WARDOGS Best Settings
WARDOGS enters Steam Early Access on 10 September 2026, and BULKHEAD’s published performance targets tell you more about settings than any preset name does. This guide works backwards from those targets to a 120 fps plan on the recommended spec.
What BULKHEAD has published about performance
The Steam store page attaches a specific performance target to each hardware tier rather than a vague recommendation. Those targets are the honest baseline for any settings advice.
Minimum is a GTX 1660 or RX 590 aiming at 1080p Low at 60fps, upscaled. Recommended is an RTX 3070 or RX 6700 XT aiming at 1440p Medium at 70fps or better natively, or 4K Medium at 60fps or better upscaled.
BULKHEAD addressed optimization directly in its Level Design and Performance devlog of 16 July 2026, where the studio said performance has been a priority since day one and that graphics options let you tune the experience to your system. The same devlog introduced a low-end preset called Potato Mode.
The gap between the official target and 120 fps
The table below converts those targets into the uplift you actually need, which is the part most settings guides skip.
| Tier | GPU | Official target (Steam store page, 28 August 2026) | Uplift needed for 120 fps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | GTX 1660 / RX 590 | 1080p Low, 60 fps, upscaled | 2.0x |
| Recommended | RTX 3070 / RX 6700 XT | 1440p Medium, 70 fps+, native | 1.7x |
| Recommended at 4K | RTX 3070 / RX 6700 XT | 4K Medium, 60 fps+, upscaled | 2.0x |
A 1440p plan for an RTX 3070 or RX 6700 XT
Apply these in order and stop when you hit your refresh rate. The sequence matters more than any individual value, because the first two steps carry most of the gain.
- Upscaling: set it to a quality mode first, since a roughly 67 percent render scale typically returns 30-40 percent more frames while holding more detail than a preset drop does. Exact upscaler support in WARDOGS is TBC.
- Preset: start from Medium rather than Low, because Medium is the setting BULKHEAD’s own 1440p target is quoted against.
- Shadows and volumetrics: lower these before anything else if you are still short, as they are the usual heavy costs in large sandbox shooters with dynamic time of day.
- Texture quality: leave it high, since texture resolution is bound by VRAM rather than frame rate on an 8GB card at 1440p.
- Frame cap: cap slightly under your monitor refresh so frame pacing stays even instead of swinging between 95 and 140.
Those last three points are general PC optimization practice, not WARDOGS measurements. Verify them against your own frame counter once the Early Access build is live.
Settings worth protecting for visibility
Some quality settings are spotting tools rather than eye candy. Cutting them buys frames and costs you fights.
- Draw distance: hold this as high as your budget allows, because the Control Zones on the Kavkazi map cover a 2x2km space where targets are found at range.
- Foliage quality: low foliage settings can change what cover reads as, which is a fairness problem as much as a performance one.
- Motion blur: turn it off, since it adds nothing to target acquisition and returns a small amount of frame time.
Some of the Best WARDOGS graphics settings we found
These are the values from the closed beta build, grouped as the menu groups them. The logic behind them is explained in the section that follows.
| Menu section | Setting | Value | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geometry | Mesh Detail | High | Model detail helps you read player shapes at range |
| Environment | View Distance | High | The single most important visibility setting |
| Environment | Shading | Medium | Middle ground, drops off in visible quality below this |
| Lighting | Global Illumination | Disabled | Large frame cost, no competitive benefit |
| Lighting | Shadows | Low | Heavy cost, and low shadows can make players easier to spot |
| Lighting | Reflections | Low | Expensive and rarely load bearing in a firefight |
| Effects | Effects | Medium | Keeps explosions and destruction readable |
| Effects | Particle Spawn Rate | Low | Fewer particles means less smoke between you and a target |
| Post Processing | Post-Processing | Low | Cheap frames with no loss of information |
| Post Processing | Motion Blur | Disabled | Hurts target tracking |
| Post Processing | Depth of Field | Disabled | Blurs exactly what you are trying to look at |
| Post Processing | Lens Flare | Disabled | Obscures sightlines into the sun |
| Post Processing | Bloom | Disabled | Washes out contrast around bright surfaces |
| Textures | World | High | Bound by video memory rather than frame rate |
| Textures | Character | High | Player silhouettes read more clearly |
Anti-aliasing, DLSS, and the choice that decides your frame rate
The beta build offers an Anti-Aliasing Method selector with DLSS among the options, and a separate NVIDIA DLSS row that sets the mode.
The rule is simple. Start at DLAA and change through the DLSS modes until you hold your target frame rate.
Example scenarios
Example Scenario: You are on an RTX 3070 at 1440p and sitting on BULKHEAD’s stated 70 fps at Medium natively. Enabling a quality upscaling mode is the single largest step toward 120 fps, and it holds more image clarity than dropping the preset to Low would.
Example Scenario: You are holding a Control Zone and keep losing fights to players you never saw. Draw distance and foliage are the settings to raise in that situation, even though both are common first cuts when someone is chasing frames.
Confirmed, planned, and TBC
- Confirmed: the two hardware tiers and their performance targets, the 10 September 2026 Early Access date, and the existence of customizable graphics options as described on 16 July 2026.
- TBC: every individual setting name, the preset list, upscaler support including DLSS and FSR, frame generation, and what Potato Mode actually adjusts.
- Planned: BULKHEAD expects roughly one to two years in Early Access, so targets and defaults will move across that window.
Performance figures are among the first things a live Early Access build changes, so recheck them against each patch. Our WARDOGS closed beta and Early Access guide covers the launch timeline, and 10 reasons not to buy WARDOGS covers the reasons why you should not by the game, or just refund it (and then but the supports edition haha).
The Kavkazi interactive map shows the sightlines these settings protect, and the WARDOGS weapons database covers what you carry into them. Everything else sits on the WARDOGS homepage.
Frequently asked questions
What is Potato Mode in WARDOGS
It is a low-end preset BULKHEAD introduced alongside its 16 July 2026 devlog on level design and performance. The settings it applies have not been published, so its real cost to visibility is unknown.
Is 16GB of RAM enough for WARDOGS
Yes, 16GB is listed for both the minimum and the recommended tier on the current store page, alongside 50GB of storage.
Will these settings still be correct at launch
Some of them will not. Presets, defaults, and upscaler support are all things a studio tunes during Early Access, and every figure here is stamped to the store page and dev posts as they stood on 28 August 2026.
