
- Confirm you’re on Patch 11.7.0 or later before touching anything else — earlier UE5.7 builds carry crash and AMD FSR3 bugs this patch fixed [2]
- Textures: High or Epic — cheap on FPS, big impact on target readability [8]
- Shadows: Low — the single easiest FPS win with minimal visibility loss [8]
- Motion Blur and Film Grain: Off — both blur the exact moment you need to track a target [8][9]
- RTX Global Illumination: Off below an RTX 4070-class GPU, Medium-Dynamic at 4070 and above [1][8]
- NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency (or AMD Anti-Lag 2): On, always [1][7]
- DLSS/FSR Super Resolution: Quality mode on; Frame Generation off if you play ranked [5]
- Field of View: 90–100, matched to your monitor and comfort [9]
- Frame rate cap: 5–10 FPS above your monitor’s refresh rate, not uncapped [4]
Why Destruction Physics — Not Ray Tracing — Is Your Real Bottleneck
Every major settings guide for this game agrees that destruction is the heaviest single system running during a fight, and the mechanism explains why. NVIDIA’s own technical writeup on the game states it plainly: “As buildings are blown open, and walls come crashing down, the world’s lighting needs to react realistically as light is occluded or disoccluded” [1]. That lighting recalculation is RTX Global Illumination doing its job — and it fires on every destruction event, whether or not you’ve enabled traditional ray-traced reflections.
Practically, that means destruction events spike CPU and GPU load at the same moment: geometry changes, particle effects, and lighting recalculation all land in the same frame [4]. Ray tracing on top of that is a real cost — one widely cited estimate puts the hit at roughly 30 to 40 percent versus rasterized lighting [8] — but it’s a multiplier on a baseline that’s already expensive because of how the destruction system works, not the primary offender. That’s the opposite framing from most guides, which treat ray tracing as the setting to blame first. Turn off ray tracing and you’ll gain frames; leave destruction-heavy maps and modes for last if you’re still chasing stability.
The Core Settings Table
| Setting | Competitive (max FPS + lowest latency) | Balanced (quality + performance) | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution Scaling / Upscaler | Native, or DLSS/FSR Quality | DLSS/FSR Quality | Super Resolution raises real rendered frames, which lowers latency — it isn’t the setting that costs you responsiveness [5] |
| Frame Generation | Off | On, if GPU has headroom | Generated frames can’t react to your mouse input; Reflex only brings latency back near native, never below it [5] |
| RTX Global Illumination | Off (below RTX 4070) / Medium-Dynamic | Medium–High on 4080+ | Recalculates lighting on every destruction event — the single most expensive toggle in the game [1] |
| Shadows | Low | Low–Medium | Large FPS gain for minimal visibility loss [8] |
| Textures | High | High | Low FPS cost, high impact on spotting enemies at range [8] |
| Motion Blur | Off | Off | Obscures moving targets during peeks and rotations [9] |
| NVIDIA Reflex / AMD Anti-Lag 2 | On | On | NVIDIA states Reflex cuts system latency in this game by up to 57 percent [1] |
| VSync | Off | Off | Adds input delay tied to your monitor’s refresh cycle |
Settings by Player Type
The same options don’t serve everyone. If you’re still learning the maps and gunplay, chasing the last 10 FPS isn’t your bottleneck yet — visibility and stability are.
| Player type | Priority | What to do differently |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Stability and visibility over raw FPS | Leave textures and post-processing on defaults; just apply the Quick Start checklist and cap your frame rate — don’t chase benchmark numbers yet |
| Casual player | Smooth, consistent frame pacing | DLSS/FSR Quality plus Frame Generation is fine here — the latency cost matters far less outside ranked play |
| Hardcore / competitive optimizer | Lowest latency, most consistent 1% lows | Frame Generation off, Reflex on, RTX GI off unless your 1% lows can absorb it, frame cap set to avoid uncapped variance |
DLSS, FSR, and Frame Generation: The Latency Myth, Corrected
Several popular settings guides lump DLSS and FSR in with Frame Generation and tell competitive players to avoid all of it for latency reasons [7]. That’s only half right, and the half that’s wrong matters. DLSS/FSR Super Resolution — the upscaler that renders at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs the frame — increases the number of real frames your engine processes, which lowers latency, not raises it. Frame Generation is the separate technology that actually costs you responsiveness: it interpolates a frame between two real ones, holding the second real frame back to do it, so “your mouse input only influences real frames — the generated ones can’t react to anything you do” [5]. Displayed FPS at 120 from a 60 FPS baseline still feels like 60 FPS to your inputs.
Use this as a decision tree rather than a blanket rule:
- Playing ranked or scrims? Super Resolution Quality on, Frame Generation off — full stop [5]
- Playing casually and your GPU is under 100 FPS at your target settings? Frame Generation on is a reasonable trade for smoother visuals
- On an older GPU without Frame Generation hardware support? This choice is made for you — lean on Super Resolution and the rest of the Quick Start checklist instead
NVIDIA Reflex and AMD Anti-Lag: The Number That Actually Matters
Of every setting in this guide, Reflex (or its AMD equivalent, Anti-Lag 2) has the best-documented payoff. NVIDIA’s own benchmarking states Reflex reduces system latency in The Finals by up to 57 percent [1] — a bigger, more specific number than the vague “reduces latency” language most third-party guides use, and one that applies directly to this game rather than being borrowed from a different title. There’s no real downside to leaving it on; it costs no visual quality and works alongside every other setting in this guide. If you haven’t touched your GPU driver’s global settings before, our NVIDIA Control Panel best settings guide covers the driver-level Low Latency Mode and other options that stack with in-game Reflex.
Sensitivity, FOV, and Polling Rate for Competitive Play
Here’s an honest gap in the community’s own settings data: there is no verified, sourced list of pro-player sensitivities for The Finals. As one dedicated sensitivity-conversion site puts it, “nobody publishes one — not us, and not anyone else” [6]. Pages claiming to list pro settings are, per that same analysis, often repurposing numbers from CS2, Valorant, or Apex players who don’t compete in this game at all. Treat any “pro settings” table you find with real skepticism.
What’s actually useful is that The Finals uses a yaw value of 0.0066 — identical to Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone — which means your sensitivity from either of those games carries over 1:1 with no conversion math needed [6]. If you’re coming from CS2, Valorant, or Apex, use a sensitivity converter rather than guessing.
Field of view runs 71–90° and only affects your hipfire view, not your aim-down-sights zoom [6]. Set it as high as feels comfortable — wider FOV means more peripheral information, and unlike some competitive shooters, it isn’t a stat you’re trading away for anything else. For your mouse, keep polling rate at 1000Hz, the standard rate this genre expects; our polling rate guide breaks down why higher rates matter less than most marketing implies once you’re already at 1000Hz.
Fixing Stutter After the Latest Patch
If you updated recently and now see stutter you didn’t before, it’s very likely temporary shader cache rebuilding rather than a settings problem — the engine recompiles shaders after major updates, and that process causes frame-time hitches until it finishes, typically within your first match or two back [4]. Two other real fixes worth knowing: Texture Quality set higher than your VRAM can hold spills into system RAM and causes hitching before your average FPS looks stressed at all [4], and Patch 11.7.0 specifically fixed a performance-degradation bug affecting AMD FSR3 users — if you’re on AMD and were fighting stutter before August 26, 2026, update and re-test before changing anything else [2]. The patch also removed a workaround some players were using — manually uninstalling the inpoutx64.sys driver file to dodge a crash — because that crash no longer exists [2]. If you find that advice in an older guide, skip it; it’s obsolete.
FAQ
Does ray tracing ruin your FPS in The Finals?
It costs real performance — roughly 30-40 percent by one common estimate [8] — but it’s not the main reason destruction-heavy fights tank your frame rate. RTX Global Illumination recalculates lighting on every destruction event regardless of whether traditional ray tracing is on, because that reactive lighting is the point of the system [1]. Turning off ray tracing helps; expecting it to fully solve destruction-related dips won’t.
Should I turn on Frame Generation for ranked matches?
No. Frame Generation interpolates frames your input never touches, so your responsiveness stays tied to your real, lower frame rate even as the number on screen climbs [5]. Save it for casual play where the extra smoothness is worth more than the input precision.
What sensitivity do pro players actually use?
Nobody has published a verified list, and claims otherwise are usually recycled numbers from other games [6]. Your best move is converting from a game you already know well — The Finals shares its exact yaw value with Overwatch 2 and Warzone, so that conversion is 1:1.
Do I need to change my settings after every update?
Not every one, but version-tracking matters more than usual right now: the engine jumped from Unreal Engine 5.3 to 5.7 in mid-August 2026, and the crash and AMD performance fixes for that jump only landed in Patch 11.7.0 on August 26 [2][3]. If your settings guide predates that patch, some of its troubleshooting advice may already be solved by simply updating.
Key Takeaways
Chasing FPS in The Finals starts with the right target: destruction physics, not ray tracing, is the structural reason performance dips during fights, because the game’s lighting system is built to react to every collapsing wall. Pair the Quick Start checklist with Reflex or Anti-Lag 2 for a genuinely documented latency win, keep Frame Generation out of ranked play, and confirm you’re on Patch 11.7.0 before troubleshooting stutter that may already be fixed. None of this requires a mythical pro settings list — a correct mental model of what’s actually expensive gets you further than copying someone else’s numbers.
Sources
- NVIDIA GeForce News, “THE FINALS: Out Now & Enhanced With NVIDIA Reflex, NVIDIA DLSS 3, and NVIDIA RTXGI Ray Tracing” — nvidia.com
- TheFinalsLoadout, “THE FINALS 11.7.0 Patch Notes” — thefinalsloadout.com
- TheFinalsLoadout, Patch Notes Archive — thefinalsloadout.com
- Tier1Settings, “The Finals Stuttering Fix” — tier1settings.com
- Tier1Settings, “Frame Generation and Input Lag: Should You Use It in Competitive Games?” — tier1settings.com
- SensLab, “The Finals Sensitivity: Best Settings, Yaw and 1:1 Games” — senslab.pro
- Hotspawn, “Best The Finals Settings For 2026” — hotspawn.com
- GAMES.GG, “The Finals Best PC Graphics Settings for Max FPS” — games.gg
- PCGamesN, “Best The Finals Settings for MAX FPS” — pcgamesn.com
Settings verified against Patch 11.7.0 (August 26, 2026). Values may shift with future updates — always confirm your current patch version before applying a settings guide.
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.