The best The Last of Us Part I PC settings are High textures, Medium shadows, reduced volumetrics, and a sensible upscaler. Start with FSR 2 on Quality at 1080p or 1440p, cap the frame rate to a number your system can hold, and leave Texture Quality high if your GPU has enough VRAM. That combination keeps Naughty Dog's dense environments sharp while cutting the settings that cause the biggest frame-time spikes.
This is not a game where every slider deserves to sit on Ultra. The PC port streams enormous environments, builds shaders during the first launch, and can punish both GPU memory and CPU scheduling. A stable 60 fps feels dramatically better than a spectacular-looking 45 fps that stutters every time Joel enters a new room. The profiles below target that smoothness first.
Best The Last of Us Part I PC Settings
Before changing anything, allow the shader compilation process to reach 100 percent. Interrupting it can leave you with hitching that looks like a graphics-setting problem but isn't. Restart the game after changing major options, particularly texture quality, rendering mode, or upscaling. The port also benefits from being installed on an SSD; a hard drive can turn traversal and texture-streaming pauses into a much rougher experience.
| Setting | Recommended Value | FPS Impact | Visual Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texture Quality | High, or Ultra with 12GB+ VRAM | Medium to high VRAM use | High keeps character and environment detail crisp |
| Texture Filtering | 16x | Very low | Improves angled surfaces with almost no meaningful loss |
| Shadow Quality | Medium | Medium to high | Medium preserves convincing lighting at a much lower cost |
| Reflections | Medium | Medium | High is expensive in wet streets and interiors |
| Screen-Space Shadows | Medium | Low to medium | Good compromise for contact detail |
| Volumetric Effects | Medium | Medium to high | Reduces fog and light-shaft cost without wrecking atmosphere |
| Ambient Occlusion | On | Low to medium | Keep it enabled for grounded objects and interiors |
| Depth of Field | Game Default | Low | Mostly a cinematic preference |
| Motion Blur | 0 to 2 | Negligible | Lower values improve clarity during aiming |
| Screen Effects | On | Low | Disable only if you dislike film grain or chromatic effects |
The settings worth spending VRAM on
Textures are the obvious exception to the usual “turn everything down” advice. High texture quality usually looks far better than Medium, especially on Joel's backpack, weapon models, brickwork, and character faces. Ultra can be worthwhile on a card with 12GB or more of VRAM, but it is not automatically faster or better. If the VRAM meter is close to full, texture streaming can produce pauses and sudden hitching. Drop Ultra to High before touching resolution.
Texture Filtering should stay at 16x. It has a tiny performance cost and makes roads, floors, and ruined concrete look less blurry at an angle. Depth of Field, Motion Blur, and film-grain-style screen effects are low-impact choices, so adjust them for taste rather than FPS. I use Motion Blur at 0 or 1 because the game already has plenty of cinematic camera movement.
🎮 FORM
Looking to experience this game? Grab your digital key directly on our store for $14.99.
View on Steammoz Store →1080p, 1440p, and 4K FPS Profiles
Resolution changes the GPU workload more dramatically than most individual quality sliders. A Radeon RX 6600 or GeForce RTX 3060 should not be treated like an RTX 4070, and the same preset will not produce the same frame rate in Boston's open streets, the Capitol building, or later combat arenas. Use a repeatable save and test a busy location for at least five minutes rather than judging performance in a quiet hallway.
| Target | Recommended Profile | Upscaler | Practical Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p / 60 fps | High textures, Medium shadows and volumetrics | FSR 2 Quality or DLSS Quality | Strong image quality with a stable 60 on upper-midrange GPUs |
| 1440p / 60 fps | High textures, Medium reflections, Medium shadows | DLSS Quality or FSR 2 Quality | Best balance for RTX 3070, RX 6800-class hardware |
| 1440p / 90 fps | Medium shadows, low volumetrics, High textures | DLSS Balanced or FSR 2 Balanced | Requires a powerful GPU and a realistic frame cap |
| 4K / 60 fps | High textures, Medium effects, reduced reflections | DLSS Balanced or FSR 2 Balanced | Prioritize stable frame pacing over Ultra settings |
| Steam Deck / handheld | Low-Medium mix, 30 fps cap, reduced textures | FSR 2 Performance or handheld-appropriate mode | Playable, but demanding areas can still dip |
At 1080p, FSR 2 Quality is usually the first setting I would try. It renders below native resolution and reconstructs the image, giving the GPU breathing room while retaining more detail than a crude resolution drop. At 1440p, DLSS Quality is particularly attractive on compatible GeForce cards. FSR 2 remains useful on Radeon and GeForce hardware, but foliage and fine wires can show reconstruction shimmer when you choose Balanced or Performance.
Don't chase a 144 Hz number if your system swings from 100 to 55 fps. Set a cap at 60, 72, or 90 fps depending on your monitor and the frame rate you can maintain in heavy scenes. A cap through your driver or a reliable in-game limiter can reduce temperature spikes and make camera movement feel more consistent. V-Sync is worth testing with your display; VRR monitors should use adaptive sync and a cap a few frames below their maximum refresh rate.
What to Lower First When FPS Drops
If the game is running below target, change one group at a time. Lowering every option at once makes it impossible to identify the real offender and often leaves you with a muddy image for no reason. Watch GPU utilization, VRAM usage, and frame-time graphs while moving through a demanding area. Low GPU utilization with stutter points toward a CPU, streaming, or shader issue rather than a need to reduce resolution.
GPU-bound drops
Start with Volumetric Effects, Shadow Quality, and Reflections. Volumetrics affect fog, smoke, light shafts, and the thick atmospheric spaces that make the game look so good; Medium is the sweet spot. Shadows can be lowered from High to Medium with surprisingly little visual damage, while reflections become expensive around wet surfaces and detailed interiors. Screen-Space Shadows are less costly, so leave them at Medium unless you need the final few frames.
VRAM-related stutter
If the frame rate seems acceptable but the game pauses when entering a new area, lower Texture Quality from Ultra to High, then High to Medium only if necessary. Close browsers, recording software, and overlays that consume memory. The official Steam page for The Last of Us Part I lists demanding hardware targets for a reason: this is a large, streaming-heavy game rather than a lightweight remaster.
On an 8GB card, High textures may be the correct ceiling at 1440p. On a 6GB card, Medium can prevent the ugly hitching that Ultra or High may trigger. Texture quality changes memory pressure more than it changes raw shader performance, so it is the right fix for inconsistent traversal rather than a guaranteed average-FPS boost.
CPU Stutter, Shaders, and PC Fixes
The Last of Us Part I PC can be CPU-heavy in crowded areas, especially when many objects, effects, and AI routines are active. An eight-core processor is a more comfortable target than an older four-core chip, but CPU speed and background tasks matter too. Shut down unnecessary launchers, disable intrusive overlays, and use the latest stable GPU driver. Let shader building finish after driver changes because a new driver can invalidate the existing cache.
Don't confuse shader compilation with ordinary performance. A game may run smoothly after the initial build but still hitch during traversal if storage is slow or the system is paging. Install it on an SSD with free space, keep Windows' page file enabled, and avoid streaming or recording at an aggressive bitrate while troubleshooting. If you are also fighting general PC instability, Steamoz's guide to PC crashes and FPS fixes covers useful driver, overlay, and background-process checks.
For Nvidia users, use a current Game Ready driver and test DLSS Quality before changing render resolution. For AMD users, FSR 2 Quality is the natural starting point. Radeon Anti-Lag or Nvidia Reflex-style latency tools can change responsiveness, but they won't solve a GPU that is simply overloaded. Turn on a frame-time graph if possible; smooth 60 fps means every frame arrives in roughly 16.7 milliseconds, not merely that an average counter says 60.
Recommended Profiles for Common Gaming PCs
These are starting points, not promises. The game's official PlayStation product page and Naughty Dog site are useful for patch and feature information, but your own frame-time graph is the final authority. Test after shader compilation in a demanding save, then make small changes.
| Hardware Class | Resolution | Key Settings | Upscaler and Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 / RX 6600-class | 1080p | High textures, Medium shadows, Low-Medium volumetrics | FSR 2 Quality, 60 fps cap |
| RTX 3070 / RX 6800-class | 1440p | High textures, Medium shadows, Medium reflections | DLSS or FSR 2 Quality, 60 fps cap |
| RTX 4070 / RX 7800 XT-class | 1440p | High or Ultra textures, High selective effects | DLSS Quality or native, 90 fps target |
| RTX 4080 / RX 7900 XTX-class | 4K | High textures, Medium volumetrics, Medium reflections | DLSS or FSR 2 Balanced, 60 fps cap |
| Steam Deck-class handheld | 1280x800 | Low-Medium mix, reduced shadows and effects | FSR 2 Performance, 30 fps cap |
The RTX 3060 and RX 6600 profile is intentionally conservative. Those cards can deliver a good 1080p experience, but Ultra textures and high volumetrics are poor trades when the goal is consistent frame pacing. A 3070 or RX 6800 has more room at 1440p, especially if you keep reflections and shadows at Medium. High-end cards can push native resolution more comfortably, yet even they benefit from a 60 fps cap in CPU-heavy scenes.
On Steam Deck, expectations need to be realistic. The game is extraordinarily demanding for a handheld, and a locked 30 fps profile is more sensible than constantly chasing 40. Keep textures low or medium depending on memory behavior, reduce shadows and volumetrics first, and use an SSD rather than a slow microSD card if possible. For broader handheld troubleshooting, Steamoz's low-FPS and crash troubleshooting guide has practical system-level checks.
My Final Smooth-Performance Setup
For a modern 1440p gaming PC, my preferred setup is High Texture Quality, 16x Texture Filtering, Medium Shadows, Medium Reflections, Medium Volumetric Effects, Medium Screen-Space Shadows, Ambient Occlusion enabled, Motion Blur at 0, and Depth of Field left at the default. I pair that with DLSS Quality on Nvidia or FSR 2 Quality on AMD, then cap at 60 fps unless the system holds 90 in heavy sections.
The important order is simple: finish shaders, install the game on an SSD, select the correct upscaler, lower volumetrics and shadows, then tune textures around VRAM. Don't sacrifice texture clarity to preserve an Ultra shadow preset you will barely notice during combat. Joel's journey is full of dark interiors, wet streets, smoke, foliage, and sharp cinematic close-ups; a stable frame time makes all of those moments land better than a volatile benchmark number.
If you want more PC optimization reading, Steamoz's Far Cry 6 max-FPS settings guide explains the same useful process of prioritizing expensive effects over image-critical detail. For The Last of Us Part I specifically, the winning approach is not blindly selecting Low or Ultra. Build around your GPU memory, monitor your frame times, and make the game hold its target in the places where it works hardest.