How to get higher FPS on Apex Legends and avoid 144 FPS cap on PC

In any first-person shooter, frames per second (FPS) are crucial and this is also true for Apex Legends. High FPS and avoiding the 144 cap on PC can greatly improve your experience. Here’s everything you need to know about getting higher FPS in Apex Legends.

If you’re playing Apex Legends on PC, you may notice your FPS is capped at 144, despite most PCs being capable of higher performance. Many modern mid-to-high-end GPUs are capable of running the game with much higher than 144 FPS, even with moderate settings.

If you’re on console, you are limited to 60 FPS, so you don’t need to worry about this issue at all – although you might want to consider switching to PC for this reason.

Thankfully, the PC FPS issue can be taken care of on both Steam and EA App. Here’s everything you need to know about how to avoid the 144 FPS cap on PC for Apex Legends.

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Contents

• Avoid the FPS cap in Apex Legends without V-Sync
• Graphic settings to maintain max FPS in Apex Legends
• Discord optimization
• PC Requirements for higher FPS

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 Avoid FPS cap in Apex Legends

To make sure you have no FPS cap in Apex Legends, you need to add a command line to Apex Legends’ launch options in Steam and EA App.

1. Close Apex Legends if it’s open
2. Open the EA App or Steam.
3. Go to your Game Library and right-click on Apex Legends
   
4. Click the ‘Game Properties’ option on EA APP.
   • If on Steam, choose ‘Properties’.
     
5. Navigate to Advanced Launch Options (EA App)/General (Steam) tab.
6. Under Command line arguments (EA App) or Launch Options (Steam), type: +fps_max unlimited

Apex graphic settings for higher FPS

If you don’t play with a great graphics card but still want to be able to stay competitive, you’re not out of luck, either. Apex is a great-looking game, but it can run like a PowerPoint presentation on some older PCs.

The answer to this is simple: Turn most graphics setting you can to the lowest possible option. This will give you higher FPS (and is definitely advisable with lower-end or older GPUs). There is, of course, a trade-off in quality.

Your weapon and legend skins won’t look anywhere as crisp, but you’ll be able to efficiently target enemies and actually contribute instead of floundering while your PC struggles to keep up.

If you can, some sort of middle ground is probably best, as some settings will affect your FPS more than others.

Ensure Discord is optimized

A lot of PC Apex Legends players use Discord to communicate with their friends whilst in-game. Although the software is great, there’s a way to make sure it’s fully optimized to squeeze out a few more FPS.

1. Open Discord.
2. Navigate to the Settings menu (cog icon in the bottom left).
3. Click the Overlay tab and ensure ‘Enable in-game overlay’ is unchecked.

The Discord overlay might not seem like much, but it can often affect in-game FPS on low and medium-spec PCs. Users can also turn off Hardware Acceleration, located at the bottom of the “Appearance” tab. This stops Discord from using your graphics card to accelerate the speed of the software and will net you a few more FPS in-game.

If you want to turn on your Apex Legends FPS counter in-game, here’s how to do it:

1. Start out in the Settings menu.
2. Click In-Game, then find the in-game FPS counter.
3. Toggle it from ‘Off’ to ‘On‘
4. Choose which corner you want to display FPS in.

Upgrade your PC

Unfortunately for some players, the main issue holding back their FPS performance in Apex Legends is their gaming rig. Unlike a gaming console that comes ready to play your favorite games, your PC needs to have the necessary components and keep up with modern tech.

According to Respawn Entertainment, these are the PC requirements you’ll need to run Apex Legends effectively. If you don’t quite meet these requirements, then you may be experiencing frame drops and other performance issues.

Minimum System Requirements for Apex Legends

• OS: 64-bit Windows 7
• CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
• RAM: 6GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 / Radeon HD 7730
• GPU RAM: 1 GB
• HARD DRIVE: Minimum 22 GB of free space

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: 64-bit Windows 7
• CPU: Intel i5 3570K or equivalent
• RAM: 8GB
  
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290
• GPU RAM: 8GB
• HARD DRIVE: Minimum 22 GB of free space

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That’s everything you need to know about how to maintain max FPS in Apex Legends. For more Apex tips and tricks, make sure to check out our guides below:

All leaked Legends and abilities | Apex Legends patch notes | Apex Legends voice actors for all characters | Best guns in Apex Legends | Best Legends to use in Apex Legends – tier list | How many people play Apex Legends? Player count | Apex Legends Heirloom Shards list | How to change reticle colors | What is tap strafing in Apex? | Does Apex Legends have cross-progression?