Today is the official Anthem launch day for Origin Premiere subscribers. But, if you’re like us and have already been playing since the beta, then you’ve shared in the server troubles and seen many other issues get sorted out. You also already know how large of a strain Anthem puts on your CPU and GPU. While we don’t have full-launch performance numbers just yet, we were able to test performance during beta—and lets just say playing at 4K ultra with 60 fps is nothing short of a nice dream, even if you’re running a RTX 2080 Ti.
But more important than a fancy GPU is a CPU that can handle Anthem, plus a good amount of RAM and an SSD to help make the game operations go as fast as possible. EA does have a list of system requirements on their website, but to get as close to a smooth 60 fps as possible, we recommend a few different, slightly more powerful builds.
Budget: 1080p low
Most graphics cards and processors are going to perform reasonably well at 1080p on minimum quality. A GTX 1050 Ti might struggle to maintain a consistent 60 fps, so that’s why we recommend at least a GTX 1060 or AMD RX 580.
On the CPU side of things, you could pair a Core i3-8100 with a beefy graphics card and still have good framerates, but clockspeed is the deciding factor in the case of Anthem. If overclocking isn’t your thing, starting with a Core i5-8400 will get you the basic clockspeeds you need to run Anthem at a decent clip.
(We do include the Core i5-8400 in our overall midrange PC build guide, but in the case of Anthem specifically, a less powerful CPU can mean poorer performance in some cases.)
Midrange: 1080p high/ultra
Considering the RTX 2060 gets similar performance to the GTX 1070, either one of these is suitable for playing Anthem at 1080p high/ultra. You might be able to get 1440p on medium, but don’t count on getting a steady 60+ fps. In either case, the price of either card would be the deciding factor, as you don’t need a ray tracing GPU to play Anthem. Anthem does have DLSS, which you will need an RTX graphics card to use, though the blurriness often feels worse than simply running at a lower resolution.
Again, CPU performance is important here, perhaps even more so now that the higher graphical settings will push the components harder. Base clockspeeds of 3.5GHz or higher should do the trick, and the i7-8700K will give you plenty of room to grow.
High-end: 1440p high/ultra
Pairing a RTX 2070 with a Core i7-8700K is a surefire way to get 60 fps at 1440p with the higher graphical settings. Again, CPU clockspeeds are more important than total number of cores, so at this build level it becomes more about where you can save some money verses a minor gain in extra performance. The Core i7-9700K is only about five percent faster than the Core i7-8700K, and both have similar baseclock and overclock speeds, but the i7-8700K is cheaper.
The ever-disappearing GTX 10-series make it near impossible to recommend a GTX 1080 Ti, as an RTX 2070 costs less but gets similar performance. If you already have a GTX 1080 Ti, then you don’t need to upgrade to a 2070 just yet, as the 1080 Ti should easily handle Anthem at 1440p and 60 fps or more. But DLSS can boost performance, and you will need a 2070 for that.
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