Cities: Skylines 2 - Best Settings [High FPS & Performance]

Reports suggest that Cities Skylines 2 is not performing as expected on PC. Initially, you will encounter challenges in achieving a consistent gaming experience, but I have found the Best Settings in Cities Skylines 2 for both graphics and gameplay to achieve consistent FPS.

I’ve tested Cities: Skylines 2 on the following PC specifications:

CPU: Core-i5 12400f
GPU: RTX 4070
RAM: 16GB DDR4
Storage: 2.5TB SSD
Operating System: Windows 10

Key Takeaways

Cities Skylines 2 requires an Intel Core i7-6700K or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X for CPU, Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 480 for GPU, and 8 GB of RAM to run.

The following settings put the most load on your PC affecting performance:

Depth of Field Mode
Motion Blur
Depth of Field Quality
Volumetric Quality Settings
Dynamic Resolution Scale Quality
Shadow Quality
Level of Detail

Cities Skylines 2 is reportedly facing performance challenges on PC, but developers Colossal Order have promised patches to improve the situation. Right now I recommend low to medium settings to run the game smoothly.

Cities Skylines 2 Best Settings

Basic Graphics Settings Cities Skylines 2 — Basic Graphics Settings in Cities Skylines 2 [Image by eXputer]

Tip: I recommend waiting for Virtual Texturing to process after launching the Cities Skylines 2.

Here are the Best Settings you can apply to get the best performance in Cities Skylines 2:

Screen Resolution	Native Resolution
Display Mode	Fullscreen
VSync	Enabled
Depth of Field Mode	Physical
Dynamic Resolution Scale Quality	Automatic
Anti-aliasing quality	High SMAA
Clouds Quality Settings	High
Fog Quality Settings	Enabled
Volumetric Quality Settings	Disabled
Ambient Occlusion Quality	High
Global Illumination Quality	High
Reflections Quality	High
Depth of Field Quality	Disabled
Motion Blur	Disabled
Shadow Quality	Disabled
Terrain Quality Settings	High
Water Quality Settings	High
Level of Detail	Medium
Animation Quality	High
Texture Quality Settings	High

Wait For Virtual Texuturing To Process

This technology optimizes the usage of video memory for textures. Please be patient while these textures are being processed. While the Cities Skylines 2 is in the process of updating these textures, you might notice that the buildings appear dark or display some other graphical glitches.

The duration it takes for your computer to apply the updated textures varies depending on your hardware, but typically, it doesn’t exceed one minute and often happens much faster. Hop into your city with the Best Settings in Cities Skylines 2 when Virtual Texturing is processed.

Windows Optimization

These Windows settings might not give you a huge difference if you are on PC, but you will see an improvement of 2 to 8% in Cities Skylines 2 by changing some of these settings. However, if you are gaming on Laptop, you definitely need to tweak these settings for better performance in Cities Skylines 2

Turn On Game Mode
Switch To High-Performance Power Plan
Close Unnecessary Background Programs
Using Dedicated GPU

For In-depth Info on How To Optimize Windows For Gaming, read our article.

Wrapping Up Cities: Skylines 2 Settings Guide

Before we wrap this guide up, here are some comparison images between different graphics settings of Cities: Skylines 2:

Dynamic Resolution
Shadows Comparison
Graphics Preset Comparison

After pouring hours and effort into playing Cities Skylines 2, I found myself struggling with constant stutters and occasional FPS drops. But things turned around when I decided to tinker with the Cities Skylines 2 settings. Making those adjustments made a noticeable improvement in my gaming experience.

The developers, Colossal Order, increased the system requirements for the city-building sequel long before the launch of Cities Skylines 2.

However, more recently, they acknowledged that they didn’t reach the performance goal they were aiming for on PC. They’ve assured players of forthcoming patches to enhance Cities Skylines 2 performance.

You can even further improve Cities: Skylines 2 performance by checking out our Nvidia Control Panel settings guide and AMD Radeon’s best settings.

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