A lot can be said about “The First Descendant,” from the microtransactions to the Destiny-styled quest design, but no one can deny that it looks gorgeous. From highly detailed character models to lifelike terrain, it’s among the latest Unreal Engine 5 games to capture a massive global audience. We’ve already tested and optimized the game’s graphics settings for mid and high-end PCs. In this post, we’ll analyze its performance on low-end PCs.
The First Descendant: Official PC Specs
Items | Minimum Requirements | Recommended Requirements |
---|---|---|
OS | Windows 10 x64 20H2 | |
CPU | Intel i5-3570 / AMD FX-8350 | Intel i7-7700K/AMD Ryzen 5 2600X |
System Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB |
VGA | NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti/AMD Radeon RX 570 | NVIDIA RTX 2060/AMD Radeon RX 5600XT |
DirectX 12 | ||
Storage | 50GB (SSD Recommended) |
Our Test Bench
Motherboard | CPU | GPU | Memory |
---|---|---|---|
Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4 ($99) | Intel Core i5-12400F ($127) | AMD RX 6600 ($189) | 8GB x2 D4 ($40) |
GIGABYTE B450M DS3H WIFI ($84) | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X ($144) | NVIDIA RTX 4060 ($299)/NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti (Used-$269) | 8GB x2 D4 ($40) |
PC/System Optimizations
- Turn on Game Mode.
- Enable Resizable BAR.
- Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
- Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling and Windowed Optimizations.
- Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
- For detailed instructions, refer to this guide.
The First Descendant Benchmarks: Low-end PC
The First Descendant is quite taxing on budget and low-end PCs. Ray tracing is a no-go if you own a Radeon GPU unless you’re willing to enable FSR 3 and its frame generator. Unfortunately, unlike its NVIDIA counterpart, AMD’s solution produces blurry images with plenty of noise (only in this game). DLSS 3.5 interpolates vastly superior frames that are more stable in motion.
The GeForce RTX 4060 averages over 100 FPS at 1080p “Ultra” with ray-tracing set to “High” and DLSS 3.5 frame generation enabled. With upscaling alone, we recorded an average framerate of 80 FPS at 1080p “RT High.” QHD/1440p delivers similar framerates using frame generation at the “Ray-tracing High” preset.
The Radeon RX 6600 has a tough time even when ray-tracing isn’t enabled, averaging less than 40 FPS at 1080p “Ultra.” Reducing the quality to “Medium” pushes the framerates to 65 FPS, but only frame generation gets it close to 100 FPS. Ray tracing Medium and High are doable, but the highest-quality preset is just too much for the budget Radeon.
Using our optimized quality preset, the Radeon RX 6600 averages 120.9 FPS at 1080p and over 80 FPS at 1440p. Simply enabling frame generation and turning off ray tracing produces an average of 66 FPS at QHD.
The First Descendant: VRAM Usage and CPU Bottlenecks
The First Descendant uses a bit over 6 GB of VRAM at 1080p “Medium,” 6.6 GB at “High,” and 6.8 GB at the “Ultra” quality preset. Enabling ray-tracing pushes the graphics memory usage to ~7.5 GB (with frame generation enabled).
Like most Unreal Engine 5 games, The First Descendant is predominantly GPU-limited, showing an average GPU-Busy deviation of 4-6% at 1080p “High” and DLSS set to quality mode. The deviation is about 1-2% at 1440p and/or with frame generation enabled.
Best Settings for The First Descendant: Low-end PC
To understand the performance impact of individual graphics settings and their impact on quality, you can go through our optimization guide.
Optimized Settings | NVIDIA RTX 3060 | NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti | NVIDIA RTX 4060 | AMD RX 6600 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Resolution | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p/1440p | 1080p |
Target FPS | 60 FPS/90 FPS | 60 FPS/90 FPS | 120 FPS | 120 FPS |
Texture Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Anti-aliasing | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Visibility (LOD) | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Shadow Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | High |
Reflection Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Medium |
Global Illumination | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | High |
Shader Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Object Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Vegetation Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Effects Quality | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
Ray Tracing Quality | High/Off | High/Off | High/Medium | Off |
Upscaling | DLSS Balanced | DLSS Quality | DLSS High/Balanced | FSR 3 Quality |
Frame Generation | Off | Off | On | On |