Since Cities: Skylines is CPU-intensive (simulating traffic and citizens) and GPU-intensive (rendering thousands of assets), the goal is to lower the graphical load to give your processor "breathing room" to calculate the simulation without lag.
| Setting | Recommended Value | Why? | |---------|------------------|------| | | Fullscreen | Gives slightly more FPS than borderless window. | | Resolution | 1366x768 or 1280x720 | Lower pixels = less GPU work. Avoid 1080p if you have integrated graphics. | | VSync | Off | Prevents frame drops when FPS dips below 30. | | Shadow Quality | Disabled or Low | Shadows are extremely costly. Disable completely. | | Texture Quality | Low | Reduces VRAM usage. Note: roads will look blurry. | | Level of Detail (LOD) | Low | Objects at a distance switch to low-poly models sooner. | | Shadows | Disabled | (Duplicate of above) Ensure it's off. | | Anisotropic Filtering | Off | Minimal visual gain for big performance cost. | | Anti-aliasing | Off | FXAA can be turned on only if edges bother you; otherwise off. | | Depth of Field | Off | Unnecessary blur effect. | | Ambient Occlusion | Off | Big GPU hit. | | Motion Blur | Off | Purely aesthetic and costly. | | Film Grain | Off | Saves tiny resources. |
Set to "Low" or "Very Low." This reduces the complexity of distant objects, lowering the strain on your GPU.
Cities: Skylines is a masterpiece of urban planning, but it is notoriously demanding on hardware. As your city grows from a small hamlet to a sprawling metropolis, the simulation of thousands of individual citizens can bring even mid-range PCs to their knees.
Apply the settings above, then gradually increase one quality setting at a time (start with textures) until frame drops return. Target 720p as the baseline.
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