If you’ve clicked on this link is because you’re experiencing issues with Apex Legends. You’re not alone — many gamers have reported the same problem.
Apex Legends is built on a modified version of the Source engine, so the game should be very optimized, and you’ll feel it right away if you’re on a higher-end system.
Not to worry, though. You can find the best settings for Apex Legends in this guide. We will also leave you some other tips that we usually include in our game optimization guides.
Ensure that you meet the minimum and preferably the recommended system requirements for Apex Legends, as shown below. Even if you follow all our tips, this step is crucial to prevent problems with any game.
Minimum System Requirements For Apex Legends
- OS: Windows 10, 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
- RAM: 6GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 / Radeon HD 7700
- HDD: 30GB available space required
Recommended System Requirements For Apex Legends
- OS: Windows 10, 64-bit
- CPU: Intel i5 3570K or equivalent
- RAM: 8GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290
- HDD: 30GB available space required
Table of ContentsShow
PC Settings
Will you be playing Apex Legends on a laptop?
If that is the case, make sure that the battery mode is set to “High Performance”. Also, check that all your drivers are up to date, especially your GPU drivers. This is because NVIDIA and AMD usually release new drivers ahead of game releases that will optimize your system significantly.
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, we recommend that you also go through the steps below. Note that some of these settings may not be available to you.
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel and navigate to Manage 3D settings.
- Select the tab Program settings and find Apex Legends. If you can’t find it, click on Add and try to find it here (try running the game first and close it down again if you still can’t find it).
- Under the ‘Select the preferred graphics processor for this program‘ dropdown, select a High-performance NVIDIA processor. This will ensure that the game does not use your integrated GPU. Many people reported issues related to this.
- Set Maximum pre-rendered frames to 1.
- Set Monitor technology to G-SYNC (if applicable).
- Set Multi-display/mixed GPU acceleration to Single display performance mode.
- Set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance.
- Set Texture filtering — quality to Performance.
- Disable Vertical sync.
- Enable Threaded optimization.
- Set Preferred refresh rate to Highest available.
- Apply the changes and navigate to Adjust desktop size and position.
- Check Override the scaling mode set by games and programs and click on Apply.
Optimize Your Apex Legends Settings
Let’s move on to the optimization process of the actual Apex Legends game. Remember these are only our suggestions, so you can and should tweak them to your liking a bit.
- Launch Apex Legends.
- Open the settings page via the gear icon on the bottom right corner.
- Click on the Video tab.
- Set Display mode to Full screen.
- Set Resolution to your monitor’s native resolution.
- Set V-Sync to Disabled.
- Set Anti-aliasing to TSAA (disabling this setting is not worth the 2-3% FPS increase).
- Set Texture streaming budget to High.
- Set Texture filtering to Anisotropic 4X.
- Set Ambient occlusion quality to Low (this setting has a very high impact on performance).
- Set Sun shadow coverage to Low.
- Set Sun shadow detail to Low.
- Set Spot shadow detail to Low.
- Set Volumetric lighting to Disabled.
- Set Dynamic spot shadows to Disabled.
- Set Model detail to Medium.
- Set Effects detail to Medium.
- Set Impact marks to Low.
- Set Ragdolls to Medium.
Disable Windows Update Delivery Optimization
We strongly recommend disabling Windows Update Delivery Optimization. Simply follow these instructions:
- Open the Windows Start Menu, enter Windows update settings and click on the search result for it.
- Click on Advanced options.
- Click on Delivery optimization.
- Ensure that the Allow downloads from other PCs setting is off.
Disable OneDrive
We recommend that you disable OneDrive if you’re not using it. Right-click on the OneDrive icon on your taskbar and click on Exit.
Optimizing Discord
If you happen to use Discord, ensure that you optimize it as well to boost your FPS in all your games, including Apex Legends, while Discord is running.
- Open up Discord and go to the User settings page.
- Click on the Appearance tab and uncheck the Hardware acceleration setting.
Optimizing Google Chrome
You can also turn off hardware acceleration in Google Chrome so that background applications executed by Chrome do not consume too many resources while you’re playing Apex Legends.
- Open up Google Chrome and go to the Settings page.
- Scroll all the way down and click on the Advanced tab.
- Again, scroll all the way down and make sure that the setting Use hardware acceleration when available is switched off.
- Relaunch Google Chrome and close it again.
Clean Your Temporary Files
- Press the Start button, search after %localappdata% and press Enter.
- Open up the Temp folder.
- Press CTRL + A to select all files in the folder.
- Press the Delete button on your keyboard to delete these temporary files. Skip the ones it can’t delete.
- Finally, empty your recycle bin.
You can also use CCleaner – the free version will do the trick just fine.
Now restart your PC and enjoy your now fully optimized Apex Legends!
On top of these optimization tips, the best solutions ultimately involve investing money in a better gaming monitor, gaming mouse, and a good gaming headset.