Codemasters rarely disappoint and Dirt Rally 2.0 looks as if it's brought rally racing back with a bang. The more sim-like spin-off from the Dirt series provides a massive visual overhaul, a revamped campaign and content galore.
We've put together a Dirt Rally 2.0 PC performance guide to help you achieve the perfect balance between visual fidelity and high frame rates. We've benchmarked each and every one of Dirt Rally 2's 30 (thirty!) graphics options. Using the chart below, you can find out just how demanding each graphics option is in Dirt Rally 2.0. demonstrating the percentage drop in frame rates when turning the graphics setting from Low to Ultra. This can provide an at-a-glance look at which graphics settings affect the frame rate the most in DR2.
Together with this, we've given priority scores based on how important we believe it is to enable these graphics options for the optimum PC gaming experience with DR2.0.
Dirt Rally 2.0 System Requirements
For the benchmark results below we used a PNY GeForce RTX 2060 6GB XLR8, an Intel Core i7-5820K processor, and 16GB DDR4 memory. The tests were performed using the Hawke's Bay, New Zealand track, running repeated runs to gauge performance for each setting.
Dirt Rally 2.0 Graphics Options Performance Breakdown
The further right the bar goes, the more demanding the graphics option is. Down below the chart we've also provided priority ratings. Graphics settings with high priority and low performance impact are recommended to enable first. Those with low priority are deemed luxury graphics options.
What are the most demanding graphics options in Dirt Rally 2?
Somewhat unsurprisingly, MSAA (Multisample Anti-aliasing) is the single most demanding graphics setting. This is a high-intensity form of AA that sharpens image quality at the expensive of a significant performance drop. This option should be viewed as a luxury if you have excess performance in Dirt Rally 2.0.
What did take us aback during our testing though was the frame rate impact of Motion Blur. This divisive graphics setting adds blur to moving objects, which in a racing game like Dirt Rally 2 means just about everything. Motion Blur usually carries a negligible performance impact but in Dirt Rally 2.0 testing it dropped the frame rate 12.1%. That's almost unheard of for Motion Blur and we would highly recommend you disable it.
The other big standout is Ground Cover, a setting which causes one of the biggest frame rate drops in Dirt Rally 2. Unfortunately, this is also one of the best settings to enable visually, adding shrubbery and bushes around the track that introduces a ton more depth to the environments. We'd suggest a middle ground such as Normal or High for Ground Cover if you need a few extra frames.
Dirt Rally 2.0 Graphics Settings Priority
Multisampling
Performance Impact - 5/5
Priority - 2/5
Anisotropic Filtering
Performance Impact - 2/5
Priority - 3/5
TAA
Performance Impact - 4/5
Priority - 4/5
Shader Detail
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 5/5
Texture Detail
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 3/5
Reflections
Performance Impact - 4/5
Priority - 3/5
Screen Space Reflections
Performance Impact - 4/5
Priority - 4/5
Shadows
Performance Impact - 3/5
Priority - 4/5
Night Lighting
Performance Impact - 1/5
Priority - 2/5
Ambient Occlusion
Performance Impact - 4/5
Priority - 3/5
Advanced Ambient Occlusion
Performance Impact - 2/5
Priority - 2/5
Particles
Performance Impact - 3/5
Priority - 2/5
Advanced Blending
Performance Impact - 1/5
Priority - 4/5
Weather
Performance Impact - 3/5
Priority - 3/5
Crowd
Performance Impact - 1/5
Priority - 3/5
Cloth
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 1/5
Mirrors
Performance Impact - 1/5
Priority - 3/5
Vehicle Details
Performance Impact - 2/5
Priority - 4/5
Track
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 2/5
Object
Performance Impact - 1/5
Priority - 3/5
Trees
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 4/5
Ground Cover
Performance Impact - 5/5
Priority - 5/5
Skidmarks
Performance Impact - 3/5
Priority - 3/5
Motion Blur
Performance Impact - 4/5
Priority - 1/5
God Rays
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 3/5
Chromatic Aberration
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 1/5
Bloom
Performance Impact - /5
Priority - /5
Lens Flares
Performance Impact - 1/5
Priority - 1/5
Light Streaks
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 1/5
Lens Dust
Performance Impact - 0/5
Priority - 1/5
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PC Specs
hopefully the F1 Team at codies deliver a bump in visual performance similar to this as well.
PC Specs
Crowd is demanding on Dirt Rally but yeah they're not much frequent
PC Specs
Jealous, looks like it runs alright. Hopefully the multiplayer is good.
PC Specs
I'll have benchmarks up today but yeah runs pretty great. 73fps on 1440p High with the 2060, I reckon you can get 60fps at Ultra no problem
PC Specs
Amazing job guys, I will definitely follow this guid when I get the game next week. Its going to save me a lot of time. How did you even play it this early? Review copy?
PC Specs
Thanks! Have to say it runs pretty great. You can get the visuals ridiculously low as well so should run anything. I was getting 200+ FPS at 4K on lowest settings with the 2060. Looks garbage but it's nice that it's possible.
And yeah got sent over a copy today. I am also trying to think of a way to integrate impact and priority on a single chart but it's really hard to do in a way that makes sense :/
PC Specs
When motion blur affects performance XD
PC Specs
Lol, one more reason to turn that thing off xD.
PC Specs
True.
PC Specs
while i agree with this, object motion blur is actually good :) but many games use just motion blur for camera movement which is cancer
PC Specs
camera and your own character and it's too much and blurs when it shouldn't and screws over visibility when it shouldn't... Like outside of racer games, where motion blur is actually a quite nice effect adding somewhat a realistic feeling and look to the cars, otherwise they look odd, I never bother with motion blur.
PC Specs
Yeah I've never really seen this happen before, it's odd