Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings

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Looking for the Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings? Though strategy games in general don’t tend to prioritise graphical fidelity, Creative Assembly’s newest entry into the Total War Series nonetheless impresses with some pretty gorgeous graphics that bring the immersion to life. So how do you make the most of this?

As we mentioned in our Total War Pharaoh review, the game has some excellent visual design, best appreciated by fine-tuning your graphics and display settings. So here, we’re going to walk you through the setup you need for the Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings. Once you’ve got your game looking perfect, why not start diving into the setup for your game, and make sure you’re fully caught up on how to start a campaign in-game?

Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings: A wide shot of empty, muddy terrain in the sunlight.

Best graphics and display settings for Total War Pharaoh

From the main menu, select the ‘Options’ button, then navigate to ‘graphics’. Then from the ‘Main’ graphics tab, you can alter the basic display settings. Lastly, from the ‘Advanced’ tab, you can navigate a wide variety of more specific settings. We’re going to walk you through both tabs so that you can get the best possible experience. Here are the settings you’ll want to set up for the best graphics in Total War Pharaoh.

Best main graphics settings

For the ‘Main’ tab, you’ll want to set up your settings as follows.

  • Quality: Ultra
  • Resolution: Whatever your screen resolution is. For many PC monitors this will be 1920×1080 or 2560×1440.
  • Run in Window: Optional
  • Vsync: Off
  • Resolution Scale: 100%
  • Brightness: 12
  • Gamma: 20

Did you know?

If you want to run the best graphics but are struggling with performance, try turning on the ‘Run in Window’ option. This will usually help improve performance stability.

Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings: The Main tab under the graphics settings menu.

Best advanced graphics settings

These settings cover all the more advanced graphical features. For the best possible experience, you’ll want to set up your advanced settings as follows.

  • Unlimited Video Memory: On
  • Low FPS Notification: On
  • Anti-aliasing:FXAA
  • Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 16x
  • Texture Quality: Ultra
  • VFX Detail: Ultra
  • Terrain Detail: Ultra
  • Building Detail: Ultra
  • Unit Detail: Ultra
  • Tree Detail: Ultra
  • Grass Detail: Ultra
  • Water Detail: Ultra
  • Interactive Water: High
  • Shadow Detail: Ultra
  • Fog Quality: High
  • Shroud Detail: High
  • Interactive Grass: On
  • Cloud Shadows: On
  • Footprints: On
  • God Rays: Medium
  • SSAO: High
  • Screen Space Reflections: High
  • Colour Adjustment: 9%
  • Arrows Trails: 50%
  • Chromatic Aberration: Off
  • Glow: On
  • Heat-haze: On
  • Vignette: Off
  • Proximity Fading: On
  • Lightning Bolt Flash: On
  • Unit Size: Large
  • Porthole Quality: 3D
  • Hide Dead Bodies: Never
Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings: The Advanced tab under the graphics settings menu.

Does Total War Pharaoh have Denuvo?

Total War Pharaoh does have Denuvo, something to consider when deciding your graphics settings. Unfortunately, the controversial third-party anti-tamper software is notorious for impacting the overall performance of games that use it. This may be a factor you wish to consider when setting up your graphics settings if your hardware is a little older. During our playthrough fighting to uphold the Pillars of Civilisation though, we found stability issues to be fairly few and far between, even with the best graphics settings.

That covers the Total War Pharaoh best graphics settings. Once your setup is complete, you’ll be able to dive into a game, but as with previous titles, this one can still be confusing at times, especially for newcomers to the series. If you want some advice on how to get resources or how to win battles, or just some general Total War Pharaoh tips and tricks, we’ve got you covered.

About the Author

Finlay Cattanach

Fin is a Guides and Reviews writer for Videogamer.com. He's worked previously with Startmenu, The Loadout, and more. He plays everything from strategy and sandbox titles to FPS and souls-likes.

Total War Pharaoh

  • Platform(s): PC
  • Genre(s): Strategy