• Rainbow Six has a lot of graphical settings, we're gonna go through them, because FPS *and* visibility is very important for the game.

• But, it can be counter-intuitive, settings depend of your configuration. To begin, let's starts with "FPS" and some theory.

FPS means frames per second, this is the number of pictures your graphical processor (GPU) will generate for one second. In theory, the higher your FPS is, the smoother the game. To have more FPS, you need (in theory, but it's not true at 100% on Rainbow Six Siege) to lower your graphical settings.

How do I check my FPS and how many do I need?
To display the FPS, you need to go in settings -> gameplay -> display game info [on]. A little bar in the bottom left corner will appear, and this is the number encircled in red.


Don't panic, it's easy. The Hertz of your screen is the number of pictures per second your screen can display. So, to understand better, it works like this:

Your GPU generates X pictures per second, sends it to your screen by a cable, and your screen displays Y pictures per second. The screen hertz is a fixed number and depend on your screen. If you have no idea how much hertz your screen can display, just check in the menu - the highest value you can have is there (settings -> display)

Here, for me, it's 239 hertz. So now, how many fps do you need? Higher than this value.

So personally I need to have at any time, at least, 240 FPS. If you have a 60 Hertz screen, you need to have at least, in any time, 60 FPS. What you should avoid (but it will happen cause R6 is pretty heavy) is what we call FPS drop. By that we mean, when you gonna move the camera fast or there there is a explosion, you have a huge loss of FPS (140 to 80 for example).

Take a look to your FPS counter, if he go below your hertz rate, you gonna have some graphical artifact, and the feeling to have a unsmooth experience. It's what happen when you say "it's laggy". Also, you'll get "tearing" - which is not the worst, but also not nice to have (more on that in the V-Sync section).


In theory, the lower your settings are, the higher is your number of FPS. While this is true for most games, R6 uses a lot of CPU (processor) and, according to Ubisoft, some quality option can force the game to render with your GPU or the CPU. If you don't understand, don't worry about it.

BUT, what is important to know, if you have a powerful and expensive graphical card, changing some setting will not affect the number of your FPS, cause it needs more from your CPU, than the GPU.

For example, this is my case.


Ok, let's go!

So you need to go to settings -> graphic.
Texture Quality: If you have a GTX 790 or lower, stay on low.
This option costs a lost of FPS, but if you have a powerful GPU, you can switch to medium or very high.

Texture Filtering: Other games call this "anisotropic filtering". It is an calculation to avoid blurry effect on the inclined plane. Practically speaking, this means long-distant textures are less blurry.
It doesn't cost a lot of FPS (1-2 fps?). You can go x16 if you don't have a potato as PC.

LOD Quality: LOD means Level of detail and you should prioritize this setting, it's one of the most important. Beware: It can cost a lot, depending of situation. If you go on low, players or objects far away will draw in low poly mod (that means ugly). For example, heads turn into gray triangles. You really don't want that.
I advice to put it on Ultra. and never go below medium.

Shading Quality: Shading is the shader, it's an eye candy effect, go on low if you don't have a high end PC. Doesn't seem to be costly.

Shadow Quality: Shadow is important for competitive as it can help to spot ennemies, BUT: it's very costly on the CPU. If you need FPS, go on low (it will turn them off) and you will gain around 20 FPS. If you have a high end PC you can go on very high. The first value to get player shadows is medium, so go on medium if you have enough to turn on shadow, but not enough to go on very high.

Reflection Quality: Go on low, doesn't look costly in term of FPS. This is the resolution of minmap texture (For example, reflection in windows, on the ground, in water...). Go high if you have a high end PC.

Ambiant Occlusion: Turn off, very costly and useless (but eye candy). It adds shadows to small objects and shelves.

Lens Flare: It's a lightning effect and if you turn it on, you will spot Valkyrie cameras and drones easier, but it will also add a lot of particle effects during explosions and a glow effect to the ACOG (You can see it in Macie Jay's Stream/YT videos). I recommend to put it off.

Zoom in depth: Adds a blur effect around your weapon when you aim. Put it off, it's ♥♥♥♥.


It's a huge part and you need to understand what this is.

Anti-Aliasing (AA) is a technique to avoid pixel stairs in game. In real life, a line is a line, on a screen, a line, is a succession of square (pixel):
To avoid this, we have a lot of anti-aliasing, some are post-effect (so the picture is created first and AA is applied after), some use transparency, some use a higher definition...

In Rainbow Six, we now have 5 choices of anti-aliasing :


For a low end PC, this is the best solution. It can help to have more FPS, but it will add a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ blur to far objects. You can adjust the blurriness AND the definition with this setting:

On (1) (render scaling) the more you are on the left, the higher your FPS will be, BUT also your picture will be... blurry.

On (2) this is a sharpness filter which is gonna help you remove (a bit) of the blurriness, I recommend to let it on 100.

If you want comparison pictures for (1) and (2) and T-AA x2/x4, take a look here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12khvQujqwbnB8U6wF-Yqtq-05mmoiJds

So in-game you need to play with the slider (1) to see when your FPS are descent (don't stay stactic when you try it, go on Terrorist-Hunt, on solo, and play a bit, watch your fps).

T-AA looks like it helps reduce screen tearing.

Good and the best setting for competitive players, it will not modify the image at all. Costs a bit in FPS (compared to T-AA).


If you have a high end PC, you can go on this, but be careful, it can cost a lot. Don't go too high.


Works well to remove aliasing, but... adds a ghost on your crosshair, never use FXAA.


I don't have enough fps! -> T-AA
I have enough FPS -> Off or T-AA
I have a lot of FPS -> TAA x2

BUT using AA is never good, because it will cause some trouble when you're looking into some surfaces like barbed wire, like grills or murder holes, it's why "Off" is the choice of many pro players.
Use the same as me:

It's what I use, it will lower some sounds like gunshots, explosions and lets you hear footsteps over them.


Stay on 100, you will hear less sound if you lower this value (This is a bug and will be fixed next season).
I will not explain keyboard configuration, it's up to you, and your comfort. Just please, don't use arrow keys to move, use WASD (depends on your keyboard configuration of course).

Mouse Horizontally and Vertically: This is your hipfire sensitivity (when you don't aim).

Aim Down Sight: it's a multiplier of your hipfire sensitivity, it gives you the ability to reduce or add sensitivity depending of the level of zoom of your optic. 50 is a good start value.