Black Myth: Wukong Best Graphics Settings (PC)

Black Myth: Wukong is one of the most demanding Unreal Engine 5 games on PC, and its default Cinematic preset will bring almost any GPU to its knees. This guide covers which in-game options actually matter, what to prioritize for a stable 60 FPS, and how to tame the shader-compilation stutter.

Run the Benchmark Tool first

Game Science released a free standalone Benchmark Tool separate from the game, and it is the smartest place to start. It runs a fixed camera flythrough and reports an average frame rate at your chosen resolution and preset, so you can dial in a target before touching the real game.

Use it to find the highest preset that holds your monitor's refresh target with upscaling on, then fine-tune from there. Because the tool uses the same engine build, its results track closely with in-game performance in calmer areas, though dense boss arenas and heavy spell effects will always run a little heavier than the benchmark suggests.

Enable Super Resolution before anything else

The single biggest performance lever in Black Myth: Wukong is the Super Resolution setting, the game's umbrella term for upscaling. You can choose DLSS (NVIDIA RTX cards), FSR (all GPUs), XeSS (best on Intel Arc but available everywhere), or TSR, Unreal Engine 5's built-in Temporal Super Resolution.

Unusually, the game does not use named Quality, Balanced, and Performance modes. Instead it exposes a render-resolution percentage slider, running from roughly 33 percent (ultra performance) up to 100 percent (native). DLSS generally produces the cleanest image, especially on reflections and specular detail, while FSR tends to be the most stable against shimmer but can ghost in motion. On a modern NVIDIA card, DLSS at around 66 to 75 percent (the equivalent of Quality mode) is the sweet spot; drop the percentage lower only if you still need frames.

Frame Generation: a big boost with a caveat

Frame Generation inserts AI-interpolated frames between rendered ones and can dramatically raise the number your monitor displays. DLSS Frame Generation requires an RTX 40-series card or newer; owners of RTX 30 or 20-series, AMD, or Intel GPUs can use FSR Frame Generation instead.

The important rule is that Frame Generation multiplies an existing frame rate, it does not create a good one from nothing. Aim for a real base of at least 40 to 50 FPS before enabling it, or the added latency and artifacts around fast-moving foliage and particles become obvious. Pair it with the in-game low-latency (Reflex) option to keep input feel tight.

Full Ray Tracing is stunning but brutal

Black Myth: Wukong already uses software Lumen for global illumination on every preset, so the world is lit dynamically even with ray tracing off. The separate Full Ray Tracing toggle adds hardware path tracing with three levels, Low, Medium, and Very High, replacing the game's Shadow and Global Illumination work with path-traced equivalents plus reflections and, at Very High, caustics.

It looks spectacular and it is genuinely one of the heaviest settings in any PC game. Realistically it is only worth enabling on top-tier hardware such as an RTX 4080 Super or 4090, and even then you will lean heavily on DLSS and Frame Generation. For a smooth 60 FPS on mainstream cards, leave it off.

The settings that cost the most FPS

If you are chasing frames on a High or Very High preset, three options give back the most performance for the least visual loss: Shadow, Global Illumination, and Visual Effects Quality. Dropping Global Illumination and Shadow a notch each softens some contact shadows and bounce lighting but is hard to notice in motion, while Visual Effects Quality governs particle, cloud, and effect density.

View Distance is mostly a CPU cost and worth lowering if your processor is the bottleneck. Vegetation and Hair Quality are cheaper; Hair in particular costs only a few frames, so keep it on Medium for the nicer fur on the Destined One. Texture Quality is almost free if you have enough VRAM, so keep it high unless you are on a 6 GB card.

Apply these settings for 60 FPS

1. Set Display Resolution to your monitor's native resolution and cap the frame rate at your refresh target.
2. Choose a preset: start at High (Very High only on strong GPUs), and avoid Cinematic if you want a locked 60.
3. Turn Full Ray Tracing off.
4. Set Super Resolution to DLSS on NVIDIA RTX, XeSS on Intel Arc, or FSR otherwise, at roughly 66 to 75 percent render resolution.
5. Enable Frame Generation only if your base frame rate is already comfortable (40-plus), and turn on the Reflex low-latency option.
6. If you still need frames, lower Shadow, then Global Illumination, then Visual Effects Quality one step at a time.
7. Turn Motion Blur down or off to taste; it has little performance cost but affects clarity.

Deal with shader and traversal stutter

Like most Unreal Engine 5 games, Black Myth: Wukong compiles shaders on first launch and can hitch when it meets a new Pipeline State Object or streams in a new area. Let the initial shader-compilation pass finish completely before playing, install the game on an SSD to cut traversal stutter, and update your GPU drivers, which often ship game-ready shader caches.

Path tracing noticeably increases stutter, another reason to keep Full Ray Tracing off on all but the strongest rigs. Some hitching on a first run through a new region is normal and usually smooths out on repeat visits.