Final Fantasy XV Benchmark For PC Is Out, Here Are Some Quick And Dirty Scores

In just a few weeks, Square Enix will finally release Final Fantasy XV for PC, and the promise ever since the publisher announced minimum and recommended system requirements back in October is that it will run on a wide variety of systems. If you are in doubt, however, or just want to see how well (or not so well) your particular setup will run the game, Square Enix has made available a benchmark tool. We kicked its tires and have a few numbers to share.

Before we get to the numbers, let's talk a bit about the requirements and the benchmark. One of the neat things about Final Fantasy XV arriving to PC is that it is bringing support for 4K resolution monitors and high dynamic range (HDR) visuals, allowing games to "experience even more atmospheric high-quality graphics." We are all about that—cranking up the resolution and eye candy is one of benefits of owning a PC, versus a console—so kudos to Square Enix in that regard.


To recap the system requirements, at minimum you need the following to run the game at 720p:

• OS: Windows 7 SP1 / Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 / AMD FX-6100
• GPU: GeForce GTX 760 GeForce GTX 1050 / Radeon R9 280
• Memory: 8GB
• HDD: 100GB or more

The recommended specs to run the game at 1080p are as follows:

• OS: Windows 7 SP1 / Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 / AMD FX-8350
• GPU: GeForce GTX 760 GeForce GTX 1050 / Radeon R9 280
• Memory: 16GB
• HDD: 100GB or more

And if you are hoping to run Final Fantasy XV on PC at 4K with HDR, you will need the following:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit Fall Creators Update
• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
• GPU: GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
• Memory: 16GB
• HDD: 150GB or more

The free benchmark utility that is available checks is approximately a 3.37GB download. It will test your PC's ability to run the game at various settings, and also check compatibility with HDR10 and Windows Sonic Audio. Unfortunately for gamers with multiple graphics cards underneath the hood, NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire are not supported.

There are three graphics settings to choose from: Lite, Standard, and High. The Lite setting uses a reduced graphical setting that disables light reflection and anti-aliasing calculations. It also turns shadows down to low, and reduces the resolution for Level-of-Detail (LOD) distance and textures. Standard, meanwhile, is the standard setting for PCs that meet the recommended requirements. And the High setting activates high-end graphical features, such as NVIDIA Turf Effects and Hairworks, and bumps up eye candy across the board.

We tested three different graphics cards an a PC with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor and 32GB of RAM, at the High quality preset at 1920x1080. Here are the scores:


And here are what those numbers mean:


Our benchmark run with a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti scored in the Very High range, while the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti placed in High tier and the Radeon RX 480 8GB in the Standard section. One thing to note is that the benchmark recommended against running the Radeon RX 480 8GB at the High preset, and indicated that Standard would be more appropriate.

The bottom line is that Final Fantasy XV will run on a variety of system types, though if you want to crank those settings up and run it at 4K with HDR, you will need a meaty configuration.