How to increase FPS in Battlefield 2042: video settings and PROFSAVE_profile
The video settings of Battlefield 2042 can be optimized to increase your FPS and improve your gameplay.
On the web, you can find several configuration files to replace yours and boost the fps. Honestly, I don’t like this approach because I want to know exactly what I am changing, so I decided to review all the options in this article.
These adjustments are useful if you are struggling to reach an acceptable amount of fps as you are using a low-spec PC, but also if you have a monitor with a high refresh-rate as you bought it to gain an edge in a competitive FPS such as Battlefield 2042.
Below, you can find comparative images of the same scene using my optimized settings and the Ultra preset. The vegetation is affected the most, while urban areas look pretty much the same.
I took the screens on a 38 inches ultrawide monitor with a resolution of 3840x1600.
PC specs: Ryzen 7 3900x, RTX 3080, 32GB RAM.
Using the Ultra graphic preset, I had about 50-65 fps.
My optimized settings brought the fps up to 85-100. You may earn more frames with a faster Ryzen 5000 Series CPU.
Update after game release:
Using DLSS Quality, the fps increased to 70-80 with the Ultra graphic preset.
RTX heavily impacts the framerate bringing it back to 50s.
Video Settings
Launch Battlefield 2042, press Options on the bottom left, select Display on the top left, and then go on the Video tab. I will show you how to set up each setting for maximum performance while retaining graphic fidelity.
Screen Setup
Fullscreen mode: Fullscreen or Borderless.
Fullscreen is the best choice performance-wise, but you might prefer Borderless if you have a multi-monitor setup and you wish to move quickly on another display.
Note: Generally, you can switch from Fullscreen to Borderless by pressing Alt+Enter on the keyboard.
Fullscreen resolution: use your native one.
Using your native resolution is desirable for a better view, but if you badly need a performance boost, decreasing the resolution will greatly improve your fps. 720p is usually a solid compromise between quality and performance.
Refresh rate: your monitor refresh rate.
If you have a G-Sync or G-Sync compatible monitor, I suggest selecting a global fps cap about 3-4 FPS below your refresh rate in the Nvidia control panel. For example, my monitor has a refresh rate of 160hz, so I selected a framerate limit of 156. In this way, you don’t have to tune manually each game.
Field of View
Field of View: 75 to 90.
Vehicle 3P Field of View: 70 to 90.
ADS Field of View: Off.
I published an article about the best FoV in Battlefield 2042, containing the results of a survey and detailed explanations on each setting.
A higher field of view (FOV) increases your peripheral vision, but at the same time all the targets are smaller, and it can cause a fisheye effect. In any case, lower values will improve your performance.
Graphic Settings
Motion Blur: 0.
Chromatic aberration: Off.
Film Grain: Off.
Vignette: Off.
Lens Distortion: Off.
The settings above generate visual effects on your screen that influence negatively both your performance and gameplay, so I suggest disabling them.
Graphics Preset
Note that the fps gains specified on some graphic options are approximate. They are influenced by your PC (CPU and GPU mainly) and resolution.
Graphics Quality: Custom.
We will set up each option individually.
Texture quality: High.
Texture quality depends mostly on the VRAM available on your graphic card, so it barely affects your fps. You can reduce it to lower values, but I suggest keeping it at High for a better viewing experience.
Texture filtering: High.
Nowadays, Anisotropic filtering has almost no cost.
Lighting quality: Medium.
Lighting quality is the setting with the greatest impact on performance. You can gain even 10-20 fps going from Ultra to Medium. Instead, Low and Medium perform similarly.
Effects quality: Medium.
Lower Effects quality if you experience fps drops during explosions.
Post process quality: Low.
Mesh quality: High.
There is almost no fps difference among all settings. I suggest keeping Mesh quality at high because the game looks a lot better - very noticeable on trees.
Terrain quality: Low.
In my opinion, the terrain has a satisfactory look at any setting, so you can just drop it to Low for some more frames.
Undergrowth quality: Medium.
Undergrowth quality affects the areas with vegetation. It has a rather high impact on performance: you can gain even 10-15 fps going from Ultra to High, depending on the place considered.
Antialiasing post-processing: TAA Low.
Ambient Occlusion: Off.
Up to 10 fps going from HBAO full to Off. Visual difference isn’t massive, but honestly, I do like it. Turn it off if you need those extra fps.
Advanced
Dynamic Resolution Scale: Off.
Dynamic Resolution should help to maintain a more stable framerate (at the cost of quality), however, it didn’t improve my system. I recommend trying it individually on your PC. I have not tested this option again after the beta.
DLSS: Quality.
I recommend setting Nvidia DLSS to Quality in most cases, however, Balanced is also a solid option if you want to get more fps.
Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion: Off.
Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion should be turned Off. It has a huge impact on performance while increasing graphic quality only marginally compared to standard HBAO Ambient Occlusion.
Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: Enabled.
Enabling this option reduces the system latency, so the game feels smoother. Setting it to Enabled is sufficient, however, Enabled + Boost provides slightly better results because it forces the GPU to maintain higher clocks even in CPU bound scenarios.
Future Frame Rendering: On or Off.
Disabling Future Frame Rendering provides a better mouse input at the cost of a fps drop, so you should set it to Off only if you have already enough fps.
A DICE developer explained what Future Frame Rendering does in BFV, but most probably it works in the same way in BF 2042 as they share the same graphic engine:
Future frame rendering OFF will test your system heavily - and esp the cpu to gpu power relation. With no respite from rendering 3 frames at a time, any bottleneck in cpu will show heavily when used. So only use this if input lag is more imp than fps, and your fps >90 or so.
— David Sirland - DICE Multiplayer Producer
Vertical sync: Off.
High fidelity objects amount: Low.
It is hard to measure its performance gain because it mostly affects our fps when there are lots of players and vehicles in the same area. Just keep it at Low if you want to avoid potential frame drops in chaotic situations.
How to increase performance and fix stuttering
PROFSAVE_profile file
To find your PROFSAVE_profile file, press Win+R and then input the following line:
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 2042\settingsPress the right mouse button on PROFSAVE_profile and open it with WordPad or another text editor. I use Notepad++.
There are several options, but note that most of them have been already set up via the in-game settings. Replace the remaining values with the ones listed below. I will update this guide once I find out more useful settings.
PROFSAVE_profile file
GstRender.ShadowQuality 0 This setting drastically increased the performance (up to 10-15 fps more) for several users. It helps the most old video cards. It does not disable shadows, and to be honest it is still unclear what it affects as shadows look the same, but somes players who tested it extensively noticed that lots of small shadows are now missing.
GstRender.Dx12Enabled 1This is actually a setting from BFV as BF 2042 is DX12 native. Nevertheless, several players reported that the game doesn’t stutter anymore, or as much, after enabling it. It might just be a placebo effect, but I suggest trying it yourself.
GstRender.DLSSEnabled 1GstRender.NvidiaDLSSMode 5Some users noticed no difference in performance or GPU utilization after enabling DLSS ingame, and they solved it by enabling it manually in the configuration file. These two settings enable DLSS and set it to Quality. If you prefer another DLSS setting, 4 is Balanced, and 3 is Performance.
This is all. You can save the file.
Right click on the file, go on Properties, General, Attributes, and mark it as Read-Only. If you don’t, it might be overwritten as soon as you start the game, and you will lose all the changes.
If you need to alter your in-game settings in the future, it is necessary to uncheck read-only. Afterwards, you can change the settings, edit manually the PROFSAVE_profile file, and set it as read-only again.
If your file becomes corrupted, just delete or move it elsewhere, and then start Battlefield 2042. The game should generate a new default one automatically.
