Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is finally available on PC and even some pretty powerful PCs are having some trouble running it smoothly without compromising a lot on the visual quality. Thankfully, that is where this Deus Ex Mankind Divided PC Tweaks Guide comes in.
For more help on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, read our Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Key Codes, Hacking Guide and Augmentations Guide.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PC Tweaks
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PC Tweaks should help players with all sorts of hardware configurations run the game smoothly without too much trouble while ensuring they don’t have to sacrifice a lot on the visuals.
In some cases, turning off some graphic options have no impact on the quality but give a significant performance boost.
Antialiasing
No matter what kind of GPU you are running, antialiasing, especially MSAA can be quite taxing as is pretty evident in the case of Deus Ex Mankind Divided. The game offers players the choice of MSAA (2x, 4x and 8x) as well as TAA.
Using any MSAA preset will incur heavy performance loss on pretty much every system so it is advised not to use it. For those who feel they cannot handle the jagged edges in the game, TAA is a better option as it is more resource friendly.
Both antialiasing options are dependent on the GPU so if someone has a PC where the GPU is powerful enough to handle AA but their CPU is limiting performance, turning off AA will not give any performance boost.
Resolution and Preset
The minimum specifications are designed to allow a 30fps experience on 720p resolution and low quality preset while the recommended are for 1080p and High preset with a 60fps target.
Anything above 1080p will incur a heavy impact on performance and should be used only when the system specs, both CPU and GPU, are higher than the recommended one.
Playing on high resolution can also heavily impact GPU so for those looking to gain some more frames, it is a better idea to lower resolution while increasing graphic quality preset to make up for the quality loss. This can be very useful on PCs close to the minimum specs.
Going above High quality preset, even at 1080p is only recommended for GPUs with more than 4GB VRAM like 980Ti, 1070, 1080, RX 480 8GB and so on.
Some GPUs might not be able to handle some specific features so it is best to use a custom preset with tweaking done based on the hardware instead of using a predefined preset
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PC Graphics Tweaks
Texture Quality directly has a pretty significant impact on performance even if game resolution is set to a lower value since this is separate from that and alters the resolution of the textures used for different assets.
That is more of a GPU thing so will not improve performance in the case of a CPU bottleneck. While the settings can even be amped up to Ultra, unless someone is playing on 4K, even High settings might be enough for them as higher will cause stutters even on some high end GPUs.
Texture Filtering at 4x seems to be the best blend between performance and quality as it ensures sharper textures at angles while maintaining good frames. This should be easily doable for most GPUs.
Shadow Quality affects the resolution of shadows in the game created by different light sources. A low preset can result in very blocky textures while high and very high although massively improves quality but also impact performance pretty heavily. Medium seems to be the perfect option for PCs between minimum and recommended specs
Contact Hardening Shadows impacts the ‘realism’ of shadows as they move away from their source. It can look cool but not really something most players will notice so it is best to turn it off and gain some extra frames
Screenspace Reflection creates dynamic reflections based on other items on the screen.
It impacts GPU performance and turning it up to Ultra can be a real fps killer but there is pretty much negligible quality difference when its lowered down to High while the performance boost is huge
Subsurface Scattering this pretty much only comes into play when light hits a character’s skin and the effect can actually be annoying for some. Turning it off can give a significant performance boost
Ambient Occlusion isn’t as taxing on the GPU as some of the other options and setting it up at 8x not only improves performance but there is almost no quality difference between it and maxed out.
Parallax Occlusion Mapping affects the geometry of surfaces in such a way that bricks and floors appear more realistic with ‘depth’ to them. It can be turned off for a slight performance boost
Other Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Tweaks
This part of the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PC Tweaks Guide will cover some of the other “extra” enhancements that can be altered to improve performance, whether they are related to GPU or CPU.
There are also some options here that are more like annoying screen effects and filters but have an impact on performance although turning them off is up to player preference.
Cloth Physics basically simulates movement of clothes as characters move around. This is a CPU intensive setting and can give a decent performance boost if turned off
Motion Blur, Depth of Field, Bloom are all some added enhancements that impact GPU performance a bit. Depending on player choice, they can be turned off for some performance gain.
Volumetric Lighting can have a severe impact on GPU performance if used at Ultra. To gain some frames, it should be lowered although turning it off can remove some pretty decent smoke and fog effects
Sharpness and Chromatic Aberration don’t really have any impact on GPU performance but depending on player preference, it might be a good idea to turn them off to remove the camera effects.
Level of Detail can really help out weaker CPUs as it affects the detail of rendered meshes and the distance at which they fade out from the screen. This setting affects both GPUs and CPUs so it should be at lowest for systems near the minimum specs.
For those still having performance issues after tweaking their settings according to this Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PC Tweaks guide even though they are above the minimum system requirements, Nixxes has suggested that they should completely turn off MSAA, Volumetric Lighting and Contact Hardening Shadows while using the High preset if their GPU has 4GB VRAM and stay at 1080p resolution.
Exclusive Fullscreen mode can also slightly help with some performance issues. Don’t forget to share your own Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Tweaks with us by commenting below!
