Controls the complexity and precision of surface materials and shaders.
FPS
Medium
Visual
High
VRAM
Low
CPU
Very low
Latency
None
What it does
Controls the complexity and precision of surface materials and shaders. It may bundle reflections, subsurface effects and shader features.
Games may also call it: Materials, Material Detail, Material Complexity
Decision guide
Lower it when
Lower it after the biggest settings are tuned and you still need a little more headroom.
Keep it high when
Keep it high when the visual difference is obvious and the target frame time already has enough headroom.
Handheld advice
Treat this as a secondary handheld tweak after resolution, upscaling, shadows and heavy lighting are under control.
Restart
Usually not required
Some games still apply changes only after reloading a scene or restarting.
Do not overread the meter
It may bundle reflections, subsurface effects and shader features. This score is an editorial cross-game estimate, not a measured result for every engine.