Star Wars Zero Company PC Performance Guide: Best Settings for Max FPS and Stability

If there is one thing I really wanted from Star Wars Zero Company, it was a tactical Star Wars game that felt as good technically as it does strategically. The core gameplay delivers that feeling surprisingly well. Planning a turn, setting up an overwatch position, watching an ability chain unfold, and then dealing with the enemy’s response can be seriously satisfying. The problem is that the PC version does not always keep up with the action.

Star Wars Zero Company is built with Unreal Engine 5, and that immediately tells you what kind of performance problems to expect. The game can look fantastic, but modern lighting, detailed environments, effects, and aggressive asset streaming put considerable pressure on both the GPU and system memory. Even powerful gaming PCs can experience frame-time spikes, stuttering, and occasional crashes.

After looking at the hardware requirements and the settings that actually matter, I would not recommend simply selecting the Ultra preset and hoping for the best. There is a much better approach. A few targeted changes can make the game noticeably smoother while keeping most of its cinematic presentation intact.

Star Wars Zero Company PC Requirements

Before changing anything, it helps to know where your hardware sits. The official requirements are fairly demanding, especially if you’re aiming beyond 1080p.

The 32 GB RAM recommendation is particularly interesting. Sixteen gigabytes is still enough to launch and play the game, but systems with 16 GB can be more vulnerable to background-memory pressure and streaming-related stutters.

I would also strongly recommend an SSD. You don’t necessarily need the fastest NVMe drive ever made, but putting an Unreal Engine 5 game with heavy asset streaming on an old mechanical hard drive is asking for trouble.

How Demanding Is Star Wars Zero Company Really?

This is where things get a little frustrating.

On paper, a high-end PC should have no problem running a turn-based strategy game. It is not a competitive shooter requiring 200 FPS, after all. In practice, Zero Company can push modern hardware surprisingly hard.

High-end systems equipped with CPUs such as the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and GPUs like the RTX 5090 can still encounter performance limitations at 4K Ultra. Around 70–80 FPS under demanding settings is not necessarily terrible, but it is lower than you might expect from that level of hardware.

The bigger issue for me is not the average FPS. Frame-time consistency matters more in a tactical game.

A game running at 80 FPS that suddenly drops into a stutter while you’re selecting an ability feels worse than a stable 60 FPS. During long tactical encounters, those little interruptions become much more noticeable.

There have also been reports of freezes, crashes, animation problems, and visual glitches. Not every player will experience them, but the combination of UE5 streaming and heavy graphical effects means that lowering a few expensive settings can be worthwhile even if your PC technically meets the recommended specifications.

My Recommended Settings for Star Wars Zero Company

If I were setting up the game on my own PC, I would avoid the generic Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets. They are useful starting points, but they don’t tell you which individual settings are actually costing performance.

Here’s the configuration I would start with:

Display Settings

• Window Mode: Borderless Windowed
• Resolution: Native monitor resolution
• Frame Rate Limit: Match your monitor refresh rate
• V-Sync: Off
• HDR: On if stable; disable it if you encounter display or brightness issues

I personally prefer Borderless Windowed for this kind of game. The ability to Alt-Tab without fighting fullscreen behavior is useful, especially if you’re playing with a second monitor, Discord, a browser, or a performance monitor open.

For a 144 Hz display, I would cap the game around 144 FPS if your system can actually reach it consistently. If not, use a sensible lower limit rather than letting the GPU run at full power through menus and low-demand scenes.

Upscaling: The Easiest FPS Win

This is probably the first setting I would change after resolution.

If your graphics card supports it, use the appropriate upscaler:

• NVIDIA: DLSS
• AMD: FSR
• Intel: XeSS
• Any compatible hardware: TSR can be a useful alternative

My preferred starting points would be:

At 1440p, I think DLSS or FSR Balanced makes a lot of sense. You’re giving the GPU considerably less work while retaining a respectable image.

At 4K, Performance mode sounds aggressive, but this is a tactical strategy game rather than a competitive FPS. I would happily sacrifice some fine image detail if it means eliminating ugly frame-time spikes.

Should You Enable Frame Generation?

If your GPU supports Frame Generation, yes, I would use it, particularly at higher resolutions.

This isn’t a game where extremely low input latency determines whether you win or lose. You’re moving units, choosing abilities, positioning characters, and watching turns play out. That makes Zero Company a much better candidate for Frame Generation than a twitch-heavy multiplayer shooter.

There is still a difference between real rendered frames and generated frames, so I wouldn’t use Frame Generation to disguise a terrible base frame rate. Get the underlying performance into a reasonable range first.

If your GPU supports NVIDIA Reflex or AMD Anti-Lag 2, enable the corresponding latency-reduction option as well.

The Graphics Settings That Actually Matter

This is the section I would pay the most attention to.

Shadows: Medium

Medium is my first recommendation.

Shadows can be surprisingly expensive, particularly in detailed environments with several light sources. Ultra shadows look nice when you’re standing still and staring at them, but I don’t think they’re worth the performance cost during a tactical battle.

The difference between Ultra and Medium is much harder to notice while you’re moving through the battlefield than the difference in frame rate.

Global Illumination: Medium

UE5’s lighting technology can produce some beautiful scenes, but it can also be expensive.

I recommend Medium Global Illumination for most PCs. High-end enthusiasts with plenty of GPU headroom can keep it higher, but Medium provides a better balance.

Reflections: Medium

This is another setting where I would not hesitate to lower quality.

Reflections can consume a surprising amount of GPU power, especially when advanced rendering techniques are involved. Unless you have a very powerful RTX 40- or RTX 50-series card and plenty of performance to spare, Medium is the sensible option.

Textures: Match Them to Your VRAM

Textures are different from shadows and lighting because lowering them doesn’t necessarily give you a massive FPS increase when you’re GPU-compute limited.

The bigger concern is VRAM usage.

My rule would be:

• 10 GB+ VRAM: Ultra textures
• 8 GB VRAM: Medium or High
• 6 GB VRAM: Medium
• Less than 6 GB: Low

If you have 8 GB of VRAM and notice hitching after switching textures to Ultra, don’t stubbornly leave them there. A slightly lower texture setting is preferable to constant streaming-related stutter.

Post-Processing: Medium

I like Medium here.

Post-processing can affect effects such as motion blur, depth of field, and other cinematic image treatments. I personally don’t think these effects add enough to justify sacrificing performance.

If you dislike motion blur anyway, lowering post-processing is an easy win.

Effects: Medium

Explosions, blaster fire, abilities, particles, and other combat effects can create temporary GPU spikes.

For a strategy game, I would rather have consistent frame times than maximum particle density.

Medium Effects is a good compromise.

Shading: Medium

Set Shading to Medium unless you have a particularly powerful GPU.

It reduces some material-rendering complexity while preserving the overall appearance of environments. I find this type of compromise much more difficult to notice than lowering shadows or reflections.

View Distance: High

This is one setting I would keep relatively high.

In a tactical game, visual information matters. Being able to clearly see terrain, enemies, environmental objects, and potential sightlines is part of the gameplay.

I would rather lower shadows and effects than reduce view distance.

Hidden Objects Detail: Simplified

This is another setting where I don’t mind sacrificing detail.

If geometry is hidden behind walls, terrain, or other objects, I don’t need my PC wasting resources rendering unnecessary complexity.

Set it to Simplified and put those resources toward things you can actually see.

Environment Geometry Detail: Off

If you’re using weaker or mid-range hardware, I would turn this off.

Virtualized geometry can make environments look impressive, but it’s not a feature I would prioritize when chasing stable performance. If your system is struggling, this is an easy place to cut back.

A Balanced Preset I’d Actually Use

If you don’t want to spend an hour adjusting every slider, this is the setup I’d try first:

• Resolution: Native
• Upscaling: Quality at 1080p / Balanced at 1440p
• Frame Generation: On if supported
• Reflex/Anti-Lag: On
• Shadows: Medium
• Global Illumination: Medium
• Reflections: Medium
• Textures: High/Ultra depending on VRAM
• Post-Processing: Medium
• Effects: Medium
• Shading: Medium
• View Distance: High
• Hidden Objects: Simplified
• Virtualized Environment Geometry: Off

For me, this is the sweet spot. You retain the game’s atmosphere without paying the full Ultra tax for settings that don’t dramatically improve the tactical experience.

Don’t Ignore RAM and VRAM

One thing that stands out with Star Wars Zero Company is how much memory pressure can affect the experience.

With 16 GB of RAM, I would close unnecessary applications before starting a long session. Browsers with dozens of tabs, launchers, video software, and background utilities can quickly consume memory.

With 32 GB, you have considerably more breathing room.

VRAM is equally important. If your GPU has only 6–8 GB, don’t automatically assume that the highest texture setting is the best choice. When VRAM becomes saturated, the resulting stuttering can be far more annoying than slightly softer textures.

Resizable BAR Is Worth Checking

If you have a relatively modern system, check whether Resizable BAR is enabled in your BIOS.

AMD users may see the feature associated with Smart Access Memory, while Intel Arc users especially should make sure their platform is configured correctly.

It isn’t a magical one-click FPS boost, but it is one of those hardware features I’d rather have enabled than disabled when playing a demanding modern PC game.

Keep Your Graphics Drivers Updated

This sounds obvious, but it matters even more around a game’s launch period.

NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel regularly release driver updates that address compatibility and performance problems in new games. If you’re troubleshooting crashes or unexplained frame drops, updating the GPU driver should be near the top of your list.

If problems started immediately after a driver update, though, don’t assume newer is automatically better. Sometimes rolling back to a known-stable driver can help.

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What About Steam Deck and Handheld PCs?

This is where expectations should be realistic.

The Steam Deck is not the machine I would choose for Star Wars Zero Company if your goal is a stable experience. The game’s hardware demands, memory pressure, and UE5 rendering workload can make the experience inconsistent.

More powerful handhelds have a better chance.

On something like the ROG Ally, lowering the game to Low and using AMD FSR can make a 30–40 FPS target more realistic. It still won’t look like the desktop version running on a powerful GPU, but a turn-based game is more forgiving of a lower frame rate than a competitive action title.

If you’re playing handheld, I would prioritize stable frame times over visual quality every single time.

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Final Thoughts: Don’t Chase Ultra

I genuinely like what Star Wars Zero Company is trying to do. The combination of turn-based tactics, squad customization, and the Star Wars setting is exactly the kind of formula that can keep me playing for hours. That’s why the PC performance problems are more frustrating than they would be in a game I didn’t care about.

The good news is that you don’t need to make the game look ugly to improve performance.

The settings I would sacrifice first are shadows, reflections, global illumination, effects, and unnecessary geometry detail. I would keep textures reasonably high according to available VRAM and leave View Distance at High because those settings contribute more directly to the way the battlefield looks and plays.

Most importantly, don’t obsess over the highest possible average FPS. For a tactical game like this, stable frame times are king. I’d take a consistent 60 FPS over a wildly fluctuating 90–120 FPS every time.

If your PC is struggling, start with the balanced configuration above, enable DLSS/FSR where appropriate, and only then experiment with individual settings. You may find that the difference between Ultra and a carefully tuned Medium/High mix is surprisingly small once you’re actually concentrating on your squad rather than staring at the graphics menu.

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