Armored Core 6 is out now on PC, and it’s easily one of the best ports from FromSoftware. It runs well on a variety of systems, and there are enough settings to tweak that can improve your performance without losing a lot of visual quality. Here are the best graphics settings for Armored Core 6 that you should try to improve your experience.
Armored Core 6 Optimized Graphics Settings (60 FPS+)
Unlike Elden Ring which suffered from various stuttering problems, I didn’t come across any major stutters throughout my testing of Armored Core 6. This is also the first time a FromSoftware game officially runs above 60 FPS and supports 120 FPS, which means even most budget PCs can reach that target with ease.
If you’re still struggling though, here are my optimized settings that prioritize both visuals and performance. I’ll explain each setting below, and explain why I chose the specific value with comparison screenshots when needed.
| Graphics Setting | Option |
|---|---|
| Texture Quality | High or Maximum |
| Antialiasing | High |
| SSAO | Medium or High |
| Depth of Field | OFF |
| Motion Blur | OFF |
| Shadow Quality | High or Medium |
| Lighting Quality | High |
| Effects Quality | High |
| Volumetric Fog Quality | High |
| Reflection Quality | High or Medium |
| Water Surface Quality | High |
| Shader Quality | High |
I’ve tested the game at 1440p on my RTX 3060 with 12 GB of VRAM, Ryzen 5 5600, and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM. This is basically a budget build, and I chose 1440p because I had no problem running the game maxed out at 1080p.
Shadows, Volumetric Fog, and Reflections impact the performance the most, and you should first tweak those.
It goes without saying, that a different GPU/CPU will yield different results, but this guide targets most users struggling to main framerate on their budget builds.
Texture Quality
Similar to Sekiro, changing Texture Quality doesn’t do anything in terms of the resolution of textures, and you’re better off keeping this at Maximum, or High, depending on the VRAM of your GPU. I didn’t notice any difference in performance, and it likely affects the anisotropic filtering around textures rather than the resolution itself.
Antialiasing
While you’ll see some jagged edges no matter how the resolution is, it’s essential that you keep this at the highest value, which is High. There is no performance difference either, and turning it down, or OFF results in tons of aliasing.
SSAO (Screen space ambient occlusion)
SSAO does a pretty good job of adding depth to different rubble and debris that surrounds most of the terrain in Armored Core 6. There isn’t a huge difference between Medium and High visually, or in terms of performance. Going from Max to Low will increase your average FPS by around 6%, so select either High, or Medium.
Depth of Field
This mostly comes down to preference, but going from Maximum to OFF yields around 2.4% more average FPS. I recommend turning it OFF for the extra frames, especially since I don’t personally like Depth of Field.
Motion Blur
Another setting that comes down to your preference, but going from the Maximum value to OFF improved the average framerate by around 4%. I recommend keeping this setting OFF as well.
Shadow Quality
This is one of the more demanding settings, and there is a very visible change in quality as well. Here I recommend using the High value, as going from Max to High yields you around 8.3% average FPS. Anything below High doesn’t look great in my opinion.
Lighting Quality
Another setting that doesn’t do much at all in terms of performance, and you can keep this at the Maximum value. I saw little to no change in terms of average FPS.
Effects Quality
I recommend using the High value here, as there is a noticeable difference at lower values without any major gain in performance either.
Volumetric Fog Quality
Another fairly demanding setting, especially when it comes to the Max and High. Going from the Maximum value to High improved the average framerate by 12.8%, which is a lot. There was no major difference in performance by going lower, so I recommend sticking with High here.
Reflections Quality
Another setting that has a major visual, and performance impact. By going from Maximum to High, my average framerate improved by 7.5%, and while the lowest value looks dreadful, High doesn’t look all that different from Maximum.
Water Surface Quality
This setting affects how water reacts when the AC lands on it. I’ve recorded a comparison below, which you can see. I didn’t notice any change in performance, so you can keep this at High.
Shader Quality
Finally, the shader quality doesn’t impact performance, so keep it at High.
Results
As mentioned before, I tested the game at 1440p with both the maxed-out preset, as well as my optimized settings. Here are the results, which look at the average framerate during intense fights.
| Preset | Resolution | Average FPS | 1% percentile FPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra | 1440p | 70 FPS | 60.6 FPS |
| Optimized Settings | 1440p | 91.8 FPS | 78.8 FPS |
So, overall, with my optimized settings, I was able to boost performance by around 27%. You can further improve it by turning down shadows, reflections, and volumetric fog, but there will be a visual impact in doing so.
We hope these best graphics settings for Armored Core 6 were helpful and you’re getting better performance. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.
