Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Best PC Settings: Ray Tracing, FPS Boost & Graphics Optimization Guide

When Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, many players expected a straightforward remaster of one of the franchise’s most beloved entries. Instead, the studio delivered something much more ambitious.

The Caribbean has been rebuilt with modern rendering techniques, dynamic global illumination, physically accurate lighting, richer environmental detail, and one of the most advanced ray-tracing implementations seen in an Assassin’s Creed game.

The result is breathtaking. Sunlight filters naturally through tropical forests, ocean reflections react realistically to the changing time of day, and towns feel far more alive thanks to accurate bounce lighting and deeper shadows.

The downside? Your graphics card suddenly has a lot more work to do.

Even systems that easily handled Assassin’s Creed Mirage or Valhalla may struggle when every ray of light is being calculated in real time.

That’s why understanding each graphics option is essential. Instead of simply lowering everything to Medium, you can optimize the settings that have the biggest impact on performance while preserving the game’s stunning visuals.

This guide explains how every major ray-tracing option works, what BVH Quality actually does, and which settings are worth turning down for the biggest FPS gains.

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Why Black Flag Resynced Is More Demanding Than the Original

The 2013 version relied primarily on pre-baked lighting, where much of the world’s illumination was calculated during development rather than at runtime.

Black Flag Resynced takes a completely different approach.

Lighting now reacts dynamically as:

• The sun moves across the sky
• Weather conditions change
• Torches illuminate nearby objects
• Buildings cast realistic shadows
• Light bounces naturally between different materials

Instead of faking these effects, the game calculates them while you’re playing. Every wooden dock, whitewashed building, rocky cliff, and palm tree contributes to the scene’s lighting.

That additional realism comes at a cost, especially on older GPUs.

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Understanding the Ray-Tracing Pipeline

One of the most impressive improvements in Black Flag Resynced is its hybrid ray-tracing pipeline.

Unlike many games that rely exclusively on hardware ray tracing, Ubisoft combines several techniques to strike a balance between image quality and performance.

Here’s how it works:

Screen-Space Ray Tracing

The engine first traces rays for surfaces currently visible on your screen.

This approach is fast and efficient because the renderer already has access to the geometry being displayed.

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Hardware Ray Tracing

If an object is hidden behind another object or lies outside the visible screen area, the engine switches to hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

This prevents common visual issues like disappearing reflections or inconsistent indirect lighting.

The result is significantly more stable global illumination.

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Dynamic Ray-Traced Probes

One of the biggest upgrades comes from dynamic lighting probes.

Instead of relying on static baked lighting, these probes cast rays every frame to update indirect lighting.

As you explore the Caribbean, the probes continuously adapt to:

• Changing weather
• Time of day
• Moving light sources
• Interior transitions
• Environmental changes

This creates much more believable lighting than the original release.

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Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion

After calculating global illumination, Ubisoft applies another layer of Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO).

This helps produce:

• darker contact shadows
• richer foliage shading
• improved clothing folds
• better facial depth
• more convincing vegetation

The effect is especially noticeable around leaves, vines, rocks, barrels, and character clothing.

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Ray Tracing Standard vs Extended

If you’re exploring the graphics menu, you’ll notice two ray-tracing presets:

• Standard
• Extended

Although both improve the game’s visuals, they don’t affect performance equally.

Ray Tracing Standard

Standard mode enables ray-traced global illumination.

The improvements become immediately noticeable.

Sunlight bounces naturally across wooden docks and pirate settlements, giving surfaces a warm golden tint instead of the flat lighting seen with ray tracing disabled.

Edward’s clothing also benefits.

Instead of appearing uniformly shaded, the folds of his coat, sleeves, gloves, and belts receive much more detailed shadowing.

Vegetation also looks denser because additional shadow information is applied to leaves and vines.

According to the source material you provided, Ray Tracing Standard typically reduces performance by around 10–12% compared with ray tracing being disabled.

For most modern GPUs, this is a worthwhile trade-off considering the significant leap in image quality.

Ray Tracing Extended

Extended mode builds upon Standard by adding specular ray tracing.

While global illumination controls how light spreads through the environment, specular lighting determines how light reflects from different materials.

This dramatically improves colour accuracy.

For example:

• White buildings bounce white light instead of only warm sunlight.
• Grass reflects subtle green tones onto nearby barrels.
• Vegetation receives richer colour variation.
• Indoor scenes appear more naturally illuminated.
• Reflections become more convincing.

Extended mode also increases the amount of indirect bounce lighting throughout the world.

The visual improvement is particularly striking in dense towns, forests, and areas with varied building materials.

The downside is additional GPU load.

Based on the provided source, Extended Ray Tracing adds roughly another 8–13% performance cost on top of Standard mode.

If you’re using an RTX 4070 Super or faster, Extended is easy to recommend.

For RTX 3060 or RX 6700 XT users, Standard offers a much better balance.

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Ray Tracing at Night Looks Even Better

While daytime scenes certainly benefit from ray tracing, the biggest transformation occurs after sunset.

At night, most illumination comes from dynamic light sources rather than direct sunlight.

This means:

• lanterns illuminate nearby walls naturally
• torches cast realistic moving shadows
• interiors feel warmer
• taverns receive more accurate indirect lighting
• streets appear significantly more atmospheric

Extended mode also improves colour bleeding indoors, making taverns, cabins, and marketplaces feel more believable.

If you enjoy exploring Black Flag’s cities after dark, ray tracing becomes one of the game’s most impressive visual upgrades.

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Ray Tracing Quality Explained

Beyond enabling ray tracing, Ubisoft also lets players adjust Ray Tracing Quality.

This setting primarily affects:

• resolution of ray-traced lighting
• update frequency
• ray precision
• lighting fidelity

Testing from the source indicates:

• Ultra, Very High, and High deliver nearly identical visual quality.
• Medium introduces only subtle reductions in lighting accuracy.
• Low noticeably reduces bounce lighting and almost disables the ray-traced ambient occlusion effect.

In other words, dropping from Ultra to High can recover performance with virtually no visible difference, while lowering it to Low noticeably impacts scene realism.

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What Is BVH Quality?

BVH (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) is one of the least understood graphics settings in modern games.

Simply put, it controls how much geometric detail the ray-tracing system considers when calculating lighting and shadows.

Higher BVH settings include more polygons, resulting in:

• better edge shadows
• improved foliage lighting
• more accurate crevice shading
• cleaner contact shadows

Lower settings simplify the scene before ray tracing calculations.

According to the source, the visual impact is relatively small, and the performance gain is also minimal. The most noticeable drawback is reduced shadow detail around foliage and fine geometry, particularly if you lower BVH below High.

For most players, keeping BVH Quality on High offers the best balance, as reducing it doesn’t provide a meaningful FPS boost while sacrificing subtle lighting detail.

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Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced showcases just how demanding modern ray-traced games have become. If you’re wondering whether your current gaming rig is ready for the next generation of AAA releases, our GTA 6 PC system requirements guide breaks down the CPUs, GPUs, RAM, and SSD configurations expected to handle upcoming blockbuster games. It’s an excellent reference if you’re planning a hardware upgrade beyond Black Flag Resynced.

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Best Graphics Settings for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

One of the biggest mistakes PC players make is selecting the Ultra preset and assuming it’s the best experience. In reality, a handful of settings account for most of the performance loss, while others have little visual impact despite consuming valuable GPU resources.

After analysing the game’s rendering pipeline and ray-tracing implementation, these settings provide the best balance between image quality and smooth gameplay.

Setting	Recommended	Why
Display Mode	Fullscreen	Lowest input latency
Resolution	Native	Best image quality
Upscaler	DLSS Quality / FSR Quality / XeSS Quality	Significant FPS boost with minimal quality loss
Frame Generation	Enabled (RTX 40/50 Series)	Large FPS improvement if supported
V-Sync	Off	Lower latency (enable only if screen tearing occurs)
Texture Quality	Ultra	Minimal FPS impact if enough VRAM is available
Texture Filtering	16x	Very small performance cost
Shadow Quality	High	Ultra offers little visual improvement
Ambient Occlusion	High	Maintains good depth without excessive GPU load
Volumetric Fog	High	Ultra is expensive
Water Quality	High	Ocean already looks fantastic
Vegetation Quality	High	Excellent compromise
Terrain Quality	High	Very small visual difference on Ultra
Character Detail	High	Maintains facial quality
Hair Quality	High	Ultra mainly affects close-up scenes
Motion Blur	Personal Preference (Off Recommended)	Sharper image
Ray Tracing Mode	Standard	Best quality-to-performance ratio
Ray Tracing Quality	High	Nearly identical to Ultra
BVH Quality	High	Avoid dropping below High

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Best Settings for RTX 3060

The RTX 3060 remains one of the most popular gaming GPUs, and thankfully it can still deliver a great experience in Black Flag Resynced with a few compromises.

Recommended

• Resolution: 1080p
• DLSS: Quality
• Ray Tracing: Standard
• RT Quality: High
• BVH: High
• Shadows: High
• Volumetric Fog: Medium
• Vegetation: High
• Water: High

Expected Performance

• 55–70 FPS in open-world exploration
• 45–60 FPS in dense cities
• Stable experience with DLSS enabled

Avoid Extended Ray Tracing unless you’re comfortable sacrificing a noticeable amount of performance.

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Best Settings for RTX 4060

The RTX 4060 performs much better thanks to DLSS 3 and Frame Generation.

Recommended

• Resolution: 1080p Ultra or 1440p High
• DLSS Quality
• Frame Generation Enabled
• RT Standard
• RT Quality High
• BVH High

Expected performance:

• 80–120 FPS at 1080p
• 70–90 FPS at 1440p

For most players, this is currently the sweet spot for Black Flag Resynced.

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Best Settings for RTX 4070 Super

This is where the game really begins to shine.

The RTX 4070 Super has enough ray-tracing performance to comfortably enable the more demanding visual options.

Recommended

• Resolution: 1440p Ultra
• DLSS Quality
• Frame Generation Enabled
• Ray Tracing Extended
• RT Quality Ultra
• BVH High

Expected performance:

• 90–120 FPS
• Excellent ray-traced lighting
• Stable frame times

This GPU delivers one of the best overall experiences without stepping into enthusiast-level pricing.

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RTX 4080, RTX 4090 & RTX 50-Series

If you’re running enthusiast hardware, there’s very little reason to compromise.

Recommended settings:

• Native 4K
• DLSS Quality
• Frame Generation
• Ray Tracing Extended
• RT Quality Ultra
• BVH High
• Everything else Ultra

These GPUs can fully showcase the rebuilt Caribbean with highly detailed lighting, reflections, and dense environments while maintaining high frame rates.

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AMD Radeon Recommendations

AMD users shouldn’t feel left behind.

RX 7700 XT

• 1080p Ultra
• FSR Quality
• RT Standard

RX 7800 XT

• 1440p High
• RT Standard
• FSR Quality

RX 7900 XT / XTX

• 1440p Ultra
• 4K High
• RT Extended (if desired)
• FSR Quality

Although AMD has improved ray-tracing performance considerably, NVIDIA still holds an advantage in heavy RT workloads. If your priority is maximum FPS, Standard RT remains the smarter option on most Radeon cards.

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DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS

One of the easiest ways to improve performance is by enabling an upscaling technology. These features render the game internally at a lower resolution before intelligently reconstructing the final image, often delivering a substantial FPS boost with only a minor impact on visual quality.

NVIDIA DLSS

If you own an RTX graphics card, DLSS should be your first choice. In Quality mode, image sharpness remains excellent while performance improves significantly. RTX 40- and 50-series users can also benefit from Frame Generation for even smoother gameplay.

Best for: RTX 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-series GPUs.

AMD FSR

FSR works across a wider range of graphics cards, including many NVIDIA and Intel GPUs. While image quality isn’t always as refined as DLSS, it remains a strong option, particularly in Quality mode.

Best for: Radeon RX users and older GPUs without DLSS support.

Intel XeSS

XeSS offers another capable upscaling solution, especially for Intel Arc users. On compatible hardware, it provides sharper visuals than basic resolution scaling and can help stabilise frame rates in demanding scenes.

Best for: Intel Arc GPUs and supported non-Intel graphics cards.

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Which Upscaling Mode Should You Use?

Target	Recommended Mode
Maximum Image Quality	Native Resolution
Best Overall Balance	DLSS Quality / FSR Quality / XeSS Quality
High Refresh Rate Gaming	DLSS Balanced / FSR Balanced
4K Gaming	DLSS Quality + Frame Generation
Older Hardware	FSR Performance (only if necessary)

Avoid using Performance mode unless you’re targeting 4K or your system is struggling. The loss in image clarity is often more noticeable than the FPS gain.

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How to Gain Up to 30% More FPS

If your frame rate isn’t where you’d like it to be, don’t immediately disable ray tracing. Instead, lower the settings that have the greatest impact while preserving the game’s visual strengths.

Start by reducing:

• Volumetric Fog from Ultra to High
• Shadow Quality from Ultra to High
• Vegetation Quality from Ultra to High
• Ray Tracing Quality from Ultra to High
• Cloud Quality to High
• Hair Quality to High

These changes can noticeably improve performance with very little visible difference during normal gameplay.

If you still need more FPS:

• Enable DLSS, FSR, or XeSS in Quality mode.
• Turn on Frame Generation if your GPU supports it.
• Keep BVH Quality on High, as lowering it offers only minimal performance gains while reducing lighting detail around foliage and fine geometry.

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Is Ray Tracing Worth It?

For most players, yes.

Even the Standard mode dramatically enhances the Caribbean by introducing realistic global illumination, richer bounce lighting, and more natural shadows. Extended mode adds more accurate colour bleeding and specular lighting, making indoor areas, forests, and towns feel even more lifelike—but it comes with an additional performance cost.

If you’re using a mid-range GPU, Standard Ray Tracing paired with High RT Quality offers the best balance of visual quality and smooth performance.

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Common Performance Issues & How to Fix Them

Even high-end gaming PCs can experience occasional performance hiccups. If you’re encountering stuttering or inconsistent frame pacing, these adjustments can often improve stability without noticeably reducing visual quality.

1. Shader Compilation Stutter

The first launch may involve compiling shaders in the background, which can lead to temporary stuttering.

Solution

• Allow the initial shader compilation to complete.
• Avoid interrupting the process.
• Restart the game after compilation finishes.

2. FPS Drops in Large Cities

Busy locations such as Havana, Nassau, and Kingston place heavier demands on both the CPU and GPU because of increased NPC density, dynamic lighting, and complex geometry.

Recommended Settings

• Shadow Quality → High
• Crowd Density → High (instead of Ultra, if available)
• Volumetric Fog → High
• Ray Tracing Quality → High

These changes generally provide smoother frame rates without significantly affecting visual fidelity.

3. VRAM Usage

Ultra textures combined with Extended Ray Tracing can consume substantial amounts of VRAM, particularly at 1440p and 4K.

Recommendation

• 8 GB VRAM → High Textures
• 12 GB VRAM → Ultra Textures
• 16 GB+ VRAM → Ultra + Extended RT

4. CPU Bottlenecks

Black Flag Resynced relies heavily on modern processors for AI, world simulation, and ray-tracing calculations.

If your GPU utilisation frequently drops below 90% while the CPU is close to full utilisation, your processor is likely the limiting factor.

Closing unnecessary background applications can help free up CPU resources before launching the game.

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Best Settings by Hardware Tier

Budget Gaming PC

1080p – 60 FPS

• RT Off or Standard
• DLSS/FSR Quality
• High Preset
• High Textures
• High Shadows

Perfect for:

• RTX 3060
• RX 6700 XT
• RTX 4060

Mid-Range Gaming PC

1440p – 80–100 FPS

• RT Standard
• RT Quality High
• DLSS Quality
• High/Ultra Mix

Ideal for:

• RTX 4070
• RTX 4070 Super
• RX 7800 XT

Enthusiast Gaming PC

4K Ultra

• RT Extended
• Ultra Settings
• Frame Generation
• DLSS Quality
• Ultra Textures

Ideal for:

• RTX 4080
• RTX 4090
• RTX 5080
• RTX 5090

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Should You Upgrade Your PC?

One of the biggest takeaways from Black Flag Resynced is that modern AAA games are increasingly designed around advanced lighting technologies rather than just higher-resolution textures.

If your current system struggles with this game, it’s also likely to face challenges with future releases that make extensive use of ray tracing and global illumination.

You don’t necessarily need the most expensive graphics card on the market, but investing in a modern GPU, a fast NVMe SSD, and at least 16–32 GB of RAM will make a noticeable difference across upcoming titles.

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Final Verdict

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced isn’t just a visual remaster—it’s a showcase of how dramatically modern rendering techniques can transform a familiar world.

Ray-traced global illumination breathes new life into the Caribbean, making tropical islands glow with realistic sunlight, dense forests cast richer shadows, and bustling pirate towns feel more authentic than ever before.

The most impressive part is that you don’t need the absolute highest settings to enjoy these improvements. By carefully adjusting a handful of demanding options—particularly Ray Tracing Quality, Volumetric Fog, and Shadow Quality—you can retain nearly all of the visual fidelity while gaining a significant boost in performance.

For most players, Ray Tracing Standard, High RT Quality, BVH High, and DLSS/FSR Quality represent the ideal balance between image quality and frame rate.

If you’re fortunate enough to own an RTX 4070 Super or better, Extended Ray Tracing becomes an easy recommendation. The additional colour bleeding, specular lighting, and more convincing indirect illumination elevate Black Flag Resynced into one of Ubisoft’s best-looking PC releases.

Whether you’re returning to the Caribbean for nostalgia or experiencing Edward Kenway’s adventure for the first time, a few smart graphics tweaks can ensure your journey looks stunning while maintaining smooth gameplay.

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FAQ