Marvel Rivals FPS Boost: Taming Lumen on Unreal Engine 5
Short answer
UpdatedThe single biggest Marvel Rivals performance lever is Global Illumination: switching it from Lumen to SSGI at low quality is the largest single gain on a mid-range card. Follow it with Reflection Quality set to Screen Space, DLSS or FSR at Quality with sharpening around 70-80, model detail and post-processing low, and exclusive fullscreen rather than windowed.
Key takeaways
- Global Illumination is the whole game. Lumen is the most expensive thing your GPU does here; SSGI at low quality gets most of that cost back.
- Reflection Quality set to Screen Space is the second-largest saving, for a difference you will not see during a teamfight.
- Use exclusive fullscreen, not windowed fullscreen. Exclusive mode takes the lowest-latency path to the display.
- Set upscaling sharpening around 70-80 to offset the softness DLSS and FSR introduce at Quality.
- Lower resolution last. In a hero shooter, smaller enemies on screen costs you more than the frames are worth.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Biggest single win
- Global Illumination: Lumen to SSGI Low
- Why that one first
- It is the most expensive setting in the game
- Second win
- Reflection Quality to Screen Space
- Display mode
- Exclusive fullscreen
Quick setup
Change Global Illumination to SSGI at low quality
Lumen is the single most expensive thing your GPU does in this game. This one change is the largest single gain on a mid-range card: do it before anything else, then re-measure.
Set Reflection Quality to Screen Space
The second-largest saving, for a difference you will not see during a teamfight.
Enable Super Resolution at Quality
DLSS on NVIDIA, FSR on AMD, XeSS on Intel Arc. Set Super Resolution Sharpening to about 70-80 to offset the softness.
Drop Shadow Detail, Effects and Foliage to Low
Ability effects stack heavily in teamfights, which is where frame rate matters most.
Use exclusive fullscreen with V-Sync off
Windowed fullscreen routes through the Windows compositor and adds a step. V-Sync trades a full frame of delay for tear-free output, which a shooter cannot afford.
Only then consider lowering resolution
It makes enemy heroes physically smaller on screen. If you need more frames, use the upscaler's Performance mode instead so the UI stays sharp.
Global Illumination is the setting that matters
Marvel Rivals is built on Unreal Engine 5 and uses Lumen, the engine's real-time global illumination system, by default. Lumen produces genuinely beautiful indirect lighting, and it is the most expensive thing your GPU does in this game by a very wide margin.
Switching Global Illumination from Lumen to SSGI at low quality replaces it with a far cheaper screen-space approximation. The scene loses some depth in shadowed areas. Your frame rate does not lose a teamfight.
The rest of the settings, in order of impact
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Global Illumination | SSGI, Low quality | The single largest performance lever in the game, and the first one to pull on mid-range hardware. |
| Reflection Quality | Screen Space | The second-largest saving. Ray-traced and Lumen reflections are expensive and invisible during a fight. |
| Super Resolution (DLSS / FSR / XeSS) | Quality | The biggest free gain after lighting. Match the technology to your GPU vendor and never enable two at once. |
| Super Resolution Sharpening | 70-80 | Upscaling at Quality softens the image slightly. This offsets it without introducing the ringing artefacts you get near 100. |
| Display Mode | Fullscreen (exclusive) | Windowed fullscreen adds a compositor step. Exclusive takes the lowest-latency path to the monitor. |
| V-Sync | Off | Trades a full frame of latency to stop tearing. That is not a trade a shooter can afford: cap frames and use VRR instead. |
| Model Detail | Low or Medium | Hero models are large and distinctive; the detail reduction is barely visible in motion and the CPU saving is real. |
| Shadow Detail | Low | Large GPU saving with no competitive information loss in this game. |
| Effects / Post-Processing | Low | Ability effects stack heavily in teamfights. This is where frame rate collapses at the moment it matters most. |
| Foliage Quality | Low | Cheap win on the maps that have it, and less visual clutter to hide enemies. |
| Resolution | Native: change this last | Lowering resolution makes enemy heroes physically smaller on screen. Exhaust every setting above before touching it. |
If you are on a low-end machine
The order still holds, it just becomes stricter. Work top to bottom and stop when you reach a stable frame rate above your refresh rate:
- Global Illumination to SSGI Low. Non-negotiable, and it may be all you need.
- Reflection Quality to Screen Space.
- Super Resolution to Quality, then Balanced if required.
- Shadow Detail, Effects and Foliage to Low.
- Model Detail to Low.
- Only now consider lowering resolution, and if you do, use the upscaler's Performance mode rather than dropping your display resolution, so the UI stays sharp.
Three Windows settings are worth checking for Marvel Rivals as for any recent game: hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, Game DVR and the Game Bar, and background apps. Each has a page in our tweak catalog with what it changes and how to undo it.
Frozen Tweaks
Free for Windows 10 and 11
Frozen Tweaks changes the Windows, power and latency settings that sit underneath these in-game settings, never the game itself. There is no Marvel Rivals profile, and every free tweak has an undo switch.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.
Questions
How do I fix low FPS in Marvel Rivals?
Change Global Illumination from Lumen to SSGI at low quality. It is the single most expensive setting in the game, so switching it is the largest single gain on mid-range hardware. Then set Reflection Quality to Screen Space, enable DLSS, FSR or XeSS at Quality with sharpening around 70-80, and drop Shadow Detail, Effects and Foliage to Low. Lower your resolution only as a last resort.
Should I use fullscreen or windowed in Marvel Rivals?
Exclusive fullscreen. It takes the lowest-latency path to your monitor, while windowed fullscreen routes through the Windows compositor and adds a step. If you need to alt-tab frequently and want to stay borderless, at least enable the windowed-game optimizations toggle in Windows display graphics settings, which recovers most of the difference.
What sharpening value should I use with DLSS in Marvel Rivals?
Around 70-80. Upscaling at Quality reconstructs from a lower internal resolution and softens the image slightly; sharpening in that range restores perceived detail without the halo and ringing artefacts that appear as you approach 100. Adjust to taste: it is a preference setting, not a performance one.
Tweaks in this guide
Each setting below has its own page in the tweak catalog: what it changes in Windows, what it costs, and how to undo it.
Sources
Written by
Frost LIVEFounder of Frozen Tweaks, based in Hamburg, Germany. Publishes settings guides for competitive games on his YouTube channel, Frost LIVE.
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Frozen Tweaks
Free for Windows 10 and 11
58 tweaks free, each with an undo switch. Never edits game files.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.
The free Windows app for competitive games.
58 tweaks free, each with an undo switch. Never edits game files.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Frozen Tweaks runs on Windows. Send the link to your PC and download it there.
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.