Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – How Good Is the "Experimental" Graphics Mode?

The "Experimental" setting stands out with targeted graphical enhancements that may not be immediately noticeable but enhance immersion:

• Improved shadows: Buildings, especially wooden structures, display sharper and more detailed shadows, making the lighting appear more natural.

• Refined textures: Materials like wood and fabric benefit from slight color enhancements and improved detail rendering.

• Increased vegetation density: Grass and foliage look more realistic, with better wind and light interactions.

• More precise volumetric effects: Fog and smoke appear more natural, especially in low-light conditions.

While these differences exist, they do not drastically transform the visual experience compared to the "Very High" setting. The "Experimental" mode primarily aims to push realism to the limit, but its impact remains subtle at first glance.

A High Performance Cost

Although the graphical improvements are relatively subtle, the impact on performance is far more noticeable:

• Average FPS drop of 30% compared to the "Ultra" setting.

• Up to a 50% frame rate drop in 4K on some systems.

• Extremely high hardware requirements: Only recent GPUs like the RTX 4080 Super or RTX 4090 can maintain acceptable performance at high resolutions.

In practice, even high-end PCs may struggle to run this setting at 1440p or 4K, forcing players to adjust other settings or rely on upscaling technologies.

Finding the Best Balance

For a good mix between quality and performance, a hybrid configuration is recommended:

• Lower object quality, global illumination, shadows, and vegetation density to "Medium".

• Keep particles, lighting, post-processing, shaders, textures, and volumetric effects on "Experimental".

This setup maximizes visual fidelity without sacrificing too many FPS.

Fortunately, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II supports several upscaling technologies:

• DLSS (NVIDIA) and FSR (AMD) help boost performance without significantly affecting image quality.

• Enabling these options can recover lost FPS, especially at 1440p and 4K.

The "Experimental" mode in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II offers visual improvements, but at the cost of excessive resource consumption. For most players, a mix of "Medium" and "Experimental" settings, combined with upscaling, will provide the best compromise.