Project Motor Racing runs on GIANTS Engine 10 alongside Straight4 Studios' Hadron physics engine, a combination that places significant strain on both CPU render threads and GPU memory. Finding the best graphics settings requires prioritizing in-car clarity and stable frame timing over heavy post-processing effects like Depth of Field and Cloud Shadows.
Recommended Graphics Settings for PC
The following baseline balances sharp cockpit readability and trackside rendering with consistent frame delivery across mid-range and high-end hardware, such as NVIDIA RTX 30 and 40 series or AMD Radeon graphics cards.
| Setting | Recommended Value | Performance & Visual Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Display Mode | Windowed Borderless | Avoids full-screen tearing; smoother frame presentation |
| Vertical Sync | Off | In-game V-Sync can introduce frame pacing jitter |
| Frame Rate Limit | Match Monitor / 60–120 FPS | Stabilizes GPU load; cap externally if jitter persists |
| Post-Process Anti-Aliasing | TAA (or Off if using DLSS) | Smooths track edges; DLSS or native TAA preferred |
| Upscaling (DLSS / FSR) | DLSS Quality or FSR3 Quality | DLSS yields clean edges; FSR3 viable across all GPUs |
| Frame Generation | Off | Eliminates added input latency on steering inputs |
| Depth of Field | Off | Removes unwanted blur in replays and smoke shimmering |
| Object Draw Distance | 125% – 150% | Prevents aggressive asset pop-in down long straights |
| LOD Draw Distance | 125% – 150% | Keeps high-detail car models visible at racing distances |
| Screen Space Reflections | Medium to High | Provides vehicle and wet track sheen without max GPU hit |
| Screen Space Shadows | On | Adds essential contact shadowing under vehicles |
| SSAO Quality | High / Very High | Renders XeGTAO for depth around curbs and cockpits |
| Atmosphere Quality | High / Medium | High-end sky lighting; dropping to Medium saves GPU |
| Volumetric Fog Quality | Medium | Minimal visual loss during clear races; saves GPU cycles |
| Cloud Shadows | Off | Fixes prominent shadow popping on track surfaces |
| Texture Resolution | Ultra | Keeps liveries and dashboard displays razor sharp |
| Texture Filtering | Anisotropic 8x or 16x | Preserves road surface markings and racing lines ahead |
| Lens Flare Quality | Medium to High | Controls headlight and direct sun glare |
| Shadow Quality | High | Prevents broken, low-resolution interior dashboard shadows |
| Shadow Distance Quality | Low to Medium | Distant tree shadows are rarely noticeable at racing speed |
| Shadow Map Filtering | Low or Ultra (Active) | Must remain on to prevent harsh, jagged shadow edges |
Detailed Graphics Settings Breakdown
Upscaling and Anti-Aliasing (DLSS, FSR, TAA)
GIANTS Engine 10 provides several upscaling and anti-aliasing methods, but their stability varies across hardware configurations:
- DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling): Recommended on NVIDIA RTX GPUs set to Quality mode. It produces a cleaner image than FSR with minimal shimmering along fence lines and car grills.
- TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing): If running at native resolution without upscaling, TAA is the default standard. It delivers a stable, smooth image across vehicle contours, though it introduces a slight softness compared to DLAA.
- AMD FSR 3: Functions across both AMD and NVIDIA hardware. In player testing, FSR3 running at Quality or Native AA modes provides solid framerate recovery, though some systems report instability or visual ghosting behind cars depending on the patch build.
- FSR 1: Deprecated first-generation spatial upscaler. It causes noticeable blur and pixelation across track surfaces; keep this disabled.
- Frame Generation: DLSS and FSR3 Frame Generation should remain disabled for competitive sim racing. While they inflate the reported frame rate, interpolated frames introduce control latency that interferes with force feedback responsiveness and micro-corrections.
Lighting, Shadows, and Ambient Occlusion
Shadow rendering is one of the heaviest systems in Project Motor Racing and accounts for widespread frame drops on full grids:
- Shadow Quality: Keep this at High. Testing reveals that dropping Shadow Quality to Medium or Low breaks interior cockpit shading, causing dashboard displays and footwells to lose realistic depth.
- Cloud Shadows: Set to Off. In addition to saving GPU overhead, disabling Cloud Shadows resolves a community-reported issue where large shadow patches pop abruptly across the track surface.
- Shadow Distance Quality: Can be safely lowered to Low or Medium. Long-range environmental shadows under trees have negligible impact when navigating corners at speed.
- SSAO Quality: Setting this to High or Very High engages XeGTAO, creating accurate contact shadows around tire arches, barriers, and cockpit geometry. Low-spec machines can drop this to the Mobile tier, which reverts to standard SSAO.
Geometry, Draw Distance, and Textures
- Texture Resolution and Filtering: Set Texture Resolution to Ultra provided your GPU meets the 8 GB VRAM recommendation. Because racing sims demand high texture fidelity on cockpits and opponent liveries, lowering this setting severely degrades visual quality without offering a proportional CPU performance boost. Pair this with Anisotropic 8x or 16x to keep braking reference markers legible far down the straight.
- Object and LOD Draw Distance: Values between 125% and 150% offer the best compromise. Setting these to maximum (200%) significantly increases the CPU render thread burden, increasing frame times when multiple opponent cars are visible. Setting them below 100% causes noticeable vehicle model pop-in.
- Depth of Field: Turn this Off. Depth of Field blurs track edges and causes shimmering lines in smoke.
Hardware Bottlenecks and Optimization Fixes
CPU Render Thread and Grid Size Limits
Technical profiling on the GIANTS Engine 10 build shows that the primary bottleneck in Project Motor Racing is often the CPU rather than the GPU. The engine can struggle to generate and dispatch GPU command buffers efficiently on a single thread.
The number of AI cars on track directly scales this CPU burden. In community benchmarks:
- Racing alone or with 5 AI cars allows modern processors to sustain high, stable framerates (90–120 FPS).
- Increasing the grid to 20 or 31 AI drivers causes severe CPU bottlenecks, dropping framerates into the 40–60 FPS range regardless of whether low or ultra graphics presets are selected.
- If you experience heavy stuttering during race starts, reduce the offline grid size to approximately 16–20 cars.
Instant Replay and Background Capture Bug
PC players on NVIDIA hardware have documented a severe power draw and memory frequency anomaly linked to background recording utilities. When NVIDIA ShadowPlay / Instant Replay (or similar background recording tools like AMD ReLive) is active, GPU memory clocks can lock to maximum power states, doubling GPU wattage (spiking from ~120W to over 260W) and degrading frame consistency. Disabling background desktop capture or instant replay in your GPU software restores normal power consumption and stabilizes frame pacing.
Steam Deck and Handheld Performance
Project Motor Racing is not recommended for the Steam Deck or low-power handheld PCs. The game's Hadron physics calculations are linked to real-time frame progression. Because the Steam Deck CPU cannot meet the physics processing thresholds even on the lowest presets at 720p with FSR, the simulation slows down, forcing the car to drive in literal slow motion with heavy steering input delay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are my DLSS options grayed out in the settings menu?
DLSS settings become unavailable if the game detects an active Virtual Reality mode or specific multi-display configurations. Ensure VR mode is disabled in the display settings and your headset is disconnected before launching the game on a standard monitor.
How do I fix aggressive shadow popping on track surfaces?
Turn Cloud Shadows to Off in the advanced graphics menu. This removes the fluctuating overcast shadow passes that abruptly switch LOD states across track asphalt.
Does V-Sync work properly in Project Motor Racing?
The in-game Vertical Sync toggle frequently engages an inconsistent internal frame limiter that creates perceptible stutter and jitter. For optimal smoothness, set in-game V-Sync to Off, run the game in Windowed Borderless, and apply a frame rate cap matching your monitor refresh rate through external tools like RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) or your GPU control panel.
