Despite its wobbly release and the fact that it just recently celebrated its 4th anniversary, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege still manages to attract and retain a player base worthy of envy. Coupled with its long-lasting and non-diminishing presence on the esports scene, it represents a true testament to its top-notch quality, while reflecting Ubisoft’s dedication to creating and perfecting the ultimate online tactical FPS.
The thing is, the more popular the game gets – the more fierce the competition becomes. A staggering number of 55 million (yes, fifty-five) registered players is an intimidating statistic indeed, but have no fear!
In order to get you up to speed, Game Gavel will provide you with some essential tips to give you the best head start possible, thereby elevating your game to competitive levels…
… provided you’ve got the skills, that is.
Best Audio-visual & System Settings for Rainbow Six Siege
More often than not, passionate multiplayer aficionados love to blame their poor rankings on those pesky lags and frame rate drops. Well too bad, because there’s no room for excuses on our watch! The guide below will provide you with all of the (un)official tips and tweaks to make sure that the frame rate stays locked in at all times.
Rainbow Six Siege System Requirements
First things first: the hardware. Given its age, Rainbow Six Siege is fairly kind to the low-end budget gaming PC spectrum. Nonetheless, it would be wise to take a look at the specs needed to run the game decently:
Rainbow Six Siege Minimum System Requirements
- Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit, Windows 8 64 bit, Windows 10 64 bit
- CPU: Intel Core i3 560 @ 3.3GHz or better, AMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3.0Ghz or better
- RAM: 6 GB
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD5770 (1024MB VRAM)
- DirectX Version: 11
- HDD/SSD Storage: 30 GB
- Sound card: Yes
- Pixel shader: 5.0
- Vertex shader: 5.0
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
Rainbow Six Siege Minimum System Requirements
- Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit, Windows 8 64 bit, Windows 10 64 bit
- CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3GHz or better, AMD FX-8120 Eight-Core @ 2.6Ghz or better
- RAM: 16 GB
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 / R9 280x (2GB VRAM)
- DirectX Version: 11
- HDD/SSD Storage:
- Sound card: Yes
- Pixel shader: 5.0
- Vertex shader: 5.0
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
Depending on your specs, you can easily manage your expectations based on the requirements listed above. If your PC is stationed above the recommended margin and sports a quality 144Hz gaming monitor, you can expect to reach three-digit frame rates without much fuss.
On the other side of the spectrum, meeting the minimum system requirements is not a guarantee that you’ll be able to game smoothly once your settings are dialed to their lowest values. To be frank, you’ll be lucky to hit 40-50 fps at best, not to mention dealing with problematic and murky visuals.
In those circumstances, your focus should be on upgrading your rig by either furnishing it with a brand new gaming CPU or a powerful gaming GPU.
Best Rainbow Six Siege GPU Settings
Your graphics card is one of the components that will take most of the beating, so make sure that its settings are calibrated properly before continuing further. What follows next is a step-by-step guide on how to correctly tweak settings for NVidia and AMD Radeon GPUs respectively. If you haven’t updated your drivers yet, no is the time to do so. We’ll wait!
NVidia Settings
- Right-click on Desktop and left-click on ‘Nvidia Control Panel’
- Select the ‘Adjust image settings with preview’ tab.
- Select the ‘Use my preference emphasizing’ option (or ‘Let the application decide’ if you have beefy specs)
- Pull the slider to the ‘Performance’ setting on the left
- Click ‘Apply’
- Next, click on the ‘Manage 3D Settings’ tab
- Then, choose ‘Program Settings’, click ‘Add’, and select ‘Rainbow Six’ from a list
- Apply the settings below:
- ‘Antialiasing’ -> ‘Mode’: Off.
- ‘Power management mode’: Prefer maximum performance.
- ‘Texture filtering’ -> ‘Anisotropic sample optimization’: Off.
- ‘Texture filtering’ -> ‘Quality’: High performance.
- Optional: In case you’re using a laptop/notebook, under the ‘Select the preferred graphics processor for this program’ option, select the ‘High-performance NVIDIA processor’.
- Click ‘Apply’.
- Afterwards, click on ‘Adjust desktop size and position’ and set the scaling mode to ‘No scaling’.
- Finally, click ‘Apply’ and close the NVidia Control Panel.
Voila! In case this isn’t enough, there are a few additional tricks at your disposal. If you’re the owner of a high-end machine, you might benefit from selecting the ‘Manage 3D Settings’ tab, scrolling down to the ‘Maximum prerendered frames’ option, and setting it to 1. You might experience a slight drop in FPS, but your input lag will see a drastic improvement. To bring those frame rates up to speed, here is an efficient method of boosting your FPS by a significant margin.
AMD Radeon Settings
- Right-click on Desktop and left-click on ‘AMD Radeon Settings’.
- Click on the tab called ‘Gaming’.
- Select ‘Global Settings’.
- Under ‘Anti-aliasing mode’, select ‘Override application settings’.
- Under ‘Anti-aliasing level’, select ‘2X’.
- Switch ‘Anisotropic Filtering Mode’ on.
- Afterwards, click on ‘Anisotropic Filtering Level’ and select ‘2X’.
- Under ‘Texture Filtering Quality’, choose ‘Performance’.
- Under ‘Wait for Vertical Refresh’, select ‘Always off’.
- Under ‘Tessellation Mode’, choose ‘Override application settings’.
- For the final touch, under ‘Maximum Tessellation Level’, select ‘32x’ or lower.
Rainbow Six Siege Windows Settings
Unlike its predecessor, Windows 10 is highly regarded as a great operating system for gaming. Great accessibility, stable performance, and a user-friendly interface easily tower over some of its minor flaws that may as well be considered minor annoyances. Still, there’s always room for improvement! Here are a few neat little tricks that will help you make the most out of your PC.
Deleting Temporary Files
Let’s unclog those virtual arteries, shall we? The act of cleaning up temporary files (or temp files for short) can be compared to throwing away your notes after finally passing your finals – though not nearly as satisfying, sadly. The OS creates these temp files to temporarily store data while running tasks, after which they become completely unnecessary and only slow things down without much purpose.
Every now and then it’s recommended that you take a few minutes out of your day and get rid of that pile of redundant data, and here’s how:
- Press the Windows logo and the R keys simultaneously, or type ‘Run’ in the Windows search bar
- When the ‘Run’ window appears, type in ‘%temp%’ and press Enter
- Once the Temp folder pops up, delete everything contained in the folder. Skip the undeletable ones.
- Reopen the ‘Run’ window using one of the methods described above
- type in ‘temp’ and press Enter.
- Once another Temp folder opens up, delete its contents as well, while skipping anything undeletable.
- Open the ‘Run’ window for the third time.
- Type in ‘prefetch’ and press Enter.
- Same thing here: once the folder appears, delete everything that can be deleted.
- Empty your Recycle Bin.
Optimizing Windows for Best Performance
This one is even more straightforward, consisting of three simple steps:
- In the Windows Search bar, type ‘performance’, and click on ‘adjust the appearance and performance of Windows’ from the search results.
- Once the ‘Performance Options’ window pops up, select ‘Adjust for best performance’.
- Click on ‘OK’.
Turning Off or Tweaking Background Programs
Gamers often overestimate their machine’s true power while also underestimating the toll backup programs can take on their performance. If you must have programs like Discord or Google Chrome running in the background, it would be wise to at least tinker with their settings a bit in order to find the right balance of speed and convenience.
To avoid repeating ourselves, the guide to optimizing Google Chrome, Steam, and Discord can be found in our PUBG Settings article, along with a few more equally applicable tips to make your PC the fastest it can be!
Best GameSettings.ini Settings for Rainbow Six Siege
We’re not out of the woods just yet! Before we get to the in-game stuff, there’s one last option requiring our attention. In the Rainbow Six Siege folder located in Documents lies a .ini file called GameSettings.ini.
This file lets you change the value of TAASharpenFactor to 0.375, therefore enhancing the visuals with sharper-looking textures and making it easier to spot your foes. If this particular value doesn’t do you justice, you may fiddle with the number in order to find the sharpness level that suits you best.
Best In-Game Graphics Settings for Rainbow Six Siege
Now that we’ve successfully covered the dirty side of optimization, it’s time to take it down a notch and use a more simple, more accessible option. Fiddling with your visual and graphics settings in-game should usually be the first (and most obvious) task on your checklist, and in most cases, experimenting with different combinations will usually do the trick.
However, many of us faced with time constraints are looking for a simple, easy fix that will avoid the traditional trial-and-error method of going about. Nothing comes easy, folks…
… but exceptions can be made!
In that regard, let’s go through each graphical setting in particular and try to work out the ideal balance between performance and visual quality for your machine.
Display
Truth be told, this submenu doesn’t offer much in terms of the number of settings available, but you stand to gain a significant boost in FPS if you play your cards right. That being said, should you follow the instructions and advice following this unnecessarily long and boring introduction, you’ll do just fine!
- Resolution: 1920x1080p – the 1080p resolution represents the best quality-performance equilibrium among gamers, so it’s by far your safest bet. If your FPS counter keeps dipping way below acceptable levels (i.e. 60 fps), consider going with a lower resolution.
- Display Mode: Full Screen – as simple as that, moving on.
- Refresh Rate: 60-240 Hz – the higher the number is, the smoother your gameplay will get! Make sure this setting reflects your monitor’s max refresh rate, and you’ll do fine.
- Aspect Ratio: ??? – This setting depends entirely on your own personal preference. The auto setting does the job for 99% of the players, but that 1% of players opting for 4:3 in order to make enemies look larger at the price of a ‘’squished’’ picture… well, they may be on to something. Try it out for yourself, or stick with auto if you want to play it safe.
- VSync: Off – No need to make your inputs delayed. Speed is everything, next!
- Widescreen letterbox: Off – If you’re into the whole ‘’cinematic experience’’, feel free to leave it on. Game Gavel is a judgment-free zone, so do as you please!
- Field of View (FOV): 70-90 – Similarly to the aspect ratio setting, this one is entirely up to you. Increasing FOV will give you better peripheral vision at the cost of making enemies look smaller and harder to hit. On the other hand, scaling it down will give you a tunnel vision effect by making your enemies bigger, but decreasing your overall side vision. Balance is key!
- Calibration – Brightness: 60-70 – The sweet spot is lurking between these values!
Graphics
Murky textures? Pixelated shadows? A small price to pay for achieving greatness! Let’s dive in:
- Texture Quality: Low or Medium – While the lowest setting will give you the best FPS possible, consider bumping it up to Medium for that dose of extra texture clarity.
- Texture Filtering: Linear (low-end) or Anisotropic 4x (high-end) – This option has the least effect on your overall performance. Nonetheless, if you’re seriously desperate in your search for an extra frame or two, keep this bad boy locked in Linear.
- LOD Quality: Medium (low-end) to Ultra (high-end) – This setting determines the distance at which the objects start losing detail. The lowest setting will result in blocky models, so we suggest staying at the Medium range or above.
- Shading Quality: Low – Bumping this setting will yield minimal enhancements at the cost of 20+ frames. You know what to do.
- Shadow Quality: Low to Medium – This setting puts us in a tactical dilemma. On the one hand, the Low setting turns off the shadows completely, allowing you to spot enemies lurking in darkness a lot more easily. On the other hand, peeking around corners becomes a lot more challenging ordeal. Your safest bet is leaving it on Medium.
- Reflection Quality: Low – Thankfully, this setting doesn’t cost much in terms of visual quality, while also doing wonders for your framerate.
- Ambient Occlusion, Lens Flare, Zoom-in Depth of Field, and Anti-Aliasing: Off – You’re not here to gawk at the visual candy. You’re here to win!
- Render Scaling: 100 – This option does not require your attention, as it will only make everything look significantly more blurry, and functionality is the name of the game.
- T-AA Sharpness: 0
Best Control Settings for Rainbow Six Siege
When it comes to frenetic, fast-paced action multiplayer games, the controls should be on par with your PC’s performance. Your character should feel like a virtual extension of yourself, responding effortlessly to your every command and allowing you to fully focus on the tasks at hand.
There’s no ideal control scheme out there, and it’s up to every individual to craft his/her control scheme based on his/her preferences. However, there are a few guidelines to follow in order to make your control scheme as convenient and as serviceable as possible.
When binding key shortcuts, make sure that no key is too far out of your reach. Rainbow Six Siege requires lightning-fast reflexes and quick thinking, leaving you minimal time to scramble around looking for that grenade hotkey.
If you wish to further improve your accuracy and your reflexes, lowering mouse sensitivity just might do the trick! Many newcomers trick themselves into sticking with high mouse sensitivity out of a false sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, all those near misses will one day turn into clean hits.
In your dreams, noob!
The twitchy nature of high mouse sensitivity can only allow you so much in terms of accuracy. Unless your hands are ‘Shaolin monk’ levels of steady, you will never be able to completely adjust to this mode of play, and the sooner you come to terms with this fact – the better.
Investing in a high-quality FPS gaming mouse and a solid mouse pad would be the best decision of your gaming life, bumping your game up to a whole other level. Pairing the purchase with a great gaming headset could further embellish your experience and amp up the overall immersion factor.
Perhaps we’ve already failed to bring up the most generic of advice ever concocted by a human being in the history of ever, but here it goes: practice makes perfect! No amount of flashy gaming gear or RGB-lit PC cases can substitute hours upon hours of practice needed to merely think about climbing the ranks, but they will effectively eliminate any kind of excuse that your subconscious might think of to justify being the first to receive a shotgun blast to the face upon breaching the entrance door. Yikes!
Final Words
We hope that you will find the aforementioned advice as helpful as we have! Like every endeavor worthy of pursuing, this one also takes time, patience, positivity, endurance, and a little bit of extra cash on the side. Once you put this advice into practice, you’ll be climbing ranks in no time!