Cities: Skylines 2 - Best Graphics Settings Guide - Gamer Tag Zero (2024)

This guide shows the best graphics settings for Cities: Skylines 2 to find a great balance of performance and graphics. The following post will help players understand what can be done the best to get the most out of it.

Table of Contents

Cities: Skylines 2 – Best Graphics Settings Guide

The main issues for players hoping to get the maximum from the game will face an uphill task regarding the CPU and GPU. The minimum and recommended specs are suitable for 1080p, and it will be tough to improve on those.

Here are the minimum requirements:

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K/AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970/AMD Radeon RX 480
  • Storage: 60 GB
  • OS: Windows 10
  • RAM: 8 GB

Here are the recommended requirements:

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K/AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080/AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
  • Storage: 60 GB
  • OS: Windows 10/11
  • RAM: 8 GB

The minimum requirements will only be able to have the game on after you have turned the Global Graphics to ‘Very Low.’

On the other hand, players with more recent GPUs will suffer a bit as the Intel Arc A750 got to 30FPS on Low while the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 got to 27FPS on Medium and the RTX 3070 reached 33FPS on Medium and 13FPS on High.

Reaching 1440p will be extremely tough, with the RTX 4070 Ti getting to 22FPS on High and 38FPS on Medium. If you have the RTX 4090, then 4K may be possible.

Cities: Skylines 2 - Best Graphics Settings Guide - Gamer Tag Zero (1)

The main issue is that while Low presets will help you in most aspects, the problems begin with the Medium and High settings.

The RTX 4070 Ti got to 126 FPS at 1440p when kept to Low. If you want to keep the native resolution, increasing FPS becomes much more difficult.

There is no DLSS support, so the sole AMD help is through FSR 1.0, which is more problematic than FSR 2.0 and FSR 3.

There is also a lot of stuttering that seems ever-present, and it is too overbearing on the Steam Deck. It starts well, but the FPS starts to fall after you have some buildings ready.

Cities: Skylines 2 – Best Graphics Settings

There are 16 options under the ‘Basic’ list of Settings, while the ‘Advanced’ bunch has 67. Let’s dive into the Basic ones, as the Advanced group is only a subpart of the Basic ones running with an RTX 4060 at 1080p.

ALSO READ: Mortal Kombat 1: Best Settings PC Steam

Global Graphics quality

It gives 87 FPS on Ultra Low and 51FPS on Low. That decreases to 27 FPS on Medium and 17 FPS on High.

Dynamic Resolution Scale quality

If you keep it to Constant, there is a steady stream of 27 FPS, giving you a blurry picture that is not too great.

Anti-Aliasing

You can keep it to Low or change it to FXAA, but there is little difference in the FPS. You can add TAA, but it gives a blur too.

Cloud quality

Changing to either of the options did not have much of an impact.

Fog quality

If you keep it off, then 22FPS can be reached, but that results in switching off Volumetrics quality, too.

Volumetrics quality

You can keep it disabled and get to 22FPS.

Cities: Skylines 2 - Best Graphics Settings Guide - Gamer Tag Zero (2)

Ambient Occlusion

Keeping it off decreased FPS, so you may keep it as it is.

Global Illumination

Changing from High to Low did not do much, but this will be needed when discussing the Advanced settings.

Reflection quality

Keep it as it is.

Depth of field

You can do away with it to get to 20FPS.

Motion blur

Do as you want with this.

Shadow quality

There is no visible difference between Low and High, but keeping it entirely off gets to 21FPS. However, that will leave you with a poor visual setup, so look at other options before coming to this.

Terrain quality

Keep at High.

Water quality

Same as terrain.

Level of detail

Very Low is a little quicker than Low, but that will leave you seeing a clear difference between the two that is not great visually.

Animation quality

There is no difference between Medium and High.

Texture quality

High and Low are giving the same FPS.

When it comes to the Advanced list of Settings, there are two things to focus on especially. The first one is Ray Steps, located within the Global Illumination quality. You can keep it to a minimum and increase your FPS with no significant drop in visuals.

The second is the maximum light count in the Level of detail area. You can increase it to 8192 since there is no loss in FPS, and you will have a lot of clarity in terms of lighting within the game.

Thus, that is all the information players will need regarding the settings of Cities: Skylines 2. You have to tweak some things to get the most out of the game in its early days, but it can be worthwhile if the developers fix the other issues quickly.

Last Updated on January 21, 2024

Cities: Skylines 2 - Best Graphics Settings Guide - Gamer Tag Zero (3)

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Cities: Skylines 2 - Best Graphics Settings Guide - Gamer Tag Zero (2024)

FAQs

How to get best graphics in Cities Skylines 2? ›

Below is a list of recommended settings to help you optimize the best possible performance for Cities: Skylines 2.
  1. Screen Resolutions: 1920x 1080 x 60Hz.
  2. VSync: On.
  3. Depth of Field Mode: Disabled.
  4. Dynamic Resolution Scale Quality: Disabled.
  5. Anti-aliasing Quality: Low SMAA.
  6. Clouds Quality Settings: Disabled / Low.
Nov 4, 2023

What settings should I use for Cities Skylines 2? ›

Optimized graphics settings
  • Display mode: Fullscreen.
  • Maximum frame latency: 3.
  • Depth of field mode: None.
  • Dynamic resolution scale quality: AMD CAS 90%
  • Anti-aliasing quality: None.
  • Clouds quality: Disabled.
  • Fog quality: Enabled.
  • Volumetrics quality: Disabled.
Apr 17, 2024

How to make city Skylines 2 run smoother? ›

Cities: Skylines 2 - Our Guide to Optimizing Performance
  1. The processing of the Virtual Texturing will appear in the Notifications Tab on the Home Screen. ...
  2. Lowering the Resolution; we recommend 1920 x 1080 x 60Hz. ...
  3. Disable Volumetrics; this lowers the quality of the volumetric clouds.
May 2, 2024

What settings to turn off in Cities Skylines 2? ›

Disable V-Sync.

In this game it's no good; you should turn it off. Reduce Volumetrics Quality to Low. This setting is quite impactful on performance, and you can reduce it without compromising the look of the game. Disable Global Illumination.

What are the best specs for Cities Skylines 2? ›

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
  • OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit | Windows® 11.
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-12600K | AMD® Ryzen™ 7 5800X.
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM.
  • Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ RTX 3080 (10 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 6800 XT (16 GB)
  • Storage: 60 GB available space.

Is City Skylines 2 CPU or GPU intensive? ›

Simulation-heavy games like city builders can be surprisingly hard to run at a good framerate, but what makes Cities: Skylines 2 stand out is that on most systems and in most situations the game is GPU-bound — rather unusual for a game of this genre, as most games like this tend to be really heavy on the CPU (such as ...

Is City Skylines 2 demanding? ›

Cities: Skylines II review: SimCity on steroids The game is a marvel for anyone craving a hit of SimCity-style urban planning. It's also graphically demanding and occasionally overwhelming.

Why is city Skylines 2 so laggy? ›

If you have anything running in the background, you may experience drops in performance. Additionally, if you have more than one monitor, anything that you are doing on the other screen can contribute to lag. Consider only keeping necessary programs open while playing Cities: Skylines 2.

What frame rate is Cities Skylines 2? ›

The developer of Cities Skylines 2 has revealed the game targets 30 frames per second, even on the most powerful PCs.

How to fix power bottleneck in Cities Skylines 2? ›

Just look at the bottleneck, put down a couple transformers on either side of the bottleneck, connect them undrground or by wire, done. Bottleneck electricity is part of what a real city has to deal with all the time, that is why they got huge transformer stations to store the electricity until its needed.

How to improve graphics in Cities: Skylines 2? ›

  1. Switch from 'Fullscreen' to 'Windowed Fullscreen' (or vice-versa) Before I even built my first road the game was already terribly choppy and sluggish. ...
  2. Set 'Depth of Field Mode' to 'Disabled' ...
  3. Set 'Volumetrics Quality' to 'Disabled' ...
  4. Set 'Level of Detail' to Very Low. ...
  5. Turn motion blur off.
Oct 24, 2023

What is the best map in Cities: Skylines 2? ›

Mountain Village – This is by far the most visually stunning map in the game. It takes its inspiration from the Alps mountains and includes rivers that flow across the entire map. A valley is a great place to start your city, though it's not for beginners.

Does Cities: Skylines 2 have DLSS? ›

Cities Skylines 2 now has support for Nvidia DLSS 2, and while you won't need one of the best graphics cards to use it, you will need to be using any RTX graphics card to benefit.

What GPU for Cities: Skylines 2? ›

Cities Skylines 2 FPS - what frame rate can you expect?
Avg FPSCPUGPU
50Intel Core i9-7900XNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
39Intel Core i7-9700KIntel UHD 630
37Intel Core i7-9750HNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
17Intel Core i7-6700HQNVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
1 more row

What frame rate is cities skylines 2? ›

The developer of Cities Skylines 2 has revealed the game targets 30 frames per second, even on the most powerful PCs.

How do I make my city more attractive in Cities: Skylines? ›

City attractiveness is affected by citizen happiness, land value, and unique buildings in the city. The average city attractiveness value is shown in the city info panel and the tourism info view. Land value can be increased by building parks and plazas, which also help zoned buildings in the city to level up.

How do I make my city skyline better? ›

  1. Avoid repetition , delete identical buildings in the same area.
  2. Lots of Trees.
  3. Try plotting buildings instead of just zoning massive areas.
  4. Use mods.
  5. Try using Real life references.
  6. Avoid the ugly vanilla assets.
Aug 30, 2023

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