In a direct conversion radio frequency receiver, an automatic gain control is implemented that allows changing the operation mode of a filter unit in the baseband section of the receiver such that in a first operation mode filter capacities are selected to provide desired output signal characteristics, whereas in a second operation mode the filter settling time is significantly reduced in order to speed up gain adaptation and to improve gain loop stability. In one embodiment the cut-off frequency of a high pass filter and the Q-factor of a subsequent low pass filter are increased and decreased respectively upon changing the gain setting of a variable gain amplifier to accelerate settling of the filter.