FIFA 21 Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks

Football champion. Year after year a new part of the extremely successful FIFA series is released. Read here if something has changed in the system requirements.

Florian Glaser, 👁 Florian Glaser, ✓ Brian Burriston (translated by Christian Hintze), Published 10/17/2020 🇩🇪 🇷🇺

Technology

It's no surprise that FIFA 21 continues to rely on the Frostbite Engine from Battlefield developer DICE. The technical framework is very well optimized thanks to years of use (= moderate hardware requirements) and offers a high stability. No wonder publisher EA uses the engine for many other of their games (e.g. Star Wars Squadrons, Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Need for Speed Heat & Dragon Age Inquisition).

Unfortunately, FIFA 21 does not unlock the full potential of the engine. While the stadiums feel very atmospheric due to many visual and acoustic details ("confetti", stadium speakers, fan chants, ...), the players could exhibit a more realistic face mimic in the year of 2020, even though they sport sharp and detailed textures.

In general, the differences to FIFA 20 are quite small. Once again, besides the unnecessarily nested menus, we must also criticize the fact that the graphics options are only accessible outside the game and they turn out very spartan from a PC point of view. You can only change the resolution, picture mode, overall quality, anti-aliasing (2x to 4x MSAA) and frame rate limit.

From medium details upwards, we would call FIFA 21 respectable (keyword audience). There are subjectively hardly any differences between the presets Medium, High and Ultra. Attention: Like its predecessor, FIFA 21 uses DirectX 12 as the graphic interface, which requires suitable hard- and software. With a size of 35 GB, the soccer simulation does not take up too much space on the storage device.

Benchmarks

Our benchmark sequence resembles 1:1 the previous year's version. With FC Bayern Munich we start a classic kick-off match against Borussia Dortmund, which takes place in Sanderson Park under a clear summer sky at 2 pm. Because repetitions (fouls, penalties, etc.) can push the frame rate down considerably and thus falsify the results, we try to avoid corresponding situations and if possible only kick back and forth in midfield.

Due to the low GPU requirements, FIFA 21 often limits the CPU even in higher resolutions and detail levels, which is rather unusual in the gaming area. Because it is a fast title where fast reactions are important (especially in multiplayer), you should get at least 50 to 60 FPS on average.

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Results

FHD (1920 x 1080)

A mixture of 1920 x 1080 pixels and the Medium preset under challenges even beginner graphics cards. A GeForce MX330 already reaches almost 80 FPS. The latter model even produces maximum details plus 4x MSAA fluidly on the screen.

FIFA 21
1920x1080 Medium Preset 1920x1080 High Preset AA:2xMS 1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:4xMS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG, i9-9900K	279 (48.8^min, 197^P1) fps ∼57% 274 (51.3^min, 196^P1) fps ∼62% 271 (38.8^min, 194^P1) fps ∼60%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop) MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, i9-9900K	266 (57.3^min, 185^P1) fps ∼54% 255 (57.9^min, 179^P1) fps ∼58% 254 (53.4^min, 181^P1) fps ∼56%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop) MSI GeForce RTX 2060, i9-9900K	254 (14.2^min, 178^P1) fps ∼52% 244 (51.6^min, 171^P1) fps ∼55% 240 (18^min, 171^P1) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop) MSI GeForce RTX 2070, i9-9900K	254 (53.6^min, 177^P1) fps ∼52% 244 (15.2^min, 173^P1) fps ∼55% 241 (52.3^min, 169^P1) fps ∼54%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop) MSI GeForce RTX 2080, i9-9900K	253 (67.4^min, 178^P1) fps ∼51% 243 (77.6^min, 170^P1) fps ∼55% 242 (17.3^min, 171^P1) fps ∼54%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile MSI GE65 Raider 9SE, i7-9750H	227 (48.6^min, 155^P1) fps ∼46% 217 (22.4^min, 152^P1) fps ∼49% 210 (14.2^min, 147^P1) fps ∼47%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile MSI GP65 Leopard 9SD, i7-9750H	225 (14.6^min, 168^P1) fps ∼46% 214 (67.7^min, 159^P1) fps ∼48% 209 (15.7^min, 157^P1) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile MSI GP65 Leopard 9SF, i7-9750H	223 (10.8^min, 164^P1) fps ∼45% 211 (12.9^min, 155^P1) fps ∼48% 210 (14.2^min, 158^P1) fps ∼47%
AMD Radeon RX 5500M MSI Alpha 15, R7 3750H	169 (4.08^min, 120^P1) fps ∼34% 168 (47.2^min, 118^P1) fps ∼38% 164 (5.72^min, 116^P1) fps ∼36%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile MSI GP75 Leopard 9SC, i7-9750H	167 (18.3^min, 109^P1) fps ∼34% 161 (92^min, 107^P1) fps ∼36% 149 (71.3^min, 99.9^P1) fps ∼33%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile Asus G752VS, 6820HK	150 (55.2^min, 110^P1) fps ∼30% 149 (51.5^min, 114^P1) fps ∼34% 147 (50.5^min, 105^P1) fps ∼33%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile Alienware 17 R4, i7-7820HK	150 (7.71^min, 120^P1) fps ∼30% 149 (62.4^min, 118^P1) fps ∼34% 147 (39.6^min, 109^P1) fps ∼33%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile MSI GE72 7RE, i7-7700HQ	149 (77^min, 94.3^P1) fps ∼30% 142 (57^min, 89^P1) fps ∼32% 127 (38^min, 82.5^P1) fps ∼28%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile MSI GT62VR, 6820HK	137 (13.2^min, 107^P1) fps ∼28% 133 (57.2^min, 104^P1) fps ∼30% 130 (38^min, 94.6^P1) fps ∼29%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile MSI GL62M 7RD, i7-7700HQ	136 (46.6^min, 85.1^P1) fps ∼28% 128 (59.7^min, 81.4^P1) fps ∼29% 114 (47.3^min, 82.3^P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce MX350 MSI Prestige 14, i7-10710U	95.4 (39.3^min, 57^P1) fps ∼19% 88.3 (42.8^min, 55.6^P1) fps ∼20% 80.1 (36.1^min, 53.9^P1) fps ∼18%
NVIDIA GeForce MX330 MSI Prestige 14, i7-10510U	79.5 (15.4^min, 52.1^P1) fps ∼16% 75.1 (36.6^min, 49.8^P1) fps ∼17% 63.1 (40.1^min, 47^P1) fps ∼14%

QHD (2560 x 1440)

For QHD monitors with 2560 x 1440 pixels, the GPU must not be particularly powerful either. Even graphics cards from the lower middle class like the GeForce GTX 1050 have no problems with the ultra preset.

FIFA 21
2560x1440 Ultra Preset AA:4xMS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG	264 (9.52^min, 182^P1) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti	251 (26.6^min, 180^P1) fps ∼48%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2070	240 (52.5^min, 172^P1) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2080	239 (18.4^min, 168^P1) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2060	236 (98.6^min, 165^P1) fps ∼45%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GE65 Raider 9SE	210 (16.3^min, 146^P1) fps ∼40%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GP65 Leopard 9SF	206 (13.4^min, 156^P1) fps ∼40%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GP65 Leopard 9SD	203 (21.7^min, 150^P1) fps ∼39%
AMD Radeon RX 5500M, R7 3750H MSI Alpha 15	163 (45^min, 116^P1) fps ∼31%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK Alienware 17 R4	144 (42.6^min, 110^P1) fps ∼28%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK Asus G752VS	140 (57.5^min, 103^P1) fps ∼27%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK MSI GT62VR	129 (47.1^min, 89.9^P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GP75 Leopard 9SC	115 (15.6^min, 76.9^P1) fps ∼22%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GE72 7RE	99.9 (40.8^min, 71.6^P1) fps ∼19%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GL62M 7RD	84.5 (47.6^min, 65.9^P1) fps ∼16%

UHD (3840 x 2160)

If you own a 4k screen (3840 x 2160) and want to play in full details, you will be happy with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, which can only adequately handle a maximum of 1920 x 1080 pixels and medium settings in other games (see e.g. Mafia Definitive Edition, Horizon Zero Dawn, or Death Stranding).

FIFA 21
3840x2160 Ultra Preset AA:4xMS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti	247 (20.3^min, 176^P1) fps ∼59%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG	224 (17.9^min, 160^P1) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2080	223 (69.3^min, 152^P1) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2070	194 (72^min, 135^P1) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GP65 Leopard 9SF	173 (14.3^min, 129^P1) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce RTX 2060	171 (78.7^min, 124^P1) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GE65 Raider 9SE	146 (68.1^min, 113^P1) fps ∼35%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK Alienware 17 R4	139 (46.6^min, 97.5^P1) fps ∼33%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GP65 Leopard 9SD	136 (60.7^min, 110^P1) fps ∼32%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK Asus G752VS	128 (19.6^min, 76.8^P1) fps ∼30%
AMD Radeon RX 5500M, R7 3750H MSI Alpha 15	106 (43.8^min, 82.7^P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK MSI GT62VR	88.7 (33.9^min, 69.8^P1) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-9750H MSI GP75 Leopard 9SC	77.2 (30.7^min, 36.8^P1) fps ∼18%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GE72 7RE	58.8 (21.5^min, 43.6^P1) fps ∼14%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GL62M 7RD	49.9 (20.7^min, 37.3^P1) fps ∼12%

Note

Since gaming tests are very time intensive and often hindered by installation or activation limits, we can only provide a portion of the benchmarks at the time of publishing. Further graphics cards will be added in the coming days and weeks.

Overview

Testsystems

Device	Graphics Card	Processor	RAM	Operating System
Desktop-PC I	MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (11 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-9900K	4 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
Desktop-PC II	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB GDDR5X) Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti (6 GB GDDR5) XFX Radeon R9 Fury (4 GB HBM) Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (4 GB GDDR5) Sapphire Radeon R9 280X (3 GB GDDR5) MSI Radeon R7 370 (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-8086K, Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
Desktop-PC III	Nvidia Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super (8 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6) KFA2 GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6) Nvidia Titan X (Pascal) (12 GB GDDR5X) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6) PNY GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB GDDR5) Gainward GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5) Zotac GeForce GT 1030 (2 GB GDDR5) AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (8 GB GDDR6)) AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (8 GB HBM2) XFX AMD Radeon RX 590 (8 GB GDDR5)	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GT76	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-9900K	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GP65	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-9750H	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GE65	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-9750H	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GP65	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-9750H	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GP75	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-9750H	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
Alienware 17 R4	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X)	Intel Core i7-7820HK	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
Asus G752VS	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6820HK	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GT62VR	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6820HK	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GE72	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	2 x 4 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GL62	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	2 x 4 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI Prestige 14	Nvidia GeForce MX350 (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-10710U	1 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI Prestige 14	Nvidia GeForce MX330 (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-10510U	1 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI Alpha 15	AMD Radeon RX5500M (4 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 7 3750H	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64 Bit

4K Monitors	Nvidia Driver	AMD Driver
Asus PB287Q, Philips Brilliance 329P9H	ForceWare 456.55	Adrenalin 20.9.2

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Editor of the original article: Sebastian Jentsch - Managing Editor Consumer Laptops - 1751 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2010

Computers always had an important place in my life, starting with an Intel 80286 microprocessor in the early 1990s. I became interested in the productive side of technology, especially in campus radio, while studying at TU Chemnitz and during a trainee program in Belfast. Hardware interests led me to manage Notebookjournal.de, which is now a division of Notebooksbilliger, for a few years. I became self-employed in 2010 and took the next logical step in my career by starting to write for Notebookcheck.

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Translator: Christian Hintze - Managing Editor - 1956 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016

A C64 marked my entry into the world of PCs. I spent my student internship in the repair department of a computer shop and at the end of the day I was allowed to assemble my own 486 PC from “workshop remnants”. As a result of this, I later studied computer science at the Humboldt University in Berlin, with psychology also being added to my studies. After my first job as a research assistant at the university, I went to London for a year and worked for Sega in computer game translation quality assurance. This included working on games such as Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Company of Heroes. I have been writing for Notebookcheck since 2017.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > FIFA 21 Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2020-10-17 (Update: 2024-08-15)

Legend
5	Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
	May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
	May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?	Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
	Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.