Improve your graphics quality with these two settings

Morbad · May 11, 2025

Florenus said:
I've found that if you have Nvidia card, it's much better to use DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution) setting than Supersampling. It doesn't have as severe impact on performance as ingame supersampling.

The performance impact is essentially identical at the same internal resolution.

However, the game lists a multiplier of the linear dimensions, while DSR resolutions show the multiplier of total pixel area...i.e. the 4.00x DSR resolution is the same resolution as 2.0x in-game supersampling.

BL1P said:
I run this ontop of ingame settings.
Its for Nvidia cards from the control panel :-
View attachment 429183

Jaffz said:
I've had 3 PCs all with Nvidia cards and the control panel has never worked on any of them
It never overrides

There are no MSAA settings to enhance and alpha-to-coverage isn't used for transparency AA either.

It can't be overridden either. The game doesn't support MSAA at all. Very few games with differed renderers do.

These options are mostly for DX9 and prior titles.

alexzk · May 11, 2025

I have reverse problem, too low FPS with 4Gb VRAM and 1080p.
So I turned everything OFF into game, set it to 0.85 and then used vkBasalt (ReShade) to restore it using Gaussian blur.
Based on reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ReShade/comments/kaq26l/guide_amd_upscaling_with_reshade_properly_to

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReShade/comments/kaq26l/guide_amd_upscaling_with_reshade_properly_to/

Code:

#Keep this 1 or 2 at most.
GaussianBlurRadius = 1
#That is set in-game.
GaussianBlurOffset = 0.85
#Gaussian Blur Strength = 1.125 - (Gaussian Blur Offset). For 0,75; it is equal to 0,375.
GaussianBlurStrength = 0.275

#Minimum value for CAS is  [(screen resolution) / (rendering resolution)]^2 -1
#It is 0.777 for 0.75 scale; 0.384083044994 for 0.85
casSharpness = 0.95

Vibrance = 0.10                     
VibranceRGBBalance = 1.00,1.00,1.00 

effects = gs_blur:cas:smaa:vibrance

This way I don't see difference 0.85x and 1x and FPS is steady 60 except Carrier.

3navis · May 11, 2025

geoffrey.hdt said:
I will have to give a try to your config, then.
My display is only 60 Hz, and 60 FPS is not very demanding for my GPU.

I really only need 60 FPS like you, but I'm comparing the configuration in the same scenario with the ship standing on the FC. In game it will drop considerably.

Markov Chaney · May 11, 2025

z993126 said:
Be a rebel like me, play without AA at all. I remember when games were 320x200 and that was plenty!

Be like original Elite, use two resolutions at once
Overall size 256 x 248. (A massive 192 of these for spaaaaace and the other 56 for the dashboard)

SergMx · May 11, 2025

Nugstar said:
Hi guys, just a quick video based on two really important graphics settings that will help to improve the look of Elite Dangerous, especially since they're not setup correctly by default. If this helps your game look better, please let me know in the comments, thanks. Also, if you have any tweaks like these that really help to improve graphics quality, please share!

Source: https://youtu.be/TtAIQwp0-3s

Sorry could you please describe me these two options as we don't have youtube available.

I have 4060 and 1080p, I tried all sorts of things but the font is impossible to look at. So I turn off supersampling.

Jaffz · May 11, 2025

SergMx said:
Sorry could you please describe me these two options as we don't have youtube available.

I have 4060 and 1080p, I tried all sorts of things but the font is impossible to look at. So I turn off supersampling.

What the video says is:

Go into the graphics menu then to quality settings
1.Turn off anti aliasing
2. Adjust the supersampling value to 2.0. If this causes FPS drops then scale it down to your preference, it is set to 1.0 as default

Some stuff that I have discovered:

If the font is blurry/hard to read that would suggest that your resolution is too low, this can also be the case if you have the AMD upscaling enabled if you don't have an AMD card. I have found that with an Nvidia card it is best to leave it set to normal

jojon · May 11, 2025

I don't believe FSR1 looks any better on an AMD card than a NVidia one - it should be the exact same algoritm, functionally.

What makes it confusing is that NVidia and AMD both upsell their recent "smart" upscaling techniques by calling them "super" something or other, even though they are rather the opposite of supersamling, diluting the meaning of the word -- they are subsampling (any supersampling setting lower than 1), only with a more-complicated-than-older-methods subsequent upscaling to screen resolution (newer versions take data temporally from previous frames, though).

...and this ambiguity gets further exacerbated when ED shares the UI element for choosing supersampling amount with the FSR option, to choose its quality level (render resolution multiplier, hidden under a label).

Morbad · May 12, 2025

jojon said:
I don't believe FSR1 looks any better on an AMD card than a NVidia one - it should be the exact same algoritm, functionally.

Correct.

jojon said:
...and this ambiguity gets further exacerbated when ED shares the UI element for choosing supersampling amount with the FSR option, to choose its quality level (render resolution multiplier, hidden under a label).

You can actually use any of these upscalers/subsamplers to downscale/supersample. The quality presets are render resolution scales and there is usually some way to set this arbitrarily.

In the case of ED, Frontier broke CAS a while back (no idea if they ever fixed it) so the only way to get an in-game sharpening filter was to use FSR 1.0...which you could then override by setting the supersampling multiplier in the config files to most any arbitrary value. Normally, ultra quality was 0.77, but I ran FSR with 1.25 for a while. Of course since every major GPU brand has it's own sharpen filter exposed via drivers nowadays, this workaround isn't very useful.

BL1P · May 12, 2025

Morbad said:
The performance impact is essentially identical at the same internal resolution.

However, the game lists a multiplier of the linear dimensions, while DSR resolutions show the multiplier of total pixel area...i.e. the 4.00x DSR resolution is the same resolution as 2.0x in-game supersampling.

There are no MSAA settings to enhance and alpha-to-coverage isn't used for transparency AA either.

It can't be overridden either. The game doesn't support MSAA at all. Very few games with differed renderers do.

These options are mostly for DX9 and prior titles.

Well damn thats just proved that I did a placebo test on myself

I was sure it looked better

Dag nabit !

jojon · May 12, 2025

Morbad said:
...
You can actually use any of these upscalers/subsamplers to downscale/supersample. The quality presets are render resolution scales and there is usually some way to set this arbitrarily.

In the case of ED, Frontier broke CAS a while back (no idea if they ever fixed it) so the only way to get an in-game sharpening filter was to use FSR 1.0...which you could then override by setting the supersampling multiplier in the config files to most any arbitrary value. Normally, ultra quality was 0.77, but I ran FSR with 1.25 for a while. Of course since every major GPU brand has it's own sharpen filter exposed via drivers nowadays, this workaround isn't very useful.

Interesting. Out of curiousity: Other than the sharpening pass, did any noteable differences jump out at you, regarding the... "character" of the result, between such FSR downscaling from a higher render resolution, and "naive" resamplers (e.g. I recall when trying FSR upscaling in the past, frames came out looking kind of posterised to my eye, or "painterly", or however one should describe it :7).

(I guess this would as always be dependent on the quality of the input imagery, but...)

Morbad · May 12, 2025

jojon said:
Interesting. Out of curiousity: Other than the sharpening pass, did any noteable differences jump out at you, regarding the... "character" of the result, between such FSR downscaling from a higher render resolution, and "naive" resamplers (e.g. I recall when trying FSR upscaling in the past, frames came out looking kind of posterised to my eye, or "painterly", or however one should describe it :7).

(I guess this would as always be dependent on the quality of the input imagery, but...)

When using FSR for supersampling I didn't notice any issues or see any artifacts that couldn't be attributed to the sharpening.

Using it as intended (upscaling from a lower internal resolution) it seems to be a bit more pixelated than the default 'normal' scaler.

jojon · May 13, 2025

Morbad said:
When using FSR for supersampling I didn't notice any issues or see any artifacts that couldn't be attributed to the sharpening.

Using it as intended (upscaling from a lower internal resolution) it seems to be a bit more pixelated than the default 'normal' scaler.

Thanks. Neither "better" nor "worse" than the normal scaler when supersampling, then...

Yiryi-Sa · May 13, 2025

Another small graphics tip:

You can set the in-game texture filter to Trilinear (both overall and for terrain filtering) filtering, and then set your GPU to run Anisotropic x16 on top of it, giving a slightly better texture appearance.

graflex22 · Tuesday at 11:01 PM

hello, all.

i transferred over from Xbox recently and am fairly new to pc gaming. i have a RTX 4050 gpu and a AMD Ryzen 5 cpu. i'm using my LG 4k tv as my screen and am over all pretty happy with the graphics and fps. but, coming from a Series X i'm not sure really what to expect from my laptop as far as graphics go. currently, the graphics look almost or at least as good as they did when playing on the Series X. fps is definitely better. no stuttering at all around stations or on foot. though, i have yet to do an on foot CZ.

any tips for getting the best graphics, resolution, and fps out of my 4050 and Ryzen 5? it seems like a lot of the suggestions mentioned previously in this thread are for machines with better gpus than i have.

nemolomen · Tuesday at 11:27 PM

graflex22 said:
hello, all.

i transferred over from Xbox recently and am fairly new to pc gaming. i have a RTX 4050 gpu and a AMD Ryzen 5 cpu. i'm using my LG 4k tv as my screen and am over all pretty happy with the graphics and fps. but, coming from a Series X i'm not sure really what to expect from my laptop as far as graphics go. currently, the graphics look almost or at least as good as they did when playing on the Series X. fps is definitely better. no stuttering at all around stations or on foot. though, i have yet to do an on foot CZ.

any tips for getting the best graphics, resolution, and fps out of my 4050 and Ryzen 5? it seems like a lot of the suggestions mentioned previously in this thread are for machines with better gpus than i have.

Which Ryzen 5 CPU do you have? Yes it matters.

The 4050 is an entry level GPU which won't be great but it should be OK for medium/high-ish graphics at about 60 fps, except on-foot where you'll probably see 40 fps or less. Flying/in-ship shouldn't be an issue though.

What Quality setting are you using? (Main Menu>Options>Graphics) Did you let the game, or another program (NVidia App, I'm looking at you) pick them for you?

Generally it takes playing around with it to find what you like best at a frame rate you can deal with.

A few more questions:

How much RAM/memory does your laptop have?

How much RAM/memory does your GPU have?

What are you using for a controller? (XBox Controller, mouse and keyboard, something else)

Do you have the model number of the laptop you have?

graflex22 · Tuesday at 11:39 PM

Ryzen 5 8645HS

16 GB ram
6 or 8 GPU ram

Thrustmaster HOTAS One (left over from my Series X) and Xbox Series X controller for on foot stuff

LOQ 15AHP9

thanks for the help.

nemolomen · Wednesday at 2:43 AM

graflex22 said:
Ryzen 5 8645HS

16 GB ram
6 or 8 GPU ram

Thrustmaster HOTAS One (left over from my Series X) and Xbox Series X controller for on foot stuff

LOQ 15AHP9

thanks for the help.

It actually seems fairly decent for what it is. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/loq-laptops/lenovo-loq-15ahp9/len101q0008#tech_specs

I mean, its not ideal but should be fine...

Just make sure the vents are free of obstruction so it can get airflow. I've seen Odyssey heat a small room. It really drives the hardware, though it not as bad as it used to be.
Limiting the frame rate to 60 should help with that.

What resolution are you using?

graflex22 · Wednesday at 3:23 AM

nemolomen said:
It actually seems fairly decent for what it is. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/loq-laptops/lenovo-loq-15ahp9/len101q0008#tech_specs

I mean, its not ideal but should be fine...

Just make sure the vents are free of obstruction so it can get airflow. I've seen Odyssey heat a small room. It really drives the hardware, though it not as bad as it used to be.
Limiting the frame rate to 60 should help with that.

What resolution are you using?

2496x1404 in game.

on the Nvidia Control Panel i have the resolution set at 3840x2160.

Jaffz · Wednesday at 5:21 PM

I play 4k on a TV too
4070 super
32Gb ram
Core i5 13500

Under display:

1.Enable Vsync. Monitor users will always tell you to turn it off, but for me it makes the mouse smoother and stops screen tearing. Screen tearing is where the game renders more fps than your display can handle and makes things look weird

2.Set your frame rate limit and fps cap to the same as your TV (probably 60fps unless you have an expensive TV)

3. As with every game ever shadows always kill fps, turn them down if you're struggling

4. press Ctrl and F to display FPS count

5. Accept that the antialiasing is crap and there's not much you can do about it

nemolomen · Wednesday at 7:18 PM

Jaffz said:
5. Accept that the antialiasing is crap and there's not much you can do about it

This helped me with that recently.

Post in thread 'How do I lower jaggies and also get rid of occasional stutter?'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...id-of-occasional-stutter.638936/post-10661536

It does need more horsepower though and now that I have a 5070 its great…