Crimson Desert PC Performance Review: I Tested All the Recommended Graphics Cards

Over the past fewer years, PC games person been facing an optimization problem. Leaning heavy connected upscaling solutions similar Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR, developers person been releasing ultra-detailed games, and hoping that these technologies volition assistance mitigate the show cost. Crimson Desert is simply a spot different, though.

While Crimson Desert is genuinely a beauteous – albeit buggy – game, developer Pearl Abyss announced ace tenable PC strategy requirements starring up to launch. What was peculiarly absorbing astir these is that immoderate of the builds called retired upscaling – but galore didn’t, truthful I conscionable had to trial the crippled astatine autochthonal solution to spot however it held up.

And, sure, Crimson Desert does conflict a small spot connected low-end cards similar the Radeon RX 6500 XT, but not by capable that switching connected FSR doesn’t bring it implicit that 60 fps threshold. And erstwhile you get to the mid-range, Crimson Desert holds up arsenic a crippled wherever upscaling serves its archetypal intent arsenic an representation prime and show enhancement, alternatively than a requirement.

How I Tested

The archetypal happening that jumped retired astatine maine erstwhile I was looking astatine Crimson Desert’s strategy requirements is however galore generations of hardware were represented. The minimum requirements telephone for an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, and that GPU came retired 10 years ago.

The crippled has to beryllium well-optimized successful bid for specified a wide scope of hardware to beryllium represented successful Pearl Abyss’ strategy requirements, truthful I wanted to spot conscionable however good the crippled would scale. The problem, though, is that the scope of hardware was a small too broad.

The game’s requirements telephone retired an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X astatine the low-end, for instance, and I conscionable don’t person 1 of those immoderate more. The oldest CPU I person lying astir that has a motherboard that could tally it is the Ryzen 5 7600, truthful I opted for that for the lower-end builds, swapping to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D erstwhile I got to the higher-end specs.

Crimson Desert besides calls for 16GB of RAM astatine each proposal level. The drawback present is that I lone person 16GB DDR5 sticks, which means that if I wanted to adhere to this requirement, I’d person to tally my representation successful single-channel mode, which would wounded performance. I would conscionable spell retired and bargain a 16GB kit with 2 8GB sticks to get astir this, but with RAM prices being what they are – I’m not going to bash that.

That leaves america with the graphics cards. I bash person astir of the GPUs to trial retired most of Crimson Desert’s show tiers, with 1 exception: the GTX 1060. While I bash person an aged GTX 1060 Founders Edition connected my shelf, erstwhile I plugged it successful to trial Crimson Desert, it didn’t consciousness similar posting anymore, truthful it seems similar that paper is going to that large gaming PC upstate – it served maine good implicit the years.

But adjacent though I don’t person the GPUs connected manus to trial the minimum spec, I was capable to trial the crippled connected the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. Curiously, successful Pearl Abyss’ strategy requirements for the Xbox Ally X, it calls retired very similar prime settings for the handheld arsenic it does for the 2016 graphics paper – minimum graphics settings and 1080p upscaled from a little resolution. The GTX 1060 astir apt would person ended up being much almighty than the handheld, but lone by a bit.

To trial the framework complaint crossed each of these GPUs (and handheld), I recorded show portion walking done Hernand Town, the archetypal city. While this isn’t the astir stressful location, with combat greatly impacting your performance, it is repeatable, making it easier to get a bully thought of what the baseline framework complaint for each graphics paper looks like.

Rather than moving each GPU astatine the aforesaid settings, I truly wanted to trial Crimson Desert’s recommended settings for each graphics card. So I utilized this graphic arsenic a guide, investigating the graphics preset, solution and upscaling specifically called out. And, well, for the astir portion Pearl Abyss seems to underestimate the show of its game.

Crimson Desert Xbox Ally X Performance

For arsenic fashionable arsenic the Steam Deck is, Crimson Desert simply won’t tally connected the SteamOS handheld close now. Instead, the lone mode to play Crimson Desert connected a handheld close present is to tally it connected an Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, oregon a akin Windows handheld. While that’s a shame, the other powerfulness of the Z2 Extreme would astir apt beryllium needed to play this crippled anyways.

Pearl Abyss recommends 3 antithetic settings profiles for the Xbox Ally X: ‘Performance’, ‘Balanced’ and ‘Quality’, with the erstwhile 2 leaning heavy connected upscaling and framework generation. What’s chaotic is that dissimilar the specs called retired for desktop, these don’t person a recommended graphics preset. But, aft investigating it, you’re going to privation to instrumentality with the ‘Minimum’ preset.

Running Crimson Desert astatine 1080p with FSR acceptable to Quality – which volition acceptable the rendering solution to 720p – you’ll get 40 fps, which is decidedly playable, adjacent if the minimum settings aren’t the easiest connected your eyes. You tin crook connected FSR framework procreation to agelong the framework complaint to 67 fps, but I wouldn’t really urge it. It mightiness look visually smoother, but determination is decidedly immoderate noticeable input lag determination that doesn’t marque the crippled consciousness large – and that was conscionable walking astir successful town.

But with however beauteous the crippled is erstwhile you commencement cranking up the prime settings and resolution, I’d urge sticking with a gaming PC oregon a console, if you person the option.

PC Performance

While Crimson Desert looks similar it’d beryllium the benignant of crippled that cripples hardware, it's amazingly casual to run, arsenic agelong arsenic you person a decent graphics card. I didn’t person the GTX 1060 to trial its perfectly minimum spec, but I did person an AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, and was amazed that it was really capable to support up – and with amended than Pearl Abyss’ quoted performance.

To beryllium clear, alternatively than pairing the 6500 XT with the 2600X Pearl Abyss calls for, I paired it with the 7600, which is significantly faster, but the low-end GPU inactive managed to mean 40 fps astatine debased settings astatine 1080p. That’s without upscaling, too, and erstwhile I enabled FSR connected the ‘Balanced’ preset, which renders the crippled astatine 635p, I was capable to get 53 fps retired of it, getting it person to that 60 fps saccharine spot.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the archetypal paper that Pearl Abyss says tin deed 60 fps, with the Medium preset astatine 1080p. And, astatine slightest successful the small laps astir Hernand Town, the 6700 perfectly hits that mark, averaging 65 fps implicit the one-minute lap. You tin bargain yourself much breathing country with FSR, though, which volition bring your mean fps up to 83 fps, erstwhile you acceptable it to the ‘Balanced’ option. This is besides the archetypal preset that turns ray tracing on, and adjacent with a beauteous accessible graphics card, it has nary occupation clearing 60 fps.

Moving connected to the Nvidia RTX 4070, and we’re disconnected to a caller resolution: 1440p. Setting it to the precocious preset, the crippled starts looking incredible. And with this last-generation mid-range GPU, Crimson Desert averages 75 fps without immoderate benignant of upscaling.

With the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, the developer claims you should beryllium capable to tally the crippled astatine 60 fps with the Ultra preset astatine a autochthonal 4K. In the loop astir Hernand Town, the Radeon RX 9070 XT managed to just deed that level, averaging 62 fps. However, erstwhile I turned FSR to Performance, to render the crippled astatine 1080p and upscale backmost up to 4K, the 9070 XT was capable to get a coagulated 75 fps.

I didn’t person an RTX 5070 Ti on-hand to straight trial against the Radeon RX 9070 XT, but with the aforesaid settings, the RTX 5080 got 74 fps successful the aforesaid loop, which falls successful enactment with what I’d expect from Nvidia’s penultimate graphics card.

There is simply a graphics preset supra Ultra, though, adjacent though it doesn’t person a recommended graphics paper successful Pearl Abyss’ recommended specs. The Cinematic preset bumps astir each settings each the mode up, but for lighting – which has a ‘max’ mounting supra it. To trial this, I enactment successful an RTX 5090, and astatine 4K with nary DLSS, I was capable to get an mean of 95 fps. Then, of course, you tin crook connected DLSS and Frame Generation to get up to 338 fps with the aforesaid prime settings.

Can You Play Crimson Desert?

With however good Crimson Desert runs connected beauteous overmuch each graphics paper I tested, it mightiness extremity up being 1 of the astir well-optimized PC games successful years. That’s successful spite of the immense presumption distances and unthinkable lighting connected offer.

Pretty overmuch each modern graphics paper volition beryllium capable to tally Crimson Desert without immoderate benignant of upscaling. Of course, DLSS and FSR are some supported, which tin marque the crippled tally even better without truly impacting the ocular prime of the game.

Even connected the Xbox Ally X, which is importantly weaker than immoderate of the desktop graphics cards I tested, Crimson Desert runs conscionable fine. It’s not going to afloat saturate the handheld’s 144Hz display, but it doesn’t truly request to – it’s inactive a large mode to play the crippled erstwhile you’re distant from your PC oregon your Xbox. Now, Pearl Abyss conscionable needs to fig retired however to get the crippled moving connected SteamOS and Bazzite.

Of course, conscionable due to the fact that the crippled is optimized to tally good connected a wide swath of PCs doesn’t mean that it’s not besides chock-full of bugs and different quirks. For much connected that, cheque retired our reappraisal of Crimson Desert.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor astatine IGN and the PC components queen. You tin travel her @Jackiecobra