Cities: Skylines 2 arrived on Steam, but players soon reported widespread frame drops and low FPS. The game can crash even on high-end systems with 40 series GPUs. This guide outlines how to optimize the city builder and which features to avoid for smoother play.
Remark: Many tips come from the developers themselves. If readers want to add their own notes, they can share them in the comments.
System requirements
Before starting, verify that the PC configuration meets the minimum specs. That said, meeting those minimums does not guarantee a flawless experience, and FPS dips can still occur.
Minimum requirements
- Operating system: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
- RAM: 8GB
- Video card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 480
- Storage: 60 GB free space
Recommended requirements
- Operating system: Windows 10 or 11
- CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
- RAM: 16GB
- Video card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
- Storage: 60 GB free space
Main parameters affecting the graphics display
Below are the key settings that should be adjusted first for a comfortable Cities: Skylines 2 experience.
Virtual texture
Virtual textures are a demanding technology that uses a large amount of video memory for textures. It’s wise to let the texture processing finish before resuming gameplay.
If texture generation continues while playing, buildings and objects may appear dark, and stuttering can occur. Processing time usually lasts a few minutes but varies with hardware. A notification will appear once processing is complete.
Screen resolution, motion blur, depth of field and dynamic resolution
- Resolution should be set to 1920×1080 at 60 Hz, even on very capable rigs with high-resolution monitors or TVs.
- Depth of Field: Disabled.
- Volumetric effects: Reduced. Lowering these clouds improves overall performance without dramatically changing visuals.
- Motion blur: Disabled. It does not affect performance much for all players, but it can degrade visuals and reduce FPS for some.
- Dynamic resolution is a setting that helps maintain frame rates by adjusting rendering resolution on the fly. If FPS is unstable, enabling this can help.
Best graphics settings in Cities: Skylines 2
The following recommendations cover both minimum and recommended system configurations. It is advisable to apply the settings discussed earlier for best results.
Graphics settings for weak PCs
- Vertical Sync: Disabled on displays with VRR or G-Sync, otherwise enabled.
- Depth of Field: Disabled.
- Global graphics quality: Adjusted to balance visuals and performance.
- Performance preferences: Frame rate prioritized.
- Dynamic resolution scale: Disabled.
- Adaptive dynamic resolution scale: Disabled.
- Anti-aliasing quality: SMAA.
- Cloud quality: Medium.
- Volumetric clouds: Disabled or reduced.
- Distant clouds: Disabled or reduced.
- Volumetric cloud shadows: Disabled or reduced.
- Cloud shadows in the distance: Disabled or reduced.
- Fog quality: Reduced.
- Volumetric quality: Disabled or reduced.
- Global illumination: Medium.
- Reflection quality: Low.
- Transparent reflections: Disabled or reduced.
- Depth of field quality: Disabled.
- Motion blur: Disabled.
- Shadow quality: Low.
- Terrain shadows: Enabled if performance allows.
- Terrain quality: Medium.
- Level of detail: Low.
- Animation quality: Low.
- Texture quality: Medium.
Graphics settings for powerful PCs
- Vertical Sync: Disabled on displays with VRR or G-Sync, otherwise enabled.
- Depth of field: Disabled.
- Global graphics quality: Adjusted for a balance of clarity and speed.
- Performance preferences: Frame rate.
- Dynamic resolution scale: Auto.
- Anti-aliasing quality: High SMAA.
- Cloud quality: High.
- Volumetric clouds: Enabled.
- Distant clouds: Enabled.
- Volumetric cloud shadows: Enabled.
- Cloud shadows in the distance: Enabled.
- Fog quality: Enabled.
- Volumetric quality: Normal.
- Global illumination: Medium.
- Noise reduction radius: 0.5.
- Reflection quality: Medium.
- Transparent reflections: Enabled.
- Depth of field quality: Disabled.
- Motion blur: Disabled.
- Shadow quality: Medium.
- Terrain quality: Medium.
- Level of detail: Medium.
- Animation quality: Medium.
- Texture quality: High.
Note: Guidance is derived from gameplay testing and performance analyses across different hardware configurations.