To begin, open the NVIDIA Configuration Control Panel. If the Control Panel Icon cannot be found in the Icon Tray in the bottom right hand corner, the program can be easily located using the Windows Search feature.


Go to Manage 3D programs and select Program settings. Find Sonic Team Racing. If the profile is missing, run Sonic Team Racing at least once(and close), press the add button, then select GameApp_PcDx11_x64Final. Once found or added, make the following changes:

Preferred Graphics Processor: High-Performance NVIDIA Processor
Antialaising - Gamma Correction: On
Low Latency mode: Ultra
Max Frame Rate: 250 (anything above 240 will unlock FPS; 120 works too**)
Power management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering - Anisotrophic sample Optimization: On
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD Bias: Clamp
Texture Filtering - Quality: High Performance
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization: On
Thread Optimization: On
Vertical Sync: Off
Virtual Reality Frames: Use 3D application Settings

**Limiting the FPS to 120 will cap the FPS, but lower stress on the GPU and reduce GPU Temp. Personally, I find 250 (unlocked) to look better and appear much smoother. But the 120 FPS setting still removes the 30 FPS down-throttle that occasionally occurs on some hardware.

Note: Under "Adjust Image Settings With Preview", insure that "Use the advanced 3D image settings" option is checked.

In Sonic Team Racing Option's video section, make the following changes:

Display Mode: Use Windowed Borderless

Full Screen mode will auto-lock FPS to 30/60 and cause terrible micro-studder when trying to unlock FPS. To fix this problem, use Windowed Borderless. Sonic Team Racing is better optimized to use this mode over Fullscreen, similar to several games of its era.

Optional: Disable V-Sync in game

Disabling V-Sync in game will result in smoother-looking frames per second. Higher FPS achieved from unlocking Team sonic racing from 30/60 FPS will prevent vertical screen tearing. However, If intense screen tearing does occur, V-Sync is best left On.


Optional 2: Turn Boost Blur Off

Turning off Boost Blur can improve performance, or at least give the illusion of faster FPS, and clean up the blurry appearance on the screen. Boost Blur can become a problem later on in the game with higher difficulty speeds and top-tier Kart builds. This is because boost builds are very powerful and keep the player boosted ~70-90% of the time, turning the entire experience into one big blur.


Optional 3: Set Texture Quality to Medium or Low

Team Sonic Racing has some of the most beautiful and high resolution textures for a racing game. However, most players will never be close enough to objects and textures, or be going much too fast to enjoy them. Even at low setting, very little difference in visual quality will be noticeable. Lowering texture resolution will free up memory, increase FPS, reduce load times, and reduce graphical latency with minimal loss in graphical fidelity.

Optionally, a windows graphics profile can be added:

Creating a Graphics profile will boost Team Sonic Racing's program priority and optimize it to work better with Windows. To add a graphics profile, type graphics in the windows search field and find Graphics Settings.


Press the browse button and find GameApp_PcDx11_x64Final. This is found within the Steamapp/common folder.

Example --> C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Sonic Racing


After the .exe file is added to the Graphic profile, click on the application, press options, and set to High performance.

With all the changes and profiles made, Team Sonic Racing should run ~100-150% faster. Not only will the game run smoother and faster, but the menus and UI will also be less laggy and load instantly. In my case, the game went from a laggy mess running between 25 and 60 FPS, to running at 250 FPS in menus and between 130-205 FPS during races even in the most intense of moments. Below is a screenshot example of the game's appearance and FPS under these settings. At the time of the Screen shot, the FPS registered at a buttery smooth 191.



To see FPS in game like above, press the steam button in the top left hand corner of the steam application, go to Settings, find the In-game tab, and turn find "In-Game FPS Counter" and choose a location for it to display on Screen. The FPS Gauge will assist in choosing the right settings to balance FPS and appearance and show whether FPS was properly unlocked.


Hopefully this information helps both new and old players get the most out of the most underrated but fastest version of Team Sonic Racing.