Hogwarts Legacy is now available to those who pre-ordered the deluxe edition on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles and is coming to PC at 1 p.m. ET today. Each version has a variety of performance modes available, with five different preset modes available on the latest consoles. This includes raytracing and modes designed for 120hz displays. It can be hard to find the best setting for you. In this guide we’ll be breaking down the various graphical settings, and estimate the framerate for each one.
Here are the five different graphical settings for Hogwarts Legacy on console, and which one will work best for you.
Hogwarts Legacy: Fidelity mode
The fidelity setting will run at 30fps, but will aim for a high resolution and will enable other graphical effects. There is a 60fps option available, so you would usually only choose this if graphics are more important to you than performance. We experienced frame drops and stuttering when using this mode on PS5, so we wouldn’t recommend it, particularly if you are using Xbox Series S.
Hogwarts Legacy: Fidelity with Raytracing mode
We honestly didn’t see much difference between this and the normal fidelity setting. We had trouble spotting raytracing features, and didn’t see reflections on rivers or bodies of water. It did seem to make the lighting more striking, but the resolution dropped noticeably as a result. The framerate also struggles to lock in at 30fps on this setting.
Hogwarts Legacy: Performance mode
If you have a standard 60Hz display then this will likely be the option that you will want to use. Even when you fly around the open world, the framerate will rarely drop below 60fps. There is an option here to unlock the framerate which can make it go up to 70fps, but this will only be visible if you have a display that can handle it. This obviously comes at the cost of a lower resolution. Edges of items will look softer, and textures will be more blurry, so it depends if you think this is worth it.
Hogwarts Legacy: Balanced mode
The final two modes are for people who have a TV that can handle 120Hz. They are also optimal if you have a display that has a variable refresh rate. This mode will bump your resolution higher than Performance mode but aims for 40fps. This works well with 120Hz displays as 120 is divisible by 40. This means the mode works best with the capped framerate and allows you to experience smooth gameplay and crisp visuals.
Hogwarts Legacy: HFR Performance mode
This is a high-framerate performance mode, and works slightly better than Performance mode, with the framerate cap removed. You will be able to reach 80fps in this mode even when flying around the world. However, in this mode the framerate generally sticks around 65-70. If you want the lowest latency possible at the cost of the image quality then this is the mode you will want.
Conclusion
If you have a 60Hz display then you will likely have the best time with Performance mode. There are just too many issues with the framerate when trying to aim for higher resolutions to recommend these settings. Everything runs well when 60fps is the target and if you have VRR all performance issues will be removed.
If you have a 120Hz display then Balanced mode is probably the one you want. It’s the best compromise between performance and visuals. However, if you are desperate for lower latency no matter the cost, then HFR Performance mode is probably the choice to make.
Written by Dave Aubrey and Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
