Deus Ex: Human Revolution Tweak Guide

Find out how you can tweak Deus Ex: Human Revolution to get best graphics and performance.


Have an average PC and would like to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution at maximum performance ? Well, here are the options you have. First, we would walk you through the graphics settings you can tweak in the game. By adjusting the performance parameters of the game, you can increase up to 25% performance of the machine.

Note. If you are facing other technical issues with the game, you should read our crashes, freezes troubleshooting guide.

Minimum Requirements
OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 with DirectX 9.0c
PROCESSOR: 2 GHz dual core
RAM: 1 GB RAM (Windows XP) / 2 GB (Windows Vista and Windows 7)
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce 8000 series or ATI Radeon HD 2000 series or better
REQUIRED DISC SPACE: 8.5 GB

Recommended Requirements
OS: Windows 7
PROCESSOR: AMD Phenom II X4 or Intel Core 2 Quad or better
RAM: 2 GB
GRAPHICS: AMD Radeon HD 5850
REQUIRED DISC SPACE: 8.5 GB

You will be able to change the following settings in graphics menu of the game:

Directx 11
Directx 11 improves overall visuals of the game. To run the game on Dx11, you should have a Directx 11 ready video card. If you have a high end PC, dx11 can also make the game run smoother but if you are on average PC, run the game on DirectX 9 – It will be much smoother experience.

Tessellation
Tessellation improves the object and character detail in Dx11 mode. In Deus EX: Human Revolution, the characters look more realistic with this feature enabled. Tessellation does not have any major effect on the performance.

Post-Processing
Post-processing to the effects is produced after an image has been created. This option hence provides more dynamic and cinematic visuals. In Deus Ex HR, Color correction, Depth of Field and Boom/Glow are some applications under its control. The performance loses are minimal but still can add up to be significant if you are on an average machine.

Shadows
Shadows can have much effect on the performance. Normal Shadows will be of basic level having a little or no effect on performance. Soft Shadows on the other hand improves the object detail but will cut the performance by a greater margin specially on low-end PCs.

SSAO
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion adds realism to objects and characters. This option has major impact on performance. Turning it on can lower the performance up to 50 percent. SSAO on high-end PCs can improve the visuals to a greater degree.

Antialiasing
It’s an option where consoles suffer a lot. Anti aliasing can smoother the edges which gives a smooth appearance to different elements. In Deus Ex HR, there are three variants of this option. FxAA and MLAA seem to have more affect on the performance than Edge Anti aliasing.

Texture Filtering
This option improves the texture appeal, improving the overall quality of the image. It does not have any major affect on the performance but it does make the image look a lot better specially when you can’t afford to use other heavy settings like Shadows and Anti aliasing etc.

These settings can either drastically boost the frame rates or decrease them subjected to hardware capabilities of your machine. Now that you know the role of these settings, you should be able to get a balanced mix of visuals and performance out of your machine.

We will update the article if we find any way to edit INI Files and Dev Console which for now seem to be hidden or removed from the full game.

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...