Horizon Zero Dawn on PC is a tough game to run, even with the best hardware available in 2020. If you’re targeting 4K Ultra at over 60 FPS, you’ll need a truly beastly system. Most gamers won’t exert that power in their rigs, and therefore will need a guide to the best Horizon Zero Dawn PC settings to strike the balance between great visuals and smooth performance. Thankfully, we’re here to save the day. Scroll down for the best PC settings.
What are the best settings for Horizon Zero Dawn on PC?
- Preset: customized
- Texture: medium
- Model quality: Ultra
- Anisotropic filter: Ultra (currently not functional, therefore set to Low)
- Shadows: medium
- Reflections: medium
- Clouds: high
- Anti-aliasing: TAA
- Motion Blur: Off
- Ambient occlusion: medium
Above you’ll find a great starting point for balancing detail and performance. If you still have head room, you can try to raise the shadows and reflections to the maximum. If you prefer, you can also enable Motion Blur.
If you are having difficulty running the game with the best Horizon Zero Dawn PC settings selected, you may want to try lowering the settings further. The “Original” preset can be useful here, as it essentially mimics the PS4.
The “Adaptive Performance FPS” option under “Display” can also be useful to achieve the desired frame rate. By setting the “FPS Limit” to 60 FPS, the game will automatically lower and increase the game resolution to maintain a smooth frame rate.
You can also use the “Render Scale” option to manually reduce the resolution in 10% increments. If you’re averaging 57 FPS and are looking to squeeze those few extra frames, setting the scale to 90% can be a quick fix.
We hope the game is further optimized in the post-launch patches.
If you continue to experience lag or frame rate issues, you can check out our guides here (lag correction) and here (how to get more FPS).
