Path of Exile 2 settings: a fair FPS check and a sharp picture

Each tip is marked: a method, how the game itself works, a check you can run in Exile Assistant, or something we have not tested. We do not promise a specific frame rate.

A fair FPS check Method

The game can even out FPS by itself. That is handy for normal play but hides the difference between settings and presets. For the check, turn off:

Setting (Options → Graphics)	For the check	Why
Foreground FPS Cap	off	FPS stops at the cap, so a gain cannot show.
VSync	Off	Holds FPS at the refresh rate of the screen.
Dynamic Resolution	off	Under load the game lowers the resolution to hold Target Framerate: FPS stays the same, the picture gets blurrier.
Dynamic Culling	off	Under load the game removes some particles by itself.

Keep the same in both checks: Renderer, Window Resolution, Upscale Mode, Image Quality, Texture Quality, NVIDIA Reflex and Triple-Buffering.

How to run it

Change the settings and press Save: the game writes its settings on Save and when it closes.
Enter a map and run around for a minute: the first pass through a zone builds the shader cache and stutters.
In Exile Assistant open Check and run 3 minutes on the unchanged game, then the same with a preset, on the same map.
Afterwards turn your usual settings back on.

Exile Assistant warns before a check when these settings are on. How the FPS check works.

The game’s own overlay How the game works

Options → Graphics → Performance Metrics: Graph Details “All Graphs”, Show Bars on. In the top right corner you then see:

FRAME and FPS show how long one frame takes. A spike in the graph is a stutter.
CPU and GPU (ms): the higher one limits the frame rate.
VRAM is the video memory in use. When it is nearly full, lower Texture Quality.
DRIVE shows disk reads. It jumps when zones and effects load.
SHADER shows shaders being built right now. While it is not zero, short stutters are normal.
NETWORK and its graph show the delay to the server.

Stutters or network lag

How the game works These are different things. With network lag the character stalls or snaps back, but the FRAME graph stays even. With a frame stutter the spike shows in FRAME.
Check it in Exile Assistant During a check Exile Assistant tests the connection to the game server once a second. It shows cable or Wi-Fi, the delay, how much it jumps, and lost packets. If frames are smooth and the connection jumps, it says so: this is network lag, not stutters.
Check it in Exile Assistant A cable usually gives a steadier delay than Wi-Fi. Check it yourself: one check over Wi-Fi, one over cable, on the same map.
Method Some servers do not answer these tests. Then Exile Assistant says the delay was not measured. It does not guess.

A blurry picture

How the game works Dynamic Resolution lowers the internal resolution under load to hold Target Framerate. If sharpness matters more than steady FPS, turn it off.
How the game works Image Quality: native resolution and NVIDIA DLAA are the sharpest. Quality is sharper than Balanced and Performance, which render at a lower resolution and stretch the picture.
Not tested by us Sharpness around 10–20% is a common choice. We have not measured which value is best.
Check it in Exile Assistant Exile Assistant presets take part of the load off (fog, particles, ground effects). The FPS you gain can go into a sharper Image Quality. Check it on your computer: a check on the unchanged game with your usual mode, then a preset with DLAA or Quality, on the same map. If FPS is not lower, Exile Assistant shows “the picture is sharper without losing smoothness”.
Method Exile Assistant does not change Upscale Mode. It does not fix the trails and artifacts of DLSS, FSR or XeSS.

Our own measurements will appear on the Preset results page once we have enough checks.