Star Wars Outlaws graphics modes explained: Performance vs quality differences

Star Wars Outlaws is a truly stunning game on all platforms, and console players have the option to swap between a quality mode and performance mode to tweak the game’s image quality and framerate to their liking. If you have a 120hz display, you can even take things further on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X with an additional quality mode to choose from.

Quality vs performance mode in Star Wars Outlaws

There are three graphics modes to choose from in Star Wars Outlaws. And note, this article and these graphics settings discuss the graphics choices on console. If you want the best PC graphics settings, we have another guide for you.

• Quality
• Quality (40 FPS)
• Performance

These three modes are very similar to what players have gotten used to in this console generation, so you should already have an idea of how Star Wars Outlaws will look and run on your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S console.

Performance mode

The game defaults to performance mode on PS5 and Xbox Series X, enabling a smooth 60 FPS at the cost of resolution and graphical fidelity. Star Wars Outlaws targets what seems to be a 1440p output in its performance mode, and the framerate holds steady no matter how busy things get on screen.

Quality mode

If you swap to quality mode, then the game will target a sharp 4K resolution with enhanced graphical effects at the cost of framerate. The FPS cap gets lowered to 30 in this mode, but you’ll get a higher level of detail, more accurate shadows, and other fancy features to make up for it. If you have a 120hz display, then the quality mode runs at 40 FPS instead, which feels much smoother in motion.

Ray tracing details

Surprisingly, ray tracing is enabled on all graphics modes in Star Wars Outlaws. Similar to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (which runs on the same engine as Outlaws), Star Wars Outlaws features ray-traced global illumination on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Ray tracing looks better in quality mode, but it’s not disabled when swapping to performance mode. The console version of Outlaws doesn’t get access to ray-traced reflections or shadows like the PC version, however, but RTGI has a much more transformative effect anyway.

Which graphics mode is best in Star Wars Outlaws?

If you ask us, there are two different answers for the best graphics mode in Star Wars Outlaws. For most people, the best choice is the default performance mode. The game’s combat feels so much better at 60 FPS, and the graphical downgrade isn’t as severe as you’d think. Plus, if you want to disable those black bars and remove the game’s “cinematic” feel, you might as well go all the way and crank the framerate up.

However, if you have a 120hz display, then we recommend going with quality mode. The game is gorgeous with detailed ray-traced global illumination and higher graphical settings, and while the 30 FPS cap can turn a lot of people off, the 40 FPS cap available on 120hz displays is much more bearable. If you haven’t messed around with the 40 FPS modes in other games like Spider-Man 2, Starfield, or Fallout 4’s next-gen update, then you’re missing out.