The First Descendant System Requirements & PC Benchmark

Defend humanity and repel the alien Vulgus invaders in The First Descendant, developed by NEXON Games powered by Unreal Engine 5. Combining fast-paced four-player cooperative combat, grappling hook mobility, and colossal void intercept boss battles, this high-octane third-person looter shooter utilizes advanced Nanite geometry and Lumen dynamic illumination. Sustaining fluid 60 to 120 FPS during screen-filling particle explosions and multi-layered boss encounters demands substantial graphics compute. Benchmark your PC setup above to check expected framerates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions.

The First Descendant Minimum System Requirements (1080p 30 FPS Low)

Baseline hardware required to run The First Descendant at 1080p 30 FPS on Low settings with temporal upscaling:

• Operating System: Windows 10 x64 20H2 (or newer)
• Processor (CPU): Intel Core i5-3570 or AMD FX-8350
• Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB) or AMD Radeon RX 570 (4GB)
• System Memory (RAM): 8 GB RAM
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 100 GB available space (Solid State Drive strongly recommended)

The First Descendant Recommended System Requirements (1080p/1440p 60 FPS High)

Recommended configuration for fluid 60+ FPS cooperative combat at 1080p and 1440p on High visual presets:

• Operating System: Windows 10 x64 20H2 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
• Processor (CPU): Intel Core i7-7700K or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
• Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6GB)
• System Memory (RAM): 16 GB high-speed dual-channel RAM
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 100 GB NVMe Solid State Drive

The First Descendant 4K Ultra Specs (60+ FPS Enthusiast Tier)

For native 4K 60+ FPS with maximum Nanite mesh fidelity, hardware ray-traced shadows, and pristine particle effects during chaotic Void Intercept Colossus raids, an Intel Core i7-14700K or AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D paired with an RTX 4080 Super or RX 7900 XTX and 32 GB RAM provides fluid frame pacing and crisp visual fidelity.

Best The First Descendant Graphics Settings for Maximum FPS

Gain higher competitive framerates and stabilize 1% lows during intensive dungeon runs with these optimized settings:

• Global Illumination: Medium (Unreal Engine 5 Lumen lighting is demanding; Medium recovers up to 22% GPU overhead while retaining vivid ambient bounce).
• Ray Tracing: Off (hardware RT in UE5 imposes heavy GPU fill rate penalties; keeping it disabled boosts combat framerates significantly).
• Effects & Particles: Medium (crucial for maintaining smooth frame pacing when four Descendants unleash elemental ultimate abilities simultaneously).
• DLSS / FSR / XeSS: Set to Quality or Balanced mode; enable Frame Generation on RTX 40 and Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards for massive framerate gains.
• Post-Processing: Medium (reduces heavy screen-space shader passes without diminishing visual contrast).

Hardware Bottlenecks: Is The First Descendant CPU or GPU Heavy?

The First Descendant is primarily GPU-heavy due to its cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5 visual stack, high-resolution character shaders, and extensive volumetric effects. However, Albion’s central social hub and four-player Colossus raids place noticeable demands on CPU thread scheduling for network synchronization and player collision arbitration. Installing the game on a high-speed NVMe SSD is essential to eliminate loading hitches when fast-traveling between Infiltration operations. Compare performance requirements with other cooperative sci-fi shooters like Space Marine 2, Helldivers 2, or browse our complete PC system requirements catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is an SSD required to play The First Descendant?
While the game technically boots on mechanical hard drives, Nexon strongly advises an SSD to handle 100 GB of high-density textures and eliminate mid-mission hitching.

Does The First Descendant support NVIDIA DLSS and Frame Generation?
Yes, the title features full native support for NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 (Super Resolution and Frame Generation), AMD FSR 3, and Intel XeSS.

Can I run The First Descendant with 8 GB of RAM?
While 8 GB is listed as the official minimum, 16 GB is strongly recommended to prevent severe memory swapping during populated Infiltration missions and boss battles.