Hogwarts Legacy BEST Settings For PC

We'll be optimizing Hogwarts Legacy's settings for the best balance between visuals and performance

My dream of finally learning the dark arts and becoming the next Lord Voldemort in a video game comes true in Hogwarts Legacy. However, it’ll only cost me a really beefy PC with top-of-the-line specs as the game’s quite heavy on resources. Judging from the scenic views of the Hogwarts castle grounds to the itsy bitsy details in the halls and common rooms, Hogwarts Legacy is a demanding game. But don’t you worry my fellow wizarding world lover, I’ve come up with some of the Hogwarts Legacy best settings for PC to help you retain those graphics while attaining decent FPS. 

Key Takeaways
  • Hogwarts Legacy is a demanding game that puts a lot of strain on your PC and you should optimize its settings to get the best performance. 
  • Apart from its demanding nature, Hogwarts Legacy is also an un-optimized game that puts additional load on your GPU with little to show for in performance. 
  • We’ve devised a combination of low and medium settings in the graphics settings below to help optimize Hogwarts Legacy performance. Here are the best graphics settings you should use in Hogwarts Legacy:
    • Global Quality Preset: Custom
    • Effects Quality: Medium
    • Material Quality: Low
    • Fog Quality: Low
    • Sky Quality: Medium
    • Foliage Quality: Medium
    • Post-Process Quality: Low
    • Shadow Quality: Low
    • Texture Quality: Depends on GPU Vram
    • View Distance Quality: Medium
    • Population Quality: Medium
    • Ray Tracing Reflections, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion: OFF
    • Ray Tracing Quality: Disabled
  • Optimizing your Nvidia and AMD Control Panels will also net you a great deal of performance in Hogwarts Legacy. 
    • Radeon Anti-Lag: Enabled
    • AMD Radeon Chill: Disabled
    • Radeon Boost: Disabled
    • Image Sharpening: OFF
    • Radeon Enhanced Sync: Enable
    • Wait For Vertical Refresh: Always Off
    • Frame Rate Target Control: Disabled
    • Antialiasing: Use Application Settings
    • Antialiasing Method: Multisampling
    • Morphological Antialiasing: Disabled
    • Anisotropic Filtering: Disabled
    • Texture Filtering Quality: Performance
    • Surface Format Optimization: Enabled
    • OpenGL Triple Buffering: Disabled
  • Lastly, you can perform different tweaks and optimizations on Windows that’ll help you with the Hogwarts Legacy performance even further. 
    • Update Windows 10/11 to the Latest Version
    • Turn on Windows Game Mode
    • Edit Engine.ini File in Hogwarts Legacy
    • Disable Useless Applications From Background and Startup
    • Enable Ultimate Power Plan
    • Enable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

How’s Hogwarts Legacy Optimization? 

Hogwarts Legacy is one of the most anticipated games of 2023 and the hype’s been building for it since the day it got revealed. And I must tell you, it’s definitely the best Harry Potter game I’ve played since the Half-Blood Prince on Xbox 360. The story’s great, the combat is great, and the environments are great, the only thing that’s not great is the game’s performance

We’ve tested the game on a mid-tier GPU, an RTX 3070 paired with 17-12700k. We set the resolution at 1440p with Ray Tracing features off and couldn’t even get a stable 60 FPS. RTX 3070 may be a mid-tier GPU, however, it still offers the best performance at a lower price point. So you can imagine seeing it defeated here gave me quite the heartbreak. 

However, this is where I started tinkering with the settings. Thank Devs! for including the DLSS and FS2.0. It even has the latest DLSS 3 and Frame Generation Technology for those of you fortunate enough to own Nvidia RTX 4000 series GPUs. But enough about ranting about the game’s performance, let’s get into how you can use Hogwarts Legacy’s best settings for PC to boost performance without being forced to upgrade. 

Check The PC System Requirements First

PC System Requirements for Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy System Requirements

Now we’re about to start tweaking Hogwarts Legacy in-game graphics settings. However, before we can expect some good results from using Best Hogwarts Legacy settings, let’s make sure your PC is able to run the game well. Hogwarts Legacy is a demanding game to run as it introduces a huge open world with densely packed environments. These put a huge strain on your rig and to keep the game’s optimization in perspective, you’ll need a tricked-out system to run the game well. See the requirements for your system below and see if your PC fits the bill:

Minimum PC Requirements

  • Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 6600 (3.3 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
  • System Memory: 16GB
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 GB or AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage Space Requirement: 85 GB HDD
  • Notes: SSD (preferred), HDD (Supported), Low-Quality Settings.

If you’re in this category then you’ll be able to play the game at 30 fps at HD 720p well.

Recommended PC Requirements

  • Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 8700 (3.2 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
  • Memory: 16GB
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 4
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage Space Requirement: 85 GB HDD
  • Notes: SSD, High-Quality Settings.

When your requirements for the system meet those, you’ll be able to play this game with 60 FPS at 1080 P with no hiccups.

Ultra PC Requirements

  • Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 10700K (3.80 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 5800
  • Memory: 32GB
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6800
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage Space Requirement: 85 GB HDD
  • Notes: SSD, Ultra-Quality Settings.

Users with the same requirements for their system as the ones above will be able to play games at 60FPS at 1440P without difficulty.

Ultra 4K PC Requirements

  • Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 10700K (3.80 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 5800
  • Memory: 32GB
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage Space Requiement: 85 GB HDD
  • Notes: SSD, Ultra-Quality Settings.

If you have a high-end system such as this it is likely to provide the most beautiful experience playing the game in the native 4k resolution at 60 fps. Yes, I am jealous massively!

By going through the different types of system requirements, you’ll be able to get a general idea of how Hogwarts Legacy will perform on your system. If your PC fails to meet even the minimum requirements, then I recommend upgrading your PC whenever possible to have at least a bare-bones experience of the game. For others, let’s get on with optimizing the Hogwarts Legacy’s best settings to get some performance gains. 

Hogwarts Legacy Best Graphics Settings

Best Graphics Settings for Hogwarts Legacy
Best Graphics Settings

Now that you’ve got a general idea of how well your PC can run Hogwarts Legacy, let’s start optimizing its performance. We’ve tested the game thoroughly on several different setting combinations, and found the following to be a perfect balance between good visuals and performance. Let’s start tweaking the best graphics settings for Hogwarts Legacy now:

Display Options

Best Display Settings for Hogwarts Legacy Pt. 1
Hogwarts Legacy Display Settings 1
Windowed ModeWindowed Fullscreen
Anti-Aliasing ModeNone
Upscaling TypeDLSS / FSR 2
Upscale ModeBalanced
Frame GenerationOn
Nvidia Reflex Low LatencyOn+ Boost
VSYNCOff
FramerateNo Limit
Field of ViewPersonal Preference
Motion BlurOff
Depth of FieldOn
Chromatic AberrationOff
Film GrainOff
Select GPUSelect Main GPU

Windowed Mode: Windowed Fullscreen 

Since we don’t have an exclusive fullscreen option, at least not on launch, you’ll need to select the Windowed Fullscreen option. Now, it’s nowhere near great as exclusive fullscreen, however, it’s a good implementation of borderless windowed mode and lets you Alt+Tab in and out of the game seamlessly. The main issue with Windowed Fullscreen is that you won’t be able to change your Resolution with this. 

Anti-Aliasing Mode: None

We don’t need to turn on any Anti-Ailiasing mode as we’ll be using Quality Upcalers like DLSS or FSR from Nvidia and AMD respectively. Just select any random option here. 

Upscaling Type: DLSS or FSR 2

If you’ve got an Nvidia RTX GPU, then selecting DLSS is a no-brainer. It’s a great way to boost your FPS without making any noticeable compromises in visual quality. If you don’t have an Nvidia RTX GPU, choosing AMD FSR 2.0 nets you just as great performance gains. 

Upscale Mode: Balanced

When using either Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR 2.0, you should select balanced in the Upscale mode. It’s the best sweet spot between maintaining good visual clarity and performance improvement. If you have a PC that can handle some graphical load, I suggest turning this to Quality for an even better graphical experience. 

Frame Generation: ON

Frame Generation setting is almost as magical as Hogwarts Legacy itself. It helps insert multiple sub-frames between actual generated frames to make the game run even smoother. However, it’s a setting that only works with Nvidia RTX 4000 series GPU, at least for now. Do note that turning on Frame Generation may introduce an almost unnoticeable latency lag. 

Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost

Nvidia Reflex Low Latency is a great feature to improve any input lag or latency issues that you might be facing in Hogwarts Legacy. I recommend switching this setting to On + Boost for the best experience in the game. Do note that On + Boost will keep your GPU running at full clock speed. If you don’t want that, I suggest dropping it to standard ON mode. 

VSYNC: OFF

Only muggles use VSYNC in their games. Since we’re wizards who hate input lag and latency issues, not to mention FPS caps, we’ll just turn it off. 

Best Display Settings for Hogwarts Legacy Pt. 2
Hogwarts Legacy Display Settings 2

Framerate: Uncapped

In the Framerate setting, you can choose your monitor’s refresh rate which can be anywhere between 60 FPS to 300 FPS. However, the best option here is uncapped FPS as it won’t restrict your framerate and let your monitor display the max FPS possible. 

Field of View: Your Preference

You can adjust the Field of View (FOV) according to your preference. However, higher FOV does take a toll on your performance. This is because the further your vision expands, the more objects around you have to render at any given time. 

Motion Blur: OFF

Motion blur is quite weird and may cause motion sickness, especially when riding on your broom. You best turn it off. However, if you aren’t bothered by motion sickness, you can choose to keep it on. Either way, it does not affect your FPS.

Depth of Field: ON

Depth of Field is a pretty high-quality Bokeh effect that makes the game slightly more immersive, at least it was the case for me. Best keep it on. 

Chromatic Aberration: OFF

Chromatic Aberration is a weird filmic effect that you’d often see through the lens of a camera. The flickering and even blurring objects can feel awkward at some angles which takes you out of immersion. Best leave it at off.  

Film Grain: OFF

Film Grain is like those three unforgivable curses in the Harry Potter Universe. It’s an extremely necessary graphical effect that actually ruins the picture quality. Best leave it at off. 

Select GPU: Primary GPU

Here, you’ll have to select the primary GPU that you want the game to run on. You’ll see this option only if you are running a dual GPU setup or you have Optimus enabled on your Laptop. 

Graphics Options

Best Graphics Settings for Hogwarts Legacy Pt. 1
Graphics Settings Pt.1
Global Quality PresetCustom
Effects QualityMedium
Material QualityLow
Fog QualityLow
Sky QualityMedium
Foliage QualityMedium
Post-Process QualityLow
Shadow QualityLow
Texture QualityAccording to GPU’s Vram
View Distance QualityMedium
Population QualityMedium
Ray Tracing ReflectionsOff
ShadowsOff
Ambient OcclusionOff
Ray Tracing QualityDisabled

Global Quality Preset: Custom

There are different quality presents that take your graphics settings from low to ultra. Since we’ll be tweaking each setting, best leave this setting. 

Effects Quality: Medium

Every time you shoot a spell or sparks are produced in the environment, the particle effect quality will be affected by the Effects Quality. There is almost an indistinguishable difference between Medium and Ultra but you do get a few frames from lowering it. Medium is a good sweet spot to enjoy effects with good performance. 

Material Quality: Low

Material Quality controls all the surface models in the game and how they react to light reflections. Low gives you a really good FPS boost and you still get to enjoy this subtle effect. if you have a relatively better GPU, you can set this to Medium max. 

Fog Quality: Low

Fog Quality controls the volumetric fog resolution generated in the game. Compared to other games, the effect here is quite subtle and you’ll be hard-pressed to notice any differences. Best leave it at low for best performance. 

Sky Quality: Medium

The Sky Quality affects mostly the clouds generated and if you don’t really look up much, it’s best to leave this at Medium. It’s something that you don’t really notice much in gameplay but still taxes your performance quite a bit.  

Foliage Quality: Medium

Foliage Quality controls the greenery like bushes and grass in the game. This setting will only tax your performance if you’re outdoors on Hogwarts grounds or in forested areas. Low looks really bad and Medium seem to be the sweet spot. 

Post-Process Quality: Low

Since we have most of the post-processing graphical settings like motion blur and chromatic aberration disabled, we best leave Post-Process Quality to low. It’ll help you gain a handful of FPS.

Shadow Quality: Low

Shadows Quality is usually one of the most demanding graphical settings in video games. However, in Hogwarts Legacy, the shadows are extremely well-blended into the environment and they’re also well-optimized. Even Low shadows don’t look sharp and will look almost as good as Ultra. 

Texture Quality: Depends on GPU Vram

Texture Quality is a setting that occupies your GPU’s memory to store and display the highest-quality textures. You can select this setting according to this: 4GB VRAM > Low, 6GB VRAM >Medium, 8GB VRAM > High, and 8GB+ VRAM > Ultra.

View Distance Quality: Medium

View Distance Quality is one of the most demanding graphics settings in Hogwarts Legacy. Anything above Medium will render objects far away and will tax your performance quite a bit. Medium seems to be a sweet spot as you won’t face as many texture pop-ins compared to Low. 

Population Quality: Medium

In most areas, especially around Hogwarts, you don’t see a lot of NPCs so Population Quality won’t matter as much. However, in areas like Hogsmeade or a shop where you’ll encounter random NPCs, your FPS is bound to take a huge hit. Best leave this at Medium for a decent amount of crowd so as to not hurt the game’s lively feel. 

Best Graphics Settings for Hogwarts Legacy Pt. 2
Graphics Settings Pt.2

Ray Tracing Reflections, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion: OFF

Since we’re trying to maximize performance and balance visuals, Ray Tracing features can put a huge strain on your GPU and tax your performance quite a bit. Albeit, Ray Tracing looks really phenomenal, especially in the shiny halls of Hogwarts and the black lake’s reflective surface. 

Ray Tracing Quality: Disabled

Since we’re disabling all the Ray Tracing effects in Hogwarts Legacy, the Ray Tracing Quality option will already be disabled. However, if you’re using any of the Ray Tracing options mentioned above, this will help you control their quality and shed some strain off your GPU by lowering this. 

We’ve finally applied the Hogwarts Legacy best settings in the game’s graphics options. These will help you tremendously in solving issues like FPS drops and stuttering. They’ll help you get a performance boost of somewhere around 30-40% depending on your CPU and GPU combination. However, that’s not all, we’ll also be optimizing other parts of your PC to squeeze every ounce of performance. Let’s get to that now. 

Best Nvidia Settings for Hogwarts Legacy

Best Nvidia Settings for Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy Nvidia Settings
Image SharpeningOff
Background Max Frame Rate20
Low Latency ModeOff
Max Frame RateOff
Power Management ModePrefer Max Performance
Anisotropic Sample OptimizationOn
Texture FilteringOn
Quality – Texture FilteringHigh Performance
Trilinear Optimization – Texture FilteringOn
Vertical SyncOff

After optimizing the in-game settings for Hogwarts Legacy, we’ll be configuring the best Hogwarts Legacy settings in Nvidia Control Panel. Nvidia Control Panel has tons of settings in it that will give you a surprising boost in performance. Let’s see which ones they are and how you can optimize them. However, before we step any further, first you have to make sure to download the latest Game-Ready Driver to ensure the best experience.

Installing the Latest Nvidia Game-Ready Drivers

Nvidia has recently released the latest Game-Ready Drivers that include several performance improvements for Hogwarts Legacy. Here’s how to upgrade your Nvidia GPU:

Launching GeForce Experience
Open GeForce Experience
  1. First, you’ll need to open the Nvidia Geforce Experience Application. You can do that by either right-clicking on the desktop or through the taskbar in the bottom right.
  2. As it opens, go to the Drivers tab to check whether you have any updates available.
Updating Nvidia GPU Drivers
Check for Updates
  1. This is where you’ll be notified whether you have a driver update or not. 
  2. If there are updates available, let the driver download them as it can take anywhere from a few minutes to several depending on your internet connection.
  3. Once the driver downloads, click on Express installation and let the driver wizard complete the installation for you.
  4. Reboot your PC after the driver installation finishes.

That’s about it. You’ve successfully updated your Nvidia GPU to the latest version. Now it’s time for us to tweak your Nvidia Control Panel with the Hogwarts Legacy’s best settings.

Best Nvidia Control Panel Settings

By simply following the guide below, you’ll be able to tweak the best Nvidia Control Panel settings to get the best performance in Hogwarts Legacy.

Best Nvidia Control Panel Settings
Nvidia Control Panel Settings

Image Sharpening: OFF

Image Sharpening is an image filter provided by Nvidia to make game textures crisper. While this can be beneficial in some games, Hogwarts Legacy has its own sharpening feature within the game that works great with both DLSS and FSR 2.0. So using that is better than the one in Control Panel.

Background Max Frame Rate: 20

This is a great setting for you if you plan on switching to and fro other applications with gaming. When you Alt+Tab out from the Hogwarts Legacy, your system will immediately cut resources allocated to the game, allowing other applications to operate normally. It’s extremely beneficial for streamers as their OBS or other streaming applications won’t have to face any lack of resources.

Low Latency Mode: OFF

The Low Latency mode in the Nvidia Control Panel drastically reduces input lag and latency. It’s especially helpful when playing competitive games such as CS: GO or DOTA 2. Although not necessary in Forspoken, you could switch this setting to Ultra if you experience delays with your inputs.

Max Frame Rate: Off

When playing Hogwarts Legacy, be sure not to limit your maximum frame rate to any amount. It is essential that you get the maximum FPS possible in order for a smooth gaming experience.

Power Management Mode: Prefer Max Performance

It is recommended to set your GPU’s performance mode to Prefer Max Performance when playing Hogwarts Legacy. Doing so will significantly improve the gameplay experience, eliminating any FPS or stutters you may experience. This setting has proven successful for many gamers across various platforms.

Anisotropic Sample Optimization and Texture Filtering: ON

Anisotropic Sample Optimization dramatically enhances a game’s visuals without sacrificing performance. Turn it on for the sharpest, clearest visuals as well as optimal game performance.

Quality – Texture Filtering: High Performance

Setting your texture filtering – Quality to high performance will result in improved performance but with slightly fuzzier visuals. The difference in visuals is almost negligible. However, if you have a decent GPU, switching to Quality is a better option overall.

Trilinear Optimization with Texture Filtering: ON

Texture filtering with Trilinear optimization not only looks better, but it can also enhance gaming performance by making textures optimized to run. In other words, your visuals get clearer and your performance gets better. 

Vertical Sync: OFF

We advise against enabling V-Sync in both game settings and the Nvidia Control Panel. Turning it off now will prevent any input latency or lag issues in the future.

Once you’ve done setting up your Nvidia Control Panel, simply click on the apply button.

And there you have it, we’ve finally used the Hogwarts Legacy best settings in Nvidia Control Panel to give you a boost in performance. These won’t only let you experience better performance in Hogwarts Legacy, but also across other games as well. Although we’ve covered only the essential settings above, if you want a complete guide on Nvidia Control Panel optimization, you can check out our best Nvidia Control Panel settings guide.

Best AMD Settings for Hogwarts Legacy

Best AMD Settings for Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy AMD Settings

 

Radeon Anti-LagEnabled
AMD Radeon ChillDisabled
Radeon BoostDisabled
Image SharpeningOff
Radeon Enhanced SyncEnabled
Wait for Vertical RefreshAlways Off
Frame Rate Target ControlDisabled
AntialiasingUse Application Settings
Antialiasing MethodMultisampling
Morphological Antialiasing Disabled
Anisotropic FilteringDisabled
Texture Filtering QualityDisabled
Surface Format OptimizationEnabled
OpenGL Triple BufferingDisabled
Reset Shader CachePerform Reset

After optimizing Nvidia settings, let’s tend to our Team Red here. Similarly, we’ll be using a combination of the Hogwarts Legacy best settings for the AMD Radeon panel that’ll help you squeeze every bit of performance out of your GPU. But first, you’ll have to update your drivers and get them to the latest version.

Update AMD GPU Drivers

As discussed before, GPU manufacturers release driver updates right before a major game release to give you the best gaming experience on day 1. So, it becomes crucial for players to download and install these updates so that their GPU is pushing out the max FPS possible. Just follow the steps below to get everything up-to-date:

Updating AMD Radeon GPU Drivers
Update your AMD GPU Drivers
  1. First, you’ll have to open up AMD Adrenaline software from either your Windows Search bar or your desktop. 
  2. Once it opens up, go to”the “Drivers & Softwares” section at the top of the screen and click “Check for Updates.”
  3. Here you’ll get to know whether your GPU drivers are up-to-date or if there are essential updates available for you to download. If everything is good here, directly jump to the optimized settings after this section.
  4. If there are updates available for your AMD GPU, click on the install button and the Radeon panel will start downloading it. After the download has been completed then click, click install and the AMD tool will guide you through the installation.
  5. Reboot your PC after the update process finishes. 

Now that you’re running the latest AMD drivers on your system, we can continue tweaking its settings for the best performance in Hogwarts Legacy.  

AMD Best Radeon Settings

Once you open up the AMD Radeon panel, browse to the system settings and then the graphics panel to get access to global settings. Here, you’ll see a bunch of settings that you need to optimize in order to get the best performance in Hogwarts Legacy. Let’s go through each setting and start optimizing. 

AMD Radeon Global Settings
Optimizing AMD Radeon Global Settings

Radeon Anti-Lag: Enabled

Radeon Anti-Lag is an AMD feature similar to Nvidia Reflex (also known as Low-Latency Mode). It is recommended to enable Anti-Lag in order to reduce input lag and improve gaming latency. Since you’re using an AMD GPU, you won’t have the Nvidia Reflex option in-game, so best turn Radeon Anti-Lag ON.

AMD Radeon Chill: Disabled

You shouldn’t enable AMD Radeon Chill. It drastically reduces GPU power and favors cooler temperatures which results in less gaming performance. However, if your PC is experiencing excessive hot temps, turning Radeon Chill on can be considered.

Radeon Boost: Disabled

As tempting as Radeon Boost may sound, its effects are quite the opposite. This setting works by dynamically reducing resolution in order to boost FPS. Unfortunately, this setting will ruin your graphics and make everyone in Hogwarts Legacy fuzzy.

Image Sharpening: OFF

Image Sharpening works similarly to Nvidia’s sharpening filter as it helps restore sharpness to textures. However, since we’ll be using FSR 2.0 in Hogwarts Legacy, it comes with a sharpness slider so we don’t need this filter here. 

Radeon Enhanced Sync: Enable

If you prefer not to utilize V-Sync in your game, Radeon Enhanced Sync can be enabled instead. VSYNC causes input lag which makes games very choppy. However, using Enhanced Sync will lessen screen tearing without significantly increasing input lag as V-Sync.

Wait For Vertical Refresh: Always Off

You should turn off the Wait For Vertical Refresh Setting to disable V-sync entirely. It not only caps your FPS according to the refresh rate of your monitor but also causes input lag and latency issues.

Now, let’s head over to the Advanced Settings and use the following settings here:

Frame Rate Target Control: Disabled

Frame Rate Target Control allows you to restrict a game’s FPS to whatever amount you specify here. However, if you don’t need to restrict FPS for every game, disable this setting in order to avoid capping your FPS in Hogwarts Legacy.

Antialiasing: Use Application Settings

Driver-level Anti Aliasing isn’t quite needed here as we’re already using AMD FSR 2.0 upscaling technology in Hogwarts Legacy.

Antialiasing Method: Multisampling

Although we won’t apply any antialiasing at the driver level, here, you can change your Antialiasing Method to Multisample for improved visual quality while keeping performance impact at an absolute minimum.

Morphological Antialiasing: Disabled

Morphological Antialiasing can cause stuttering and FPS drops in Hogwarts Legacy. Several players have reported this issue and it’s best that you keep it disabled.

Anisotropic Filtering: Disabled

Most DX11 and DX12 games make use of Anisotropic Filtering by default, so there’s no need to enable the feature in Radeon Settings.

Texture Filtering Quality: Performance

Performance mode for texture filtering quality is the best option. It helps optimizes textures while also improving performance across the board in Hogwarts Legacy.

Surface Format Optimization: Enabled

Surface Format Optimization can help smooth out game-generated textures. For some hardware combinations, this setting works great while isn’t really that great for others. My suggestion is to test it out for your own system and if it bugs out anything, disable it later on.

OpenGL Triple Buffering: Disabled

Triple Buffering is a component that works with V-Sync. Since we’re disabling VSYNC both in-game and in the Radeon Panel, we don’t need triple buffering either. 

Reset Shader Cache: Perform Reset

Shader cache reset is a great feature available in Radeon settings. It helps clear out any shader data that has accumulated over time, improving game performance. It works well because older shader caches may become damaged or corrupted, hence their removal becomes necessary. Therefore, it’s recommended that you Reset Shade Cache if you haven’t in a while to get improved FPS in Hogwarts Legacy.

And that concludes our Hogwarts Legacy best settings for AMD Radeon panels that will help you improve those performance numbers significantly. Since we’ve changed only a handful of settings that make an actual difference in your performance. If you want a detailed guide on Radeon software, take a look at our AMD best settings guide.

Best Windows Optimizations for Hogwarts Legacy

Best Windows Optimizations for Hogwarts Legacy
Best Windows Optimizations

We’ve optimized everything, from the Hogwarts Legacy’s best settings for in-game graphics to GPU-level settings. Now it’s time to perform some Windows tweaks and optimizations that’ll help you gain performance across the board. We’ll be performing a variety of actions that’ll contribute to you gaining a decent FPS boost in Hogwarts Legacy while also speeding up your PC a bit. Let’s get to them one by one:

Update Windows 10/11 to the Latest Version

Windows is notorious for releasing updates every now and then. We’ve all been there where you might be doing some important work or battling a boss who’s giving you a hard time. Then all of a sudden you get this notification that Windows is about to start updating.

These updates may sometimes feel pesky, but they’re extremely important in giving you the best gaming and productivity experience on your PC. So, if you want your trip to Hogwarts to feel breezy, it’s recommended that you check and install any essential updates Windows might have to offer. Here’s how to do it: 

Update Your Windows
Windows Updates
  1.  
  1. Start in the Windows Update section of your settings by pressing Win + I.
  2. Once Windows Settings opens You’ll find Windows Update as a Windows update option in the upper-right corner of the menu settings. Click it.
  3. The menu is called what you will see in the Windows Update menu. If there are any updates available, you can install them. If you don’t find any updates, click the “Check for Updates button and check whether there are any updates available.
  4. When Windows successfully installs the updates It will ask you to restart the computer.

When the reboot is completed After the reboot is complete, the Windows will be upgraded to the most recent version, with all the performance enhancements and bugs fixed. Overall, you’ll experience an experience that is the best Windows user experience Microsoft can offer.

Turn on Windows Game Mode

Game Mode is a great gaming-centric feature introduced back in Windows 10. When you launch a game, Game Mode helps direct your PC resources toward the game more efficiently. It even puts any pesky background applications to rest until the game closes. Here’s how you can enable this:

Turn on Windows Game Mode
Game Mode
  1. Search Game Mode in the Windows Search and click on the first result that pops up. 
  2. Once you click on the Game Mode settings result, you’ll be inside the Game Mode menu. 
  3. Here, all you need to do is toggle the game mode On. And that’s it.

There’s nothing else required, simply launch the game and enjoy the benefits of this amazing feature. In some games, it will give you a boost in performance. In other games, it’ll at least help you get consistent performance without any FPS drops or stuttering. So, it’s a feature will several benefits and should be ON at all times. 

Edit Engine.ini File in Hogwarts Legacy

If you’ve been playing Hogwarts Legacy, you might have experienced stuttering a lot. Whether you’re exploring Hogwarts grounds, inside the castle, or simply opening or closing menus, there’s a lot of stuttering even on beastly hardware.

Now, the developers have acknowledged this problem and are working towards a proper fix for it. But, there’s a working fix for it that requires you to edit the Engine.ini file and change up the GPU pool size in Hogwarts Legacy save folder. Here’s how to apply this fix:

Hogwarts Legacy Engine.INI File
Engine.ini Location
  1. Open up windows explorer and go to the following path: 
    C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Hogwarts Legacy\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
  2. At this path, you’ll find Engine.ini in the WindowsNoEditor Folder. Open it up. 
  3. In the Engine.ini File, paste the following at the bottom:

[SystemSettings]

r.bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=True

r.GTSyncType=1

r.OneFrameThreadLag=1

r.FinishCurrentFrame=0

r.TextureStreaming=1

r.Streaming.PoolSize=3072

r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1

 

[ConsoleVariables]

AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1

AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesDuringGamethreadUpdates=1

AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesEditor=1


See the example below:

Paste Data in Engine.INI File
Engine.ini File
  1. Once you’ve pasted the code in the Engine.ini file, close the file while saving the changes. 

The only thing you need to change is the Steaming PoolSize value according to your GPU’s VRAM. Change it according to the following: 

  • For 4GB GPU VRAM: 2048
  • For 8GB GPU VRAM: 3072
  • For 8GB+ GPU VRAM: 4096 – 5120

This aims to reduce the stuttering you’re experiencing in Hogwarts Legacy by letting the game utilize your VRAM more efficiently. However, you can also turn down a few settings in-game alongside this fix to completely eliminate stuttering.

Disable Useless Applications From Background and Startup

There are several applications that hog your system resources and continue to run in the background while you’re enjoying your games. Some 3rd-party applications, that we don’t even use, often start up automatically with Windows and keep taking up resources. The best way to free up these resources is to disable these applications from auto-starting. Here’s how to do it: 

  1. Right-Click on the Taskbar and open up the Task Manager.
    Open Task Manager
    Launch Task Manager
  2. There are a lot of applications that are running in the background or in the foreground. Common applications you’ll come across are Steam, Discord, TeamSpeak, and Faceit In short, those that have High Priority disabled.
  3. From here, navigate to the auto-start option and the tab for startup of the Task Manager and turn off all programs that you do not want to run on Windows. You are able to also prioritize disabling middle-priority apps too.
    Disable Startup Applications
     Disable Applications

After you’ve finished then it’s time to turn off certain unnecessary applications that consume your system’s resources. Here’s how:

  1. Press the short-key WIN+R to type and type Msconfig in the run window.
  2. In the Services Tab, Checkmark “Disable All Microsoft Services.” This will remove the necessary ones you should not disable. From the new list, remove the ones you think are unnecessary and ineffective.
Hogwarts Legacy Best Optimizations
Disable Unnecessary Services
 

Once done, hit apply and ok.

Enable Ultimate Power Plan

If you want the best performance in Hogwarts Legacy without any compromises, you’ll need to enable this hidden power mode in Windows. It’ll help take your PC’s performance up a notch by running everything at full tilt. This won’t only give you better FPS but also help reduce FPS drops and stuttering quite a bit. Here’s how you can unlock and use Ultimate Power Plan:

  1. Type Windows PowerShell in the Windows Search Bar. Right Click on the first result and run PowerShell with administrative privileges. 
    Hogwarts Legacy Best Settings
    Opening Up Windows Powershell
  2. Once PowerShell is Opened, Copy and Paste the code I’ve attached below.

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61


  1. Once you enter and execute the code, you should get a message that it worked. In case you see any error, try the same method on command prompt. 
  2. After PowerShell, in Windows Search, enter “Edit PowerPlan” and click on the first result.
    Edit Power Plan
    Power Plans
  3. From here, click on the Power Options location in the address bar and you’ll see all the avilable Power Plans on your system here.
    Ultimate Performance Power Plan
    Choose Ultimate Performance Power Plan
  4. After you’ve selected the Ultimate Power Plan, close the window and launch Hogwarts Legacy. 

Enable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

Windows 10 remains one of the best Windows for games alongside Windows 11 to this day. It introduced several tools and features that were directly targeted toward games. Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling is also one of the features that help you improve your gaming experience. It handles high-priority instructions on the CPU like rendering frames, is passed to GPU and the load’s divided while resulting in better performance and more stability. Here’s how you can enable this feature:

  1. Type GPU in the Windows Search and click on Graphics Settings in the first result
Go to Default Graphics Settings
Open Default Graphics Settings
  1. Here, you’ll be greeted with the graphics menu. Click on Change Default Graphics Settings under Default Settings section. 
Enable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling
Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling
  1. Here, turn on Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling.

That’s all, your PC is good to go. All you need to do is launch Hogwarts Legacy and experience better performance right away. 

Was Our Best Hogwarts Legacy Settings Guide Helpful?

We’ve finally reached the end of our Hogwarts Legacy best settings guide for PC. I’ve personally tested every bit of setting and optimization on test PCs and made sure these were the most effective in improving performance. Hogwarts Legacy may not be in a perfect state right now, but rest assured, its performance will get better with future patches. Until then, I hope our best settings guide was able to improve your experience with the game. 

 

Hogwarts Legacy PC Patch Notes | 3/8/2023

Hogwarts Legacy Latest Patch:

  • Raytracing
    • Enhance stability and performance following long playing-throughs.
    • Increase the performance of VFX while using raytracing.
    • Increase performance by caching and batching buffers for raytracing.
    • Removed fog volumes for better BVH performance.
    • Fixed RTAO making decals black.
    • Fixed directional light shadows.
    • Shadows fixed on trees.
    • The culling lights at the front of the unit.
  • Performance and Stability
    • Fixed streaming issues across Hogwarts.
    • Fixed crash that occurs when the common room is displayed by the user.
    • Fixed crash using the skeletal mesh.
    • Fixed crash after deflection impact.
    • Fixed crash while taking a dictionary file.
    • Performance was improved by using an ancient magic squash finisher on the elevated Thornback Ambusher in the Rune door arena. Enhance the rendering performance of objects that are translucent.
    • Fixed crash that occurred during the graph of a story.
    • Correction of multiple memory leaks.
    • Fixed crash caused by the map icon state.
    • Fixed crash caused by an invalid user interface.
    • Fixed streaming issues out of streaming out of Great Hall while navigating Hogwarts. This fix resolves the issue reported: HL-71
    • Fixed crash when audio occlusion tests on the player.
    • Fixed crash that occurred when using the barrels that explode.
    • Fixed crash while using the Incendio spell.
    • Fixed crashes in the event of using Accio, Confringo, or Stupefy.
    • Fixed crash after updating gear items.
    • The recurring crash was fixed by using Solomon’s shields.
    • Fixed crash caused by mount zones.
    • Fixed crash during combat cursed lifetime.
    • Fixed crash and the race that spawns on the bicycle.
    • Fixed occlusion culling, with doors that can be closed and opened.
    • Culling occlusions fixed.
    • Fixed a crash that occurred while traveling to Professor Fig’s class.
    • Fixed crashes that were caused by Niagara and related destructible VFX.
    • Resolved a crash that had been damaged over time that was not registered properly.
    • Corrected crash actor spawning issue not being properly stored.
    • Fixed crash when actors spawned properly.
    • Fixed crash during character creation. The following issue was reported: HL-232
    • Fixed animation for optimization instancing.
    • Fixed crash after moving stairs.
    • Fixed crash caused by VFX after long play-throughs.
    • Correction of crash-related changes in Overland.
    • Fixed crashes relating to the state of objects.
    • Fixed crash when parrying during combat.
    • Fixed crash using VFX AOE.
    • Fixed crash using suggestions.
    • Fixed crash caused by achievements when using an invalid online user ID.
    • Fixed crash when speaking to Rackham.
    • Fixed crash while using Wingardium.
    • Fixed performance drop-offs that occurred throughout the duration that the game.
    • Fixed drop in performance in the Divination class.
    • Enhance the VRAM utilization, particularly for video cards that have less memory.
    • Improved lighting performance for raytracing on the front end.
    • Fix using Ansel when the spell is being cast.
    • Fixed using Ansel as your avatar rides on a bicycle.
    • Updated shader compilation to include the most current PSO cache.
    • Fixing lighting optimization using Nvidia drivers.
  • Display
    • Resolved the issue of the aspect ratio 32:9 with regard to using the Ultrawide monitor. This resolves the issue reported: HL-260
    • Corrected Ansel’s problem when FOV is set to high.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Latest at a minimum Nvidia along with AMD video driver guidelines.
Did you successfully optimize the best settings for Hogwarts Legacy on your PC? Why not check out our different strategy guides on Hogwarts Legacy next?
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Ayyoun Ali


Ayyoun is a Senior Writer & Editor for Error Fixes and Game Settings guides on eXputer. He’s been passionate about games and technology since he got his hands on the PS1. He’s got a Software Engineering background and loves to play games for entertainment and understand them from a technical perspective. He has a knack for uncovering solutions for the latest games and presenting them in easy-to-follow guides for his audience. Ayyoun has logged over 1,000 hours on Rainbow Six Seige; you can keep up with his gaming activity on his Steam profile. Experience: 7+ years || Worked For VeryAli Gaming and IGN || Written 200+ Articles || Senior Editor For Game Errors & Settings

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