Helldivers 2 was a surprise hit, coming from a relatively small studio (Arrowhead) as a sequel to the lesser-known Helldivers, further proving that fun, passion-driven games trump the monotonous profit-chasing drivel produced by the so-called “AAAA” studios in recent years, replete with obnoxiously priced microtransactions to boot.
Windows/System Settings to Optimize
Enable Resizable BAR.
Turn on Game Mode.
Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) and Windowed Optimizations.
Use the Windows “High Performance” power profile and set your GPU power management mode to the same.
Disable Memory Integrity. Windows Menu->VBS->Device Security.
Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
Here’s a guide with more detailed instructions.
Helldivers 2: PC System Requirements
Min
OS: Windows 10/11 (64-bit).
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K|Ryzen 5 1500X.
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti|Radeon RX 470.
Memory: 8 GB.
Storage: 100 GB.
Rec
OS: Windows 10/11 (64-bit).
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K|Ryzen 7 3700X.
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2060|Radeon RX 6600 XT.
Memory: 16 GB.
Storage: 100 GB (SSD.
Test Setup
CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 Gaming X AX.
Cooler: Asus ROG Strix LC II 360.
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super|RTX 4090 FE.
Memory: 16GB x2 DDR5-6000 CL36.
Power Supply: Antec HCG 850W.
Helldivers 2 GPU Benchmarks: 1080p, 1440p & 4K
Helldivers 2 favors NVIDIA GPUs, with the GeForce RTX 4080 Super beating the Radeon RX 7900 XTX by 24% at 1080p. Similarly, the RTX 4070 holds a 15% lead over the RX 7900 GRE, trailing the 7900 XT by just 10%.
The results don’t change much at 1440p. The RTX 4080 Super holds a 25% advantage over the RX 7900 XTX, while the 4070 leads the 7900 GRE by ~9%. Meanwhile, the RTX 4090 sits at the top averaging 171 FPS.
All our GPUs delivered playable framerates at 4K, starting with the RTX 4070 and the RX 7900 GRE at ~50 FPS. The RTX 4080 Super yields 86 FPS, beating the 7900 XTX by 41%, while the 4090 extends that lead to 66%.
Helldivers 2 Resolution Scaling: 1080p vs 1440p vs 4K
Switching from 4K to 1440p (Ultra settings), the performance increases by 65% and 107% on switching to 1080p. From 1440p to 4K, that’s a 25% increase. The age-old adage is of course true, lower resolution means bigger frames.
The “render scale” setting affects a native spatial scaler similar to DLSS or FSR (which are not included by default in this game) that renders the game at a lower or higher resolution than the one selected above, thereby helping increase performance or fidelity. We’ll look at that near the end.
Graphics Presets: Low vs Medium vs High vs Ultra
The GeForce RTX 4080 Super (and the Core i7-14700KF) averages 71.7 FPS at 4K “Ultra” settings in Helldivers 2. Switching to the “High” quality preset improves the frame rates by 12%.
Medium bumps the performance up by 19%. At low, we see an 89% improvement, a huge leap. But the visual fidelity takes a huge hit as well.
Texture Quality
Texture quality determines how detailed an object looks on the surface by changing the resolution of the loaded textures. This setting has minimal impact on performance and only depends on your GPU’s available VRAM (memory).
Texture Quality
The game recommends 10 GB VRAM for Ultra, 8 GB for High, 6 GB for Medium, and 3 GB for Low. In reality, the average graphics memory consumption barely exceeds 8 GB (even at 4K UItra). We’ll have a look at this near the end.
Object Detail Quality
Object detail quality controls the level of detail by changing the polygon count of the objects in the game. This affects the 3D depth detail of items, which is different from texture quality.
Reverse
Object Detail
Going from High to Medium, we get a 2.8% increase and by going to Low, we get a 7% increase in FPS. Keep this one at “High“.
Render Distance
Render distance affects how far into the game world objects are rendered or drawn into view, and this setting is mainly CPU intensive. If you have a medium to high-end CPU, this can be left at Ultra.
Render Distance
Going from Ultra to Medium or High gives us a 4.2% boost. Low gives us a 6.3% increase in frames. Considering the low setting causes more object pop-in as they are rendered much closer and the impact is minimal unless your CPU is struggling, “Ultra“ is recommended.
Shadow Quality
Shadow quality controls the resolution and quality of the shadow maps used in-game. The lowest and low shadow settings contain artifacts and look jagged, hence sticking to medium or above is recommended. In most cases, it reduces performance by 6-8%.
Shadow Quality
Particle Quality
Helldivers 2 has a lot of particles during combat. Each explosion, fire, gunshot, and dirt effect gets added into this detail.
The difference between “Lowest” and “Low” is negligible. Going from Ultra to Medium gives us a 0.7% boost and Low gives us a 6.8% increase in frames. A good compromise is to go with “Low” to boost framerates.
Reflection Quality
Reflection quality controls the level of reflection details in the environment. The lowest setting disables all reflections here and is not recommended since it is almost similar to low. Low enabled cubemapped (pre-baked) reflections, and screen space reflections (dynamic) are enabled at the high quality setting.
Reflection Quality
Reflection quality drastically reduces the game’s performance, with “High” being 9% slower than the “Lowest.” It’s best to stick to “Medium” or “Low” for optimal framerates.
Space Quality
This one is a bit of a unique option to this game, which changes the quality of space. That is the stars, planets, and other things visible in the sky when panning the camera up or on the ship.
The performance here increases by almost 4% by just turning it down to low. Considering that you will most likely not be looking at the space during intense combat and the difference in visuals is negligible, this is a good one to turn down to get some sweet extra frames. Keep this one at “Low.“
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion enables self-contained shadows rendered along the boundries of objects, edges, and surfaces occluded from a source of light. Helldivers 2 users Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) which marginally affects performance (1-2%). Leave it enabled.
AO On vs Off
Screen Space Global Illumination
Screen Space Global Illumination calculates the impact of ambient light on the environment. This usually translates to sunlight-colored surfaces or white-light illuminated scenes, depending on the light source. It can reduce the game’s framerates by up to 3%, and is left to individual preference.
SSGI On vs Off
Vegetation and Rubble Density
It adjusts the draw distance of grass, tree roots, and other ground objects. There’s ample pop-in even at the highest setting, with lower settings making it worse. It can have a mild 4-5% performance impact, but is best left at the highest quality to minimize pop-in.
Vegetation/Rubble Density
Terrain Quality
Terrain Quality utilizes tessellation to improve the geometric detail of terrain, primarily barren ground in the aftermath of explosions or detonations. It reduces performance by 4-5%, and can be set to the medium quality option.
Terrain Quality
Volumetric Fog Quality
Volumetric fog renders 3D fog in the game which can be sparse or dense depending on the weather and time. It can reduce your average framerate by up to 6%, with medium quality being as taxing as the highest. For best performance, you should drop this to the low or lowest quality option.
Volumetric Fog Quality
Volumetric Cloud Quality
This setting modifies the resolution of volumetric clouds to render a more realistic sky. However, you are unlikely to be looking up at the sky while in intense combat. It tends to reduce your average framerate by 5%, so it should be reduced to the lowest quality option.
Volumetric Clouds
Lighting Quality
This setting modifies how far light from artificial sources travels. This usually impacts locally placed lights, including torches, fires, and bulbs, etc. It can significantly impact the lighting at night and during extreme weather conditions.
Lighting Quality
Lighting quality can drastically reduce the game’s performance, by as much as 8% in the urban maps. As such, it’s best set to the medium quality option.
Anti Aliasing
Anti-aliasing is used to smoothen jagged edges, most noticeable on the borders of objects as “jaggies“. From the looks of it, Helldivers 2 seems to utilize temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) which can lead to blurring of textures.
AA On vs Off
Turning it off yields an 8% boost in frames. However, it is recommended to leave this enabled to reduce aliasing and shimmering.
Upscaling Options
Upscaling is an easy way increase performance at the cost of resolution (+added blurriness). It is always recommended to play at native. If, however, after trying out all the optimized settings above you are still struggling with frames, it is time to try upscaling.
Upscaling vs Supersampling
Helldivers 2 doesn’t natively feature any of the popular temporal upscaling options like DLSS, FSR, or Xess, but instead relies on primitive spatial upscaling:
Switching from native to “Ultra Quality” gives us a massive 40% increase in frames, with very little added blurriness.
“Quality” grants a 53%, “Balanced” 69%, “Performance” 87%, and “Ultra Performance” an entire 100% increase in frames. Of course, the visuals also get blurrier and blurrier. We recommend Ultra Quality for a balance between visuals and performance.
VRAM Usage and CPU Bottlenecks
Helldivers 2 uses 8-10 GB of graphics memory at 4K, 7-8 GB at 1440, and 7-7.5 GB at 1080p using the “Ultra” quality graphics settings. Playing at 1440p, an 8 GB graphics card is sufficient. However, 4K requires a 10 GB VRAM buffer for optimal performance at “Ultra.” Reduce your texture quality to “High” if you’re running an 8 GB card at 4K.
Helldivers 2 isn’t particularly well-optimized for high-end graphics cards, averaging a mere 80 FPS at 4K “Ultra” on the RTX 4090. At lower resolutions like 1080p, you’ll be CPU-bound as well. We recorded an average GPU-Busy deviation of 25% at the ultra quality settings.
1080p Ultra
Optimized SettingsHigh-end PCMid-Range PCLow-end PCResolution4K1440p1080pFramerate Target75 FPS75 FPS60 FPSTexture QualityUltraUltraUltraObject Detail QualityHighHighMediumRender DistanceUltraUltraLowShadow QualityUltraUltraMediumParticle QualityUltraUltraLowReflection QualityHighHighMediumSpace QualityHighHighHighAmbient OcclusionOnOnOnScreen Space Global IlluminationOnOnOnVegetation and Rubble DensityUltraUltraUltraTerrain QualityHighHighLowVolumetric Fog QualityHighHighLowestVolumetric Cloud QualityHighHighLowestLighting QualityHighHighHighAnti AliasingOnOnOnUpscalingNativeNativeNativeBloom, Depth of Field, Motion BlurPersonal choicePersonal choicePersonal choice
CPUCore i7-13700K/Ryzen 7 7800X3DCore i5-13600K/Ryzen 5 7600XLess than: Core i5-12400/Ryzen 5 3600GPURTX 4070 Ti Super/RX 7900 XTRTX 4070/RX 7800 XTLess than: RTX 4060/RX 7600Memory32GB (dual-channel)16GB (dual-channel)Less than: 16GB (dual-channel)High-endMid-rangeLow-end PC
Helldivers 2: Graphics Settings for 120 FPS/144 FPS
NVIDIA RTX 4090 + Core i9-13900K at 4K
Graphics SettingRTX 4090RTX 4080RTX 4070 TiRTX 4070 SuperRTX 3080 Ti| 4070Resolution4K1440p1440p1440p1440pFramerate Target120 FPS|144 FPS144 FPS120-140 FPS120 FPS110-120 FPSTexture QualityUltraUltraUltraUltraUltraObject Detail QualityMediumMediumMediumMediumMediumRender DistanceLowLowLowLowLowShadow QualityMediumMediumMediumMediumMediumParticle QualityLowLowLowLowLowReflection QualityMediumMediumMediumMediumMediumSpace QualityHighHighHighHighHighAmbient OcclusionOnOnOnOnOnScreen Space Global IlluminationOff|OnOnOnOnOnVegetation and Rubble DensityHigh|UltraUltraUltraUltraUltraTerrain QualityLowLowLowLowLowVolumetric Fog QualityLowestLowestLowestLowestLowestVolumetric Cloud QualityLowestLowestLowestLowestLowestLighting QualityMedium|HighHighHighHighHighAnti AliasingOnOnOnOnOnUpscalingNative|Ultra QualityUltra QualityUltra QualityUltra QualityUltra QualityBloom, Depth of Field, Motion BlurPersonal choicePersonal choicePersonal choicePersonal choicePersonal choice
Core i9-12900K + RTX 3080 Ti
Helldivers 2 Optimized Settings for Low-End PC
Here’s our optimization guide for low-end PCs.
Ryzen 5 5600/RTX 3060 TiRyzen 5 5600/RTX 4060i5-12400F/RX 6600Resolution1080p1080p1080pFPS Target90 FPS90 FPS60 FPSTexture QualityUltraUltraUltraObject Detail QualityHighMediumMediumRender DistanceLowLowLowShadow QualityMediumMediumLowParticle QualityLowLowLowReflection QualityMediumMediumLowSpace QualityLowLowLowAmbient OcclusionOnOnOnScreen Space Global IlluminationOffOffOffVegetation and Rubble DensityHighHighHighTerrain QualityLowLowLowVolumetric Fog QualityLowestLowestLowestVolumetric Cloud QualityLowestLowestLowestLighting QualityMediumMediumMediumAnti AliasingOnOnOnUpscalingUltra QualityUltra QualityUltra QualityBloom, Depth of Field, Motion BlurUp to youUp to youUp to you
RTX 3060 Ti at 1080p (Above settings)
NVIDIA RTX 4060 Laptop GPUNVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPUResolution1080p1080pFPS Target75 FPS60 FPSTexture QualityUltraUltraObject Detail QualityMediumMediumRender DistanceLowLowShadow QualityMediumLowParticle QualityLowLowReflection QualityMediumLowSpace QualityLowLowAmbient OcclusionOnOnScreen Space Global IlluminationOffOffVegetation and Rubble DensityHighHighTerrain QualityMediumLowVolumetric Fog QualityLowestLowestVolumetric Cloud QualityLowestLowestLighting QualityMediumMediumAnti AliasingOnOnUpscalingUltra QualityUltra QualityBloom, Depth of Field, Motion BlurPersonal choicePersonal choice