To often it feels like people load up a game and go right to trying ultra settings. In truth Ultra is often a bit of a waste from a game play experience and you can actually use in game settings to have a decent impact on how smooth your game play is beyond what you might think.

First begin with your monitor. If you have a 144hz monitor then you want to keep frames rates under 144 FPS. The reason is your monitor will not give any benefit beyond 144 FPS and can create poor image quality.

Using a 144hz monitor as an example I start with the High game settings and then see what kind of performance I get. My goal is around 100 to 110 FPS on average. The reason I choose that low of a frame rate is because it is the average, this means there will be spikes higher and I want those spike to be under 144. By doing this I can turn off Vsync and the various bummers than come with using it.

I now tweak my in game settings up or down to stay in my target zone. I have a real goal for those settings, the best performance i can benefit from with the best image quality that supports that performance.

When you set in game settings do you have a goal in mind or just hit Ultra and never look back?