How to increase FPS in Overwatch: video options
The video options of Overwatch 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 shooter such as Overwatch.
In-game settings
Launch Overwatch, select Options on the menu, and open the Video tab. I will show you how to set up each option for maximum performance.
Video
Display Mode: Fullscreen.
Full Screen is the best choice performance-wise, but you might prefer Borderless Window if you have a multi-monitor setup and you wish to move quickly on another display.
Note: you can switch from Full Screen to Borderless Window by pressing Alt+Enter on the keyboard.
Target Display: Monitor #.
Indicate the monitor used to play the game, or just select Best Match.
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.
Field of View: 103.
This is a very personal choice, but almost all the pro players prefer to maximize the FoV in Overwatch.
A wider 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.
Aspect Ratio: use your native one.
It depends on your display. Nowadays the great majority of the monitors have a 16:9 aspect ratio.
VSync: Off.
Triple Buffering: Off.
Triple Buffering adds latency, so you don’t want to enable it.
Reduce Buffering: On.
Zuvykree, customer support at Blizzard, explained this setting:
“Reduce Buffering is aimed at reducing input lag. It does this by lowering the pre-rendered frames to a lower amount.
It’s often recommended to turn this feature on as long as your FPS is meeting or exceeding the maximum refresh rate of your monitor.
Example: 60Hz monitor and you are constantly seeing 70+FPS in-game (turn it on). If you hit under 60FPS on a 60Hz monitor, you may leave it off or adjust other settings to increase the FPS.”
In the video below, Battle(non)sense tested the impact of this option, among other things. Reduce Buffering brings a 14ms lag reduction at 66 fps, and a 3ms lag reduction at 300 fps.
Limit FPS: Display-Based or Custom.
This is the fps cap. I suggest keeping it at the same value as your monitor refresh rate (60, 120, 144Hz).
The maximum value is 300. In the past you could increase it to 400 by changing the FrameRateCap value inside the Settings_v0.ini file (Documents > Overwatch > Settings), but Blizzard limited any manual action on the Overwatch settings, so this option (and many more) has been disabled.
Note that unlocking the frame rate might cause overheating problems if your system isn’t cooled properly as the game will try to render as many frames as possible.
Graphic Quality: Low.
If you want to maximize the fps gain, select the Low preset, and click on the Advanced tab.
Be sure that everything is set to Low or Off (when possible) as even with the Low preset the game doesn’t disable Anti-Aliasing but puts it to Low-FXAA.
If you want to improve the graphic quality at the cost of some frames, I suggest increasing Texture Quality and Model Details to Medium for a better view. You may also consider to not disable the Shadows because in certain situations they can help to detect opponents (behind you or on top of buildings).
Render Scale: 100% or 75%
I recommend to not change this setting unless you really need more fps. Decreasing the value below 100% will grant more performance at the cost of blurred textures. 75% is the minimum value you should consider.
It is important to point out that some players affirm that the enemy outline looks clearer at 75% Render Scale, but I believe this is completely a matter of personal preference.
The remaining options (Gamma Correction, Contrast, Brightness, Color Blind Options), do not have an impact on the frames.
That’s all. Click Apply to save the changes.
