God of War 3 PC Settings for Graphics and Performance

Which settings should I start with?

Use this starting configuration:

Setting	Recommended start
Render resolution	Native (1920 × 1080); 1280 × 800 on Steam Deck. These are the first-start defaults.
Engine frame rate	120 FPS, the default.
Frame rate limit	Unlimited, the default. The engine rate still caps the game.
Frames queued	1, the default and lowest input delay.
VSync	On, the default; prevents tearing.
Display mode	Borderless to fill the screen without changing its display mode. The default is Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering	Game default; avoids the corruption at 16x.
Stream buffer memory	System RAM (cached, default); can improve frame rates on NVIDIA laptops.

Leave Deferred GPU readbacks, Fast screen effects, background shader loading/compilation and disk shader reuse on, and Game multisampling on Automatic. These are also defaults. Click Save before playing.

For a sharper image, raise Render resolution to 1440p or 4K, save and restart. If the memory warning appears or FPS drops too far, choose a smaller size. For a faster display, raise Engine frame rate to 144, 180 or 240 FPS, leaving the output limit Unlimited or setting it to your target. Use 60 FPS temporarily for a blocked movement or QTE.

Where do I change settings, and what needs a restart?

Open Graphics for display options or Performance for frame rate, resolution, shaders and GPU data. Click Save to keep pending launcher changes before the next start.

While playing, press Insert or R3 + L2 to open the port menu. Its Image and Performance tabs contain display and speed options. When a change requires a new launch, use Apply and restart. Render resolution and GPU readback changes use that restart path. Engine frame rate is under Live and changes while playing; F9 or R3 + L1 + R1 cycles the rates.

For input mapping use Controls; for file replacements use Mods.

How do I change resolution, ultrawide, sharpening or filtering?

Under Performance, choose Aspect ratio to filter the available Render resolution sizes. A higher resolution gives a sharper image but increases graphics and memory demand. Resolution patches replace the texture fix and reserve their own memory. Restart to apply a resolution change.

The ordinary default is Native. Steam Deck selects 1280 × 800 on its first start; an existing saved resolution wins. Choose a size explicitly if the saved choice does not match your screen. 2560 × 1080, 1440 × 1080, 2048 × 1536, 2560 × 1920 and 7680 × 4320 (8K) retain a beta label. Start with a smaller size if its memory request prevents launch.

Under Graphics → Display mode, use Borderless if you want the game to cover the screen without changing its display mode. Monitor chooses the screen the window opens on, falling back to the primary monitor if needed. Turning VSync off reduces waiting but can produce tearing.

3440 × 1440, 3840 × 1600, 5120 × 1440, 5120 × 2160, 1920 × 1200, 2560 × 1600 and 1920 × 1440 use the current regular labels. Pre-rendered videos remain 16:9. Some HUD and QTE elements keep a 16:9 layout; choose a 16:9 size if that placement interferes with play.

Anisotropic filtering sharpens surfaces viewed at an angle and requires a restart. If 16x causes angle-dependent texture corruption, lower or disable it, save and restart. RCAS sharpening in the port menu's Image tab adjusts sharpness.

The launcher path has DLSS, FSR and TAA disabled. Use the render-resolution choices and RCAS sharpening for image adjustments.

How do frame limit, engine frame rate and queued frames differ?

Performance → Frame rate limit caps the output. Engine frame rate changes the game's maximum frame rate through a patch: 60, 100, 120, 144, 180 or 240 FPS. The lower of the two settings caps the game's frame rate.

Use Frames queued → 1 for the least input delay. More queued frames can raise throughput when the GPU is the limiting part, at the cost of more delay.

Use F9 or R3 + L1 + R1 to cycle 60 → 100 → 120 → 144 → 180 → 240 while playing; read the engine-rate notice. For a high-FPS movement or QTE blocker, stop at 60 FPS, retry the affected input and raise it again afterward. A blocker continuing at 60 needs the scene and log.

Why does it stutter, and which shader-cache options should I use?

Shaders are small graphics programs compiled for your GPU. Open Performance → Shaders to choose how they load:

Option	What it changes and when to use it
Load shader cache in the background	Opens the game while saved shaders load. Turn it off to wait on the loading screen instead.
Compile new shaders in the background	Keeps play moving during compilation; an object or effect can appear late. Turn it off if something stays missing.
Reuse compiled shaders from disk	Reuses earlier compilation after a restart. On by default. Its first launch rebuilds the cache once; restart after changing it.
Read the shader cache into memory at start	Needs disk reuse enabled. Turn it off on a slow drive or with little free RAM if startup or early stutters get worse; restart after changing it.
Fast shader cache loading (parallel)	Uses several CPU threads during the loading screen.
Show shader notes in the corner	Shows cache loading and compilation progress; off by default. Restart after changing it.

Keep caches separate from older builds because their numbering differs. If an older build wrote to this cache, use the exact disk shader rebuild steps. If graphics become wrong only after restarting with a reused cache, turn off Reuse compiled shaders from disk, save and restart.

How large can the shader cache get, and how do I clear it?

Older versions could build a pipeline cache larger than 20 GB by saving duplicate driver binaries. The current release stores identical binaries once and converts existing cache files in the background. A 300-file sample fell from 393 MB to 11.6 MB with this change.

To see your cache's actual size, close the game and open Performance → Shaders → Delete shader cache. The confirmation shows its size and folder. Cancel to keep it, or confirm to clear a cache that is too large or produces wrong graphics after an update. The next start compiles it again and can stutter. For a black screen at startup, follow Troubleshooting.

Which GPU data options should I change for a wrong picture?

Open Performance → GPU data. These choices apply on the next game launch:

• Graphics card: choose your dedicated GPU if the game is selecting an integrated one.
• Stream buffer memory: System RAM (cached, default) keeps stream allocations in system memory. Leave System RAM (cached, default) selected on NVIDIA laptops; choose GPU memory (previous behavior) to restore the older allocation method.
• Deferred GPU readbacks: reduces waits for GPU data. Leave it on for speed. For yellow, orange or white textures, use the specific restart procedure.
• Fast screen effects (Rage of Sparta, weapons): keeps those effects running quickly. Turn it off if an effect looks stretched, shifted or wrong, then save and restart.
• Game multisampling: Automatic turns it off on AMD and Intel Windows drivers and keeps it on elsewhere. The label follows the selected GPU. Off or On overrides that choice; Off can help black lighting lines on another card.

Which settings should I use on Linux or Steam Deck?

On Steam Deck, start with 1280 × 800 rendering. Open Advanced → Linux for these extra controls:

• Window system: leave Automatic to let SDL select it. If the game window misbehaves on Wayland, choose X11 to run through XWayland, click Save and restart. Wayland is also selectable for a Wayland session.
• GameMode: turn it on if installed to request the performance governor while the game runs. This option is off by default.
• MangoHud overlay: turn it on if installed to show FPS, frame times and temperatures through its Vulkan layer. This option is off by default.

Unavailable integrations are disabled in the launcher. Save and restart after changing these controls. For Gaming Mode launch failures, use the Steam Linux Runtime and Default choices.

What frame rates have the reference PCs reached?

Hardware and conditions	Frame rate
Ryzen 5 5600X, RX 6700 XT, 32 GB RAM; 1080p with the 240 FPS engine	144 FPS average, 55–240 FPS range
i5-7500, GTX 1660 Ti; worker-scheduling update comparison	36.0 → 59.0 FPS average

For low FPS on a slower GPU, lower Performance → Render resolution to 900p or 720p before raising other image options. On a CPU with four threads or fewer, use the current release for its worker-scheduling improvement. For a higher render size that fails allocation, return to Native or the Deck's 1280 × 800.

Where are the settings files?

The game and port menu use spartanport.ini; the launcher uses settings.json. Windows keeps them beside SpartanPort.exe. The Linux AppImage uses ~/.local/share/spartanport by default, with XDG_DATA_HOME or SPARTAN_DATA_DIR overrides. Saves and caches use the active Saves folder, explained in Saves.

What if CPU use is high and GPU use stays low?

Use the current release on a CPU with four threads or fewer for its worker-scheduling change. The game writes a per-thread CPU report to the log on shutdown. Keep that report with the scene and settings when asking about a CPU limit.

Use the overlay to inspect frame time and GPU use. If performance remains poor, attach the log, hardware and driver to the report checklist; include a recent update's last working version when relevant.

How do I see performance data or take a screenshot?

Turn on Graphics → Show performance overlay. In the game, press Insert or R3 + L2, then open Overlay to choose FPS, frame time, GPU, CPU, RAM and VRAM items, along with size and corner. Those values describe the game process.

Press F12 for a PNG of the game without the overlay. In the launcher, Graphics → Open the screenshots folder opens screenshots within the active save-data root.

If the overlay adds input delay, switch Show performance overlay off, save and restart.

Where are cheats, Automatic QTE and local trophies?

Open the port menu's Game tab for Cheats and Multipliers. It includes infinite health, magic, item meter and Rage, max red orbs, Automatic QTE, orb and damage multipliers, and an enemy health bar.

The game's own Options → Cheats entry also offers eight toggles and a Multipliers page with Reset All to 1x. The enemy health bar is also in the native Display menu. For prompts that still need manual input, use Automatic QTE controls.

Press F8 or R3 + R2 to open the local trophy list, or use the launcher's Trophies page. Unlocks survive restarts on this computer. Existing PlayStation unlocks stay with PlayStation, and loading an advanced save may leave earlier actions to be triggered again for a local trophy.