These are the graphic options for Path of Exile: VSync, Shadow Type, Antialising Quality, Texture Quality, Texture Filtering, Post Processing and Screen Shake.
The option that is consuming the most resources is “Shadow Type”. If you play on a laptop that has an Intel HD 4000 video card, you need to turn “Shadow Type” to “No Shadows”.
Antialising quality to “Off”. You can leave 4x Anisotropic at least. The frame rate is dropping mostly because of the “Shadow type” option.
The other options should be left enabled, “VSync”, “Post Processing” and “Screen Shake”.
I’ve noticed that the game runs smoother if you set “Windowed Fullscreen” for the “Display mode” option.
On my main PC, the game runs perfect with the graphic settings set for maximum quality. These are the specs of my PC.
I3, 3GHz.
8 GB RAM.
ATI Radeon HD 5670 (1 GB RAM).