Best Settings for RTX 4080 and 4080 Super in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Are you unhappy with your RTX 4080 / Super’s performance in Assassin’s Creed Shadows? Good news: We have the right solution for you.

RTX 4080 and 4080 Super AC Shadows
4080 and 4080 Super In AC Shadows (Image via Nvidia, Deltia’s Gaming, Ubisoft)

The ADA Lovelace architecture, released in 2022 and found within the RTX 4080 / Super, delivers a Pascal-like performance jump, much like in 2016, when GPU upgrades sounded so cool. From Kepler to Maxwell, then Maxwell to Pascal—what a journey it was.

After that, things took a U-turn. Lovelace showed some glimpses of hope that things were changing. Fast-forward to today: Behemoths like the 4080 and 4080 Super struggle to run some games at max settings, even at 1080p.

It’s not just Ray Tracing that deserves all the hate, but also game studios that refuse to make good use of the power available on modern hardware. We saw a similar pattern in the gaming industry when rasterization (also a game rendering technique) was first introduced. Performance on gaming hardware was all over the place; every new generation of cards made the old ones feel outdated. This trend continued until rasterization was widely accepted, and things settled down. This pattern is evident today in Ray Tracing. Even the mightiest GPUs struggle when RT is turned on.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is also one of those titles built with Ray Tracing in mind from the ground up. Not only does the game look stunning, but it also holds an edge in lighting accuracy over any Assassin’s Creed game we have seen so far. Considering GPU performance, you would be rudely aware that your 4080 / Super is insufficient for max eye candy settings, which is why we are here to help you. Follow our guide, and you are good to go.

Note: Our Settings ensure seamless experimentation with the DLSS 4 Transformer model if you opt for that route. The game uses the latest CNN model DLSS 3.7+ by default, and our settings reflect that. Frame Generation is optional—turn it off if you prioritize lower latency. For 4K / Ultrawide Users, it is recommended that you change the resolution to fit your requirements or use our suggested Dynamic resolution settings, provided these are high-end GPUs and not everyone uses them to play in 1440p. You are welcome to use our settings as a baseline and then tune it further to your liking.

Optimized Settings for Rtx 4080 and 4080 Super in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Best Settings for RTX 4080 / Super in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Image via Ubisoft)
Best Settings for RTX 4080 / Super in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Image via Ubisoft)

Display Settings

SettingValue
Field of View100 (Personal Preference)
Display ModeBorderless Window
Aspect Ratio16:9
Resolution2560 x 1440 // Change it to your preference if you use UW, 4K-UW, or equivalent. 

Upscaling & Frame Rate

SettingValue
Frame Rate LimiterOff
Frame Rate Target320 / uncapped
Use Dynamic ResolutionOff for native 2K users // 4K / UW users, keep this ON, and use 50% min scaling and 100% as max scaling
Upscaler TypeDLSS
Upscaler QualityBalanced // Performance for Transformer Model 
Frame GenerationDLSS FG // Optional
Sharpen Strength0.45 // adjust to your liking

Post-Processing Effects

SettingValue
Motion BlurOff // personal preference
Chromatic AberrationOn // personal preference

Scalability Settings

SettingValue
Raytraced Global Illumination (RTGI)Diffuse Everywhere
Overall PresetVery High (Will change to Custom upon using our settings)

Ray Tracing

SettingValue
Raytracing QualityVery High // Drop it to High if you need a higher framerate
BVH QualityVery High // Drop it to High for more framerate

Lighting

SettingValue
Screen Space EffectsVery High
Light Source QualityVery High // Drop it to High for more framerate
Shadow QualityHigh

Textures & Effects

SettingValue
Texture Streaming PoolVery High
Post EffectsHigh
Water QualityVery High
Particle QualityVery High

Geometry & Terrain

SettingValue
Loading DistanceVery High
Drawing DistanceVery High
MicropolygonMedium
Terrain QualityVery High
DeformationHigh
Scatter DensityHigh
Virtual TextureHigh

Characters & Volumetric Effects

SettingValue
Character QualityVery High
Hair StrandsAll Characters Medium // Increase this if you love it. 
Cloud QualityMedium
Fog QualityHigh

Why Did We Choose These Settings

Best Settings for RTX 4080 and Super in AC Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Yasuke in the Summer (Image via Ubisoft)

First, Why Is the Shadow Quality High but Not Maxed Out or Very High?

Shadows significantly impact GPU performance, especially when the render resolution is high, and the scale is linear, which increases the shadow’s resolution. Indeed, they look better. But you must remember that you are using an Nvidia GPU. They don’t like sharing VRAM with gamers much, so it’s better to be safe than stuttery.

Deformation Set to High Instead of Very High

Deformation controls how terrain and objects react to interaction. For example, if you sneak behind someone, the foliage (grass) interacts with your movement or your footprints in the mud in rainy weather. As we said, higher settings equal more VRAM, and VRAM and NVIDIA are not friends with the gamer.

Post Effects Are Set to High, so Why Not Max Out?

Post-processing effects like bloom, depth of field, ambient occlusion, and lens flares are eye candies. However, this game requires significant GPU computing, and Raytracing already handles lighting. As a result, specific visuals might seem overwhelming in certain weather conditions. We recommend setting it to High, but you can increase it if you insist.

But Micropolygon Is Medium – Even on My RTX 4080 / Super?

Have you heard of nanite in Unreal Engine 5, the bane of demolishing your 1% and .1% framerates? Micropolygon is the same thing, with a few differences, but they are the same. As long as the game looks good, do not bother changing that.

Cloud & Fog Quality – Lowered for Stability

Dynamic weather can interfere significantly with the fog density cloud movement based on in-game conditions. For example, during rain, your FPS, including 1% and .1%, will differ vastly from a sunny day. For this reason, we kept it at a lower setting. But you can increase it should you prefer doing so.

This concludes our RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super performance suggestions. We believe gamers will benefit significantly from them, as the Out of the Box experience does not look good.


AC Shadows logo [Source: Ubisoft]

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