Destiny 2 is one of Steam’s most popular multiplayer games that are actually free to play. Unfortunately, many players are unable to play and enjoy it to their heart’s content because of lag and graphics issues.

For these reasons, we have made an in-depth guide on how to optimize Destiny 2 with the best performance and graphics settings. The in-game settings and Steam launch options of Destiny 2 can be optimized to increase your FPS and enhance your gameplay experience.

Destiny 2 Steam Launch Options

How to set steam launch options in destiny 2:

• Open Steam
• Go to the Library tab
• Right-click on Destiny 2
• Select Properties then go to the General tab
• Click “Set Launch Options”

Now type the following:

-high -USEALLAVAILABLECORES

What do these options do:

-high

sets the process priority to high. It helps increase FPS and performance for Destiny 2.

-USEALLAVAILABLECORES

this tells the game to use all your CPU cores for the game. Helpful for systems with multiple cores.

Destiny 2 Graphics Settings

Launch Destiny 2, press the Esc key on the keyboard and the Game Options menu will be shown. Select Open Settings, and open the Video tab as shown in the image below:

Video Settings 

Window Mode: Fullscreen.

Fullscreen is the best choice for gameplay and performance. Unless you have a multimonitor setup, stick to fullscreen as the default option.

Resolution: Monitor’s Max Resolution.

Using your max resolution is recommended for the best gameplay experience and a better view. If you badly need an FPS boost then 720p is usually the last resort. But I recommend 1080p for all gamers.

Vsync: Off.

Turn this off for every game. It only hampers performance.

Framerate Cap Enabled: Off

It should be off if you want the best FPS. Unless you are playing on a laptop. Disabling the framerate cap will take off all limits on FPS, giving you max FPS in Destiny 2. However, high FPS might cause overheating problems if your system isn’t cooled properly. So for laptops, enable the Framerate Cap.

Framerate Cap For Laptop: Your Monitor Refresh Rate.

You should keep it at the same value as your monitor refresh rate (60, 120, or 144Hz).

Field of View: Set Depending On Your Preferences.

A wider field of view (FOV) increases your vision and helps you spot players, but at the same time, all the targets are now smaller. Lower values will improve your performance.

Advanced Video Settings

Graphics Quality: Custom.

It’s better to set each setting individually.

Anti-Aliasing: Off.

You will get some jagged edges but there is no helping it. You need to disable anti-aliasing for performance and FPS.

Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: Off.

I recommend turning this off for our goals.

Texture Anisotropy: Off

You need all the FPS you can get. Turn this off and you will get some more FPS and smoother performance at the cost of graphics.

Texture Quality: Medium/High

This setting depends on the VRAM, your graphics card memory. Set to either medium or high depending on if you have a 2GB card or 4GB card. 6GB or higher can go for max texture quality.

Shadow Quality: Lowest.

This is one of the graphics settings that has the highest impact on performance and FPS in Destiny 2.

Environmental Detail Distance: Medium or High.

You need it to spot enemies. So keep it at medium or high. It will cost some FPS but you need the in-game advantage.

Character Detail Distance: Medium or High.

Just like the previous setting, you need it for gameplay advantage. You will be in a better position to spot players and win.

Foliage Detail Distance: Low.

Less trees and grass are the better choice. You can now see the hidden players quite easily. Now you can spot them and get easy kills.

Foliage Shadows Distance: Medium

Similar to Foliage Detail Distance. It only concerns shadows. It cannot be set to low.

Depth of Field: Off.

Turning this off will help boost performance in Destiny 2.

Light Shafts: Medium

This is the lowest option available. I even wish it could go lower.

Motion Blur: Off.

Very unnecessary in an online game? Turn it off.

Wind Impulse: Off.

Wind Impulse is the effect of wind on the grass and the environment. Keeping it disabled is the best option. It gives a minor FPS boost. No effect on graphic quality whatsoever.

Additional Video Settings

Render Resolution: 100%

I recommend you to not change this setting, doing so will make the gameplay blurry and you won’t be able to spot enemies easily. Lowering the value below 100% will grant more performance but at the cost of blurred textures.

HDR: Off

You need a very high-resolution display for this option to become active and a supported graphics card. It has a huge impact on the quality at the cost of performance.

Chromatic Aberration: Off.

It’s just an unnecessary graphics effects that cause lag on low-end systems.

Film Grain: Off.

The film grain generates a filmy effect that hampers vision. This setting has a bad influence on both your performance and gameplay, so I suggest disabling this.

Click Apply to save the changes. You can now restart the game.

Congratulations!

You have successfully optimized Destiny 2 for max performance and FPS. If you still are unable to get the FPS you need you can try to optimize windows 10 for gaming. Hopefully, your problem will be solved. If not you need to buy a new system or upgrade the existing one.

I hope you liked the article on Destiny 2 performance settings. Thank you for reading. Remember to share it with fellow Destiny 2 Gamers.

See you in-game.

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