Helldivers 2 Patch 1.007.001 Best Settings (2026)

Helldivers 2 Patch 1.007.001 dropped Wednesday, August 26, 2026 — the Devoid of Liberty / Warhammer 40K Crossover update — and brought sweeping changes to lighting, particle density, and draw distance that hammered frame rates across the board. Players with RTX 4070 and RX 7800 XT cards reported 30-40% drops at 4K, even at medium. The crossover armor sets and new enemy VFX are CPU-heavier than the base game's swarm logic, making per-core bottlenecks more visible on older six-core chips.

This guide covers the optimal settings for Patch 1.007.001 on every modern GPU, from the RTX 3060 12GB up to the RTX 5090. We cite measured benchmarks from independent reviewers and call out which settings changed post-patch. If you want a hardware-specific playbook that auto-updates when Arrowhead pushes hotfixes, run our free playbook generator — it knows your exact GPU and CPU and rebuilds configs every time a patch lands.

What Changed in Patch 1.007.001

The Devoid of Liberty / Warhammer 40K crossover introduced three new cosmetic armor sets with high-resolution normal maps and reflective materials, plus two new enemy types with multi-layered particle effects. Arrowhead also overhauled the volumetric fog system — it now renders at native resolution by default instead of half-res, which looks sharper but costs 15-25% GPU headroom on mid-range cards. The lighting pipeline was reworked to support real-time reflections on the Space Marine pauldrons, adding a per-frame cost even when those armors aren't on-screen.

The patch notes mention "improved draw distance for terrain LOD" — translation: the engine now keeps higher-poly meshes loaded further out, great for visual fidelity but a VRAM spike on 8GB cards. Players on the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB and RX 7600 8GB saw texture streaming stutter kick in within the first mission. The crossover enemies (Chaos-themed variants) spawn particle emitters that don't cull properly at range, so swarm encounters on difficulty 9-10 can drop frames 20-30% compared to pre-patch if you don't dial back effects density.

Core Settings: Universal Optimizations

These apply to every GPU from the RTX 3060 up. Helldivers 2's engine (Autodesk Stingray, heavily modified) has a few quirks — it over-samples certain effects by default and wastes headroom on settings that produce minimal visual uplift. Start with these baseline tweaks before you touch resolution scaling or upscaling.

• **Volumetric Fog Quality: Medium** — The native-res fog in 1.007.001 is beautiful but costs 18-22% GPU on cards below the RTX 4080. Medium renders fog at 75% resolution and you will not see the difference in motion. High is only worth it on an RTX 5090 or RX 9070 XT at 1440p.
• **Effects Quality: High** — Ultra enables per-particle sub-surface scattering on explosion debris; High skips it. The visual delta is invisible during actual gameplay (you're not freeze-framing explosions), and High frees 10-15% GPU during swarm fights.
• **Terrain Quality: High** — Ultra keeps maximum LOD meshes out to 500m; High cuts that to 350m. You gain 8-12% GPU and the only time you'd notice is if you're sniping stationary and staring at a ridge 400m out. Not worth the cost.
• **Screen Space Reflections: Off** — The crossover armor reflections are the stated reason Arrowhead added SSR, but they're raytraced fallback reflections that look muddy at 1080p/1440p anyway. Disable entirely and use the saved 6-9% GPU elsewhere. If you must have reflections, set to Low — Medium/High tank performance for a marginal quality bump.
• **Shadow Quality: Medium** — Ultra renders cascaded shadow maps at 4096×4096; Medium uses 2048×2048. The difference is only visible in close-up screenshots of foliage shadows. Medium is the sweet spot — Low introduces noticeable edge dithering during day missions.

GPU-Specific Recommendations

RTX 4090 / RTX 5090

The RTX 4090 measured 80 FPS average at 4K ultra in Patch 1.007.001 according to PCOptimizedSettings, down from ~95 FPS pre-patch. The RTX 5090 (32GB GDDR7) holds closer to 105-110 FPS at 4K native with all settings maxed. Both cards have the VRAM and compute to brute-force ultra, but you still want to apply the volumetric fog and effects tweaks above — they net you 20-25 FPS with zero visual trade-off, pushing the 4090 to a locked 100+ and the 5090 to 130+.

At 1440p, the RTX 4090 measured 171 FPS at ultra (also PCOptimizedSettings), but that's pre-patch data — expect ~145-150 post-1.007.001. With the core optimizations, you'll hit 165-170, perfect for a 165Hz display. Enable DLSS 4 Quality if you're on the 5090 and chasing 240 FPS for a high-refresh monitor; DLSS 3 Frame Generation (4090) adds latency and isn't worth it in a reaction-heavy co-op shooter.

RTX 4080 SUPER / RTX 4080

PCOptimizedSettings measured the RTX 4080 SUPER at 72 FPS average at 4K ultra post-patch. Apply the volumetric fog (Medium) and effects (High) changes and you'll land at ~88-92 FPS — playable but not quite locked 90. If you want a locked 90+, enable DLSS Quality mode. That renders at ~67% internal resolution and the upscale is clean enough that the visual hit is minimal. You'll hit 105-110 FPS locked.

At 1440p, the 4080 SUPER runs ~130 FPS with the core tweaks, no upscaling needed. If you're on a 165Hz panel, DLSS Balanced gets you to 155-160 and the image quality delta is negligible in motion. The 4080 (non-SUPER) performs within 5-8% of the SUPER — same advice applies.

RTX 4070 Ti / RTX 4070 SUPER / RTX 4070

The RTX 4070 was measured at 50 FPS at 4K ultra by PCOptimizedSettings — that's borderline unplayable for a fast co-op shooter. Drop to 1440p or enable DLSS Performance (50% internal res) at 4K — the latter gets you to ~75-80 FPS with acceptable image quality. The 4070 Ti and 4070 SUPER slot between the 4070 and 4080, typically adding 15-20% headroom. At 1440p, all three cards run 90-110 FPS with the core settings applied, no upscaling required.

The 4070 has 12GB VRAM, which is fine for 1440p but tight at 4K if you leave textures on Ultra. Drop textures to High at 4K to avoid streaming stutter during the crossover enemy swarms — that alone prevents the 1% low dips that feel like microstutter.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX / RX 7900 XT / RX 7900 GRE

Hardware Times measured the RX 7900 XTX at 61 FPS average (55 FPS 1% low) at 4K ultra post-patch. That 1% low is the problem — those dips below 60 feel choppy. Apply the core settings (volumetric fog Medium, effects High) and you'll push the average to ~74 FPS with 1% lows around 66-68, much smoother. If you want locked 90+, enable FSR 3.1 Quality mode. The RX 7900 XT slots ~12% below the XTX; the RX 7900 GRE (measured at 50 FPS at 4K ultra by PCOptimizedSettings) is better suited to 1440p, where it runs 75-85 FPS with the tweaks applied.

At 1440p, the 7900 XTX and 7900 XT both run 95-115 FPS with the optimized settings, no upscaling needed. AMD's FSR 3.1 frame generation is available in Helldivers 2 as of Patch 1.007.001, but it adds ~15ms of latency — skip it unless you're chasing 144Hz on a lower-tier card. The visual quality of FSR 3.1 Quality upscaling is solid and comparable to DLSS Quality in this title.

RX 7800 XT / RX 7700 XT

Digital Trends measured the RX 7800 XT at 77 FPS at 1440p ultra, which is pre-patch. Post-1.007.001, expect ~62-65 FPS at 1440p ultra. Apply the core settings and you'll hit 75-80 FPS, right back to that 77 FPS baseline. If you're targeting 90+, enable FSR 3.1 Balanced — that gets you to 95-100 FPS with minimal blur. The RX 7700 XT performs ~15% below the 7800 XT, so plan for ~65-70 FPS at 1440p with optimizations.

Both cards have 12GB VRAM (16GB on the 7800 XT), which is enough for 1440p ultra textures. At 4K, the 7800 XT runs ~48-52 FPS with core tweaks — playable but not smooth. Use FSR Performance (50% render scale) to hit 75+ FPS if you must play at 4K, or drop to 1440p for the best experience.

RTX 3060 12GB / RTX 3070 / RTX 3060 Ti

Digital Trends measured the RTX 3060 12GB at 63 FPS at 1080p ultra pre-patch. Post-1.007.001, that drops to ~52-55 FPS. The core settings (fog Medium, effects High, SSR off) push you back to 62-65 FPS. At 1440p, the 3060 12GB runs ~42-45 FPS with tweaks — enable DLSS Balanced to hit 60+ FPS, or stick to 1080p for the smoothest experience. The 12GB VRAM is a lifesaver here; the 8GB RTX 3060 Ti will stutter at 1440p ultra due to VRAM overflow.

The RTX 3070 and 3060 Ti (8GB) are faster than the 3060 12GB but VRAM-limited at 1440p. At 1080p, both run 70-80 FPS with the optimized settings. If you want to play at 1440p, drop textures to High (critical for the 8GB cards) and enable DLSS Quality — you'll hit 65-75 FPS with acceptable image quality. The 3070 Ti is ~10% faster than the 3070, same settings apply.

CPU Bottleneck Warnings (Crossover Patch)

Patch 1.007.001's new enemy AI logic and particle systems are more CPU-intensive than the base game. If you're on a six-core CPU (Ryzen 5 5600X, Intel Core i5-12400F, or older), you'll see one or two cores pinned near 100% while the others sit at 30-50% utilization during crossover swarm waves. This manifests as frame-time spikes and stutter even when your GPU usage hovers around 70-80%.

The fix: open Task Manager, go to Performance → CPU → right-click the graph → Change graph to Logical processors. Watch for individual cores hitting 95-100% during gameplay. If you see that pattern, lower Effects Quality to Medium (reduces particle count) and disable Ambient Occlusion (saves CPU pre-processing on geometry). Those two changes free 10-15% per-core load. If you're still bottlenecked, the issue is hardware — an eight-core CPU (Ryzen 7 7700X, Core Ultra 7 265K) or better will smooth out the 1% lows.

Upscaling and Frame Generation

Helldivers 2 supports DLSS (NVIDIA), FSR 3.1 (AMD and cross-vendor), and XeSS 2 (Intel). DLSS Quality and FSR 3.1 Quality are visually comparable in this title — both produce clean upscales with minimal artifacting on the crossover armor details. DLSS Balanced and FSR Balanced introduce slight blur on fine text (minimap labels, ammo counters) but are acceptable trade-offs for the 35-40% FPS gain.

Frame generation (DLSS 3 on RTX 40-series, FSR 3.1 frame gen on all GPUs) adds 12-18ms of latency in Helldivers 2. That's noticeable in a fast co-op shooter where reaction time matters. Use frame gen only if you're GPU-bound and chasing a 120Hz+ lock — otherwise the latency penalty outweighs the smoothness benefit. DLSS 4 multi-frame generation (RTX 50-series) is slightly better at latency mitigation but still adds ~10ms; test it and see if the input lag bothers you.

XeSS 2 on Intel Arc B-series cards performs well at Quality mode — it's sharper than FSR 3.1 on the Arc B580 and B750, roughly matching DLSS Quality. If you're on an Intel GPU, prioritize XeSS over FSR unless you need frame generation (XeSS doesn't have a frame-gen component yet).

These settings apply to Patch 1.007.001 as of Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Arrowhead pushes hotfixes frequently, and driver updates from NVIDIA (GeForce 572.xx series) and AMD (Adrenalin 26.8.x) can shift optimal configs. If you want a playbook that auto-regenerates when patches or drivers drop, try our free playbook generator — it tracks your exact GPU and CPU and rebuilds your config every time the game updates. For ongoing patch tracking across all supported games, see the Patch Watch subscription at $4.99/month.

Frequently asked questions