Credit: Source: Embark Studios

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Unreal Engine 5 has built up quite a reputation lately, hasn’t it? It’s not the flattering kind, either. Over the course of 2025, we’ve seen this engine power some truly stunning games, but sadly, they’ve been running like molten tar even on the best GPUs on the market. Consequentially, those games suffered because of their engine, whether in reputation, performance, or simply sales, thanks to sky-high VRAM usage, texture streaming issues, and terrible stuttering no matter how low you go in the Graphics Settings menu.

Now, along comes Arc Raiders, and on its own two feet, the game dismantles that narrative. *Arc Raiders *is the latest, flashiest game in the extraction-shooter space, and this thing runs so damn well. I tried it across four different GPUs — an RTX 4070 Ti Super, a trusty old RTX 3080, a surprising card in the RTX 3050M, and even my partner’s PC with a 1660 Ti, and *Arc Raiders *continued to look gorgeous while still pumping out remarkable performance numbers. What we have here — and I don’t mean this lightly — is an Unreal Engine 5 game that respects your hardware.

My oldest GPU worked surprisingly well

The GTX 1660 Ti deserves a place in the GPU hall of fame

2025 hasn’t been a ‘remarkable’ year just for Unreal Engine 5, but also for me. I’ve introduced my own partner to gaming, and over the course of the year, I’ve slowly drip-fed her important games from across genres to teach her this new medium. *Arc Raiders *is her very first extraction-shooter, so spending $40 on her copy has returned multitudes, simply because of how well it runs even on an old 1660 Ti card.

Granted, the GTX 1660 Ti is an absolute trooper of a GPU, and I’d been running it well up until the day I switched over to a 40-series card. As we booted into the game, and she spent a good thirty minutes going through the 5-minute tutorial, the game looked to be performing well... more or less.

The GTX 1660 Ti is an absolute trooper of a GPU.

Then, it was time to dive into the settings, and here, going down to the lowest setting preset with no ray-traced global illumination on a 1080p display, the 1660 Ti, paired with a weak AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, managed to deliver 60–65 fps, often dipping into the mid-50s. It wasn’t until we turned on AMD’s FSR 3 (the GTX doesn’t offer DLSS), cranked up the textures to high while keeping everything else low, and turned on FSR 3 Frame Generation, that we finally began seeing consistent and smooth numbers. From there on out, we found the sweet spot on the GTX 1660 Ti, with Medium overall graphics settings, FSR 3 Quality + Frame Generation on, and ray-tracing turned off, to get a consistent 85–90 fps experience.

Of course, it does look infinitely inferior to how the game should look, with textures like grass, trees, and even rocks streaming in when you get close enough (look at the vegetation in the pictures). However, apart from vegetation being the biggest offender, the gameplay remained smooth, both the machines and rival players were visible from far away, and overall, the game continued to look ‘modern’.

PSA: I didn’t even bother going up to 1440p on the 1660 Ti because it’s a six-year-old card, at the end of the day.

GTX 1660 Ti + Ryzen 5 1600X (RT OFF)	Average FPS
1080p Low – Native	58
1080p Low – FSR 3 Quality	72
1080p Low – FSR 3 Quality + Frame Generation	98
1080p Medium – FSR 3 Quality + Frame Generation	83 (sweet spot)

It was the 3050 Ti-M that struggled the most with Arc Raiders

It took significant sacrifices to get past the 60 fps line

Speaking of troopers, one of my best friends is one, too. While he steadily saves away for a PlayStation 5 (or an RTX 60-series PC on days the drinks are heavier), his trusty Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop doesn’t prevent him from joining game night every weekend. Granted, it doesn’t help him, either, but we take what we can get.

Running on an ‘RTX’ 3050 Ti-M and an Intel i7-11800H, this laptop is the weakest computer of the lot, but if there was any game I was feeling positive about, it was definitely Arc Raiders. We never tried turning RT on because we put those foolish ambitions to rest long ago when even *Fortnite *struggled to get 60fps. With an RTX 3050 Ti-M, 1080p native settings on a Medium preset never got us above 40 fps. DLSS Quality wasn’t much help, either, as the game struggled to cross the 45 fps mark. So, we switched to AMD’s FSR 3, and immediately went with Frame Generation. Here, texture pop-in was absolutely abysmal and in our faces, but that, thankfully, was a one-off incident that got fixed with a restart.

Ultimately, it was FSR upscaling set to ‘Balanced’, along with frame generation running, that got us into the 78–80 fps territory on medium settings, and that’s where we stayed, choosing not to test our luck further. It doesn’t look as pretty as it should, but the ghosting trails are not all that noticeable. Plus, when it rains,* Arc Raiders* on the 3050 Ti (laptop) drops to about 65 fps even with FSR 3’s upscaling and frame-generation working overtime. Still, it gets our friend past the 60fps line for weekend raids, so we’re definitely not complaining.

RTX 3050 Ti (M) + Intel i7-11800 H @ 1080p (Ray Tracing OFF)	Average FPS
**Preset Medium – Native **	40
Preset Medium – DLSS Quality	45
Preset Medium – FSR 3 Quality	59
Preset Medium – FSR 3 Balanced + Frame Generation	78 (sweet spot)
Preset Medium – FSR 3 Performance + Frame Generation	81

Sacrifices had to be made, naturally

Of course, these numbers didn’t come without sacrificing significantly. For starters, FSR 3’s Balanced upscaling preset continues to be extra-shimmery when compared to its DLSS counterpart, and there is simply no other way around it. Medium settings in the game also ended up being easy on the eyes, but not without knowing full well that entire areas of the landscape simply didn’t have texture to them. Nothing like a plan, single sheet of smooth brown hue on an entire mountain face to break immersion, is there? Add to that the FSR Frame Generation’s ghosting trails, and the game does look a little worse for wear.

And yet, the game never dipped below 75 fps, and with the core, moment-to-moment gameplay remaining unaffected entirely, there wasn’t a single complaint I could think of from an aging gaming laptop with a mobile GPU that is only slightly more powerful than a 1650 Super on its best day.

A proper RTX 3080 ran the game well, but not without problems

4K on the 3080 felt like an uphill battle

It was now time to move to an RTX 3080, and here, I had pretty high hopes of seeing 100+ fps in the game. Running on an ultra-wide 3440x1440 resolution and paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, *Arc Raiders *on an RTX 3080 fared well, but not as ‘amazing’ as I was gearing myself up for. The default 1440p resolution gave me nothing but a meager 62 fps on maxed-out settings, and that is after I turned off ray-tracing. It wasn’t until I went up to DLSS Balanced that I finally got up to 95 fps. The sweet spot, however, turned out to be 1440p High with ray tracing set to High as well, where I got 80+ fps consistently with DLSS set to Balanced.

The RTX 3080 is still five years old, and Arc Raiders is still an Unreal Engine 5 game.

4K was a different story, because, no matter how well-optimized Arc Raiders truly is, the card is still 5 years old, and the game is still an Unreal Engine 5 title. So, going up to 4K (5160 x 2160) on a Medium preset, where ground textures meet each other unceremoniously and shrubs disappear, I didn’t get a smooth 70+ fps experience until turning on DLSS and setting it to Balanced. On the maximum preset with RT on, the only way I could get 60+ fps on the frame counter was by doing something I’d never done before — switching to DLSS Ultra Performance.

1440p in the table below is 3440 x 1440 resolution, and 4K is 5160 x 2160.

**RTX 3080 + Ryzen 7 5700X **	Native	DLSS Quality	DLSS Balanced	DLSS Performance	DLSS Ultra-Performance
1440p Max (RT OFF)	62	87	95	–	–
1440p High (RT High)	70	76	80	90	–
**1440p Max (RT Max) **	45	65	71	78	–
4K Medium (RT Medium)	43	70	78	80	–
4K High (RT High)	33	50	58	65	70
4K Max (RT Max)	25	40	45	50 | 60 (RT OFF)	60 | 75 (RT OFF)

The 4070 Ti Super absolutely chewed out Arc Raiders

Insane numbers on a ‘last-gen’ card

Finally, it was time to test out the dual-fan MSI 4070 Ti Super I’ve had lying around for a customer build. I decided to test this GPU instead of my own rig’s 4070 Ti OC, and the results were downright amazing. So much so that I almost want to switch out cards! Running on 1440p Max with no ray tracing, the 4070 Ti Super demolished Arc Raiders with a consistent 105 fps, and the only way it dipped below three digits was when I turned RT on, which is when the game gave me 90 fps on native 1440p settings. It wasn’t long before I began seeing the frame counter touch 200 fps, and I couldn’t believe this was an Unreal Engine 5 game.

Even on 4K, I never needed to go below DLSS Quality to get amazing 60+ fps numbers on the game with everything cranked up to the max, including Ray Tracing. I’m going to let the numbers do the talking now, because I swear I can’t wait to share this.

**RTX 4070 Ti Super + Ryzen 5 7600 X **	Native	Native + FG 2x	DLSS Quality	DLSS Balanced	DLSS Quality + FG 2x
1440p High (RT High)	120	195	145	–	–
1440p Max (RT OFF)	105	–	–	–	–
1440p Max (RT Max)	90	145	110	125	185
4K Medium (RT Medium)	95	120	125	–	143
4K High (RT High)	58	85	90	110	133
4K Max (RT Max)	40	85	65	80	105

Arc Raiders is playable (and enjoyable) on any PC

And not just the top-tier builds

There’s no denying that *Arc Raiders *has been a breath of fresh air in the looter-shooter space, and its concurrent player count and hype are testament to that. At the same time, it’s also refreshing in the way it runs across a wide array of GPU tiers. High-end monsters and modest budget builds have all fared well in this game, because it’s the game that scales and optimizes to fit itself on your PC instead of refusing to bend.

I can’t help but appreciate UE5 for this too — sure, we could always talk about how the game manages to be so incredibly optimized despite its engine, but it’s only the plethora of options and tools that the engine provides that allows Arc Raiders to scale so brilliantly across PCs, and the devs who knew how to wield those tools adeptly. I wish I had a 50-series card lying around to see even more fantastic numbers, but the truth of the matter is that Embark Studios definitely prioritized optimization on their latest title, creating a gorgeous and stunning game that still makes sure that everyone can play, and more importantly, enjoy it.

Systems

Released October 30, 2025

ESRB Teen / Violence, Blood

Developer(s) Embark Studios

Publisher(s) Embark Studios

Engine Unreal Engine 5