Valheim Switch 2: Testing All 3 Graphics Modes, Pop-In & Performance
I’ve spent plenty of time playing Valheim since its release on Nintendo Switch 2, losing countless hours to its world and ultimately awarding it a What’s It Like Certified Exceptional score of 90 out of 100 in our review. But since that review, many of you have been asking for a deeper look at the game’s visuals and performance. And now that Valheim has received a post-launch patch, I thought this would be the perfect time to take another look at how it all runs. So, let’s dive right in.
Testing Conditions
Before we get into the results, I want to quickly explain how I’m conducting these tests, because consistency is important when comparing performance. For all three modes, I’m using the same save file and the same areas of the world, with the graphics mode changed at the main menu before loading into the game. This allows me to properly test how each mode handles asset loading and pop-in from a fresh load, rather than giving the game time to load everything beforehand. It’s worth noting that this is deliberately a stress test. Once an area has finished loading, the hitches you’ll see during normal gameplay are generally minimal. Staying around your home base or travelling back through areas you’ve already explored will usually provide a much smoother experience. Instead, I’m deliberately pushing the game by exploring new areas and moving into environments where the game has to load new assets. This lets us see how each of the three performance modes handles those moments when the game is working hardest.
30 FPS: Quality Mode
First up, we have Quality Mode, which, as the name suggests, is all about prioritising the visuals. This mode runs at a higher resolution, offers a generous draw distance, and, as you can see from the footage, looks really nice in motion. Foliage is dense, the world feels detailed at a distance, and there’s a noticeable amount of detail being maintained as we move through the environment. Most importantly, the frame rate stays locked to 30 FPS, which gives the game a consistent and predictable feel while exploring. That said, there is some hitching when the game is loading new areas. In this particular section of footage, moving into a new chunk actually caused the ground assets to stop loading for a brief moment. The game then hitched as those assets loaded in, before popping them into the world. It’s worth putting that into perspective, though. I’ve experienced this particular issue only twice across roughly 40 to 50 hours of gameplay, so this isn’t something I’ve encountered regularly during normal play.
You’ll also notice that Quality Mode’s level-of-detail transitions are handled fairly gently. Rather than aggressively swapping objects in and out of the world, the changes are generally subtle enough that you won’t notice them a lot of the time. And that’s where the greater detail view distance really helps. You’re able to see the world stretching out ahead of you, with plenty of foliage and environmental detail remaining visible in the distance, which makes exploration feel much more impressive. So, if your priority is getting the best-looking version of Valheim on Switch 2, Quality Mode certainly makes a strong first impression. But how much of that extra visual detail are we actually getting compared to the other modes? That’s something we’ll put to the test shortly, with all three modes running side by side.
40 FPS: Balanced Mode
Next up is Balanced Mode, which is designed for players with a 120Hz-compatible display, allowing Valheim to target a locked 40 FPS, and you can feel the difference immediately. There is a slight drop in resolution compared to Quality Mode, but it’s not particularly noticeable during normal gameplay. What is noticeable is the increase in frame rate. Moving through the world feels considerably smoother, with camera movement and general exploration benefiting from those extra frames. The biggest visual compromise comes from the level of detail, particularly when it comes to ground clutter. Compared to Quality Mode, there’s roughly half as much ground clutter being rendered at a distance, and distant assets also pop into view more aggressively. It’s still perfectly playable, and the world retains plenty of detail, but when you put the two modes side by side, the difference becomes much easier to spot.
The asset-loading hitches we saw in Quality Mode are also still present here. In fact, during my testing, they seemed to occur a little more frequently in Balanced Mode. However, outside of those loading moments, the important thing to point out is that the 40 FPS target doesn’t really falter. Once the game has finished loading the surrounding assets, we’re getting that consistent 40 FPS experience. So Balanced Mode makes an interesting trade-off. You’re giving up some ground detail and accepting more noticeable distant pop-in, but in return, you’re getting a substantially smoother experience than Quality Mode without what I would consider a particularly obvious resolution drop.
60 FPS: Performance Mode
Finally, we have Performance Mode, which pushes Valheim all the way up to a target of 60 FPS. Much like the other two modes, the frame rate is remarkably consistent. Outside of the asset-loading hitches we’ve already seen. But there is a much more obvious visual compromise here. The resolution takes a drastic hit, resulting in a noticeably softer and more blurred image compared to the 30 and 40 FPS modes. This is by far the biggest difference you’re going to notice when switching between the three modes. There is an option to turn anti-aliasing off, which does give the image a sharper appearance. However, that comes at the expense of increased pixelation, so you’re essentially choosing between a softer image or a sharper one with more visible jagged edges.
Once again, we see those asset-loading hitches. What’s interesting here is that the frame rate itself isn’t really the problem. Even when these hitches occur, the game remains firmly around its 60 FPS target before and after the interruption. That makes these look much more like an asset-streaming or engine-level issue rather than a conventional frame-rate problem. The game isn’t struggling to maintain 60 FPS; it’s briefly stopping to load something into the world. That’s something we’ve now seen across all three modes… Quality, Balanced and Performance can all exhibit these loading hitches, despite their different frame-rate targets and visual settings.
It’s also worth noting that these aren’t necessarily unique to the Switch 2 version. Players have reported similar asset-loading behaviour on other platforms, suggesting this may be more of a characteristic of how Valheim handles streaming its world rather than something specifically caused by the Switch 2 hardware. So now, it’s time to put them side by side and see just how different these modes really are.
Side by Side
Running all three modes side by side makes the compromises in frame rate, detail and resolution much easier to see. As we approach the rock on the hill, all three modes experience a hitch as the surrounding assets load in. Despite the different performance targets, the behaviour is remarkably similar, which further suggests that these interruptions aren’t caused by the frame rate target itself.
As we get closer to the water, we can also see the differences in how each mode handles level-of-detail rendering. Performance Mode is noticeably softer and has less environmental detail, while Balanced Mode sits somewhere in between. Quality Mode maintains considerably more ground clutter and foliage at distance, which can actually help disguise some of the terrain deformation we’re seeing underneath it. The differences become particularly obvious when you watch the three modes side by side. Quality Mode gives you a much denser world, Balanced Mode reduces some of that detail in exchange for 40 FPS, while Performance Mode makes the biggest visual sacrifices to reach 60 FPS.
I also wanted to show what happens once an area has actually finished loading. On Quality Mode, I ran back through the area we’d already discovered, giving the game a chance to demonstrate how it performs once those assets are in place. As you can see, the experience is perfectly fine. The hitches we’ve been seeing aren’t constantly interrupting gameplay once the world has loaded in. As I mentioned in my original review, I’ve also seen that the developers have acknowledged the asset-loading issues. Hopefully that means a fix is on the way. The first post-launch patch appears to be focused more broadly on cross-platform fixes rather than addressing the underlying engine-level behaviour we’ve been testing here, so we’ll have to wait and see what future updates bring. For now, though, this testing gives us a much clearer picture of where the three modes differ… and where they don’t.
Which Mode Should You Use?
So, which is the best mode to play in? Well, in my humble opinion, Quality Mode is where I’d be spending most of my time. You get the gorgeous world, the higher resolution, a much denser level of detail, and, in my testing, the loading hitches felt more manageable. Balanced Mode is a nice middle ground if you don’t mind giving up some of that ground clutter and accepting a little more noticeable pop-in. The jump to 40 FPS makes exploration feel smoother, while still retaining a good amount of the visual detail. If you absolutely have to have 60 FPS, Performance Mode delivers a remarkably consistent frame rate. I would recommend heading into the menus and switching anti-aliasing off, as the sharper image helps offset some of that softness, although you’ll have to put up with more visible pixelation.
Ultimately, there’s no wrong way to experience Valheim on Switch 2. Each mode makes a different compromise, so it really comes down to what matters most to you: visual quality, smoother motion, or maximum frame rate. Whatever way you decide to play, I’m sure you’re going to have a great time with Valheim on Switch 2.
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