Best PC settings for CoD: Vanguard Season 5
If you play Call of Duty: Vanguard on PC, you’ll want to optimize your game to make sure you’re getting the highest FPS (frames-per-second) possible. Here’s everything you need to create the best Vanguard PC settings.
PC has become a staple platform for Call of Duty, with Vanguard the latest game in the franchise to be available on Battle.net. Playing on PC provides players with more options to tweak how the game looks, and improve performance too.
Of course, with so many different settings to choose from, finding the perfect balance between performance and visual effects can be tricky. Luckily, we’ve got everything you need to maximize the game on your PC.
Here are the best Vanguard PC settings to run in Season 5.
- Vanguard system requirements
- How to update graphics drivers
- How to use DLSS in Vanguard
- Best Vanguard graphics settings for low-end hardware
- Best Vanguard settings for high-end hardware
CoD: Vanguard system requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| OS | Windows 10 64 Bit (1909 or later) | Windows 10 64 Bit (latest Service Pack) |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-2500k or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X | Intel Core i7-4770k or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB / GTX 1050Ti 4GB or AMD Radeon R9 380 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB / GTX 1660 6GB or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 |
| HDD | 45GB HD Space | 45GB HD Space |
Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements you’ll need to run Call of Duty Vanguard. For the minimum requirements, you only need a slightly more powerful rig than if you were to play Warzone.
- Read more: Best controller settings for CoD: Vanguard
You’ll need a fairly beefy PC to meet the recommended requirements, with you needing a GTX 1070 8GB to get a solid balance of frame rate and visuals.
How to update graphics drivers
Before diving into Vanguard on PC, we recommend you check that your graphics drivers are up to date to make sure your rig is reaching its optimal performance.
- Read more: Best FOV settings for CoD: Vanguard
Here’s how to update your graphics drivers.
How to update NVIDIA graphics driver
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, the GeForce experience app will handle this for you.
- Download GeForce experience through NVIDIA.com
- Open GeForce experience
- Select the ‘Drivers’ tab
- Click ‘check for updates’ in the upper right corner
- If an update is available, follow the steps
How to update AMD graphics driver
If you have an AMD GPU, you can use the Radeon Settings to update your drivers.
- Right-click on your desktop
- Select AMD Radeon Settings
- Click on the Home icon
- Click ‘New Updates’ on the bottom left
- Select ‘check for update’
- If an update is available, follow the steps
How to use NVIDIA DLSS in Vanguard Season 4
NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) allows players with NVIDIA RTX graphics cards to get much more frames at higher resolutions. DLSS sets your game to a lower resolution, increasing performance, but giving the appearance of a high resolution.
Turning on DLSS in Vanguard is simple, as it’s included in the Post Processing Effects tab in the Quality Settings. From here, you can set DLSS to Ultra Performance, Performance, Balanced, or Quality.
Ultra Performance will give you the most frames but won’t be as visually appealing, and Quality will retain the impressive picture.
Best Vanguard graphics settings for low-end hardware
If you are somewhere between the minimum and recommended settings for Call of Duty Vanguard, you want to be prioritizing reaching at least a steady 60 FPS.
- Read more: Best audio settings for CoD: Vanguard
Vanguard still looks great on low settings, and you’ll have a much smoother and more enjoyable time when hitting a decent frame rate.
Here are the settings we recommend using if you’re on lower-end hardware.
Display
- Display Mode: Fullscreen
- Monitor: Your primary gaming monitor
- Refresh Rate: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g 144)
- Sync Every Frame (V-Sync): Off
- Framerate Limit: Custom
- Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g 144)
- Menu Custom Framerate Limit: 60
- Minimized Game Custom Framerate Limit: 15
- NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: Enabled
- Display Resolution: Your monitor’s resolution (e.g 1920×1080)
- Display Gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
- Focused Mode: Off
- Focused Mode Opacity: 0
- Display Adapter: Your graphics card
- On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off
You want to make sure that your Framerate limit matches your monitor’s refresh rate. If you’re reaching frames well above what your monitor can display, you may see screen tearing.
Quality
Global Quality
- Render Resolution: 100
- VRAM Usage Target: 80%
If you have your VRAM Usage Target too high, you could see stuttering and hitching. If this is happening to you, keep lowering the target until you’re seeing smooth gameplay.
Details & Textures
- Texture Resolution: Low
- Texture Filter Anisotropic: Medium
- Particle Quality Level: Medium
- Particle Resolution: Low
- Bullet Impacts & Sprays: Off
- Tesselation: Off
- Level of Detail: Low
- Level of Detail Distance Quality: Low
- Volumetric Quality Level: Low
Shadow and Lighting
- Shadow Map Resolution: Low
- Sun Shadow Cascades: Low
- Cache Spot Shadows: Off
- Spot Cache Size: Off
- Cache Sun Shadows: Off
- Spot Shadow Quality: Low
- Particle Lighting: Medium
- Ambient Occlusion: Off
- GTAO: Low
- Screen Space Reflection: Low
Post Processing Effects
- Anti-Aliasing: SMAA T2X
- Filmic Strength: 0
Normally, we’d recommend having Anti-Aliasing set to either off or the lowest setting, but Vanguard forces you to use either SMAA T2X or Filmic SMAA T2X. Filmic can make your game look blurry, so we recommend using the regular T2X.
And for Filmic Strength, you should always have this set to 0. It adds unnecessary visual noise to your game, making it look worse for no reason.
Gameplay
- Field of View: 95-105
- ADS Field of View: Affected
- Camera Movement: Least (50%)
- World Motion Blur: Off
- Weapon Motion Blur: Off
- Depth of Field: Off
If you’re on lower-end hardware, you should have your FOV set somewhere between 95 and 105. You’ll still take advantage of seeing more of the world in front of you but won’t suffer from the performance hit.
And for the other options such as Motion Blur and Depth of Field, you always want to have them set to off.
Best Vanguard graphics settings for high-end hardware
There’s no point in forking out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on the best hardware if you’re not going to take advantage of it. NVIDIA 20 and 30 Series GPUs will be able to easily display high-quality graphics and reach high frame rates.
- Read more: Best Vanguard Ranked Play loadouts
Here are the settings we recommend you use if you’re on high-end hardware.
Display
- Display Mode: Fullscreen
- Monitor: Your primary gaming monitor
- Refresh Rate: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g 165)
- Sync Every Frame (V-Sync): Off
- Framerate Limit: Custom
- Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g 165)
- Menu Custom Framerate Limit: 60
- Minimized Game Custom Framerate Limit: 15
- NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: Enabled
- Display Resolution: Your monitor’s resolution (e.g 2560×1440)
- Display Gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
- Focused Mode: Off
- Focused Mode Opacity: 0
- Display Adapter: Your graphics card
- On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off
You want to make sure that your Framerate limit matches your monitor’s refresh rate. If you’re reaching frames well above what your monitor can display, you may see screen tearing.
Quality
Global Quality
- Render Resolution: 100
- VRAM Usage Target: 90%
High-end hardware should manage a VRAM Usage Target of 90%, but make sure to lower it if you begin experiencing stuttering or hitching.
Details & Textures
- Texture Resolution: Medium
- Texture Filter Anisotropic: Medium
- Particle Quality Level: Medium
- Particle Resolution: Low
- Bullet Impacts & Sprays: On
- Tesselation: Nearby Only
- Level of Detail: High
- Level of Detail Distance Quality: High
- Volumetric Quality Level: Low
Shadow and Lighting
- Shadow Map Resolution: High
- Sun Shadow Cascades: Medium
- Cache Spot Shadows: On
- Spot Cache Size: Medium
- Cache Sun Shadows: On
- Spot Shadow Quality: Low
- Particle Lighting: High
- Ambient Occlusion: Off
- GTAO: Medium
- Screen Space Reflection: Medium
Post Processing Effects
- Anti-Aliasing: SMAA T2X
- Filmic Strength: 0
Although Filmic SMAA T2X is the higher option, it will make the game appear blurry, so it should be avoided. And again, Filmic Strength should always be set to 0.
Gameplay
- Field of View: 105-120
- ADS Field of View: Affected
- Camera Movement: Least (50%)
- World Motion Blur: Off
- Weapon Motion Blur: Off
- Depth of Field: Off
If you’re on higher-end hardware, you can likely crank your FOV all the way up to 120 without suffering from a significant performance hit. But, some players dislike how it distorts and shrinks the screen, so you may want it slightly lower.
And for the other options such as Motion Blur and Depth of Field, you always want to have them set to off.
And that’s the best PC settings for Call of Duty: Vanguard! You can also check out the best PC settings for Warzone Pacific Season 5.
Image Credit: Activision / Sledgehammer Games