Quick Links
The visual quality ofDoom: The Dark Ageslooks phenomenal, with the developers pushing the limits of the id Tech engine to the max to breathe life into the hellscape and its demonic inhabitants. While it packs a punch when it comes to graphics, this entry into the Doom Slayer saga can challenge the PC hardware it’s run on. While the previous entries are known for their buttery-smooth performance, this entry is no different, except for a few hitches during intense action scenes. So, here are the best PC settings to optimize the game’s performance even further.
Best PC Settings for Doom The Dark Ages
Doom: The Dark Agesfeatures a ton of graphical options that allow players to thoroughly tune its graphical fidelity to run properly on PC. One of the things players will immediately notice is the inclusion of two additional presets in the graphics quality section: Nightmare and Ultra Nightmare. These presets can unleash the game’s graphical prowess, making each scene a spectacle to behold.
Keeping all that in mind, let’s tune the individual settings to figure out the sweet spot that lets you enjoy the game’s high-quality visuals without compromising on high FPS.
There aren’t any Ray Tracing settings forDoom: The Dark Ages,as it employs baked-in RT techniques that are activated by default. This can impact the performance of mid-range PCs.
Window Mode
Borderless Window
Although fullscreen mode is the way to go to enjoy the best performance inDoom: The Dark Ages, Borderless is a much more stable mode to run the game currently.
Resolution
Native
Any resolution lower than Native will make the game textures increasingly blurry.
Vertical Sync
Off
Doomis a fast-paced FPS shooter that requires twitchy movements for players to nail those baddies from hell in the head. Turning on VSync can impact the input latency. It’s recommended to use Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync instead.
Present From Compute
On
Improves the game’s performance. However, players should disable any software overlays from third-party apps like Discord or Steam if they run into issues like crashing.
Resolution Scaling Mode
There’s no need to use traditional scaling techniques when there are AI Upscalers already in the game.
Video
Field of View
Although FOV depends on your preference, it’s best not to max it out to avoid a performance hit.
Chromatic Aberration
Slightly distorts the clarity of the game; best to leave this cosmetic setting off.
-
Sharpening
Anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 is great. If you’re planning on using AI Upscalers, it’s best to leave the option at default values.
Upscaler
DLSS/FSR
Doom The Dark Ageshasimplemented both the latest versions of Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSRto generate the best quality upscaled image while improving performance.
Frame Generation
If you’re already getting good performance by adjusting the upcoming quality settings, leave FG off. Otherwise, you can rely on FG to improve FPS, but it will increase input latency and may cause some instability issues in its current state.
Quality Slider
Custom
We’ll be tweaking individual graphical options in this section, instead of choosing a pre-determined preset.
Texture Pool Size
GPU Dependent
According to the VRAM usage statistics on the bottom right corner of the screen, adjust this setting to allocate a fixed amount of VRAM to the game. The higher the slider moves, the more VRAM is allocated for the game’s textures and shaders.
Shadow Quality
High
Mostly impacts the performance during daylight scenes when shadow is cast. High shadows look just as great.
Lights Quality
Ultra
The game’s lighting plays a big role in creating the right atmosphere for the Doom Slayer’s rampage. Best to crank it up to ultra.
Particles Quality
Players can experience FPS drops during high-action scenes with multiple enemies shooting energy blasts at once. Best to keep it at high instead of cranking up to higher presets.
Texture Filtering Quality
Nightmare
Improves the texture clarity for enemies andthe Doom Slayer’s weapons. It does not impact the performance that much.
These are the best settings forDoom: The Dark Ageson PC that players should use to optimize the game’s performance. The above settings were tested on a gaming laptop with ani9-14900HX CPU, Nvidia RTX 4080 Mobile GPU, and 32 GB RAM.
Using the DLSS set to quality mode and Frame Generation,the FPS averaged around 100-105, while the 1% lows were at 95. However, there were some graphical and performance hitches during intense scenes, like FPS drops, but there weren’t any crashes during the testing. It’s recommended that players update their GPU drivers to the latest offering from both AMD and Nvidia to get the most stable experience out of the game.
