Keep detail high
On a strong GPU, keep object detail, object view distance, textures, texture filtering, and shader quality high or very high. Dropping everything to medium can push more pain onto the CPU.
New player performance checklist
Star Citizen Performance Settings
Before you buy, make sure the game feels good on your PC. Start with the prefilled RSI signup link, then test performance, controls, and one easy mission.
SSD requiredInstall on fast storage
Test firstUse Free Fly when possible
Referral ready50,000 UEC signup bonus
Settings Checklist
Install Star Citizen on an SSD
Avoid hard drives. Long streaming stutters and loading problems can make the first session feel much worse than it needs to.
Close heavy background apps
Browsers, game launchers, recording tools, and overlays can matter. Test with a clean baseline before judging performance.
Start with sensible graphics settings
Use a moderate preset, keep clouds and motion blur conservative, and change one setting at a time so you know what helped.
Give shader compilation time
The first few minutes after loading can stutter. Move around a city or station, then evaluate after the game settles.
Test a full loop
Retrieve a ship, leave the hangar, quantum travel, land, and run one simple contract. That tells you more than a menu benchmark.
Balanced Graphics Starting Point
Cut expensive atmosphere
Lower clouds, fog, water caustics, water simulation, post effects, video comms, and screen-space shadows first. These are common places to recover smoothness without making the whole game look bad.
Use modern renderer options
Use Vulkan if it works well on your system, keep VSync off unless you need it, and try DLSS or another quality upscaler before lowering resolution heavily.
Practical baseline: motion blur off, film grain off, chromatic aberration off, sharpening around taste, clouds low, and a stable FPS cap if laptop heat or fan noise causes throttling.
Paid referral credit requires qualifying RSI spend, but performance testing should come first. Do not buy just to trigger a referral.
When To Use The Referral Link
Before account creation
Best case: open RSI through the prefilled link so the referral field is already attached.
Within 24 hours
If you already created the account today, add the code quickly during RSI's grace period.
Before spending
Referral credit only matters after qualifying spend, so test the game before buying a package.
Start with the code attached
Use the direct RSI link and confirm STAR-SNP2-VKS9 before finishing signup.