Battlefield 2042 Performance Analysis
Technology
After the Call of Duty series elevated its visuals to the next level with Vanguard, DICE responded to its direct competitor with Battlefield 2042.
Battlefield 2042 is a worthy competitor to CoD Vanguard, what with its huge maps, vast draw distances and lush vegetation. The weather effects (rain, wind, …), reflections, and explosions (smoke, fire, …) all impress.
Battlefield 2042 cuts a very fine figure. At high settings, the textures look very sharp, and the tracks that the vehicles leave in the sand or wet soil are very realistic. The game offers a lot of visual variety. There are maps with tropical, winter and desert conditions. The maps are huge, but some of them look a bit sterile due to the futuristic look.
The Frostbite engine has a very impressive destruction system. Most buildings can be completely demolished, and most objects can be blown to pieces.
Unfortunately, Battlefield 2042 has a lot of bugs. In addition to numerous visual and physics glitches, we have experienced stuttering. The developers should have spent a few more weeks on optimisation.
We do not have anything bad to say about the graphics settings menu. PC gamers are going to be happy with the amount of settings on offer. There are no sub-menus, though, which means a lot of scrolling. In the upper section, you can adjust the field of view. In the middle section, there are numerous graphics settings, which can be adjusted in one fell swoop via presets. In the bottom section, you can enable/disable dynamic resolution, DLSS, V-Sync and ray tracing.
With a few exceptions, changes do not require a restart to take effect. Battlefield 2042 takes up 47 GB of storage space. This is quite reasonable for a modern title.
Benchmark
As you can see from the video below, we use the map known as Discarded (Alang, India) in Solo Conquest Mode. In our benchmark sequence, we drive an LATV4 Recon for 30 to 40 seconds through the grasslands. We use CapFrameX to record the frame rates. Because Battlefield 2042 is a fast-paced first-person shooter, 50 to 60 FPS is required for an enjoyable experience.
Results
The benchmarks were conducted mainly using the laptops which our partners MSI and XMG (Schenker Technologies) lent us.
FHD (1920x1080)
To achieve playable frame rates at 1080p, you will need a mid-range GPU with 4 GB of VRAM. The GeForce GTX 1650 manages to hit 70 FPS on average at low settings and 54 FPS on medium settings. A Radeon RX 5600M is required for high settings. The GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and the GTX 1660 Ti can run the game at the highest settings smoothly.
Battlefield 2042 | |
1920x1080 Low Preset 1920x1080 Medium Preset 1920x1080 High Preset 1920x1080 Ultra Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
AMD Radeon RX 5600M, R7 4800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-10750H |
QHD (2560x1440)
At 1440p and high settings, playable frame rates can be achieved with a high-end GPU with 6 GB of VRAM such as the GeForce RTX 3060.
Battlefield 2042 | |
2560x1440 Ultra Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
AMD Radeon RX 5600M, R7 4800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-10750H |
UHD (3840 x2160)
For 4K gaming at maximum settings, you will need a high-end GPU with 8 GB of VRAM. Here, the GeForce RTX 3070 and the RTX 3080 manage to achieve playable frame rates.
Battlefield 2042 | |
3840x2160 Ultra Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
AMD Radeon RX 5600M, R7 4800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H |
Ray Tracing
Enabling RT effects incurs a severe performance penalty. The RTX 3060 can handle the title at 1080p and maximum settings with ray tracing enabled.
Battlefield 2042 | |
1920x1080 Ultra Preset + Ray Tracing | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-11800H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-11800H |
Note
Because benchmarking video games is very time consuming and is often constrained by installation/activation limits, at the time of publishing, we were able to provide only a part of our performance analysis of Battlefield 2042. Other graphics cards will be added in the coming days and weeks.
Overview
Test Systems
Device | GPU | CPU | RAM | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
XMG Neo 15 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 @165 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-11800H | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
XMG Neo 17 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-11800H | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
XMG Core 15 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 @130 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-11800H | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
XMG Focus 17 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti @75 W TGP (4 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-11800H | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GP65 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-9750H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GP75 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (4 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-10750H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GL75 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-10750H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Dell G5 15 SE | AMD Radeon RX 5600M (6 GB GDDR6) | AMD Ryzen 7 4800H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI Prestige 14 Evo | Intel Iris Xe (96 CUs) | Intel Core i7-1185G7 | 1 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Asus ROG Strix G15 | AMD Radeon RX 6800M (12 GB GDDR6) | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Desktop PC I | MSI GeForce RTX 3090 (24 GB GDDR6X) MSI GeForce RTX 3080 (10 GB GDDR6X) MSI GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB GDDR6) |
Intel Core i9-9900K | 4 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Desktop PC II | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 FE (24 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8 GB GDDR6)Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6) PNY GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB GDDR5) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1650 Super (4 GB GDDR6) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5) AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6600 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (8 GB GDDR6) |
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | 2 x 32 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
4K monitors | Nvidia drivers | AMD drivers |
---|---|---|
Asus PB287Q, Philips Brilliance 329P9H, Acer Predator XB321HK | ForceWare 496.76 | Adrenalin 21.11.3 |