Best NFS Heat Graphics Settings for Performance and FPS

NFS Heat is the continuation of the Need for Speed series and has an interface quite similar to NFS Payback. But this game is definitely worth playing thanks to the amazing cars and races. The game looks amazing in terms of graphics. But as usual, many gamers are facing lag and low FPS issues. So here is a guide to fix the LAG using the best graphics settings for NFS heat.

You can edit the in-game settings to make sure that the game does not lag and has enough FPS to make the races smooth as butter. Now the key factor I noticed responsible for the lag was the FPS.

Especially when chased by cops or during races the FPS drops a lot compared to the open world. So I recommend you get enough FPS to overcome issues with lag.

Best graphics settings for NFS Heat

Fullscreen: Fullscreen

Fullscreen is the best option performance and graphics wise to enjoy lag-free gaming. Especially in a racing game like NFS HEAT. Fullscreen mode will give you a much better gameplay experience.

Screen Resolution: Max resolution

Your game resolution has the highest impact on game quality. Therefore use the highest resolution you can. You may lose some FPS but it is worth the graphics improvement. Besides we like our cars hot and HD.

Vertical sync: off

Turn this off. It causes FPS drops and unless you have an RTX 2080 don’t even think about this. More FPS is better.

HDR MODE: Auto

Keep it at auto if you have a good vibrant display. If you have a low-end monitor you can turn this setting off.

Resolution Scale: Default / 100

Never reduce this setting. It will make your game blurry. It does help in increasing FPS but at a very high cost of graphics. Definitely don’t use it. Keep it at default.

Motion Blur: Off

Not worth the lag. Motion blur tends to cause lag and blur vision while gaming. Not something you need in a high-speed chase.

Graphics Quality: Custom

Put this setting to custom. We will be editing each and every graphics settings to get the best fps and lag-free gaming in Need for speed Heat.

Custom Graphics settings for NFS heat

Texture Quality: High or Ultra

If you have at least a 4GB graphics card then go with High. If you have a 6GB Card or higher then go with Ultra. The smooth textures and gaming experience are worth the few FPS.

This setting uses more VRAM rather than processing power. So if you have enough memory Ultra is fine.

Shadow Quality: Low

It has a high impact on FPS and is the number one reason for the lag in NFS heat. Turn this to the lowest. You won’t notice the graphics difference but you will definitely love the FPS boost in racing.

Texture Filtering: Medium or High

This game requires texture filtering. Otherwise, you get edges on vehicles and the games look bad. It just does. So in order to play the game in good graphics, we need at least medium settings.

Ambient Occlusion: off

Turn it off. It has a minor effect on graphics. But a major effect when it comes to increasing FPS in NFS Heat. It also helps fix lag in NFS Heat in certain locations. So turn it off.

Effects Detail: low

Not that important. You need to sacrifice some things for better FPS in-game. So This a good option as it does not impact graphics that much. Choose low or medium if you have an RTX.

Geometry Detail: High

For cars, you need high geometry settings. Your cars will look better and this is a racing game. You cannot expect to have fun with ugly graphics cars now, can we? So medium or High it is.

Anti-Aliasing: FXAA

FXAA is the best. You can go higher if needed. But turning this off brings edges to the cars which makes the game look bad. So at least keep FXAA.

Terrain Quality: Medium or High

While racing your surroundings matter for the visual experience and fun of racing. You can go low if you really want FPS and lag-free gaming. But the game looks really bad when you go below medium. So set it at medium or high.

Vegetation Detail: Medium or High

Similar to the terrain setting it helps with fun racing experience. Set it to medium.

Post-processing Quality: Medium or High

This needs to be medium or high because it helps by prerendering some parts of the game and ensures that we do get lag in NFS heat. It takes graphics memory and resources but if definitely worth the cost.

Reflection quality: Low

You can save FPS here. The graphics quality is not that noticeable. You get used to it fairly fast. So boost your FPS by setting this to low.

Depth of field: Low

Adds depth effects to the game. Not that noticeable and you can safely lower it to save some graphics resources for other settings.

Lighting Quality: Low

This does make a difference in-game lighting effects however even with low I did not find any issue with low lighting effects. The game looks pretty good anyway. If you want more lights set it to medium.

Now apply the settings and restart the game.

Game Stutter Bug/ Fix

Many players faced a stuttering bug

Make a file named user.cfg with the following code

Thread.ProcessorCount 4 **** Number of your Cores Thread.MaxProcessorCount 4 **** Number of your Cores Thread.MinFreeProcessorCount 0 **** Keep it 0 Thread.JobThreadPriority 0 **** Keep it 0 GstRender.Thread.MaxProcessorCount 4 **** Number of your Threads

My file looks like this:

Here is how my code looks like

Conclusion:

To fix the lag in NFS heat you need a HIGH FPS in-game. Make sure you have at least 10-15 FPS higher than your Monitor refresh Rate.

So if you have a 60HZ Display then FPS should be in 70-80 FPS Range. If you have a 144HZ Display then FPS should be 150-160 FPS Range and so on.

You can also optimize Windows 10 for gaming. It may help fix the lag.

Thanks for reading. I hope this guide has been informative for you. Do share it with fellow NFS Heat racers.

See you in-game


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2 Comments

  • I’m playing NFS heat on a GTX 950 and able to achieve 40-50 FPS. And don’t get me wrong, the game looks beautiful.
    What you need to do is lower the rendering resolution to 1280×720 and activate TAA (Temporal Anti Aliasing). What it does is that it up scales the jagged edges and lower resolution objects to restore finer details, similar to what happens in DLSS.
    So basically you’re playing at a low resolution with higher fps but the game still looks crisp and smooth.

    Hellfire
    Posted January 8, 2022

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