The objective is to achieve a result where your 95th percentile frame time is as close to your average as possible, ensuring that combat remains responsive despite the heavy graphical load.
1. The “Golden Trio” of Performance
Based on our 2026 stress tests, three specific settings contribute to over 60% of the GPU load. If your benchmark average is below 60 FPS, start by adjusting these:
| Setting | Recommended Value | Technical Purpose |
| Global Illumination | Medium | Disables heavy Path Tracing bounces; massive 20% FPS gain. |
| Shadow Quality | High | Uses Lumen shadows efficiently without the Ultra-level ray-count hit. |
| Vegetation Quality | High | Maintains Nanite detail while reducing the wind-physics simulation ($P_{physics}$). |
2. Upscaling and Frame Generation Logic
In 2026, running Black Myth: Wukong at native resolution is not recommended for any card below an RTX 5080.
- Super Resolution Scale: Aim for 67% (Quality) or 75%. Dropping to 50% (Performance) introduces significant shimmering on Wukong’s hair and distant trees.
- Frame Generation: Enable this only if your base framerate (with FG off) is at least 50 FPS. Using FG to go from 30 to 60 FPS will introduce perceptible input latency that breaks the game’s parry timing.
- Upscaler Choice: Use DLSS for NVIDIA, FSR 3.1+ for AMD, and XeSS for Intel. FSR is generally the best choice for handhelds (Steam Deck/ROG Ally) due to its integrated frame gen support.
3. High-Precision “Cinematic” Tweaks
If you have a high-end rig and want the “Visual Target” look without the stutter:
- Hair Quality: Set to Medium. Even on an RTX 4090, “Cinematic” hair can cause 10ms frame spikes during close-up animations.
- View Distance: Keep on Cinematic. The Decima-like Nanite system handles this efficiently, and lowering it causes “pop-in” that ruins the benchmark data.
- Full Ray Tracing: In 2026, we recommend Medium for most. “Very High” RT enables path-traced caustics and full-resolution particles, which can crush even the fastest VRAM interfaces.
4. Understanding the Benchmark Result
When the benchmark finishes, focus on the Minimum FPS.
- Ideal: Min FPS should be at least 75% of your Average.
- Problem: If your Average is 100 but your Min is 40, you have a Shader Stutter or CPU Bottleneck.
- The Fix: Ensure the game is installed on an NVMe SSD and that “Shader Pre-compilation” has fully finished before you hit the “Start Benchmark” button.