Many professionals play first-person shooters on low settings and consciously forgo graphical splendor. MeinMMO explains to you why this is the case and why you should try it too.
Grass gently swaying in the wind, powerful explosions or detailed faces that look almost lifelike: All of this looks great to us, and many users can’t get enough of it. For some gamers, the rule is: the prettier the game, the better, and many are looking forward to the most beautiful upcoming MMORPGs.
But most professionals do without all these fine details that many games have to offer. At least when it comes to shooters. But why do many consciously forgo this and prefer to play on low settings? MeinMMO explains what lies behind it.
Graphical highlights only distract professionals
Why do professionals forgo pretty graphics? For professionals, these graphical details provide no advantage and also have no practical value. Grass can block the view, and a low visibility range makes it so that professionals see opponents much later.
Professionals primarily focus on high performance and a stable frame rate. Because a high frame rate is particularly important in games where you need to react quickly to opponents.
Why is frame rate so important? The higher your frame rate, the faster you can see your opponent and the smoother the game feels. You can see how significant this effect is in the following YouTube video:
You feel the difference most between 60 and 144 FPS. While movements at 60 FPS look almost choppy, movements at 144 FPS appear much smoother and less mechanical. And you can hit opponents much better. However, if you want to benefit from high frame rates, you also need a good, high-performance monitor that can display high frame rates.
If you want high frame rates on the PS5 or Xbox Series X, you’ll need to pay attention to some important features when buying a TV.
A YouTuber tested how much high frame rates matter for gaming with some professionals. The result is quite clear:
What else plays a role? In shooters, hitboxes matter. These are the areas you must hit on the opponent to deal damage. Hitboxes remain the same at high and low settings.
Powerful explosions or other graphical effects can, however, obscure the hitboxes so that you see the opponent much too late. Many professionals therefore forgo pretty graphical effects.
- Former Overwatch professional Seagull now plays Apex Legends and avoids many settings or sets them to an absolute minimum in his settings (via prosettings.com).
- CS:GO professional “Device” also leaves out many settings, avoiding anti-aliasing or high-resolution shadows (via prosettings.com).
- The well-known CoD player Nickmercs also avoids extensive shadow rendering or post-processing effects in his settings (via prosettings.com).
Do all professionals play on low details? No, there are also streamers who play with full details. For example, the well-known Twitch streamer Ninja plays Apex Legends at maximum details (via prosettings.com).
High graphics settings provide no gameplay advantage
What does pretty graphics bring? If you play a competitive game like a fast first-person shooter, pretty graphics provide you no advantage over your opponents. Powerful explosions or nice representations serve only aesthetics and offer you no gameplay advantage.
In fact, in the worst case, it is usually the opposite: If you play on maximum settings, your frame rate may drop depending on your hardware. And then you have disadvantages compared to users who can play with a significantly higher frame rate.
Therefore, always check how smoothly your game runs when playing. A good indicator can be the minimum requirements of the game. If you want to get more FPS out of your game, it’s always worth adjusting graphics settings.
If you already have a good gaming monitor and have maximized your graphics settings, you can also provide yourself with new equipment elsewhere. For example, you can check our recommendations for gaming mice. Here we recommend a suitable gaming mouse for every type of player:
