Payday 3 best settings for PC

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Payday 3 best settings for PC

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Niall Walsh's Avatar

Many updates have come and gone since the troubled launch of Payday 3, but the heist simulator is finally starting to look and play like what ws originally promised. The best Payday 3 settings, however, haven't changed much since launch, with a few tweaks required if you plan on playing via Valve's Steam Deck.

Will you need the best graphics card from our buying guide? Thankfully, no. The Payday 3 system requirements paint the picture of a game that's easy to run if you're targeting the minimum specs, but we're here to bring you the best settings for optimal performance with a balance of visual quality and fast frame rates. Payday 3's PC settings are quite limited, but it's crucial to optimize any shooter, especially if you want to secure the loot for maximum payout.

Payday 3 best settings - an image of pearl and joy standing back-to-back ready for combat

  • Anti-aliasing: Off
  • Effects: Ultra
  • Foliage: Ultra
  • Postprocessing: Ultra
  • Shadows: Ultra
  • Textures: Ultra
  • Upscaling: Nvidia DLSS
  • Nvidia DLSS: Quality
  • View Distance: Ultra

Using the above settings on our RTX 4070 testing rig, we achieved an average frame rate of 129fps with 1% lows of 89fps at 1080p. While running the game at 1440p, we saw the frame rate drop to an average of 118fps with 1% lows of 80fps. A bigger drop came at 4K where the average frame rate dropped to 107fps with 1% lows of 72fps.

Ideally, we want to keep that 1% low above 60fps, which we did at each resolution while using the highest settings possible. We found that Nvidia DLSS set to quality provided a little more stability in the frame rate, which brought the 1% lows up compared to running the game without it.

Across the three resolutions we tested at, 4K naturally looks the best, but for the overall balance of visuals and performance, we would recommend 1440p, or 2,560 x 1,440, if your monitor is capable. If not, check out our guide to find the best gaming monitor for your needs and budget. Take a look at how Payday 3 looks across the three resolutions by checking out our image below.

Payday 3 resolution comparison image.

Best Payday 3 settings for Steam Deck

  • Anti-aliasing: Off
  • Effects: Low
  • Foliage: Low
  • Postprocessing: Low
  • Shadows: Low
  • Textures: Medium
  • Upscaling: AMD FSR
  • FSR: Balanced
  • View Distance: Medium

Using the above settings, we achieved a stable 50fps, although if you engage in massive firefights against the endless police force, the game will start to experience drops. This can be negated somewhat by lowering the texture quality and view distance to low, but the game starts to look a little washed out with FSR also set to balanced, effectively lowering the native rendered resolution, which is then upscaled to 1,280 x 800.

Running the game on all low settings will allow you to turn down the FSR setting to quality and still have a decent balance of performance and visuals, but disabling FSR altogether isn't an option based on our testing as it always has a huge negative impact on frame rate, dropping it below 30fps.

Payday 3 graphics presets

There are no graphics presets in Payday 3. This is strange, even with the limited graphics options. Each of the available settings scales from low to ultra, but there is no way to cycle through pre-determined profiles.

One handy tool that is included is a hardware recognition benchmark. This is situated just above the graphics settings and upon clicking it, the game determines the best settings for you to use based only on your components. For us, it selected almost all of the settings we chose, although the view distance was set to high instead of ultra.

Payday 3 graphics low versus ultra

You can see in our above comparison image how the game looks when all settings are set to low versus ultra. The ultra image is much clearer, with more accurate shadows and lighting. You can also see the moon in the distance much clearer, and the lights on the hotel sign aren't as washed out.

How we tested Payday 3

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 Payday 3 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 an 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. Finally, we also test in 4K. We use CapFrameX to capture frame data and compare testing sessions.

Does Payday 3 need an SSD?

Payday 3 does not require an SSD. Due to the long loading times you can experience in each level without one, it's highly recommended that you upgrade if you still currently use a mechanical drive.

If you grab yourself the best gaming SSD from our buying guide for your existing gaming PC, it will really help keep game loading times in check while also providing some minor performance boosts.

How to monitor performance in Payday 3

If you want to keep an eye on performance in Payday 3, 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.

Need more help getting started with a life of crime outside of Payday 3? Check out the best crime games on PC for inspiration!

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

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