'Total War: Rome 2': How To Improve 'Total War: Rome 2' Graphics Performance

Since its release on September 3, many "Total War: Rome 2" have experienced a multitude of issues with the game, ranging from AI weaknesses to slow graphics performance. For those experiencing less than optimal "Total War: Rome 2" visual performance, there are some things you can do to make the game play better.

Creative Assembly, developer of "Total War: Rome 2," has offered players some helpful explanations and tips that could clear up why the game isn't running as smoothly as gamers think it should, and what they can do to increase framerates to more enjoyable levels.

Creative Assembly explains that "Total War: Rome 2" autodectects how much video memory your graphics card has. Before a battle or campaign begins, "Total War: Rome 2" calculates how much video memory is required to display the scene with your current in-game graphics settings. If the game determines that you don't have enough video memory, "Total War: Rome 2" will downgrade your graphics settings as it sees fit.

This could cause a conflict with your perception of how "Total War: Rome 2" should look based on the in-game graphics settings you selected. Keep in mind that "Total War: Rome 2" doesn't change your graphics settings permanently. The game only downgrades the settings if and when it has to.

Here's how to boost "Total War: Rome 2" graphics performance.

Disable Unlimited Video Memory Option

"Total War: Rome 2" has a new Advanced Graphics Option called "Unlimited video memory" which tells the game not to downgrade your in-game graphics settings regardless of how much video memory you have. So if you have "Unlimited video memory" selected and the game determines that you don't have enough video memory to run certain parts of "Total War: Rome 2" well, you can experience drastically low framerates across the board. Uncheck this setting if you have to enabled. Pragmatism and compromise can make for a more enjoyable "Total War: Rome 2" experience in the long run, but there are no guarantees that disabling "Unlimited video memory" will improve "Total War: Rome 2" performance.

Figure Out What Options "Total War: Rome 2" Is Downgrading Automatically

If you want to know which graphics settings "Total War: Rome 2" is downgrading automatically, you can open the gfx.log file with the following command:

"%appdata%The Creative AssemblyRome2logsgfx.log.txt"

Make sure that you include the quotes as well. "Total War: Rome 2" developer Creative Assembly says that the file should spit out data that looks like this.

If you find that settings like Alpha-blending, Extreme Terrain Quality and Shadows are being downgraded by "Total War: Rome 2" anyway, you may want to downgrade them yourself or experiment with even lower settings. Pretty graphics don't matter if "Total War: Rome 2" looks more like a slideshow than an RTS.

Test Your PC Performance By Running The "Total War: Rome 2" Benchmark

Benchmarking your PC can teach you about your system's strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge can help you to be more selective when it comes to choosing your "Total War: Rome 2" graphics settings. You can run the "Total War: Rome 2" in-game benchmkar by going to Advanced Graphics, selecting "forest" and and clicking the "Run Benchmark" button. Note the average framerate when the "Total War: Rome 2" benchmark finishes running. If the "Total War: Rome 2" spits out a framerate that isn't to your liking, tweak the settings until you get a desireable framerate.

Read the full forum thread regarding "Total War: Rome 2" improving graphics performance here.

What do you think? Did any of these tips help your PC run "Total War: Rome 2" better? Do you know of any other tips that helped you run "Total War: Rome 2" significantly better? Sound off in the comments below.