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Genshin Impact’s settings menu has a lot of sliders, but most of them barely affect frame rate on PC. The game is primarily GPU-bound, which means a handful of graphics-heavy settings matter far more than the rest of the list combined.

Start with render resolution, not the preset

Render resolution works as a multiplier on the number of pixels the GPU actually has to draw. The slider runs from 0.6x to 1.5x. Dropping it from 1.0x to around 0.8x meaningfully cuts GPU load without a drastic drop in perceived sharpness at normal viewing distance. It’s usually the single most effective change on mid-range hardware. Treat it as your first lever, not a last resort.

Shadow quality and environment detail are the next biggest costs

After render resolution, shadow quality and environment detail are the two settings with the largest real impact on frame rate. Both involve heavier per-frame calculations than options like character quality or UI effects, which look similar at Medium and High but cost far less.

If you’re chasing a stable frame rate on mid-range hardware, lower these two before touching anything else. Check the actual difference in a demanding outdoor area, not a loading screen, since that’s where the cost shows up.

The built-in frame rate cap has known pacing issues

Genshin’s settings expose frame rate caps at 24, 30, 45 and 60 FPS on PC. A 120 FPS option exists, but only on select iOS devices, so 60 is the ceiling on PC. The cap itself is straightforward, but its frame pacing is inconsistent. Even locked at 60 FPS, you can notice stutter from frame-time variance rather than a low average frame rate.

If stutter persists after lowering the demanding settings above, the issue is often pacing, not raw performance headroom. Capping a few frames under your target (for example, aiming just under 60 rather than exactly at it) can produce steadier pacing than relying on the in-game limiter alone.

The full graphics menu at a glance

Genshin’s PC graphics settings are: Display Mode, V-Sync, FPS, Render Resolution (0.6x to 1.5x), Shadow Quality, Visual Effects, SFX Quality, Environment Detail, Anti-Aliasing, Volumetric Fog, Reflections, Bloom, Crowd Density, Co-Op Teammate Effects, Subsurface Scattering and Anisotropic Filtering. Two are situational: Crowd Density matters most in busy cities, and Co-Op Teammate Effects only affects sessions with other players, so both are worth lowering if those are the moments that stutter.

What’s not worth changing first

Character-model quality, most UI/effect toggles, and anti-aliasing typically have a smaller performance cost than their sliders suggest, especially compared to render resolution and shadows. Don’t drop these first, since you’ll lose visual clarity for a small performance return. Adjust them only after the bigger levers above are already tuned.

A practical tuning order

  1. Set render resolution to 0.8–0.9x and test in a busy outdoor area.
  2. Lower shadow quality one step and re-test.
  3. Lower environment detail one step if you still need more headroom.
  4. Set your frame cap slightly under your actual target if stutter persists at the exact cap.
  5. Only then consider anti-aliasing and remaining visual toggles.

The goal isn’t the highest preset. It’s a frame rate your hardware can hold consistently. Render resolution and shadows do almost all of the real work, and everything else is fine-tuning.

If you’re still working through Genshin Impact’s early systems, our beginner guide covers what actually matters first. Head back to the Genshin Impact hub for everything else we’ve covered.

Sources

Facts in this guide were checked against these pages in October 2026: