Subnautica 2 is finally in early access, and good news for PC players: you do not need a monster rig to dive in comfortably. Based on the early build, the game is not one of those brutal 2026 PC releases that instantly cooks your GPU. But because it is still early access, a bit of tuning is worth it if you want smoother underwater exploration without random stutter.
For Malaysian and SEA players, this matters because a lot of us are still gaming on 1080p monitors, mid-range laptops, or older desktop builds. Not everyone is running an RTX 4080 setup, bro. If you are on something around an RTX 3060 level, this is the kind of settings profile that should give you a clean balance between visuals and performance.
Destructoid tested the game on a system with an AMD Ryzen 5600G, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB. That is a pretty realistic mid-range setup for many PC gamers here, especially if you built your rig during the GPU price madness era and never upgraded after that.
Recommended Subnautica 2 graphics settings
If you want to prioritise smooth gameplay, start with these settings:
| Setting | Recommended option | |---|---| | Window Mode | Windowed Fullscreen | | Resolution | 1920x1080 | | Frame Rate Limit | 60 | | Motion Blur | Off | | Vertical Sync | Off | | Underwater Blur | Off | | Upscaling Method | DLSS for NVIDIA, TSR for AMD | | DLSS Upscaling Quality | Balanced | | Global Illumination | Medium | | Shadows | Low | | View Distance | High | | Textures | Medium | | Shading | Medium | | Foliage | Medium | | Effects | Low | | Reflections | Medium | | Post Processing | Medium | | Landscape | Medium | | Clouds | Low |
The big one here is the frame rate cap. Pushing beyond 60FPS may sound tempting, especially if you have a high refresh rate monitor, but the early access build can apparently throw in brief stutters when left uncapped or pushed higher. Locking the game to 60FPS seems to stabilise things nicely.
That is not glamorous, but it is practical. Subnautica is not a twitch shooter where every extra frame decides a gunfight. This is about immersion, exploration, and not having your deep-sea panic ruined by performance hiccups.
What to lower first if your PC still struggles
If you are still getting lag, do not immediately nuke everything to Low. Start with the heavier settings first. Shadows and effects are already recommended at Low, but you can also drop Global Illumination, Reflections, Foliage, and Post Processing from Medium to Low if your system is coughing.
For laptop gamers, especially those playing on older gaming laptops common in Malaysia’s student crowd, thermals can also be a problem. If your FPS starts smooth but drops after 20 minutes, that may be heat throttling rather than pure graphics load. In that case, a 30FPS cap is not ideal, but it can help keep the game playable until optimisation improves.
Should you wait for patches?
Since Subnautica 2 is still in early access, yes, expect Unknown Worlds to keep improving it. Destructoid notes that future updates should bring more content, including additional Blueprints, and hopefully better optimisation across different devices.
For now, though, this setup looks like the safest baseline: 1080p, DLSS Balanced or TSR, mostly Medium settings, and a strict 60FPS cap. Not maxed-out flex settings, sure, but smooth enough to enjoy the ocean vibes without turning your PC into a space heater.
Source: Destructoid