Elden Ring still struggles to maintain a stable 60 FPS on mid-range hardware, even after multiple patches. The RTX 3060 is one of the most popular GPUs for PC gaming, and with the right settings you can lock 60 FPS in almost every area. These settings are tested on an RTX 3060 12GB with a Ryzen 5 5600X and 16 GB DDR4 as of the February 2026 patch.
Best Elden Ring Settings for RTX 3060
Here are the optimized settings. Apply these and you should get a stable 55-60 FPS in most areas:
Resolution: 1920×1080
Screen Mode: Fullscreen
Quality Settings Preset: Custom
Texture Quality: High
Antialiasing Quality: Medium
SSAO: Medium
Depth of Field: Off
Motion Blur: Off
Shadow Quality: Medium
Lighting Quality: Medium
Effects Quality: Medium
Volumetric Quality: Low
Reflection Quality: Low
Water Surface Quality: Low
Shader Quality: Medium
Global Illumination Quality: Medium
Grass Quality: Medium
Ray Tracing: Off
Display Settings
Resolution: 1920×1080 is the sweet spot for the RTX 3060. Running at 1440p drops you to 40-45 FPS in demanding areas like Leyndell and Siofra River. If you want 1440p, you will need to lower additional settings or use DLSS.
Screen Mode: Fullscreen. Not borderless, not windowed. Exclusive fullscreen gives you the best frame times and allows NVIDIA Reflex to work properly.
Frame Rate: 60 FPS. Elden Ring is capped at 60 FPS. There is no way to run it higher without mods, and using uncapped FPS mods can cause physics bugs and potential online bans.
Graphics Settings Breakdown
Texture Quality: High. The RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM, which is more than enough for High textures. This is the one setting where going higher is essentially free on this GPU.
Antialiasing: Medium. High AA is very demanding in Elden Ring. Medium provides adequate smoothing without the 10-15% FPS cost of High.
SSAO: Medium. Screen-space ambient occlusion adds depth to the world. On Medium it looks 90% as good as High with significantly less GPU load.
Depth of Field: Off. DoF blurs the background to simulate camera focus. In a game where you need to see enemies approaching from all angles, this is a competitive disadvantage and a free FPS gain.
Motion Blur: Off. Motion blur obscures visual information during fast movements. Turning it off makes the game feel more responsive and gives you better visibility during combat rolls.
Shadow Quality: Medium. Shadows are one of the most demanding settings in Elden Ring. Medium still looks good and saves 10-15% FPS compared to High.
Lighting Quality: Medium. High lighting uses more advanced global illumination that tanks FPS in indoor areas. Medium is the best balance.
Volumetric Quality: Low. Volumetric effects (god rays, fog density) are extremely GPU-intensive in Elden Ring. Low still has atmospheric fog but without the severe FPS penalty.
Reflection Quality: Low. Reflections in Elden Ring are screen-space only and look mediocre even on High. Low saves FPS without a noticeable visual downgrade.
Ray Tracing: Off. RT in Elden Ring was added in a later patch and is extremely demanding. Even the RTX 4080 struggles with RT at 1080p/60. On an RTX 3060, keep it off entirely.
NVIDIA Control Panel Tweaks
Open NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Manage 3D Settings, and set these for Elden Ring:
Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering Quality: High Performance
Low Latency Mode: Ultra
Threaded Optimization: On
Shader Cache Size: 10 GB
These settings squeeze extra performance from your RTX 3060 by reducing driver overhead.
DLSS and FSR
Elden Ring does not natively support DLSS or FSR as of February 2026. However, there are community mods that add DLSS support. If you use one, set DLSS to Quality mode for the best balance of visual quality and performance at 1080p.
Note that using graphics mods in Elden Ring can trigger Easy Anti-Cheat. Play offline if you want to use DLSS mods safely.
Known Problem Areas
Even with optimized settings, certain areas in Elden Ring cause FPS drops on the RTX 3060:
Leyndell, Royal Capital: Dense geometry and particle effects. Expect 45-55 FPS in the busiest sections.
Siofra River: The water reflections and distant lighting cause 5-10 FPS drops.
Erdtree during cutscenes: The Erdtree particle effects are extremely demanding during story cutscenes.
Dragon boss fights: Multiple fire breath effects happening simultaneously can drop FPS to 45-50.
In these areas, temporarily lowering Effects Quality to Low can stabilize frame rates.
Windows Optimization
Game Mode: Enabled (Windows Settings then Gaming).
Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling: Enabled.
Power Plan: High Performance.
Background processes: Close browsers, Discord overlay, and Steam overlay before playing. Elden Ring is sensitive to background CPU usage.
FAQ
Can the RTX 3060 run Elden Ring at 1440p?
Yes, but you will need to lower settings to Medium-Low across the board and expect 40-55 FPS. For a consistent 60 FPS at 1440p, you need an RTX 3070 or better.
Why is my Elden Ring stuttering even with high FPS?
Elden Ring uses shader compilation during gameplay, which causes brief stutters when you encounter new effects for the first time. This improves over time as your shader cache builds up. You can pre-compile shaders in Steam: right-click Elden Ring, Properties, Installed Files, look for shader pre-caching options.
Should I use V-Sync in Elden Ring?
Since Elden Ring is capped at 60 FPS, V-Sync is less impactful than in other games. If you have screen tearing, enable it. If not, leave it off and use NVIDIA Reflex instead for lower input lag.
Does RAM speed matter for Elden Ring?
Moderately. Elden Ring benefits from dual-channel RAM running at 3200 MHz or higher. If you are using a single RAM stick or slow RAM, upgrading to dual-channel 3200 MHz DDR4 can improve both average FPS and 1% lows by 5-10%.
Is the RTX 3060 still good for gaming in 2026?
Yes. The RTX 3060 12GB handles 1080p/60 FPS in virtually every game with medium-to-high settings. Its 12 GB of VRAM is a significant advantage over the RTX 4060 8GB in games with high texture memory requirements like Elden Ring.
