Key takeaways
- Set NVIDIA RTX Global Illumination to Static. The Dynamic option keeps updating ray-traced lighting as geometry changes, which adds work on both the CPU and GPU at the exact moment a building collapses.
- Lower Effects to Low. Explosions, smoke and dust from collapses are a large part of what spikes during a big fight.
- Keep Foliage on Low; it saves draw calls without hiding enemies.
- Do not drop resolution or enable upscaling expecting a fix here. Those lighten the GPU, which is not the part that is struggling.
- Close browser tabs, launchers and RGB utilities that wake up in the background. Recording software should use the GPU’s hardware encoder (NVENC, AMD AMF or Intel Quick Sync) rather than the CPU.
- On Windows, use the Balanced or High performance power plan and check CPU temperatures. A processor reaching its thermal limit will slow its clocks during long sessions, and drops that grow worse over 20–30 minutes often point to cooling.
Most FPS drops in The Finals come from one of three sources: CPU spikes when buildings collapse, a stale shader cache after a big patch, or running out of video memory, and the fix is to diagnose which one you have before changing settings. Lowering resolution does nothing for a CPU spike, and clearing caches does nothing for a VRAM shortage, so the order below goes causes, then checks, then targeted fixes.
Step 1: Identify what kind of drop you have
Turn on a performance overlay that shows FPS, frame time, GPU usage and VRAM usage. The NVIDIA app overlay, AMD Adrenalin’s overlay or MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner all work. Play a few rounds in a mode with heavy destruction, then match what you see to this table.
| What you see | Overlay reading | Likely cause |
|---|---|---|
| FPS dips when walls or floors collapse | GPU usage falls below about 80% during the dip | CPU limit from destruction and debris |
| Low FPS everywhere, even in quiet areas | GPU usage at 97–100% | Graphics settings too heavy for the GPU |
| Short freezes the first time effects appear | Single large frame-time spikes | Shader compilation or a stale shader cache |
| FPS sinks over a long session | VRAM near the card’s limit, rising | Texture or lighting memory overflow |
| Players warp, FPS looks normal | Frame time flat | Network, not performance |
The last row matters because The Finals processes destruction on Embark’s servers. Rubberbanding and delayed collapses can look like stutter but are a connection issue. If your frame-time graph stays flat while the action hitches, check your server region and switch from Wi-Fi to a wired connection before touching graphics.
Step 2: Make sure your PC meets the baseline
Embark’s official PC requirements have not changed since launch, but they set a useful floor. If you sit near the minimum, drops in big fights are expected rather than a bug.
| Tier | CPU | RAM | GPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Intel Core i5-6600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | 12 GB | GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / Radeon RX 580 |
| Recommended | Intel Core i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | 16 GB | GeForce RTX 2070 / Radeon RX 5700 XT |
Both tiers require Windows 10 64-bit or later and DirectX 12. One detail often missed: 16 GB in a single stick runs in single-channel mode, which cuts memory bandwidth roughly in half. The Finals leans on the CPU during destruction, and a CPU starved of bandwidth drops frames hardest in exactly those moments. Two matched sticks in the slots your motherboard manual marks for dual-channel are worth checking before any upgrade.
Step 3: Fixes for CPU-limited drops during destruction
If GPU usage falls when a building comes down, your processor is the bottleneck. Graphics settings that create work on the CPU are the ones to change.
- Set NVIDIA RTX Global Illumination to Static. The Dynamic option keeps updating ray-traced lighting as geometry changes, which adds work on both the CPU and GPU at the exact moment a building collapses.
- Lower Effects to Low. Explosions, smoke and dust from collapses are a large part of what spikes during a big fight.
- Keep Foliage on Low; it saves draw calls without hiding enemies.
- Do not drop resolution or enable upscaling expecting a fix here. Those lighten the GPU, which is not the part that is struggling.
- Close browser tabs, launchers and RGB utilities that wake up in the background. Recording software should use the GPU’s hardware encoder (NVENC, AMD AMF or Intel Quick Sync) rather than the CPU.
- On Windows, use the Balanced or High performance power plan and check CPU temperatures. A processor reaching its thermal limit will slow its clocks during long sessions, and drops that grow worse over 20–30 minutes often point to cooling.
Step 4: Fixes for GPU-limited and VRAM drops
When GPU usage sits at 97–100% and FPS is low everywhere, lower the settings that load the graphics card. Global Illumination Resolution, Shadows and Post-Processing are among the heaviest after ray tracing. Upscaling with DLSS, FSR or XeSS on a Quality preset is also effective in this case.
VRAM overflow is different: FPS starts fine, then sinks or hitches as textures spill into slower system memory. Match the Texture setting to your card’s memory with this starting point and adjust from there.
| GPU memory | Texture setting to start with | RTX Global Illumination |
|---|---|---|
| 4 GB | Low | Static |
| 6 GB | Medium | Static |
| 8 GB | High | Static |
| 12 GB or more | High or Epic | Static or Dynamic |
Embark’s Update 11.9.0 fixed an issue where textures used more memory than intended, so if you set textures conservatively months ago, it can be worth trying one step higher after updating.
Step 5: Clear shader caches after major patches
The Finals moved to Unreal Engine 5.7 with Update 11.7.0 on August 27, 2026. Engine upgrades are when outdated shader caches cause the most trouble: short freezes, worse drops in the first matches, or performance that never seems to settle. Rebuilding the caches is safe because the game and driver regenerate them.
- Close the game. Open the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Discovery\Saved (Discovery is the game’s internal folder name) and delete the file ending in .ushaderprecache.
- NVIDIA: open %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache and delete what Windows allows. You can also raise Shader Cache Size in the NVIDIA Control Panel to 10 GB so the cache is not evicted between sessions.
- AMD: in Adrenalin, open the Graphics settings and use Reset Shader Cache.
- Launch the game and expect the first one or two matches to hitch while shaders rebuild. Judge the result from the third match on.
Step 6: Patch-specific problems worth knowing
- Update 11.7.0 fixed a performance degradation that could occur with AMD FSR 3. If you switched away from FSR because of that, it is worth another try.
- Update 11.9.0 also fixed a minor regression in CPU-side rendering performance.
- Update 11.12.0 on October 1, 2026 fixed a Frame Generation hang. If you still see freezes with Frame Generation enabled after updating, turn it off; it cannot help with CPU-bound drops anyway, since it only multiplies frames the CPU has already produced.
Keep the game, Windows and your GPU driver up to date before troubleshooting deeper. Many reports of new drops after a season launch are resolved by the next hotfix or driver release.
Step 7: Smooth the swings you cannot remove
Even a strong PC will see FPS fall when an entire building comes down. What players feel as stutter is the size of the swing, not the average. Here is the math: at 200 FPS a frame takes 5.0 ms, and at 90 FPS it takes 11.1 ms. A drop from 200 to 90 more than doubles frame time in an instant, and that jump is what reads as a hitch.
Capping the frame rate at a level your PC holds during big fights shrinks that jump. With a 120 FPS cap, the same collapse moves frame time from 8.3 ms to 11.1 ms, a 2.8 ms change instead of 6.1 ms. Watch your overlay during several heavy rounds, note the lowest FPS you see regularly, and set the cap 10–20% above it. You give up some peak FPS in quiet moments but gain far more consistent motion.
Storage and system checks
- Install the game on an SSD and keep 15–20% of that drive free so asset streaming is not slowed down.
- Disable the Steam overlay and Discord overlay as a test; overlays occasionally collide with new game builds.
- Laptop players should plug in, select the high performance power mode, and make sure the game runs on the dedicated GPU rather than integrated graphics.
Work through the steps in order and change one thing at a time. Once you know whether your drops are CPU, GPU, memory or network related, the fix usually takes a few minutes rather than an evening of guesswork.
Still Dropping Frames? When an Upgrade Makes Sense
If The Finals still stutters or falls below your monitor’s refresh rate after every fix above, the limit is usually the graphics card or system memory rather than a setting. These are common upgrade paths for that situation.
ASUS Dual NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8GB GDDR7 OC Edition (PCIe 5.0, 8GB GDDR7, DLSS 4, HDMI 2.1b, DisplayPort 2.1b, 2.5-Slot Design, Axial-tech Fan Design, 0dB Technology), 3 Year Warranty
Included for 'How to Fix FPS Drops in The Finals: Causes and Fixes' because the listing specifies 8GB GDDR7 and DLSS 4, details this guide uses to compare options.
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ASRock Radeon RX 9060 XT Challenger 16GB OC, RDNA 4, 3290MHz Boost, 16GB GDDR6 128-bit, PCIe 5.0, Dual Fans, 0dB Silent, LED Indicator, DisplayPort 2.1a, HDMI 2.1b
Included for 'How to Fix FPS Drops in The Finals: Causes and Fixes' because the listing specifies RDNA 4 and 3290MHz Boost, details this guide uses to compare options.
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Patriot Viper Venom DDR5 RAM 32GB (2X16GB) 6000MHz CL30 Desktop Memory
Included for 'How to Fix FPS Drops in The Finals: Causes and Fixes' as a relevant option in this category; details come from the product listing.
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