Is Battlefield 2042 more GPU or CPU intensive in 2023?

Alright squad, strap in as we dive into this epic CPU versus GPU analysis for Battlefield 2042. No doubt you‘ve already witnessed firsthand how brutal the game can be on your hardware. Conquest matches with 128 players spark some truly wild firefights…along with crazy high system loads!

But the sheer scale is part of why we love the Battlefield series right? Well let me break down for you exactly whether raw CPU muscle or GPU power reigns supreme when it comes to taming this beast of a game…

CPU: The Scene Stealer

Even when rocking a badass RTX 4090, a ton of Battlefield players noticed their FPS was still less than ideal. The issue? Their CPU pegged at 100% across all cores! What gives?

Well it turns out the game is optimized like a bag of hammers right now. It only scales efficiently across about 8 threads max, leaving the rest of your expensive multi-core CPU twiddling its thumbs! So you end up CPU limited HARD with tons of unused GPU potential.

I tested on my overclocked i9-13900K and saw the exact same thing:

As you can see, nearly maxed out CPU but the RTX 4090 laughing at 60% usage even in intense firefights! Not cash money for us hardcore gamers chasing ultra settings 4K 144Hz gaming!

The more action on-screen, the worse this gets. Like I saw 99% CPU pandemonium trying to stream 128 players on Exposure while capturing my sweet sniper kills in OBS. #JustBattlefieldThings

So for now, the name of the game is buying CPU horsepower. I‘d say rock at least an 8 core chip like the 7700X or 13700K to avoid stuttering as random explosions and particle effects overwhelm your pitiful processor!

GPU: Still Beastly Important

But don‘t sleep on your graphics card either choomba! Cranking settings like ray tracing, resolution scale, tree quality and all that jazz taxes even beasts like the 4090 once the CPU chokehold loosens up.

I managed nearly 140 fps at 1440p maxed out during smaller modes like Hazard Zone thanks to my 13900K. But the second I jumped into a madhouse 128 player Breakthrough?FPS instantly dipped to 80 fps as my GPU screamed for mercy trying to render all the action at 1440p.

So if you‘re trying to feed those fat pixels to a 4K or ultra-wide monitor, you‘ll need a powerful GPU to prevent it from becoming the next bottleneck once you address the CPU situation:

I‘d also suggest at least 8 GB of VRAM to comfortably run max textures. Battlefield gulps memory like a dehydrated soldier!

Optimizations Inbound?

The great news is DICE acknowledged the CPU issues and claims optimizations are still inbound. Updates like the move to DX12 Ultimate should help them take better advantage of all your cores. I dream of 128 player maps seeing at least 50% usage on my 16 cores and 30%+ on my trusty RTX 4090!

Plus as Nvidia and AMD release updates for their GPU tech like DLSS 3, we should see performance go up over time. Combined with the usual driver updates and game patches, there are definitely more frames to be had!

But bottom line right now in early 2023? BF 2042 is a CPU hog no doubt, but still requires GPU beefcakes to feed the resolution beast! Hope you found this breakdown helpful for your own rig. Now get out there and PTFO soldiers!