Painkiller: Best Settings for 4K

These are the best overall settings for playing Painkiller at 4K desktop resolution on GPUs with up to 16GB VRAM.

Painkiller: Best Settings for 4K
Painkiller gameplay screenshot

Painkiller is a fast-paced co-op-based shooter game. It is built using the Unreal Engine 4 and offers excellent performance. The gameplay is highly addictive, the combat is responsive, and the overall visual presentation is phenomenal. However, it is not perfect, as it has some issues that the guide below will dive into, elaborate on, and offer settings to address. That said, let’s start.

Read More: Painkiller: Best Settings for RTX 50 Series

Painkiller – Best Settings To Play at 4K

Painkilller Graphics Settings page 3 (Image via 3D Realms)
Painkiller Graphics Settings page 1 (Image via 3D Realms)

The biggest problem plaguing the game is the overall softness in the image. 4K is a super high resolution and has a lot of pixel data. Still, the image can appear soft in the default settings; simply applying sharpening makes it look artificial, which is why we are recommending using Intel XeSS 2.0 upscaler, set to native AA. This will clean up the image and improve clarity.

At lower resolutions, this approach helps mitigate the game’s CPU-bound nature, which is another big problem. Since 4K is a GPU-intensive resolution, most CPU-bound issues in the game are addressed. First of all, XeSS 2.0 is very heavy, and on top of that, the compute load required to run 4K is immense.

The recommended GPU power to play Painkiller at 4K starts with the RTX 4070 Ti Super; anything below this will not deliver a high frame rate. You are free to customize the settings to your liking, based on the frame rate and visual fidelity.

Best Settings Explored

SettingValue
Screen Resolution3840 x 2160 (16:9)
Resolution Scale100
Screen ModeBorderless
Intel® XeSS Super Resolution 2.0Native Anti-Aliasing
Sharpness1.5
VSyncOff
Frame Rate LimitUnlimited
FOV (Field of View)90
Gamma
Motion BlurOff
Graphics QualityCustom
View DistanceFar
Anti-AliasingGrayed Out
Post-ProcessingHigh
Shadows QualityHigh
Texture QualityHigh
Effects QualityHigh
Foliage QualityHigh
Shading QualityHigh
Animation QualityHigh

Read More: Painkiller: Best Settings for RTX 40 Series


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