Display.
Set the default resolution of your monitor.
VSync: off. Very important. 1 or 2 frames gives some sort of lag.
GPU Max Buffered Frames: 3 (default).
Anti-Aliasing: off.
Graphics Quality.
Level of Detail: medium.
Shadows: low. This option consumes the most resources. Leave it to low if you don’t have the latest hardware.
Reflections: medium.
Ambient Occlusion: MHBAO.
Motion Blur and Depth of Field: off.
Water: medium.
Shader: medium. Set it to low if your PC is really old. This option requires a lot of resources.
Other aspects
Depending on your processor, the loading screens can take some time, even 1 or 2 minutes.
If you change the graphic options, be sure to restart the game or the FPS will be reduced.
Watch Dogs doesn’t work on any 32 bit Windows. You need to run 64 bit on your computer/laptop.
This is because the game requires at least 6 GB RAM and the 32 bit OS can only work with around 4 gb RAM, even if you have 8 installed.
I’ve tested the game on a few systems:
Intel I3 3GHz, 8 gigabytes RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5670 (1 GB RAM). Works pretty bad when driving a car. Works fine if the character is not driving, even in open world. Works perfect indoors.
I7 + GeForce GTX 780 Ti + 8 GB, the game doesn’t run perfect because nVidia Physx has sometimes issues with the GTX 780 Ti. But it works decent on ultra settings.
I5-3570 GHz and GTX 660 TI, 8 GB, the game runs perfect.
I5, Radeon 7850 2GB, the game runs on medium settings (1920 x 1080 resolution) at 60 FPS.
On a Intel Pentium Dual Core 2020M 2.4 GHz, Intel HD graphics, 8 GB RAM, the game doesn’t run at all. Because of the integrated graphic card, even though the other specs are ok.
It is very important to have the video card drivers updated to the lates version, Nvidia: 337.88 and AMD: Catalyst 14.4.
If you want to play Watch Dogs in good conditions, make sure you have a graphic card with 2 GB RAM.