Total War: Warhammer III – Graphics Settings Testing Guide

Every graphical setting has been tested, using both the campaign and the battle in game benchmarks.

Guide to All Graphics Settings Test

Note: Credit goes to DrawVid

Introduction

I have gone through all the graphical settings for Total War: Warhammer 3 and tested the performance impact of each using the two in game benchmarks.

Use my findings to tweak your own settings to get those extra frames!

My Personal PC Specifications

This guide can be used for any system – I’ve just added my own specs here for reference.

• CPU – Intel Core i7 10700K 5.0GHz OC (Liquid Cooled),
• CPU Cooler – NZXT Kraken X52 AiO,
• GPU – ZOTAC Gaming AMP RTX 2080Ti (2115MHz Core, 7200MHz Memory),
• RAM – Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB DDR4 (3000MHz, CL15),
• Storage – 500GB Samsung 870 EVO Plus NVMe SSD (Boot/Games Drive),
• Storage – 1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD (Programs/Games Drive),
• Storage – 4TB WD Black External HDD (Backup/Emulation Drive),
• Case – Fractal Design C Tempered Glass.

• Monitor – Acer Predator X34 (Ultrawide 3440×1440, 100Hz, IPS, G-Sync),
• Keyboard – Corsair K70 LUX RGB (Cherry MX Brown),
• Mouse – Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum,
• Headset – Creative Sound BlasterX H7 (Tournament Edition),
• Sound Card – Creative Sound BlasterX G5,
• Spatial Sound – Dolby Atmos,
• RGB Lighting – NZXT HUE+

Campaign Settings

Campaign benchmark with the low preset and AA turned off as a baseline.
Results are shown as: Average (Lowest, Highest)

• Low Preset (No AA) – 113.1 (85, 145)
• Medium Preset (No AA) – 80.5 (64, 107)
• High Preset (No AA) – 61.9 (41, 88)
• Ultra Preset (No AA) – 54.4 (32, 77)

• TAA High – 96.8 (76, 121)
• TAA – 99.4 (76, 123)
• FXAA – 111.5 (84, 143)

• Ultra VFX – 107.7 (75, 137)
• High VFX – 108.3 (75, 137)
• Medium VFX – 113.1 (85, 146)

• Ultra Trees – 106.5 (76, 141)
• High Trees – 107.9 (82, 132)
• Medium Trees – 109 (83, 142)

Screen Space Reflections ON – 102.8 (82, 128)

• Ultra Shadows – 95 (75, 123)
• High Shadows – 96.4 (75, 123)
• Medium Shadows – 99.7 (77, 128)

• Ultra Grass – 112.9 (87, 145)
• High Grass – 112.9 (87, 144)
• Medium Grass – 112.8 (85, 145)
• Margin of error here.

• Ultra Terrain – 104.3 (72, 138)
• High Terrain – 104.3 (70, 137)
• Medium Terrain – 105.3 (82, 138)

• Ultra Buildings – 111.5 (84, 138)
• High buildings – 111.8 (85, 142)
• Medium Buildings – 112.3 (84, 141)
• Margin of error here (apart from highest result)

High Fog (only available when shadows aren’t off – testing done with shadows on medium) – 94.1 (72, 124)

High Lighting – 98.8 (65, 129)

SSAO ON – 99.6 (79, 123)

Screen Space Shadows ON – 106 (80, 130)

• Battle Settings

Battle benchmark with the low preset and AA turned off as a baseline.

• Low Preset (No AA) – 150 (131, 170)
• Medium Preset (No AA) – 120.5 (103, 144)
• High Preset (No AA) – 81 (54, 100)
• Experienced my first and only crash here, after about 60 benchmark runs
• Ultra Preset (No AA) – 65.3 (44, 85)

• TAA High – 119.3 (106, 129)
• TAA – 124.6 (104, 139)
• FXAA – 148.5 (127, 161)

• VFX Ultra – 121.5 (68, 155)
• VFX High – 130.7 (74, 165)
• VFX Medium – 150.6 (129, 186)
• Ouch them lows on higher settings.

Visual bug with Skarbrand when higher than low (atleast in the benchmark)

• Trees Ultra – 151.3 (128, 168)
• Trees High – 151.5 (129, 179)
• Tress Medium – 149.6 (129, 169)
• Margin of error

• Unit Detail Ultra – 150.3 (133, 166)
• Unit Deail High – 149.9 (128, 166)
• Unit Detail Medium – 149.4 (129, 169)
• Margin of error

Screen Space Reflections – 137.8 (112, 149)

Lighting Quality High – 136.5 (110, 149)

• Shadows Ultra – 132.4 (107, 149)
• Shadows High – 135.7 (112, 150)
• Shadows Medium – 141.3 (117, 153)

• Grass Ultra – 145.4 (112, 165)
• Grass High – 146.9 (118, 165)
• Grass Medium – 148.9 (126, 165)

Worth noting the battle benchmark has next to no grass on the map.

• Terrain Ultra – 149.6 (130, 165)
• Terrain High – 149.3 (130,165)
• Terrain Medium – 149.6 (134, 164)
• Margin of error

• Unit Size Ultra – 143.5 (114, 151)
• Unit Size Large – 144.9 (117, 156)
• Unit Size Medium – 147.7 (125, 165)

High Fog (only available when shadows aren’t off – testing done with shadows on medium) – 122.8 (109, 141)

SSAO ON – 133.8 (149, 112)

Screen Space Shadows – 145.4 (116, 150)

Cloth Physics OFF – 149.8 (131, 171)

My Personal Settings

The settings that I have settled for after 4 hours of being in the benchmarks (over 60 runs, one crash):

• Anti-aliasing – Off (using Reshade SMAA),
• Texture Filtering – 16x (16x and high quality in Nvidia control panel),
• VFX – Medium,
• Tree Detail – High,
• Unit Detail – Ultra,
• Depth of Field – Off (personal preference),
• Screen Space Reflections – Off,
• Texture Quality – Ultra,
• Shadow Detail – Medium,
• Grass Detail – High,
• Terrain Detail – Ultra,
• Building Detail – Ultra,
• Unit Size – Ultra,
• Porthole Quality – 2D,
• Fog – Low,
• SSAO – Off,
• Screen Space Shadows – Off,
• Cloth Simulation – On.

Capped my FPS to 60fps, with nvidia control panel vsync and gsync.