Apex Legends PC Performance Review

Testing Methodology, Hardware and PC system requirements 

As a free-to-play Battle Royale title it makes sense for Apex Legends to offer low PC system requirements, promising that the game will run on some extremely low hardware. That said, the game's recommended system requirements remain relatively high, with EA/Respawn Entertainment recommending AMD's R9 290 and Nvidia's Geforce GTX 970. 

We will see how well our current crop of hardware runs this title as our performance analysis progresses, though it appears as if Apex Legends will offer PC gamers a tremendous level of scalability. 
 

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

OS: 64-bit Windows 7
Processor (AMD): AMD FX 4350 or Equivalent
Processor (Intel): Intel Core i3 6300 or Equivalent
Memory: 6GB - DDR3 @1333 RAM
Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ HD 7730
Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce® GT 640
DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent
Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Hard-drive space: 22GB

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS

OS: 64-bit Windows 7
Processor (AMD): Ryzen 5 CPU or Equivalent
Processor (Intel): Intel Core i5 3570K or Equivalent
Memory: 8GB - DDR3 @1333 RAM
Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ R9 290
Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970
DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent
Online Connection Requirements: Broadband Connection
Hard-drive space: 22GB

GPU Drivers

While testing Apex Legends we utilised the latest drivers from both AMD and Nvidia, utilising the Radeon Software 19.2.2 driver and Geforce 418.91 driver with the applicable graphics cards from each vendor. 

 

Testing Methodology

OC3D is a website that is dedicated PC hardware, so you better believe that we test every game on a wide range of hardware configurations. This commitment to variety means that we will be using both Intel and AMD based testbeds as well as a range of GPU offerings from both Nvidia and Radeon. 

Our primary test system uses Intel's X99 platform, containing an Intel Core i7 6850K at a fixed clock speed of 4GHz. This testbed will use 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 memory and will be powered and cooled by an HX1200i PSU and an H110i AIO liquid cooler respectively, with everything sitting inside a Corsair 460X chassis. In this system, we are using an ASUS Strix X99 motherboard. 

Game Test Rig
Intel i7 6850K @4.0 GHz
ASUS X99 Strix
Corsair Vengeance LP 4x8GB DDR4 3200MHz
Corsair HX1200i
Corsair H110i GT
Windows 10 x64 "October 2018 Update"

Secondary Ryzen Test System

Aside from our standard X99 test system we also have a testbed based on AMD's Ryzen 7 1700X CPU, which will sit at a clock speed of 4GHz be housed in an ASUS Crosshair VI Hero motherboard. This system will use Corsair's 3200MHz Vengeance White LED memory and is contained inside another Corsair 460X chassis. 

This extra system will allow us to see if any games offer a performance advantage to AMD's Ryzen or Intel's Core series processors.  

AMD Ryzen Game Test Rig
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X @ 4.0GHz
ASUS X370 Crosshair VI Hero
Corsair Vengeance LED 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz
Corsair 460X System Chassis
Corsair RMi650
Corsair H115i
Nvidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition
Windows 10 x64 "October 2018 Update"

GPU Selection

No gaming test suite would be complete without a large selection of GPUs, which in this case covers Nvidia's RTX 20-series GTX 10-series and 9-series and AMD's RX Vega, RX 400 and R9 300 series graphics cards. We have replaced our RX 480 GPU with its RX 580 equivalent, giving us a fairer comparison point between AMD/Nvidia's modern graphics card lineups. 

Starting this month, we will be testing new PC games with Nvidia's latest RTX series of graphics cards, with the mid-range RTX 2060 and high-end RTX 2080 Ti entering our graphics card lineup. 


Geforce RTX 20-Series

- Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition
- Nvidia RTX 2060 Founders Edition

Geforce GTX 10-series

- Nvidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Founders Edition
- ASUS GTX 1060 Strix Gaming OC

Geforce GTX 900-series 

- ASUS GTX 960 Strix 

AMD RX Vega Series

- AMD RX Vega 56

AMD RX 500 Series

- AMD RX 580 Strix OC


AMD GCN GPUs

- ASUS R9 380 Strix

Keyboard & Mouse

To control this setup, we will be using Corsair Strafe RGB keyboard with Cherry MX Silent keys alongside a Corsair M65 RGB mouse, matching the general theme of this RGB illuminated system.  

Cherry MX Silent Keys are ideal for gaming, coming with similar characteristics as Cherry MX Red keys, but with quieter operation. This comparative silence will help keep players immersed in their games, without the distracting clicks that are present in other Cherry key switches.