Let’s look at the minimum and recommended system requirements for Overwatch 2 before we talk about how different PC components affect the game’s performance.
System Minimum Requirements:
GPU: Radeon HD 7000 Series and NVIDIA GTX 600 Series
CPU: Phenom X3 8650 or Core i3 from Intel.
RAM memory: 6 GB
Recommended System Requirements:
GPU: Radeon R9 380 or NVIDIA GTX 1060
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i7
RAM memory: 8 GB
These formal specs can be readily met by today’s standards. Even the modest “Good” category on the Logical Increments parts list almost complies with Blizzard’s official recommended specifications if we assume that the R5 designation genuinely indicates that an i5 performs roughly as good as an i7 for decent experience on maximum settings.
GPUs that work best with Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2’s low graphics card requirements make it less demanding than many contemporary games. However, to get the most out of the game’s graphics and increase your frame rate, you’ll still need a powerful graphics card.
In Overwatch 2, NVIDIA graphics perform around 10% better than AMD equivalents. NVIDIA graphics cards will provide you with more performance for your money in Overwatch 2.
We advise at least a GTX 1660 for gaming at Ultra settings in 1080p with 60 frames per second.
We advise at least an RTX 3060 for Ultra settings at 1440p with 60 frames per second. We’d suggest an RTX 3080 or better to reach 60 FPS on Ultra at 4K resolution or 144 FPS at 1440p.
CPUs that work best for Overwatch 2
Although the CPU plays a key role in Overwatch 2, the game does not require exceptionally high requirements. Your average FPS can remain above 100 even with a little i3-12100F.
An Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 will enable you to play Overwatch 2 at a frame rate of 100 or higher. Consider investing in an i7-12700K if you want to maintain a consistent frame rate of more than 144 FPS at Ultra settings. The minimum FPS will increase with additional cores. Additionally, these CPU solutions will be more future-proof and perform better in games that require higher demands.
Guide to Overwatch 2 Graphics Settings
Display Options, Graphical Settings, and Advanced Graphics Settings are the three subcategories of Overwatch 2’s visual settings.
Display Preferences
Display options include things like vertical synchronization, range of view, and resolution (VSync).
We advise turning off Enable Triple Buffering and set Limit FPS to None if you want to increase performance without compromising your graphics settings.
Graphics Options
You can simply select a preset in this section to automatically adjust the various graphical settings found under “Advanced Graphical Settings.” There are the following presets Low, Medium, High, Ultra, and Epic.
Every single one of our benchmarks is based on the Epic preset, which is a level below Epic. If you’re having trouble getting the framerate you want on Epic, lowering the preset will greatly enhance the game’s performance.
However, by modifying the Advanced Graphical Settings on your own, you may probably get a better combination of visual detail and performance.
Enhanced Graphics Options
You may really fine-tune the game in this part to run smoothly on your hardware. There still are 15 settings in all that can be changed. Let’s examine in greater detail some of the parameters that have the biggest effects.
Display Scale
The game’s rendering resolution is down- or over-sampled while using Render Scale. For instance, you can play the game at “4K resolution” on a 1080p monitor by setting its Render Scale to 200%, which will smooth out the images and reduce “jaggies” caused by pixels. On the other hand, decreasing this setting below 100% will result in a blurrier-looking game but will significantly boost performance.
High (100%) corresponds to your selected display resolution (set under Display Settings). Your rendering resolution is increased by 150% by “Ultra,” and by 200% by “Epic” (for example, turning a 1080p monitor into a 4K rendering resolution).
This setting has the biggest effect on the Overwatch 2 performance of any other option. Unless your hardware is capable of performing better, we advise maintaining the setting at 100%. If you’re obtaining framerates that are higher than you require, feel free to increase the Render Scale if you think the visual benefit justifies the performance hit.
Texture Excellence
The textures of the game, which cover its characters and setting, are impacted by this. Higher-quality textures consume more VRAM, which can have an impact on how well lower-end graphics cards operate. The high mode cannot be used on graphics cards with less than 2GB of VRAM.
Quality of Texture Filtering
This option affects how textures are used on 3D models. Increased settings reduce texture blocking and blurring on models.
Detail of local fog
Sincere to say, we have no idea what Local Fog Details do. During our tests, there was a little visible distinction between the Low or Ultra settings. This is particularly puzzling given how much of an effect Local Fog Detail has on performance. This is certainly one of the first settings we recommend changing if you wanted to improve FPS.
Active Reflections
Although reflections don’t look really good when set to Low, this parameter has a rather significant impact on FPS.
Conclusion
Overwatch 2’s low graphics card requirements make it less demanding than many contemporary games. To get the most out of the game’s graphics and increase your frame rate, you’ll still need a powerful graphics card. NVIDIA graphics perform around 10% better than AMD equivalents in the game. The game’s rendering resolution is down- or over-sampled while using Render Scale. You can play the game at “4K resolution” on a 1080p monitor by setting its Render Scale to 200%.
This will smooth out the images and reduce “jaggies” caused by pixels. Increased settings reduce texture blocking and blurring on models. Local Fog Detail, Active Reflections and Quality of Texture Filtering all affect how textures are used on 3D models.