Warframe 1440p and 4K Settings (2026): Upscaling, Texture Memory, HDR and Refresh Rate
Last Updated on September 30, 2026
At 1440p and 4K, turn Upscaling on: DLSS 4 on an RTX card, FSR 3.1 on anything else. Use Quality at 1440p and Balanced at 4K. Keep Texture Memory on High while Show FPS shows VRAM headroom, and cap Max Framerate at your refresh rate.
Reviewed September 29, 2026, against the current Settings menu (Update 44) and the official support articles; this page is re-checked after every major patch.
| Setting | 1440p | 4K |
|---|---|---|
| Upscaling Method | DLSS 4 (RTX) or FSR 3.1 | DLSS 4 (RTX) or FSR 3.1 |
| Upscaling Quality | Quality | Balanced; Performance next; Ultra Performance last |
| Anti-Aliasing and Dynamic Resolution | Unavailable while Upscaling is on | Unavailable while Upscaling is on |
| Texture Memory | High | High; Medium if Show FPS shows VRAM full |
| Reduce Frame Latency | On | On; it uses less VRAM |
| Shadow Quality | Medium first if you need frames | Medium first if you need frames |
| Volumetric Lighting | On, then Off if frames are short | Off if frames are short |
| SSAO Quality and SSGI | SSAO Medium; SSGI needs it | SSGI Off before you touch SSAO |
| Max Framerate | Your refresh rate | Your refresh rate |
Table of Contents
Set it up in this order
- Options, Display: set Max Framerate to your monitor's refresh rate.
- Set Upscaling Method to DLSS 4 on an RTX card, or FSR 3.1 on any other GPU.
- Set Upscaling Quality to Quality at 1440p or Balanced at 4K.
- Turn Reduce Frame Latency On and Vertical Sync Off.
- Turn Show FPS On and play a busy tile. Read the frame time and the VRAM figure.
- Set Texture Memory to High. Drop it to Medium only if VRAM sits full.
- Still short on frames? Lower one setting at a time: Shadow Quality, then Volumetric Lighting, then SSGI. Check frame time after each.
CPUCores: Maximize Your FPS
If you’ve worked through the settings above and still get stutter, the bottleneck is often background processes stealing CPU time from the game. CPUCores isolates Windows and background tasks onto separate cores so your game gets the rest. It launches straight from Steam and detects your library automatically.
Tips that save runs
- HDR Output is experimental. DE's requirements: an HDR monitor with HDR on in Windows, Optimized Flip-Model on, Anti-Aliasing TAA 8X (High) and Dynamic Resolution off. If the option is greyed out, check those first.
- HDR Paper White is a slider in nits, default 300. Raise it if HDR looks dim.
- Warframe now uses spare VRAM to stream textures and meshes, so a high VRAM reading is expected and can mean fewer micro-stutters.
Mistakes that waste runs
- Turning Dynamic Resolution on with an upscaler. The menu switches it off.
- Setting Upscaling Quality to Ultra Performance at 1440p. It is the last step, not the first.
- Judging a setting by the FPS number instead of the frame time in Show FPS.