Newbie advice on GFX settings?

[Rabblevox]

I Just bought a new budget gaming laptop (Dell G16 7620: 165hz QHD 2560 x 1600 screen, i7-12700H ,GeForce RTX 3060 6gb DDR6, 16 gb DDR5 ram, 1tb SSD currently on sale at Dell for $850!).
I've been holding GotG in reserve to break it in. Out of the box I'm getting an average of 70 fps on high settings, but with drops down to 10. On med I average 90 with drops to 40. So, three questions?
#1: What settings give me the most "bang", and which can I turn down without sacrificing too much?
#2: My TV is 60 hz/1080 p. If I tune my computer to match those settings when I couch play, will I get a meaningful speed or visual benefit?
#3: How useful and safe is MSI Afterburner for squeezing a bit more performance out of a factory laptop?
Thanks in advance!

[Captain Worthy]

The DLSS setting will give you the greatest framerate boost. You can set everything else to maximum and then try how much the different levels of DLSS affect the framerate/visuals until you find the most pleasing outcome.

Do not bother trying the Ray Tracing without DLSS enabled though.

You will only get a visual quality loss if you play on your TV as it has a lower resolution than the display in your laptop. It also won't display more than 60fps due to being a 60hz TV.

I would not use any sort of overclocking software on your brand new laptop, this will just reduce its lifespan. That's an excellent gaming laptop for such a low price, I would buy a cooling pad for it too to help with the heat reduction.

You can push your laptop framerates up to 165fps due to the display being 165hz, but reaching this in most games will require you to use DLSS.

[Rabblevox]

Thanks Captain!
I'm now getting a buttery smooth 90 fps with drops only down to 50 ; everything set on ultra and ray tracing on! DLSS made all the dif. It's new to me, so I left it disabled the first try.

It's now dialed in, and since were in for a blizzard all weekend, my timing could not be better. (assuming the power lines hold...Rocket...PUT THAT DOWN!).

[isomorphic_projection]

Got the game for free on epic, including the DLC.

I run the game at 2560x1440 60 fps, everything maxed out, i don't use DLSS or raytracing, have to try that first. I got some screen tearing, but i can fix that.

Rig

I7-10700kf at 4.3 GHZ
Geforce RTX 3060 12gb DDR6
32GB 3200 mhz normal ram
SSD 1TB 3,500/3,000 MB/s

It's almost zero hundred hours, i will try to post my game settings tomorrow evening.

Note a quote from the web:

"How much Hz can human eye see?
The eye does not perceive the world in frames per second, but it can detect changes in brightness at a rate of about 60 to 70 times per second. As for refresh rate, the human eye can detect flicker at around 50 to 90 Hz, but this can vary among individuals."

So don't bother going above it.

[isomorphic_projection]

Benchmark results + settings used

Graphics and display settings:

Full screen
Exclusive full screen
Vsync>On
Refreshrate 59
Maximum Refreshrate (screen) 133

Resolution>2560x1440
HDR>Off
Anisotrpic texture filtering>16X
Level of detail>High
Shadow quality>High
Texture quality>High
Screen space reflections>High
Motion blur>Off
Radial blur>Off
Chromatic aberration>Off
Depth off field>Off
Lens flare>Off (fake immersion, unless you wear glasses in real life.)
Nvidia DLSS>Quality
Light scattering>Off
Ray-traced reflections>Ultra
Ray-traced transparent reflections>On

Results:

FPS 100
Average FPS 72
Vram used 5314 megabytes of the 12129 megabytes.

This game runs smooth, but the game was made for Nvidia.
If i would use the same settings for cyberpunk, i would be able to fry an egg on my rig.
And i would get no more then 30 FPS.

Tomorrow i will try to put: Light scattering to On. See what this does.