Cities Skylines Settings For Low End Pc Better ›
If you are playing on PC, the Steam Workshop is your best friend. You need these mods to play on a low-end machine. (Note: These require the "Hard Mode" mod to be active to change settings, or specific UI mods).
Cities: Skylines on a low-end PC is playable if you manage expectations. Expect 20-30 FPS in a new city, dropping to 15-20 FPS at 40k population. Avoid ultra-high resolutions, never use dynamic weather, and always play in fullscreen. The FPS Booster mod is non-negotiable – it alone can double your framerate on integrated graphics like Intel HD 620 or AMD Vega 3.
Would you like a list of specific low-spec city plans (e.g., grid-only, no props) to further reduce lag?
✅ Graphics: All shadows off, resolution 720p, LOD low, anti-aliasing off.
✅ Mods: FPS Booster + Loading Screen Mod + Toggle It! (disable weather).
✅ Launch options: -force-d3d9 -noWorkshop
✅ Priority: High in Task Manager.
✅ Background: Close browsers, set power plan to High Performance.
✅ Population cap: Stay under 50k for smooth play.
For low-end PCs, Cities: Skylines is primarily memory- and fillrate-bound. The optimal configuration reduces resolution, disables shadows and ambient occlusion, and forces DX9. A playable experience (25+ FPS) is achievable even on 2015-era integrated graphics, provided city population remains below 50,000 and no DLCs (e.g., Green Cities, Sunset Harbor) are active. Upgrading to 16 GB RAM or adding any discrete GPU (even a GT 1030) yields larger gains than any software setting.
Final recommendation: 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.
End of paper.
To play Cities: Skylines on a low-end PC, lower your resolution to 1080p or 720p and disable heavy visual effects like shadows and tilt-shift.
The optimal settings to boost your framerate vary slightly depending on whether you are playing the original game or its sequel. 🌆 Cities: Skylines (Original)
The original game is highly CPU-dependent and heavily relies on your RAM.
Resolution: Set to 1080p or match your monitor's native resolution (lower to 720p if your frame rate is very low).
Shadow Quality: Set to Disabled or Low (this is the biggest GPU performance killer). Shadow Distance: Set to Short.
Texture Quality: Set to Medium or Low (reduces RAM and VRAM strain). Level of Detail (LOD): Set to Low. Anti-Aliasing: Set to Disabled. Anisotropic Filtering: Set to Disabled. Film Grain & Tilt Shift: Set to Disabled.
💡 Pro-Tip: Download the Loading Screen Mod from the Steam Workshop. It drastically optimizes system RAM usage and speeds up load times on older machines. 🏙️ Cities: Skylines II
The sequel is notoriously demanding on both the GPU and CPU. Turning off specific advanced lighting mechanics will yield massive performance gains. Resolution: Keep strictly at 1920 x 1080 or lower. cities skylines settings for low end pc better
Virtual Texturing: Let the game finish processing this on the main menu before playing. Depth of Field Mode: Set to Disabled.
Volumetrics Quality: Set to Disabled (this gives a massive FPS boost). Global Illumination: Set to Disabled or Low. Motion Blur: Set to Disabled. Level of Detail (LOD): Set to Very Low or Low.
Dynamic Resolution Scale Quality: Set to Disabled (Automatic can cause heavy, nauseating blurring). ⚙️ Windows System Tweaks Ensure your computer is giving the game its full attention:
Performance Tuning Guide - Cities Skylines - Steam Community
To optimize Cities: Skylines for a low-end PC, you must prioritize reducing the load on your CPU and RAM, as these are the primary bottlenecks for the game's simulation and asset management. Essential Graphics Settings
Adjusting these settings can significantly boost FPS and reduce stuttering on older hardware.
Shadows: Disable completely or set to "Low." Shadows are extremely taxing and often provide the single largest performance gain when turned off.
Level of Detail (LOD): Set to "Low" or "Very Low." This reduces the complexity of distant objects, lowering the strain on your GPU.
Resolution: Downscale your resolution (e.g., from 1080p to 720p) if you are still struggling. While the game will look blurrier, it will run much smoother.
VSync: Disable this to avoid input lag and unnecessary performance caps.
Depth of Field & Motion Blur: Set both to "Disabled." These effects are often visually disruptive at low frame rates and consume extra processing power.
Texture Quality: Keep this at "Medium" if possible. Lowering it further often yields negligible FPS gains but makes the game look significantly worse.
Anti-Aliasing: Set to "Disabled" or "Low (SMAA)." SMAA has a low impact on frames compared to other methods. Performance-Boosting Mods
Mods are often better at optimizing the game than the internal settings menu. If you are playing on PC, the Steam
Cities: Skylines running smoothly on a low-end PC, you should focus on
disabling high-impact post-processing effects and lowering shadow settings . These are generally the biggest "frame killers". Core Graphics Settings
For the best performance boost, adjust these in-game settings: . This can provide up to a 15% increase in FPS. Depth of Field
. This is a major resource drain and disabling it can significantly boost frame rates. Volumetrics Quality
. This affects cloud and fog rendering and is often one of the heaviest settings on the GPU. Level of Detail (LOD)
. This controls how many objects are rendered at a distance, heavily reducing the load on your graphics processor. Texture Quality : Set based on your VRAM— if you have less than 2GB, for 2GB, and only if you have 3GB or more. Anti-aliasing to reduce jagged edges without a massive performance hit. Cities Skylines - Best Settings for Low-End PC
Running Cities: Skylines (CS1) or Cities: Skylines II (CS2) on a low-end PC requires aggressive optimization, as these games are notoriously heavy on both RAM and CPU. The most effective way to gain FPS is to disable visual effects that don't impact the simulation itself. 🛠️ Essential In-Game Graphics Settings
The following settings provide the highest performance boost when lowered or disabled. High Impact (Turn OFF or LOW)
Depth of Field: Disable completely. This is purely cinematic and very taxing.
Shadows: Set to "Low" or "Disabled". Shadows are often the biggest GPU hog.
Volumetrics (CS2): Set to "Disabled". This controls clouds and fog, which can tank your FPS.
Dynamic Resolution: Set to "Constant" or "Disabled". While it saves FPS, it often makes the game look excessively blurry. Global Illumination: Set to "Low" or "Disabled". ⚖️ Moderate Impact (Tweaking)
Level of Detail (LOD): Set to "Low". This reduces the quality of distant objects but keeps the simulation running smoother.
Anti-Aliasing: Use "Low SMAA" or "FXAA". Avoid TAA as it can add blur on low-end hardware. ✅ Graphics: All shadows off, resolution 720p, LOD
Resolution: Drop to 1920x1080 or even 1280x720 if you are on an integrated GPU. 🏗️ Technical Fixes for Performance
Beyond graphics, these technical adjustments help manage the heavy simulation load.
Increase Page File (Virtual Memory):This game "eats" RAM. If you have 8GB or less, manually set your Windows Page File to 16,384MB or 32,768MB to prevent crashes during loading.
Launch Options (Steam):Right-click the game > Properties > Launch Options. Add:
-force-d3d9: Forces the game to run on DirectX 9, which can be faster for very old GPUs.
-noLog: Disables the log file, saving a tiny bit of processing power on older machines.
High Performance Mode:Ensure Windows is set to use your GPU for the game. Search "Graphics Settings" in Windows and set Cities.exe to "High Performance". 📦 Essential Optimization Mods (CS1)
If you are playing the original Cities: Skylines, these mods are non-negotiable for low-end builds:
Performance Tuning Guide - Cities Skylines - Steam Community
If the game still lags, force lower settings via your graphics driver.
For Nvidia Users:
For AMD Users:
This is the secret weapon most players don't know about. You can force the game engine (Unity) to use less memory and fewer cores in a smarter way.
How to do it: Right-click Cities: Skylines in Steam > Properties > Launch Options. Paste this:
-noWorkshop -disableMods -force-d3d9
Alternative for slightly newer PCs:
-window-mode exclusive -screen-width 1280 -screen-height 720
This forces the game to boot directly into low resolution fullscreen.