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Best South of Midnight settings for the NVIDIA GTX 980 (2026)

On a NVIDIA GTX 980 (paired with a balanced Intel Core i5-8600K-class CPU), South of Midnight runs at roughly 66 FPS at 1080p with our optimized settings — up from about 49FPS with everything maxed. Here's the configuration and what each setting costs.

The NVIDIA GTX 980 is a entry-level graphics card with 4GB of VRAM, and South of Midnight is a demanding, graphically heavy game. Paired with the Intel Core i5-8600K, it runs well at 1080p — about 66 FPS with FrameCoach's optimized settings, a clear jump from roughly 49 FPS with everything on High.

Across resolutions you can expect around 66 FPS at 1080p and 61 FPS at 1440p, dropping to roughly 43 FPS at 4K. With only 4GB of VRAM, keep textures a notch below max in South of Midnight at higher resolutions to avoid stutter. The biggest free win is FSR upscaling — set it to Quality for a large FPS boost at little visual cost.

ResolutionAll-High FPSOptimized FPS
1080p4966
1440p2961
4K1743
💡 South of Midnight: The stop-motion look is an art style, not a frame-rate problem - it runs smoothly.
🚀 Biggest free win: enable FSR (Quality) — about +35% FPS for a small sharpness trade.
Recommended settings
Upscaling — FSRQuality+35% FPS
South of Midnight (Unreal Engine 5) supports DLSS, FSR and XeSS plus Frame Generation. Enable it first - UE5 is heavy.
Texture QualityEpic-1% FPS
Surface sharpness - cheap if it fits your VRAM.
Ambient OcclusionHighbaseline
Soft contact shadows for depth (South of Midnight is UE5 but uses static lighting, not Lumen). Note: Post Processing also controls AO.
Shadow QualityHighbaseline
Shadow resolution and range. High is the value pick.
Reflection QualityHighbaseline
Screen-space reflections on the bayou water. High is a clean trade.
Effects QualityHighbaseline
Magic and combat effects. Lowering smooths busy moments. The deliberate stop-motion frame look is a separate art choice, not a performance setting.
Foliage QualityHighbaseline
Plant density across the Deep South swamps. A real cost outdoors.
Post ProcessingHighbaseline
Bloom and depth of field. Cheap; set to taste.
View DistanceHighbaseline
How far detail renders. Mild pop-in when lowered.
Anti-AliasingHighbaseline
Edge smoothing. Medium/High keeps the image clean cheaply.

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

🎯 Can the NVIDIA GTX 980 run South of Midnight? See the verdict →

South of Midnight on other GPUs
Other games on the NVIDIA GTX 980
Frequently asked

What FPS does the NVIDIA GTX 980 get in South of Midnight?

With FrameCoach's optimized balanced settings, the NVIDIA GTX 980 averages around 66 FPS at 1080p in South of Midnight — up from about 49 FPS with everything on High.

Can the NVIDIA GTX 980 run South of Midnight at 1440p?

At 1440p with optimized settings, the NVIDIA GTX 980 averages roughly 61 FPS in South of Midnight — a smooth experience.

What are the best South of Midnight settings for the NVIDIA GTX 980?

Turn on FSR (Quality), keep ray tracing off for maximum FPS, and ease the heaviest options like Ambient Occlusion and Shadow Quality 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.