Best F1 25 settings for PC and Steam Deck

What are the best F1 25 settings for PC and Steam Deck? Another instalment of the F1 racing sim is finally here, and it's yet another solid outing on PC for Codemasters' leading franchise. However, EA's insistence on using its proprietary anti-cheat system is bad news for Steam Deck gamers.

The F1 25 system requirements are incredibly detailed, listing everything needed to play the game both on PC and in VR. While you won't need the best graphics card to get the game running at a great frame rate, you may need an upgrade if you're aiming to run the "max ultra" graphics profile with ray tracing enabled. If you're keen to read more about our thoughts on this latest racing sim from Codemasters, you can check out our F1 25 review.

• Lighting Quality: High
• Post Process: High
• Shadows: High
• Particles: High
• Crowd: High
• Mirrors: High
• Car and Helmet Reflections: High
• Weather Effects: High
• Ground Cover: High
• Trees: High
• Skidmarks: High
• Ambient Occlusion: AMD FidelityFX CACAO
• Screen Space Reflections: High
• Texture Streaming: High
• Variable Rate Shading: On
• High Quality Hair: On
• Nvidia Reflex: On
• Path Tracing: Off
• Ray Reconstruction: Off
• Ray Traced Shadows: Off
• Ray Traced Reflections: Off
• Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion: Off
• Ray Traced Transparent Reflections: Off
• Ray Traced DDGI: Off
• Anti-Aliasing: Nvidia DLSS (DLSS 4 override enabled in Nvidia App)
• Mode: Quality
• Frame Generation: On (2x)
• Dynamic Resolution: Off

Using the above settings, on our Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 testing rig (see full specs under How We Test), we averaged a frame rate of 222fps. It's crucial to ensure your graphics card drivers are up to date and that you enable the DLSS Override in the Nvidia App to gain access to DLSS 4 Super Resolution using the AI transformer model. We also had frame generation enabled as noted in the above settings.

While the performance difference between DLSS 3 and 4 favours the older model slightly, by just a few frames in fact, the image quality is much sharper when using DLSS 4, so be sure to take advantage of this new tech in what is another gorgeous outing from the Codies team.

F1 25 Benchmarks (Australia, dry, single lap)

If you've got your heart set on the maximum graphics profile, which includes all of the ray tracing settings turned on, you can see there is a huge drop-off in the performance figures.

Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and which GPU you're using, but the 108fps we managed using DLSS 4 with frame gen and running the ultra max preset is more than playable if you want to experience everything F1 25 has to offer graphically.

Best F1 25 settings for Steam Deck

Unfortunately, due to EAC (EA anti-cheat) being incompatible with Linux, F1 25 will not boot on the Steam Deck at all, instead, an error message pops up warning of the issue.

Currently, the only way to get around this is to dual-boot Windows onto the Steam Deck, and if you do this, we've provided a best settings estimate below.

• Lighting Quality: Medium
• Post Process: Medium
• Shadows: Medium
• Particles: Medium
• Crowd: Low
• Mirrors: Low
• Car and Helmet Reflections: Low
• Weather Effects: Medium
• Ground Cover: Low
• Trees: Low
• Skidmarks: Low
• Ambient Occlusion: AMD FidelityFX CACAO
• Screen Space Reflections: Low
• Texture Streaming: Low
• Variable Rate Shading: On
• High Quality Hair: Off
• Nvidia Reflex: Off
• Path Tracing: Off
• Ray Reconstruction: Off
• Ray Traced Shadows: Off
• Ray Traced Reflections: Off
• Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion: Off
• Ray Traced Transparent Reflections: Off
• Ray Traced DDGI: Off
• Anti-Aliasing: AMD FSR
• Mode: Balanced
• Frame Generation: Off
• Dynamic Resolution: Off

We also gave F1 25 a quick test on both the ROG Ally X and AOKZOE A1X, with both running a more powerful AMD CPU than the Steam Deck, but more importantly, both are native Windows handhelds. The game ran great at the medium graphics preset on both handhelds, hitting a 79fps average on the Ally X and a 90fps average on the A1X.

How we tested F1 25

At PCGamesN, we use dedicated gaming rigs to test the best settings for performance and gameplay in the latest releases. The test rig used to play F1 25 includes the following components: Intel Core i7-11700F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 12GB, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in a dual-channel configuration, and MSI B560 motherboard. We also test using Windows 11 64-bit.

We always run our testing first at 1,920 x 1,080 to identify the best settings for this entry-level resolution, then again at 2,560 x 1,440 using the same setup to gauge the difference in performance. We use CapFrameX to capture frame data and compare testing sessions.

Does F1 25 need an SSD?

F1 25 does not require an SSD, regardless of whether you're aiming for the minimum or recommended system requirements. Upgrading to one of the best gaming SSD options, however, will really help keep game loading times in check and help you get the chunky 100GB game file downloaded much quicker.

How to monitor performance in F1 25

If you want to keep an eye on performance in F1 25, we have an easy method that works whether you're using an Nvidia or AMD graphics card.

For Nvidia cards, ensure you have the Nvidia App installed and the in-game overlay enabled, and then hit ALT + R in-game to bring up your performance monitor. With AMD cards, you can enable performance monitoring via the Radeon overlay using the shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + O.

Alternatively, you can download free software such as CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView, to get a cleaner, more simplified benchmarking tool that works with any graphics card.

With handheld gaming PCs, most will have a dedicated button to access a quick menu from which performance monitoring, sometimes called real-time monitoring, can be accessed.

For more F1 content, check out our best F1 25 setups guide, where we run you through everything you need to know to get the best out of your cars. Likewise, we also have track-specific guides, so you can read our  F1 25 Japan setup guide or F1 25 Australia setup guide to see if you can manage faster track times than the pros have this season.

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