Every Video Game Graphics Setting Explained

[@masterodst1]

The only thing I think you didn't explain properly was hdr. Hdr isn't just about the brightness. It's about contrast levels at those higher levels. So if you have a half of a scene in darkness and half of a scene in light you should be able to make put the detail in both without having to compromise either.

[@Boxled]

correct, when i wrote this video i had the wrong kind of HDR in mind, the one that can be seen in games made by Valve, when i should've been talking about HDR in terms of screen technology this video is pretty inaccurate and i plan to remaking it in the future. i'll make sure to keep your comment in mind, so thanks for sharing

[@masterodst1]

@Boxled hey thanks for the update and keep up the great work!

[@DeenStorybyAarish]

Yes but hdr is overrated

[@trollyfox5421]

Hdr can be gorgeous. But current native versions of it in games and difficulties of setting it up make it not worth dealing with for most people. I personally obsessed with putting it in any game i can play.

[@darkprinc979]

​@@BoxledMaybe include bloom as an honorable mention. It doesn't seem like bloom is a thing at all anymore, but for a while there it was a pretty common setting that people loved to complain about.

[@M1szS]

KZbin literally recommended it to me, when the video is 1 day away from being 2 years old lol

[@YoussefMohamed-r4d9d]

Me too

[@cuffia5189]

Same😂

[@yudi8204]

So?

[@slynners8466]

Me too

[@freedykruzo00]

Congrats?

[@dndanime8893]

how is this 2 years old and youtube is recommending this now

[@DemonX82]

what's wrong this happens to me alot

[@LumpyToiletBiskets]

Fr

[@shiaakatsuki7865]

The algorithm does this sometimes.

[@agent8244]

Same

[@MalakaiProgrammer]

It's a pretty handy video if you don't know! Good job KZbin.

[@MelioUmbraBelmont]

Yeah... remember Anisotropic 32x? It exists but loosing 3 FPS is too much in 2025

[@visthj]

So Anisotropic filtering and Anti-aliasing aren't the same thing, thanks for making this video

[@PIXELGamerzXvlogs]

better explanation for ambient occlusion: it makes the corners and edges of objects darker to mimic indirect lighting

[@PIXELGamerzXvlogs]

also HDR doesn't always mean that; that implementation of HDR is "fake" HDR as all it does it renders the game in HDR, but shifts it up and down the spectrum to output to an SDR display, HDR settings could also mean simply to accommodate HDR displays by displaying true HDR

[@MalakaiProgrammer]

@@PIXELGamerzXvlogs I was pretty bewildered when he explained HDR. I only knew of HDR displays, I didn't know games "faked" it - even though it doesn't really represent HDR that well. Useful sub-comment 👍

[@Zabes_lol]

There's a mistake in the subtitles in 4:27 it says: [If you notice a mistake in the subtitles, leave a comment about it.] I think there's supposed to be nothing because you didn't talk that moment ☝🤓

[@Zabes_lol]

But thanks for explaining what things are lol

[@derpydudee]

There's a mistake in your comment, you put an extra space between "comment" and "about" ☝🤓

[@Zabes_lol]

@@derpydudee lol

[@zerozeek444]

😂​@@derpydudee

[@Boxled]

my bad my bad

[@ilkehaan]

thanks youtube for recommending me this, i have been playing video games for 15years tweaking things and i finnslly understood what msaa was

[@PoieczeQ]

The narrator voice was so weirdly familiar, then the ost hit in and it all connected, thx for reminding me of that great game

[@NazgulKing-d7k]

This is actually very useful thanks mate ❤

[@Mixa_Lv]

1:30 MSAA only treats the edges of the geometry, so it ignores textures and transparency. Without this distinction, you explained SSAA instead.

[@Boxled]

yeah this video can be very inaccurate, i wanted to keep it very simple which skipped important details and i also was just young and stupid so i thought i knew everything lmao i might remake this video in the future and i'll make sure to keep your comment in mind, so thanks for sharing

[@RollaCoasta-du6ck]

It doesn't ignore transparency with alpha to coverage.

[@Ale-nv2bo]

@@Boxled Eh, I mean it works for having a general idea about what it is and researching the ones I care about.

[@bombigiussz]

I wish this could land on my recommendation page 2 years ago

[@Gurundiaocinac]

Wishing dont go backwards.

[@minnerjohnny]

Great video really helped me understand what all of my game settings do!

[@car424]

best video of 2014

[@OwensSkateStory]

I never expected to be taught what graphics settings mean by the Whiterun guards but here we are

[@Boxled]

after a youtube search i do not hear the resemblance

[@IMBETTERTHANUATZOMBS]

@@Boxled lol

[@OwensSkateStory]

@@Boxled You need to play Skyrim. If you had to search it you need to play that game. Please

[@ZackThesRenity]

Thanks man, i always experiment with the setting and see what it does, sometimes i can't really see the difference so it's confused me on what settings to use

[@BILGI_PASA]

3:36 i didn't even say anything.

[@Viper_Playz]

KZbin gave me this video today, its really amazing and should have more views!

[@ivandeniega1547]

well, this channel's underrated

[@SageRoku22]

Great vid. To the point, concise and a bit funny.

[@morn14150]

thank you so much! i have a lower end machine that i cannot fiddle the settings enough to make it smooth, until now

[@comicbrandon]

Hey, thanks so much for sharing this information.

[@sanstheelumbu]

bro got the algorithm lottery from youtube

[@userRaju]

I see this is being recommended to everyone after 2 yrs 😂😂

[@Bardiya_Zarafshan]

Very helpful video thanks! 👍🏻

[@ujjvaldixit1740]

Thank you. This is the type of video i wanted

[@aslmj2]

lol youtube keeps recommending me this video for days. I watched it finally

[@ashir...897]

Damn man dude explained it so i well i rhought it would be a vid with at least over a 100k likes

[@SquibbleFlux]

Most useful video everrr....!!!! Thankiu bro

[@cybercatkaitosupremacy]

Underrated gem

[@Braskus]

knew the answers and watched it anyway.. And i'd do it again!

[@PencilMan865]

As a resolution myself, I felt very represented in this video 😊

[@kirbo6462]

☹️

[@somebody69747]

Bro identifies as a resolution

[@Sherolox]

I only now realized how fire the Mario Kart Wii soundtrack is lol

[@Wkaelx]

Thanks youtube algorithym I really needed this to help me procrastinate instead of doing my actual productive work.

[@Voqf]

wtf how are you so underrated?

[@HaroldGrant44]

This was so helpful, thanks :)

[@beepymemes]

i am too part of the recommended-2-years-later club, posting this comment to keep the recommendations going for others :)

[@Ekmh123]

youtube recommended me this now

[@gamingboi_7730]

Bro got Stephen Hawking to say the Graphics Settings

[@gabrielvilanova5575]

Useful! ❤

[@ScottTheNot]

It's been 2 years and KZbin decided it would be a good time to recommend this to me, still helpful though

[@LousyBook01]

the last one is not HDR, it's exposure i think

[@baophantom6469]

KZbin recommend this to fking late man, this video deserves more attention 😭

[@Boxled]

better late than never, i'm just happy people are enjoying the video, let alone to have thousands of views

[@SyedAbdullah-y8z]

Why is the comment section soo fresh,damn this vid is 2 yr old

[@stevencedeno7317]

What a great vid

[@Soul-Demon-Y]

Actually a pretty good Explanation

[@ItsActuallyTJ_]

I don't know that HDR in MOST gaming settings is referring to the behavior of the light, and more often referring to the support for HDR display technology, which allows displays to reproduce brighter localized content depending on the data. Specifications include HDR10, HDR1000, etc. and are rated by the display's peak brightness

[@Boxled]

see pinned comment

[@az1em.a]

Didn't know many people get this recommendation in 2025 lol

[@EthannNewborn]

Now its 2 years old 💀

[@Veteran95Old]

reflection quality is the mirror reflections you get.. Get in GTA V, turn down reflection quality, and get near a mirror. And then turn it up, and then you will see clearer image of your character in a mirror (reflection).

[@Boxled]

correct, because mirrors are the ultimate reflection

[@imagamershorts]

KZbin algorithm is bugging tf out

[@sujestomas9847]

Hey, pretty useful thanks!

[@MarvoldX]

tesselation also makes walls and ground actually 3d, not flat, also interact with player

[@fliko6808]

its not actually 3D, its just an illusion using a 2D texture

[@Wolfentodd]

Anisotropic isnt far away textures, its angled textures. The reason things will be blury in the distance is because flat surfaces that are far out will be viewed at a wider angle then those that are near. Its pretty useless, as most of the time to get a texture to be at an angle where its impacted to a degree in which most would care, on most systems it will be out of your FOV.

[@l_9x3]

underrated as hell

[@Babyfishkk]

Literally 90% of these comments are less than a month old

[@BoualemAbdelHadi]

yeap thats right

[@Biscoitln]

Great, the more you know!

[@aty145]

Nice !

[@ash3s]

where is fidelity?

[@PicassoMossana]

Dude, come back, do a mini explained series before leaving the youtube

[@Boxled]

i haven't left youtube, i actually plan on making a lot more content when i am able to what would you like me to explain, stuff related to graphics or video games or something completely different? i'm curious about what people want to watch, so go ahead and tell me!

[@GustavoCOD4]

Thanks mate

[@maybedk651]

Bro u are underrated as fk ngl😢😢😢

[@AnnieKnuuttila]

Hdr is like totally wrong; hdr (high dynamic range) doesn’t simulate anything, it expands the range of darkness and brightness in a scene for monitors that can actually display a wider range. This makes the scene more contrasty and lifelike.

[@Mahiii778]

Recommending me a video rn i don't even play anything right now bad timing for recommendation

[@BoualemAbdelHadi]

Damn after 2 years + 4 days

[@someone4229]

The last one is not HDR. It sounds more like auto exposure

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

0:41 jokes on you my screen is 5:4

[@Jason_DE]

HOW TF~~

[@ElijahMiniBikes]

mines 4:3 CRT monitor.

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

@ 1280x1024

[@MrSeba135]

someone knows the name of the game that appears on 0:43? i had it on my wishlist on a steam account but i forgot the passworld and the name of the game

[@thevideogamer0mg99]

Teardown. it's pretty neat

[@MrSeba135]

@ thank you

[@ChillieGaming]

2:07 8billion views💀

[@costinhaDC]

VERY GOOD

[@Bruce460]

Thank you

[@Ninetails94]

fun fact shadow is a major performance hitter(i do tests on all hardware) everyone that claims grass kills performance in gta its not true at all, grass does jack all its like 1fps difference, without shadows youll notice the grass had nothing to do, this applies to every game shadows is unoptimized developers need to either not have shadows or learn to optimize them.

[@kirbo6462]

W video

[@firestegosaurus999]

Where did you get such a cool Half-Life 2 menu?

[@Boxled]

i was using the Steam Deck menu mode, here's how to enable it: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3050623363

[@Sohail-Rehman6]

WTF KZbin Recommended Me This NOW Today

[@shock226]

be prepared for the view count on this video to triple if not quadruple so i so what anti-aliasing is without watching this video

[@Boxled]

the view count went up 500-fold in a day

[@SamOnEverything]

Is that Stephen Hawking's computer voice ?

[@flat3065]

HOW DO U ONLY HAVE 500 SUBS?

[@Boxled]

idk can you make that 501

[@jun.subere4319]

bro i play warthunder so what i need is the first to be metioned? i have only iGPU

[@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim]

algorithm squad😂

[@inferno6012]

so which effects the performance most?

[@Boxled]

the effect these settings have on your system entirely depends on its configuration. for example, if you have a low amount of memory in your graphics card, turning down texture quality is a good start the best is to just play around or look at a guide, because it also depends on the game you play

[@Danjin_Solo]

Here I thought texture streaming uses Network

[@huh48894]

Wait, how did you make that main menu in hl2?

[@Boxled]

it's the Steam Deck menu, here's how to enable it: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3050623363

[@huh48894]

@Boxled thank you

[@od149]

That is NOT what HDR is.

[@CreepyDT]

Mmmn, Grass

[@egneverrevengerevengeegnever]

Turn off antialiasing, most post processing and soft shadows imo

[@Ayush2k]

Thanks for the video, but I still don’t understand anything😭

[@actanonverba7403]

The algorithm has blessed thee

[@Slimx0612]

Why are we all here now?

[@BasedSigmaMale]

Can you explain SSAO? I can't quite grasp it on Google by how it's written on there.

[@andrew33845]

It's a form of ambient occlusion, like hbao and hbao+ and more.

[@BasedSigmaMale]

You just made the confusion worse. ​@@andrew33845

[@TheYaq]

4 am videos in bed

[@Bober077]

3:06 What is grass?

[@Mihaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

bros accent sounds like it hurts

[@ChaosMan-gf4jg]

Speech impediment be respectful

[@Boxled]

​@@ChaosMan-gf4jgno i'm just french

[@Love-m8s1x]

yes i did we all did in 2001

[@swarkin]

hdr one is incorrect

[@blacked_out]

Thanks

[@rufus5208]

Hdr makes no sense to me. why are there like 50 versions of HDr and why?

[@Boxled]

it is a term with multiple definitions: the fake HDR i explained in this video and the real HDR up in the pinned comment

[@heryuwe]

Anti-aliasing always confuse me on minecraftT^T

[@R1po]

Isn't refresh rate Hz? And not FPS?

[@Boxled]

correct! refresh rate is measured in Hz and is about the refresh frequency of the monitor. FPS is how many frames your computer was able to create in a second. the two can be closely linked (look at V-Sync) and some games like Counter-Strike 2 have a refresh rate setting

[@FreakyHimmel]

idk how, but aniostropic filtering in spider-man 2 is disgustingly bad, switching from trilinear to 2x is a 30fps drop, its digsuting. Maybe because the map is fucking huge but still