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Best Cities: Skylines II settings for the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti (2026)

On a NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti (paired with a balanced Intel Core i5-13500H (laptop)-class CPU), Cities: Skylines II runs at roughly 75 FPS at 1080p with our optimized settings — up from about 75FPS with everything maxed. Here's the configuration and what each setting costs.

The NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti is a mainstream 1080p graphics card with 11GB of VRAM, and Cities: Skylines II is a demanding, graphically heavy game. Paired with the Intel Core i5-13500H (laptop), it runs well at 1080p — about 75 FPS with FrameCoach's optimized settings. That already clears a smooth frame rate on High, so our tuning keeps the visuals as high as possible instead of chasing extra frames.

Across resolutions you can expect around 75 FPS at 1080p and 61 FPS at 1440p, dropping to roughly 62 FPS at 4K. The biggest free win is FSR upscaling — set it to Quality for a large FPS boost at little visual cost.

Resolution	All-High FPS	Optimized FPS
1080p	75	75
1440p	45	61
4K	26	62

💡 Cities: Skylines II: Big cities are limited by your CPU, not your GPU - upscaling won’t fix that.

Recommended settings

Upscaling — FSROff

Cities: Skylines II supports DLSS and FSR. A free FPS boost - enable it first, though big cities are limited by your CPU, not the upscaler.

Global IlluminationMediumbaseline

Bounce lighting across the city - one of the heaviest GPU settings. Medium is a clean trade.

VolumetricsMediumbaseline

Volumetric fog and clouds. Expensive for the payoff - drop a notch for an easy win.

ReflectionsLowbaseline

Screen-space reflections on water and glass. Low is plenty in a zoomed-out city view.

Shadow QualityMediumbaseline

Shadow resolution and range over the city. Medium is the value pick.

Ambient OcclusionLowbaseline

Screen-space contact shadows between buildings. Low is a cheap trade.

Fog QualityMediumbaseline

Distance and weather fog. Low is fine for a clear city view.

Depth of FieldOnbaseline

Background blur when zoomed in. Cheap to turn off if you don't want it.

Level of DetailMediumbaseline

How detailed distant buildings stay - also leans on the CPU. Medium for big cities.

Anti-AliasingHighbaseline

Edge smoothing across the cityscape. Cheap; leave it on to reduce shimmer.

Texture QualityHighbaseline

Surface sharpness on buildings and terrain - cheap on FPS if it fits your VRAM.

⚡ Fine-tune this for your exact CPU & target FPS →

🎯 Can the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti run Cities: Skylines II? See the verdict →

Cities: Skylines II on other GPUs

Other games on the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti

Frequently asked

What FPS does the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti get in Cities: Skylines II?

With FrameCoach's optimized balanced settings, the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti averages around 75 FPS at 1080p in Cities: Skylines II — up from about 75 FPS with everything on High.

Can the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti run Cities: Skylines II at 1440p?

At 1440p with optimized settings, the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti averages roughly 61 FPS in Cities: Skylines II — a smooth experience.

What are the best Cities: Skylines II settings for the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti?

Use a balanced preset, keep ray tracing off for maximum FPS, and ease the heaviest options like Global Illumination and Volumetrics down a notch. The full per-setting breakdown is above.

FPS figures are estimates from a generalized model (hardware tier × game load × per-setting weights), not live benchmarks — real performance varies by scene, drivers and game version.