The best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl setting for max FPS

We found ourselves in the best Stalker 2 setting for your PC to balance image quality and fps.

Since Stalker 2's level has been achieved by using the most advanced graphics technology, it is not necessary that you need much more than your GPU. However, it is unnecessary to use the best graphics card to throw it away, since you have many options for the media that will give you a solid result.

Best Stalker 2 graphics settings

• Overall: High
• Texture quality: High
• Hair: High
• Object details: High
• Effects quality: High
• Materials: High
• Post-processing: High
• Antialiasing: High
• Motion blur: 0%
• Depth of field: High
• Light Shafts: Enabled
• Sharpness: 20%
• Motion blur: 0%
• Upscaling: On – DLSS or FSR Quality or DLAA/FSR NativeAA
• DLSS Frame Generation: On
• FSR 3 Frame Generation: Off if using DLSS Frame Generation. On If not using DLSS Frame Generation
• Shading quality: High
• Global illumination: High
• Reflections: High
• Shadow quality: High
• Clouds: High
• Fog: HighOn
• Sky: High
• Foliage quality: High
• Environment draw distance: High

As a modern AAA single-player first-person shooter, Stalker 2 relies heavily on being able to crank up all visual details, giving you a rich, realistic, and immersive environment to explore. As such, we recommend cranking the game up to Epic's overall graphics settings first and then cranking it back as far as possible.

On our Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 test system, running the game at 1080p with no upscaling or frame generation and at Epic overall settings, we averaged 54 fps, which is a bit below what we consider playable for this title. When we cranked the overall graphics details back to High, the average rose to 60 fps, with 1% lows of 41 fps, which is just about playable and the game still looks great. As such, the overall best setting for Stalker 2 for a system like ours is High.

At medium settings, the frame rate jumps to an average of 69fps, while at low settings we hit 77fps. While detail levels drop noticeably, the game still looks decent and retains an immersive feel thanks to a fair amount of on-screen foliage and key lighting effects like your torch.

For the best look, though, there are two more settings you'll want to experiment with. These use DLAA anti-aliasing (or FSR NativeAA if you don't have an Nvidia GPU) and either DLSS Frame Generation or FSR 3 Frame Generation, depending on whether you have an Nvidia RTX 3000 or newer GPU, or an AMD Radeon RX 7000 GPU. DLAA and FSR NativeAA quickly smooth out the flickering foliage in the game without any performance impact. Meanwhile, Frame Generation pushes the frame rate up nicely without compromising image quality, which is crucial when starting at just 1080p resolution.

With the setting set to 1080p, High, DLAA and Frame Generation enabled the game looked great, delivering an average of 106fps with 62fps at 1% lows for a truly playable, smooth feel. As this isn't a competitive FPS, the slight increase in input lag from Frame Generation isn't a huge issue - the better image quality and smooth frame rates are worth it.

When set to 1440p, the game benefits from the resolution as it provides a very visually appealing environment, but performance takes a significant hit. At 1440p, High with no upscaling or Frame Generation, the game delivers just 45fps, although this jumps to 78fps when Frame Generation is used. At 4K, on ​​our test system, you get just 33fps without DLSS or Frame Generation. However, if we set DLSS to Quality and Frame Generation enabled, we get 66fps, which is just about playable.

As for specific settings, change the upscaling and frame generation settings when you change the overall graphics setting level. Also, adjust if you adjust these separately.

The motion blur setting should also be changed. This can create an atmospheric feel but can be particularly distracting if you're trying it in a first-person shooter. You can either turn it back from the default settings of 100% to around 20% or just turn it off.

Aside from these settings, most of the others individually have a smaller impact on performance and image quality. With only a difference of 54fps to 77fps on average from epic detail to low detail, it's just the pure power of the game engine and larger impact settings like your screen resolution that make the biggest difference in how this game performs.

Notably, the game doesn't support ray tracing, so you don't have to worry about this setting, which has a major impact on performance.

Best Staker 2 controls and gameplay settings

• Invert vertical axis: Disabled
• Invert horizontal axis: Disabled
• Mouse sensitivity: 20%
• Mouse aim sensitivity: 10%
• Aim: Hold
• Hold breath: Toggle or Hold
• Hold to crouch: Toggle or Hold
• Hold to sprint: Toggle or Hold
• Hold to walk: Toggle or Hold
• Lean: Toggle or Hold
• Slide down the ladder: Toggle or Hold

For most of Stalker 2’s control settings, you can leave it this way, unless you prefer a reversed mouse axis. However, the mouse sensitivity was a bit too high for our liking. We lowered it to 20% using a mouse set to 800 DPI. This provides a nice balance between the relative ease of 180° turning and precision when aiming. Similarly, we lowered the mouse’s aim sensitivity even further to give us slightly more precise control when aiming down sights.

Best Stalker 2 audio settings

• Master volume: 100%
• Mute all: Off
• Music volume: 40%
• Combat volume: Enabled
• SFX volume: 100%
• Dialogue volume: 100%
• Output device: Default
• Output device type: Whatever matches your output device
• Mono: Disabled
• Dynamic range: Medium

Stalker 2 is an atmospheric game that benefits from the added tension of its soundtrack and being able to hear what's going on around you. As such, we recommend you look for one of the best gaming headsets to feel that sense of immersion.

Regardless of what sound output device you have, and even though we like the music in this game, we prefer to turn the music down a bit as it can be quite distracting and overwhelming at times. Setting it to 40% is a good compromise. Similarly, the dynamic range setting is a useful way to be able to go from a more atmospheric high dynamic range where soft noises are just that, but then loud noises hit hard, just like in real life, but for a more comfortable gaming experience, keeping the dynamic range at medium or even low is a sensible choice.

For most other settings, you can leave this as default, though you may want to turn off the combat music if the extra-musical distraction is too much for you.