Battlefield 2042 System Requirements Detailed by DICE

By Francisco Pires
published

Minimum requirements include a quad-core CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti or AMD RX 560 GPU

DICE tweeted the system requirements for the upcoming Battlefield 2042 earlier today. This announcement comes days before the game's first beta, scheduled for October 6th through October 9th. The open beta, where anyone can actually play, will be two days shorter, running only from October 7th through the 9th. 

The requirements themselves are pretty standard fare for today's AAA releases. On the software side, a 64-bit version of Windows 10 is mandatory. For hardware, the minimum CPU recommendation lists a 6-core Ryzen 5 3600 or a 4-core Core i5-6600K CPU, though we suspect most AMD Zen family CPUs will still suffice. For graphics, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Pascal) or an AMD Radeon RX 560 (Polaris) are needed. If you are in the market for any of these, check out our best CPU for gaming and best graphics card picks for the best possible experience.

Battlefield 2042 system requirements (Image credit: DICE/EA)

The recommended system requirements bump things up substantially. They include at least an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or, strangely, a 4-core Intel Core i5-4790 CPU. DICE recommends an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB GDDR6) or an AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8 GB). Interestingly, it appears that the original RTX 2060 was excluded on account of its "mere" 6GB of VRAM.

Unfortunately, DICE did not reveal at what game settings these requirements apply to, which excludes some more information we could glean regarding expected optimization level and overall performance. Another telling omission is that the game doesn't offer ray-tracing as a graphical option. DICE elected to skip the feature entirely, despite having already implemented parts of it in Battlefield V. However, both Nvidia Reflex (for lowering latency ratios) and DLSS will be integrated into the game.

Battlefield 2042 open beta announcement (Image credit: DICE/EA)

Battlefield 2042 will be officially launching on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5 platforms on November 19th. The 128-player game mode is exclusive to the PC version of the game.

Francisco Pires
Francisco Pires
Freelance News Writer

Francisco Pires is a freelance news writer for Tom's Hardware with a soft side for quantum computing.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Zlatko Flajpan
    It's odd that minimum CPU requirement is Ryzen 5 3600 and recomended is Ryzen 7 2700x because Ryzen 5 3600 is better in games.And 3600 is far greater in games than Intel i5 6600k by a mile.I think that is mistake they meant Ryzen 1600 first generation Zen.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    Considering the Intel side also suggests a previous generation processor for the recommended specs, this seems to imply that Battlefield 2042 uses more threads. Or it could be someone at EA's marketing not knowing the heck they're talking about.

    Plus it's meaningless because it doesn't what you'll get out of it for what settings.
    Reply
  • spentshells
    I am wildly excited for this game.
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    Weird that the Intel recommended CPU is much weaker than the AMD recommend CPU
    Reply
  • Teeroy32
    I'm still hoping for FSR support, my poor RX480 is going to need all the help it can get. Though even though its under spec I'm sure my R5 2600 will do just fine.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    Teeroy32 said:
    I'm still hoping for FSR support, my poor RX480 is going to need all the help it can get. Though even though its under spec I'm sure my R5 2600 will do just fine.
    If it helps you feel better, the things they post are just what hardware they're willing to support. It doesn't necessarily mean it won't work.

    I mean, people got Doom 3 running on a Voodoo 2 (okay that requires modding, but still).
    Reply
  • Eximo
    Not even willing to support. They are saying that is the minimum spec to play the game as the creators intended. 9/10 the only hard limits are Direct X compatibility levels and specific GPU technologies required.

    Reminds me, I need to fire up my Voodoo 5 and see if it is still working.
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    Well, it is a beta. Maybe the final product will have better matched minimum requirements...
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    hotaru.hino said:
    If it helps you feel better, the things they post are just what hardware they're willing to support. It doesn't necessarily mean it won't work.

    I mean, people got Doom 3 running on a Voodoo 2 (okay that requires modding, but still).
    It can run on an original voodoo too. Lazy game reviews did an interesting video on it.

    Although, this is perhaps a bit of a side tangent.
    Reply
  • Teeroy32
    hotaru.hino said:
    If it helps you feel better, the things they post are just what hardware they're willing to support. It doesn't necessarily mean it won't work.

    I mean, people got Doom 3 running on a Voodoo 2 (okay that requires modding, but still).
    I have no doubt that I'll be able to play it on medium to high, I just want FSR so I can get around 100 fps instead of 60 at 1080p. I'm not completely sure but I reckon 720 high/ultra upscaled would be nicer than 1080 low native.
    Reply