Icarus graphics settings for the GeForce RTX 3060 and similar cards

Icarus FPS on the GeForce RTX 3060: resolutions × presets

Heat map: the greener the cell, the bigger the FPS headroom. Green — 60+ FPS, yellow — 45–59, orange — 30–44, red — below 30.

● — real measurement; the rest is the FPSHQ model estimate without a CPU bottleneck.

FPS ruler: presets at 1080p

Mid-range: graphics cards and preset for 60 FPS in Icarus

The class includes models with an FPSHQ Bench Score from 2,200 to 3,999; below are the most searched ones.

DLSS, FSR and XeSS in Icarus: DLSS

The game supports: DLSS. The calculation uses FPSHQ model general upscaling factors (Quality ×1.35, Balanced ×1.55, Performance ×1.85) — not a measurement in this game. Resolution 1080p, High preset. The multipliers apply to the graphics card limit: the final FPS is capped by the CPU (the reference test-bench CPU) and the game's frame cap.

DLSS works only on NVIDIA RTX cards; FSR and XeSS work on cards from any vendor. Frame generation is not included.

What to lower first on the GeForce RTX 3060

On mid-range cards it is usually enough to lower one or two heavy settings from max to hold 60 FPS on high at 1080p.

1. Volumetric effects (fog, clouds, light) big FPS impact
   Volumetric fog and clouds are computed every frame; dropping them from max to medium usually gives a solid gain with little visual difference.
2. Shadow quality and distance big FPS impact
   Shadow map resolution and draw distance are among the most expensive raster settings, especially in open worlds. Medium is a sensible compromise.
3. Reflections (SSR) noticeable impact
   High-quality screen-space reflections noticeably load the GPU; on medium the difference shows mostly on water and glossy surfaces.
4. Ambient occlusion noticeable impact
   Adds depth to the scene. Heavy variants (HBAO+, RTAO) can be swapped for simpler SSAO.
5. Draw distance and level of detail noticeable impact
   Affects both the GPU and the CPU (more objects per frame). If you are CPU-bound, start here and with crowd/foliage density.
6. Anti-aliasing noticeable impact
   MSAA and supersampling are very heavy; TAA or the upscaler's anti-aliasing (DLAA/FSR Native AA) give a comparable image for less.
7. Texture quality depends on VRAM
   Barely affects FPS as long as VRAM is sufficient; when VRAM runs out you get stutters and texture pop-in. GeForce RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM — you can max out textures, it costs almost no FPS.
8. Post-processing (motion blur, depth of field, film grain) almost no impact
   Cheap in FPS and mostly a matter of taste; motion blur is often turned off for clarity.
9. Anisotropic filtering almost no impact
   Almost free on modern GPUs — keep it at 8x–16x.

These are general rules for most games: the exact impact of each setting depends on the engine and the scene. FPS numbers on this page are FPSHQ unified model estimates for whole presets.

Icarus: GPU classes compared (1080p, high)