The Relic: First Guardian PC Optimization Guide – Best Settings for RTX 4070

The Relic: First Guardian immediately impressed me with its incredible art direction. The ruined world of Arsiltus looks fantastic, and every castle, battlefield, and dark forest feels handcrafted instead of randomly assembled. Like many modern Unreal Engine 5 games, though, there’s a catch. The visuals are stunning, but they can punish even powerful gaming PCs if you simply select the Ultra preset and jump into the action.

I’ve spent plenty of time tweaking graphics settings in demanding RPGs, and The Relic: First Guardian reminds me that the highest preset isn’t always the smartest choice. If you’re using an RTX 4070, you already have an excellent GPU for 1440p gaming. The goal isn’t squeezing every visual effect to its maximum—it’s getting smooth gameplay while keeping the world looking gorgeous. After testing different options and comparing performance in crowded fights, these are the settings I would actually recommend.

How to Fix Low FPS in The Relic: First Guardian – Performance Boost Guide

Why the RTX 4070 Is a Great Match for The Relic: First Guardian

The RTX 4070 has enough horsepower to handle Unreal Engine 5, but this game pushes nearly every modern rendering technology at once. Dense environments, advanced lighting, huge bosses, detailed particle effects, and complex physics can quickly drive GPU usage to 99%.

At native 1440p with everything maxed out, performance usually lands somewhere around 45–60 FPS, depending on the area. Exploration feels fine most of the time, but large boss fights and heavy spell effects can introduce noticeable frame drops.

The good news is that the biggest performance killers aren’t the settings that dramatically change image quality. A few smart adjustments can produce a much smoother experience without making the game look noticeably worse.

Recommended Graphics Settings

Here’s the configuration I found to be the best balance between image quality and performance.

This setup keeps nearly all of the game’s visual impact while removing several unnecessary performance bottlenecks.

DLSS 3 Is the Biggest Upgrade You Can Make

If there’s one setting I wouldn’t skip, it’s DLSS 3 Frame Generation.

The RTX 4070 was practically designed for this technology, and The Relic: First Guardian benefits from it more than many recent games. Camera movement becomes noticeably smoother, exploration feels more fluid, and combat maintains higher frame rates even when multiple enemies fill the screen.

I also recommend pairing it with:

• DLSS Super Resolution: Quality
• NVIDIA Reflex: On + Boost

This combination helps reduce latency while delivering a major FPS improvement. Combat still feels responsive, which is especially important since perfect dodges and parries require precise timing.

Settings That Give You the Most FPS

Some graphics options cost far more performance than they’re worth.

Global Illumination

This is easily one of the heaviest settings in the game.

Switching from Epic to High barely changes indoor lighting during normal gameplay, yet it can recover a noticeable amount of GPU performance. Unless you’re constantly stopping to compare screenshots, you’ll rarely notice the difference.

Shadows

Unreal Engine 5 uses impressive virtual shadow technology, but Ultra shadows are expensive.

Medium shadows still look sharp during regular gameplay while reducing GPU load during large encounters.

Volumetric Effects

Fog, magical smoke, atmospheric lighting, and clouds create beautiful scenes, but they also consume a surprising amount of performance.

Lowering this to Medium improves minimum frame rates much more than I expected, especially in darker regions with lots of environmental effects.

Settings You Should Keep High

Not every option deserves to be lowered.

The RTX 4070 includes 12GB of VRAM, which is more than enough for high-quality textures at 1440p.

I’d leave these settings alone:

• Texture Quality: Epic
• Texture Filtering: 16x
• Reflection Quality: High
• Effects Quality: High

These options make armor, weapons, environments, and character models look much sharper without causing the same kind of performance loss as shadows or volumetrics. The game’s art style really shines when texture quality stays at its highest setting.

Small Changes That Make Combat Feel Better

Some options don’t increase FPS very much, but they make gameplay feel cleaner.

I always disable:

• Motion Blur
• Film Grain
• Chromatic Aberration

Motion Blur makes fast sword combat look less crisp, while Film Grain softens the detailed textures throughout Arsiltus. Chromatic Aberration adds colored edges around the screen that simply distract from the action. Turning these off gives the game a much cleaner presentation.

Don’t Forget Windows and NVIDIA Settings

Game settings are only part of the optimization process.

Before launching The Relic: First Guardian, I’d also make sure your PC is properly configured.

Enable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) in Windows. DLSS Frame Generation relies on this feature, so it’s worth checking if you haven’t enabled it already.

Inside the NVIDIA Control Panel, I recommend these changes:

These aren’t dramatic improvements on their own, but together they help maintain stable clocks and reduce occasional frame pacing issues.

Keep Drivers Updated

This might sound obvious, but it’s surprising how many players skip GPU driver updates.

Major Unreal Engine 5 releases often receive Game Ready Driver optimizations from NVIDIA shortly before launch or within the first few weeks after release. Installing the newest drivers can improve stability, eliminate graphical bugs, and sometimes provide free performance improvements without changing a single graphics setting.

Whenever a new patch arrives for The Relic: First Guardian, it’s worth checking whether NVIDIA has released an updated driver alongside it.

Expected RTX 4070 Performance

With the optimized settings above, my expectations for a typical RTX 4070 system would look something like this:

Performance will naturally vary depending on your processor and storage drive, but this configuration offers a much smoother experience than simply selecting Ultra and hoping for the best. The biggest improvement isn’t necessarily the higher average FPS—it’s the reduction in heavy frame drops during intense combat.

Final Thoughts

The Relic: First Guardian is one of those games that immediately rewards players who spend a few minutes inside the graphics menu. Unreal Engine 5 can be demanding, but it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice visual quality to enjoy smooth gameplay. In fact, some of the most expensive settings provide surprisingly small visual improvements compared to their performance cost.

For anyone gaming on an RTX 4070, I’d focus on keeping textures at their highest quality while dialing back shadows, volumetrics, and global illumination just enough to free up GPU resources. Add DLSS Quality, enable Frame Generation, and let Reflex handle latency. The result is a much more responsive experience that keeps the breathtaking atmosphere intact while making every dodge, parry, and boss fight feel noticeably smoother.