The PC beta of Call of Duty Vanguard has started. We take a look at how well the World War II shooter plays with the recommended hardware.
On 5 November, Call of Duty Vanguard, the latest spin-off of the successful shooter series, will be released for PC and consoles. This time it’s back to the Second World War. Just under one and a half months before the release, the open beta is currently running. Pre-orderers on the PC have been able to get their hands on it since yesterday, for all others the starting signal will be given tomorrow. All information on the open beta can be found here:
CoD Vanguard: All info on the Open Beta – weapons, maps, game modes and more
Table of Contents
CoD Vanguard: System requirements for the beta
The system requirements of the Call of Duty Vanguard beta are quite moderate: A computer with a ten-year-old mid-range processor from Intel and a seven-year-old mid-range graphics card from Nvidia should be enough to get started. The recommendation provides for somewhat more modern hardware, but even that turns out to be manageable:
PC Beta Minimum System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 960/1050 Ti or AMD Radeon R9 380
- RAM: 8.0 GByte
- Hard disk: 45.0 GByte
- Operating system: Windows 10 64 bit version 1909 or newer
PC Beta Recommended System
- CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
- RAM: 16.0 GByte
- Hard disk: 45.0 GByte
- Operating system: Windows 10 64 Bit 2104
But how well does a system with the recommended hardware reallyperform? We take a closer look at Call of Duty Vanguard in combination with an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070. We also test with the very popular RTX 2070 Super.
How we test CoD Vanguard
To get the most reliable data possible, we choose a game mode and a map where we can stay in one place undisturbed for a while. This is necessary to get comparable values and is not exactly easy in a fast multiplayer game. The choice finally falls on the new game mode Patrol and the map Eagle’s Nest.
Our test system looks like this:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 and RTX 2070 Super
- RAM: 16.0 GByte DDR4
- Memory: 1.0 TByte NVMe SSD
- Operating system: Windows 10 version 21H1
The latest Geforce driver with the version number 471.96 is also used.
Benchmarks with GTX 1070 and RTX 2070 Super
CoD Vanguard
Graphic cards in comparison (Preset Ultra)
Under Full HD and the graphics preset Ultra, we achieve an average of around 80 frames per second with the GTX 1070. In other sequences and in combat, the frame rate is hardly lower and the minimum FPS (99th percentile) is also consistently at a very good level.
Even under WQHD and the Ultra preset, the GTX 1070 still delivers usable results with an average of 58 FPS. However, with a few tweaks in the graphics settings, a bit more is possible, as the following benchmark table with comparisons between the Ultra preset and the Lowest preset under 4K resolution shows:
CoD Vanguard
Comparison 4K Preset Ultra vs. Lowest
For 4K resolution, however, the GTX 1070 is not enough. If you want to try your luck in 2160p, you need at least an RTX 2070 Super. And even with that, some fine-tuning is needed to get to 60 FPS and above.
Video memory requirement turns out to be manageable
The video memory load or memory preallocation is also moderate:
- 2160p (Preset Ultra): 6.0 GByte
- 1440p (Preset Ultra): 5.5 GByte
- 1080p (Preset Ultra): 5.2 GByte
Taboo topic Skillbased Matchmaking (SBMM): Find out if CoD Vanguard listens to the wishes of the fans in the following video:
Editor’s verdict
The Call of Duty Vanguard beta delivers consistently good performance Basically, the shooter can be played smoothly with a GTX 1070 even in WQHD (QHD), although usually much more than 60 frames per second are desired for shooting.
The good performance is not particularly surprising, however, since Call of Duty Vanguard is based on the same engine as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone – it is well tested and proven.
For the final game, we do not expect any great improvements in terms of frame rate, but also no deterioration.
