Far Cry New Dawn PC graphics performance: how to get the best settings

Hot pink is the new post-apocalyptic beige in Far Cry: New Dawn, and to help you get the wild, fluorescent fauna of Hope County looking its absolute best on PC, I've put together this handy Far Cry: New Dawn graphics performance guide. Below, you'll find everything you need to know about how to get the best settings for Far Cry: New Dawn, as well as what you need to do in order to get that lovely 60fps frame rate from today's best graphic cards. So, if you can't wait to double-jump into Hope County's newly-acquired nuclear Northern Lights with an unhinged granny in tow, then read on.

Far Cry New Dawn PC requirements

Before we dive into how to get the best settings for each individual graphics card, though, let's take a look at Ubisoft's minimum and recommended specs, plus what settings you might need to fiddle with if you find your PC's struggled to keep pace with Far Cry New Dawn's mad-cap antics.

In terms of minimum and recommended specs for Far Cry New Dawn, Ubisoft have put together a range of configurations this time round, the minimum spec intended for those playing on Low quality at just 1280x720, while the recommended spec is what you need to play on High at 1920x1080. There are also two configurations for anyone playing at 4K, one targeting 30fps and the other the full 60fps.

Minimum specs:
OS: Windows 7-10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 / AMD FX 6350
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 670 / AMD Radeon R9 270X
Video memory: 2GB

Recommended specs:
OS: Windows 7-10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290X
Video memory: 4GB

Recommended 4K specs (30fps):
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
RAM: 16GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
Video memory: 8GB

Recommended 4K specs (60fps):
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K / AMD Ryzen 7 1700X
RAM: 16GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (SLI) / AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (Crossfire)

Unfortunately, the minimum and recommended specs don't make any mention of what kind of frame rate they're targeting, but as you'll hopefully see from the many subsequent pages that follow this, it shouldn't be too difficult to get your system running at 60fps if you've got a modern or even slightly older graphics card under your belt.

After all, both 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 resolutions only require between 2-3GB of memory depending on which quality setting you pick, according to the game's graphics settings menu, so even older graphics cards with only 2GB of memory should be able to play it at decent speeds.

For the record, my PC had an Intel Core i5-8600K clocked at 3.6GHz and 16GB of RAM inside it, plus all the latest graphics drivers and Windows 10 updates installed.

Far Cry New Dawn PC graphics performance

As always, the aim here is to get Far Cry New Dawn running at 60fps at 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 4K. The good news is that Far Cry New Dawn doesn't seem to be that demanding on the old performance front, so it hopefully shouldn't take too much tweaking to get the game running smoothly.

To test each card, I used the game's built-in benchmarking tool, which sees the camera swooping through your main hub camp of Prosperity, having a nosey at what everyone's doing indoors, before soaring out over the main fence, watching a helicopter take off and fire a missile down the hill to create a nice big explosion. It then ends with a gun fight around a tree surrounded by a big puddle. There are plenty of NPCs and bits of environment to tackle, and I found the average frame rate it spits out at the end roughly matches what I experienced in-game as well.

Far Cry New Dawn PC graphics performance: how to get the best settings

I stuck with the game's preset quality settings during my tests, but there are plenty of options available to help improve your PC's performance if you're finding it's struggling to keep a steady frame rat

One thing to do is switch on Far Cry New Dawn's Adaptive Resolution option in the Advanced Settings tab in the main Video menu. It's Off by default, but selecting either 30 or 60 will stop the game from ever going below that frame rate target. It does this by lowering the game's resolution on the fly to help keep the frame rate up, so you may experience a drop in sharpness sometimes but at least the action will keep flowing nice and smoothly instead of turning into a frustrating slideshow.

If you'd rather not do that, there's always the Enable Frame Rate Lock option instead. This will prevent the frame rate from going any higher than whatever number you pick between 30 and 144, giving you a much finer degree of control over the speed and resulting quality of the game. This is probably a better option for those with high refresh rate monitors, all told, but if you're struggling to maintain a steady frame rate at the lower end of the speed scale then setting it to something like 45 or 50 may help solve any potential judder problems.

As for Far Cry New Dawn's graphics options, Ubisoft's detailed Quality tab in the Video menu gives you a nice big picture of what each individual setting looks like in the flesh. This gives you a great sense of what each setting actually does and how much of an impact it will have on what the game looks like without having to constantly go back and forth between in-game footage and the settings menu.

The downside is that, unlike Assassin's Creed Odyssey, for example, it doesn't actually tell you how much of an impact each setting has on your GPU. From my own tests, however, Geometry and Vegetation (which dictates how many bushes and flowers and general greenery there is onscreen) has a decent impact on performance, as does Environment (which adds all the graphical detail to said shrubery as well as buildings and vehicles), so I'd recommend turning those down a notch or two if you're struggling a bit.

With all that in mind, let's dirt bike our way to some of them there graphics cards. Just click the links to go straight to your graphics card of choice, or carry on scrolling to see what each one's capable of.

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
• AMD Radeon R9 270
• AMD Radeon R9 290
• AMD Radeon RX 580
• AMD Radeon RX 590
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
• AMD Radeon 7

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

Nvidia's GTX 970 is one of Ubisoft's recommended graphics cards for running Far Cry New Dawn on High quality settings at 1920x1080, but I'm pleased to report that not only can hit that figure in spades, but that it's just as comfy on Ultra quality settings at that resolution, as well as a fair bit of smooth 1440p action, too. It certainly helps that the GTX 970 still has a healthy 4GB of memory under the hood, as this is more than enough to deal with Far Cry New Dawn's various texture packs at both resolutions.

The particular card I've used to test Far Cry New Dawn is Zotac's Dual Fan edition, which is a fraction faster than Nvidia's reference specification for the GTX 970, so some results may vary depending on which type of card you've got. The Zotac here has a base clock speed of 1076MHz and a boost clock speed of 1216MHz, for example, but I'm pretty confident that the speeds I've outlined below should be pretty easily obtainable no matter which third party card you happen to have.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You absolutely can, and you needn't settle for Ubisoft's recommended High quality setting either, as Ultra produced a very smooth average of 62fps when I ran it through the game's internal benchmark, and that was without fiddling with any of its extra settings, too.

That said, I did see a couple of drops to around 47fps during the gun fight at the end of the benchmark, so you may want to keep it on High (which only dropped to 55fps) to guarantee those silky smooth frame rates. Either way, Far Cry New Dawn is perfectly playable on this resolution, and you don't have to make any compromises on graphics quality in order to do it, either.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Yes! You'll have to stick to Low to get the smoothest frame rates, admittedly, as even on this setting I only saw an average of 55fps in the game's built-in benchmark. Still, booting it up to Normal quality produced an almost as slick average of 51fps, while High only nudged the frame rate down to an average of 48fps. As a result, you can still get pretty smooth performance even on some of the game's higher quality settings here.

Obviously, the higher you push those polygons at this resolution, the sharper and more noticeable those drops are going to become when the action gets a bit heated. On Low, for example, I saw dips to a perfectly acceptable 46fps, but Normal edged that down to 41fps while High bottomed out at 39fps, the latter of which may be a drop too far for some.

Personally, there's such a small difference between Normal and High at this resolution that I'd be tempted to plonk it on High and leave it there, dips be damned. Still, if you value speed over graphical fidelity, then your best bet is either Low or Normal here.

Can I play this at 4K?

Alas, this is where the GTX 970 reaches its limit, as even on Low I only saw an average of 28fps at this resolution, with lows as juddery as 21fps. I wasn't expecting it to do much better, frankly, but this is definitely a card best suited to 1080p or 1440p play only.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

The 4GB version of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 Ti may be starting to show its age a bit now, but it still put up a pretty good fight when it came to tackling the searing pink forests of Far Cry New Dawn's newly-denuclearized Hope County. Instead, it's the 2GB models of this card I fear for the most, as even the lowest graphics quality setting at 1920x1080 has a memory requirement of at least 2GB minimum. As such, you may have to play on lower resolutions to get the best frame rates with this type of card.

Still, Far Cry New Dawn is still perfectly playable on a 4GB GTX 1050 Ti at 1920x1080 as long as you don't mind making a couple of compromises. What's more, you may even get slightly better results from your GTX 1050 Ti than I have here, as this particular Palit is actually a touch slower than a lot of its rivals. With a base clock speed of 1290MHz and a boost clock speed of 1392MHz, I'd say the following results are more of a baseline level of performance than the absolute best case scenario, so hopefully you won't have to fiddle about with the settings too much to get the best speeds.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You sure can, although you'll have to make do with Low if you want to stick to an average frame rate as near to 60fps as is physically possible with this card (or 58fps, to be precise). However, I still got a perfectly playable average of 52fps on Normal in the game's built-in benchmark, so you can probably get away with playing on this slightly prettier setting without too much trouble if you want to.

You could probably even venture up to High or Ultra if you really felt like it, as both of these never dipped below 35fps even in the benchmark's most heated sections. Naturally, High produced a smoother average of 48fps compared to Ultra's 44fps average, but in practice there's not really that much in it - especially when both settings saw highs of at least 55fps.

As such, I'd be quite happy recommending any of the graphics settings at this resolution depending on your preferences, but Normal is probably the way to go if you're after the best balance between speed and graphical fidelity.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Just about, but not really. Normal is very much beyond the capability of the GTX 1050 Ti here, as even though I saw an average of 35fps, there were occasional dips down to 29fps, which is just a mite too slow for a fast-paced action game like this one. Instead, your best bet at this resolution is Low, which saw an average of 39fps, with highs of 46fps and lows of 31fps. It's doable, but I'd strongly recommend dropping the resolution down to 1080p if you want the best speeds.

Can I play this at 4K?

No can do, partner.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

Ah, the good old Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. What a card. There's a reason it's the most popular graphics card according to Steam's hardware charts, and that's because it can still hold its own in practically every one of today's big blockbusters.

Admittedly, the Asus GeForce GTX 1060 OC 9Gbps edition I've got here isn't actually available to buy any more, but with a base clock speed of 1584MHz and a boost clock speed of 1809MHz, it's definitely one of the upper-end models that was ever produced. The only GTX 1060 cards with faster clock speeds are Asus' own ROG Strix model and EVGA's SSC Gaming ACX 3.0 version. As a result, the results below are probably a best case scenario for current 6GB GTX 1060 owners, but needless to say, there's a lot of good news to be found here, especially for 1080p monitor owners.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Absolutely, and you can go ahead and whack it up to Ultra settings, too. With an average frame rate of 72fps at this graphics setting, you shouldn't have any problem at all playing Far Cry New Dawn at top dollar quality at this resolution - although if you really want to guarantee it doesn't fall below 60fps when the action kicks off, then you'd be best knocking it down to High, where you can expect an average of 79fps and lows of 62fps. Ultra, meanwhile, sometimes dipped to 52fps.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

You sure can. Normal will get you an average bang on 60fps, with the occasional low of 49fps, but I'd be pretty confident of sticking this up to Ultra, too, where I saw an average of 52fps and lows of 41fps. High, on the other hand, sat right in the middle with an average of 56fps and lows of 47fps.

Either way, there's plenty of leeway here depending on the type of card you have, and almost all 6GB GTX 1060 owners should be able to play on Normal at 1440p without any problem at all.

Can I play this at 4K?

Despite its stellar performance at 2560x1440, 4K is just too much for the GTX 1060, as even Low only produced an average of 33fps with lows of 25fps.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070

With 8GB of memory to its name, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1070 is a fine companion for Far Cry New Dawn's sprawling countryside, regardless of whether you've got one of the faster models of this particular card such as the Asus ROG Strix Gaming edition I've got here, or one of the slightly slower versions.

Truth be told, the results below are probably some of the better speeds you can expect to see from the GTX 1070, as Asus' base clock speed of 1632MHz and boost clock speed of 1835MHz definitely put it at the nippier end of the GTX 1070 spectrum. Still, there are plenty of juicy frame rates to be had here, regardless of whether you're playing at 1080p, 1440p or even 4K.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You're on easy street with this graphics card, pal, so yes, you can absolutely play Far Cry New Dawn at 1920x1080 on Ultra with the GTX 1070 and still have plenty of frames left over. Does an average of 87fps sound all right? With highs of 114fps and lows of 66fps? It does? Sweet. Let's move on.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Easy street continues for GTX 1070 owners here, and yes indeed, you can definitely absolutely positively play Far Cry New Dawn at 2560x1440 on Ultra with frames left over. Not as many as 1080p, all told, but hey, an average of 68fps with highs of 85fps and lows of 53fps is nothing to be sniffed at.

Can I play this at 4K?

Wait, what's this? Easy street is full of pot holes? Well, I never. Better get the council on this, if there even is a council in post apocalyptic Hope County... Still, 4K is pretty doable with the GTX 1070, although if you're after 60fps on any of its four quality settings, you're straight outta luck.

The good news, though, is that there really isn't much variation across Low to Ultra here, as I only saw a gap of 6-8 frames tops from Low to Ultra. Low saw an average of 44fps with lows of 36fps, for example, while Ultra came in at an average of 36fps and lows of 30fps. So you can pretty much take your pick here, provided you don't mind the odd potential bit of wading through frame rate treacle. Personally, I'd say Normal is probably your best bet, as this still produced an average of 40fps, with highs of 52fps and lows of 36fps, which isn't bad considering the GTX 1070 isn't really built for proper 4K gaming.

Still, when you can get a super smooth 60fps on the best quality settings at 1440p, halving your frame rate for the sake of 4K probably isn't really worth the effort if you ask me.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

Ah, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, you predictable beast. None of this best case / worst case scenario nonsense with you, my friend, because Nvidia decreed that every single third party model was to be lumbered with exactly the same base and boost clock speeds back when it came out at the end of 2017, which makes my life a heck of a lot easier when trying to predict what kind of performance you might get from it.

In truth, EVGA's SC Gaming model can technically skirt around this issue thanks to the optimisation options available in its Precision Boost software, but for the sake of keeping things fair and square, I've left it on its default base and boost clock speeds of 1607MHz and 1683MHz. And what a mighty fine partner it is for Far Cry New Dawn.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You bet your hot pink socks you can play this at 1920x1080. Just like the GTX 1070 before it, the GTX 1070 Ti has no problem whatsoever running this on Ultra settings, producing a lovely smooth average of 91fps to boot. Perfect for anyone with a high refresh rate monitor.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

You can also bet your fluorescent green socks you can play this at 2560x1440, too, with Ultra netting you a sickly sweet average of 75fps. Again, high refresh rate monitor owners should have a grand old time here, although regular 60Hz monitor owners may want to enable V-Sync or the Frame Rate Lock option to make sure you don't suffer from any screen tearing.

Can I play this at 4K?

Indeed, you can bet all your neon coloured socks that you can play Far Cry New Dawn at 4K, although once again you'll need to look to something more powerful if you're after a steady average of 60fps. That said, you can still get some pretty decent and perfectly playable frame rates at 4K on the GTX 1070 Ti, such as an average of 45fps on Normal.

Low will bump that up to 50fps, but really, who wants to play on Low at 4K? Indeed, Normal still saw highs of 54fps in the game's built-in benchmark, while its lowest speed bottomed out at 37fps, which in my eyes is perfectly fine.

If you don't mind the occasional drop to somewhere nearer 30fps, however, then you can probably even get away with playing the game on Ultra, as here I saw an average of 41fps and lows of 34fps, which isn't really that much of a jump from the kind of speeds you'll see on Normal.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660

Nvidia's new GTX 1660 is a fantastic graphics card for just over £200 / $200, and Gigabyte's entry-level OC edition put in an equally fantastic performance running Far Cry New Dawn.

Armed with 6GB of GDDR5 memory and 1408 CUDA cores, this particular model has a base clock speed of 1530MHz and boost clock speed: 1830MHz, putting it at the lower-end of the GTX 1660 spectrum. Still, as you'll be able to see below, there's still plenty to like here, and those with slightly faster GTX 1660 cards may even experience higher speeds than what I've listed below.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You sure can, bliss-friend. Does an average of 81fps on Ultra sound acceptable to you? Thought so.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Fire it up, because an average of 60fps on Ultra awaits you.

Can I play this at 4K?

Alas, this is where the GTX 1660 reaches its limits, I'm afraid, although an average of 39fps on Low is still pretty impressive for such a dinky card. I saw also highs of 45fps on this setting, along with some perfectly acceptable lows of 31fps, but really, you'll be much better off sticking with 1440p here.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Another excellent new graphics card from Nvidia, the GTX 1660 Ti has buckets of power under the hood for its price, offering GTX 1070-levels of power for a fraction of the cost.

This particular ROG Strix OC model from Asus is, admittedly, at the upper end of the GTX 1660 Ti spectrum, with base and boost clock speeds of 1500MHz and 1860MHz respectively. However, judging from my own tests with Asus' entry-level Phoenix card as well, cheaper GTX 1660 Ti cards like the Phoenix are only going to be on average around 2fps slower than their faster, more expensive counterparts in Far Cry New Dawn, so the results below should be broadly representative of what you'll experience yourself, regardless of what type of card you actually have. Needless to say, the results are really quite tasty.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You betcha. Crank it up to Ultra and bask in its average of 89fps glory.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Yup yup, and an average of 73fps on Ultra will mean particularly happy days for high refresh rate monitor owners.

Can I play this at 4K?

You sure can. Unsurprisingly, Low will get you the smoothest average of 49fps at this resolution, but the GTX 1660 Ti's 6GB of GDDR6 memory means it can also produce decent frame rates are higher settings, too, including an average of 44fps on Normal and 42fps on High. You can even get a playable 39fps average on Ultra if you really want to - just bear in mind that you'll probably see some dips to 33-35fps on these settings when things get particularly shooty. Sticking with Low, on the other hand, will only see the frame rate dip to around 39fps.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2060 is one damn great graphics card. Offering nigh-on identical, if not slightly better speeds than the GTX 1070 Ti for a lot less money, the RTX 2060 is a force to be reckoned with in Far Cry New Dawn, even if Ubisoft hasn't added any support for its fancy RTX features.

I've got the Founders Edition on test here, which has a base clock speed of 1365MHz and a boost clock speed of 1680MHz. This is fairly typical compared to other third party RTX 2060 cards, a lot of which push its boost clock speed even higher. As a result, these speeds are probably the least you can expect to see from an RTX 2060, with faster cards likely able to squeeze even more out of it. Either way, you're in for a treat.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You sure can, and Ultra will get you a lovely average of 90fps for your trouble, too.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

There must be an echo in here, because yes, you sure can play this at 2560x1440 as well, with Ultra once again proving to be no trouble at all for the RTX 2060. After all, if an average of 77fps ain't good enough for ya, I don't know what is.

Can I play this at 4K?

You can, you can, you can. Told you there was an echo. Indeed, while the RTX 2060 will also struggle to do an average of 60fps at this resolution, regardless of quality setting, it is a touch smoother than what's possible over on the GTX 1070 Ti. Indeed, Low will net you an average of 52fps at 4K, with highs of 60fps and lows 41fps, but given that Normal will still get you a smooth average of 48fps, I'd be tempted to go for that rather than make do with Low.

Indeed, if I really felt like pushing the RTX 2060 to its absolute limits, even Ultra will still get you a playable average of 43fps at 4K, which you may as well go for when High will only bump that up to 45fps. It's not perfect, sure, but as long as you don't mind the occasional drop to 36fps, then why not, eh?

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080

In the absence of having an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti to test, the RTX 2080 is the next best thing to figuring out what kind of speeds you can expect from Far Cry New Dawn. They were both pretty much neck-and-neck when I reviewed the RTX 2080 at the end of last year, so you can probably assume the results below will be pretty much the same across both cards.

Once again, I've got the Founders Edition here, which has a base clock speed of 1515MHz and a boost clock speed of 1800MHz. This is pretty much bang in the middle of what you'll find elsewhere on other third party cards, so the following results should be broadly representative of what the RTX 2080 can do, regardless of which type of card you have.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Was there ever really any doubt? Of course you can, and you can do it on Ultra with average frame rates of 90fps+ to boot. I've put the + in there, as I suspect my Core i5 system is actually acting as something of a bottleneck at this resolution, as I got practically exactly the same result when I bumped up the resolution to 1440p...

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

As I've literally just said above, I got pretty much the same result on Ultra at this resolution as I did at 1080p - 90fps to be precise, with an identical low of 66fps to boot. This, I imagine, is probably fairly accurate compared to my likely bottlenecked 1080p result, as the RTX 2080's peak frame rate at this resolution was 128fps, compared to 141fps at 1080p.

Still, regardless of whether your CPU is acting as a bottleneck or not, there are plenty of high frame rates to be enjoyed at either resolution here.

Can I play this at 4K?

Absolutely, and finally we can get an average of 60fps, too - on Ultra, no less. Here, I saw an average of 62fps in the game's built-in benchmark, with highs of 75fps and perfectly acceptable lows of 53fps.

However, if you want the absolute best experience with nary the slightest hint of a drop much below 60fps, then you'd probably be better off sticking with High, where you'll get an average of 66fps and lows of 57fps.

Far Cry New Dawn: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti

The big daddy itself. With a whopping 11GB of memory under its belt, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is by far and away the best graphics card money can buy right now, so it's no surprise that it can handle Far Cry New Dawn without even breaking a sweat. It's also a perfect partner for high refresh rate monitors, too.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

A silly question, really, because yes, the best graphics card in existence can of course play this at 1920x1080. Like the RTX 2080 on the previous page, there's probably some bottlenecking going on here with my CPU, as I only managed an average of 94fps on Ultra at this resolution, but hey, that's still more than enough for me to get a big thumbs up here.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Another thumbs up and another 92fps average on Ultra, oh yes.

Can I play this at 4K?

Gosh darn it, I appear to have run out of thumbs. Does two toes count? Go on, whack it on Ultra and see if you don't get at least an average of 77fps for your trouble, eh?

Far Cry New Dawn: AMD Radeon R9 270

Ubisoft went for the R9 270X as their recommended graphics card for 720p play in Far Cry New Dawn, not the regular 270 like I've got here, but that doesn't mean it's not cut out for playing New Dawn at all. In fact, I'd even go as far as saying 720p is a rather conservative effort for the R9 270X, as even the regular 270 can manage a bit of 1080p on the right settings - and that's despite only having 2GB of memory to its name.

Sure, you're not going to get the best frame rates with this card, but there's no need to go chucking it in the bin just yet.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

You know what? You actually can. Sure, you're only looking at an average of 50fps on Low with the R9 270, but that's still pretty damn impressive given its age. What's more, you can even get a decent 44fps average on Normal (with lows of 36fps and highs of 54fps), while High will net you an average of 39fps with lows of 32fps even though the game says it needs more than 2GB of memory for this setting.

That's all right in my books, as usually I can barely get the R9 270 to run anything at all at this resolution. So good on you, R9 270. You've just been saved from retirement.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

I mean, technically, you can - just - but an average of 33fps on Low (with dips down to 27fps at times) isn't exactly my idea of a good time really. I'm impressed it can even get to 30fps at this resolution, truth be told, but you really want to be sticking to 1080p here if you want the best speeds.

Can I play this at 4K?

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *deep breath* ahahahahahahahahahahaha *even deeper breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.

Far Cry New Dawn: AMD Radeon R9 290

Much like the R9 270, Ubisoft's bumped up their recommended 1080p card to the R9 290X for Far Cry New Dawn, but I don't really see why in this case, as the regular R9 290 is perfectly capable of delivering 60fps on High at 1920x1080 as well. So fear not, R9 290 owners. Your graphics card is still fine and dandy this time round, and you can even venture into a bit of 2560x1440 play as well if you fancy it.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Yes indeedy. Whether you fancy an average of 62fps on High or 56fps on Ultra, the R9 290 is perfectly capable of handling Far Cry New Dawn at this resolution without forcing you to make any concessions on overall quality. I still saw lows of 32fps on Ultra, all told, so High is probably better for keeping things nice and steady, but regardless of which setting you pick, you should be able to enjoy lovely smooth speeds regardless.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Surprisingly, yes! I wasn't expecting the R9 290 to be quite so proficient at this resolution given its elderly status among the rest of the graphics cards on test here, but this old-timer has once again proven its worth against its younger competition. Indeed, while Low will get you the smoothest average of 55fps, I reckon you'd also be just fine sticking it on Normal for an average of 50fps.

In fact, I'd even suggesting venturing up to High for an average of 47fps if you're up for it, as this produced a minimum frame rate just a single frame down from Normal - 34fps as opposed to 35fps. This means that if the action does get a bit hairy onscreen, you're not going to notice it slowing down much more than if you had it on Normal.

That said, you might as well go the whole hog and bung it on Ultra if you don't mind the occasional dip to 30fps, as this was as low as the frame rate went at this setting, averaging 43fps overall with highs of 57fps. That's pretty damn impressive if you ask me, so depending on how much you value speed over graphical fidelity, you can pretty much pick any quality setting at this resolution and still get a highly playable experience.

Can I play this at 4K?

Alas, 4K is where the R9 290's prowess runs out, although I think you'll probably agree that an average of 30fps on Low is still mighty fine all things considered.

Far Cry New Dawn: AMD Radeon RX 580

Finally, an honest to goodness AMD Radeon RX 580. I actually ended up buying this one myself when it was going cheap over Black Friday, so I'll be updating the rest of my graphics performance guides with this card very shortly.

This particular card is from PowerColor, and is the 8GB Red Dragon edition, which has a boost clock speed of up to 1380MHz. This makes it one of the faster RX 580s out there at the moment, but I'm confident the results below should still be broadly representative of what's possible on other 8GB RX 580s with slightly slower boost clock speeds.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Absolutely. Just like the GTX 1060, the RX 580 can run Far Cry New Dawn on Ultra settings without breaking a sweat at this resolution, delivering a lovely smooth average of 72fps with no problem at all.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

You sure can. Normal will give you the slickest average frame rate bang on 60fps, but if you've followed the results for any of the other graphics cards on this list, you'll know there's really not a huge amount of difference between each quality setting. As such, I think you'd be perfectly fine bumping the quality up to Ultra on the RX 580, as this will still give you an excellent average of 52fps, with lows of 41fps and highs of 69fps.

Can I play this at 4K?

You can, just about, but I wouldn't recommend it. I mean, if an average of 34fps on Low sounds appealing to you, then by all means knock yourself out. But when the RX 580 can deliver infinitely better frame rates at 1440p, you'd be silly sticking with this resolution here.

Far Cry New Dawn: AMD Radeon RX 590

Another PowerColor, but this time in the guise of AMD's Radeon RX 590. I'll tell you what, I might have reviewed XFX's Fatboy edition of the RX 590 at the end of last year, but man alive this is the true Fatboy right here. Just look at the size of this thing. It's huge! And currently one of the only RX 590s you can buy, too.

Fortunately, its boost clock speed of 1576MHz puts it slap bang in the middle of the other two cards available at the moment, so the speeds you'll find below should be fairly representative of what you can achieve on the RX 590 as a whole.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Yup, and you're looking at an average of 78fps on Ultra for your trouble, too.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Double yup. Whereas the RX 580 was most comfortable on Normal at this resolution (although still capable of delivering a smooth 50fps on the top Ultra setting), the RX 590 kicks things up a notch. Or two notches, in this case, as Ultra will bag you an average of 58fps at this resolution, with highs of 74 and lows of 45fps.

If that last number sounds a teensy bit too low for your liking, then you'll be pleased to hear you probably won't seen anything much below 50fps on High, where I saw an average of 62fps, and a maximum of 77fps. Either way, you're looking at playing on the top settings at this resolution and still get great speeds.

Can I play this at 4K?

Sorta yup, but not really yup. Again, an average of 36fps on Low is the best you're going to get at 4K with the RX 590, although at least here I only saw a low of 31fps - which is more than can be said of the RX 580, which dipped to 28fps, and the GTX 1060, which stuttered all the way down to 25fps. Really, though, you're better off sticking with 1440p with this card.

Far Cry New Dawn: AMD Radeon RX Vega 64

Once AMD's top dog graphics card, the Radeon RX Vega 64 has since been replaced by AMD's Radeon 7. That doesn't mean the Vega 64 is out for the count, however, as its 8GB of HBM2 memory and 4096 stream processors still have plenty of life left in them yet, especially when prices have hit all time lows of around £400 / $430 recently.

Sapphire's Nitro+ edition of the Vega 64 isn't actually available to buy any more, it seems, but with a boost clock speed of up to 1611MHz, it's certainly one of the faster models that have been produced so far. As such, results may vary if you've got a slightly slower Vega 64, but needless to say, you can still expect great performance regardless of which model you have.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Can do, captain. Does an average of 92fps on Ultra sound agreeable to you? It does? Jolly good then.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Affirmative, and a mighty fine average of 83fps on Ultra if I don't say so myself!

Can I play this at 4K?

Aye aye, skipper. I'm afraid you'll have to settle for Low if you want a silky smooth average of 59fps, but I'd strongly advise opting for Normal (54fps) or even High (51fps) if you feel up to the task, captain. I mean, I'd be happy taking it out for a spin on Ultra at an average of 49fps if it were up to me, skip - after all, you're still looking at highs of 60fps and lows of 41fps here - but it's really up to you. Either way, I expect plain sailing on whatever you decide is best.

Far Cry New Dawn: AMD Radeon 7

AMD's latest and greatest, the Radeon 7 is AMD's answer to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 (at least sort of, as my Radeon 7 vs RTX 2080 comparison piece made clear). Still, while it may not be an RTX 2080 killer, its massive 16GB of HBM2 memory gives it stacks of space to deal with Far Cry New Dawn's various 4K textures. Not that you'll ever need the full 16GB here, but you're still looking at some pretty silky speeds regardless.

I've got AMD's version of the card on test here, but when all the other third party cards have exactly the same base and boost clock speeds as this one (if you can even find one to buy, that is), the results below should be more or less identical across the board.

Can I play this at 1920x1080?

Yes indeedy. Just like the RTX 2080, you can expect at least an average of 92fps on Ultra at this resolution, if not more if you've got an appropriate CPU at your disposal that isn't acting as a likely bottleneck like my poor Core i5.

Can I play this at 2560x1440?

Give me a Y! Give me an E! Give me an S! What does that spell? YES! And what kind of graphics setting can you get? Give me a U! Give me an L! Give me a - all right, I'll stop now. You can play on Ultra and get an average of 88fps. Happy now?

Can I play this at 4K?

Do my ears deceive me, or is that another identical average of 62fps on Ultra to the RTX 2080 again? Well, I'll be. Admittedly, you're looking at possibly lower lows of 51fps here as opposed to 53fps on the RTX 2080, but hey, are you really going to notice without the aid of a frame rate counter? I doubt it. Plus, if you're really picky about such things, you can always stick it on High and get an average of 69fps instead. Regardless, you're still looking at 60fps on the top graphics settings, which certainly beats Ubisoft's recommended configuration of two GTX 1080s SLI'd together or two Vega 56s in Crossfire.