Painkiller: Best Settings To Play at 1080p

These are the best settings for playing Painkiller at 1080p resolution. We are sharing two sets of optimized settings: 60+ FPS and 120+ FPS.

Picture of The Electrodriver weapon with an updated design
The Electrodriver weapon with an updated design (Image via 3D Realms)

Painkiller is a fast-paced action shooter title with co-op mechanics. You are allowed to team up with your friends and cause mayhem in purgatory. The gameplay mechanics are solid, and the combat is extremely fluid, which delivers a highly satisfying killing experience.

The system requirements appear to be quite demanding, but we are happy to report that the game runs superbly well, even on older PCs. Achieving 60+ FPS at 1080p on Painkiller won’t be an issue. But why play at 60+ FPS when you can play 120+ FPS? Our optimized settings can help your PC run this game at 120+ FPS on most modern PC. On the other hand, if the game is running at only 30-40 FPS at 1080p on older PCs, our settings can increase that to 60+ FPS. We are sharing these optimized settings below. Read on to learn more.

Note: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.

Best Settings To Play Painkiller at 1080p

Picture of Painkiller video settings page
Painkiller video settings page (Image via 3D Realms)

Gaming at 1080p isn’t that hard, especially for well-optimized games like Painkiller. However, if you want to play at 120+ FPS or even 60+ FPS on older PCs, you will need to tweak a few settings. We have found that optimizing the graphics settings in the game can dramatically boost performance.

Here are the best settings to boost performance in Painkiller at 1080p:

Note: The settings provided below are based on the game’s minimum and recommended specs and shouldn’t be used for resolutions higher than 1920 x 1080.

Settings60+ FPS120+ FPS
Screen Resolution1920 x 1080 (16:9)1920 x 1080 (16:9)
Resolution Scale100100
Screen ModeBorderlessBorderless
Intel® XeSS Super Resolution 2.0Native Anti-AliasingQuality
Sharpness1.51.5
VSyncOff (Turn on if you don’t have a FreeSync or G-Sync monitor)Off (Turn on if you don’t have a FreeSync or G-Sync monitor)
Frame Rate LimitUnlimitedUnlimited
FOV (Field of View)9090
Gamma
Motion BlurOffOff
Graphics QualityCustomCustom
View DistanceFarFar
Anti-AliasingGrayed OutGrayed Out
Post-ProcessingLowLow
Shadows QualityMediumMedium
Texture QualityHighHigh
Effects QualityMediumLow
Foliage QualityHighMedium
Shading QualityEpicHigh
Animation QualityHighHigh

Final Thoughts

The above settings will boost Painkiller’s frame rates on all PC, whether new or old. You can try both sets of settings and see which you find best. The 120+ FPS set of settings will obviously deliver better performance, but its visual quality will be lower than the 60+ FPS settings. Ultimately, the final performance will depend on your PC’s configuration, but these are the best-optimized settings for playing Painkiller at 1080p resolution.


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