Is Jedi Fallen Order a demanding game?

Yes, Jedi: Fallen Order is certainly one of the more graphically intense and hardware-demanding AAA games available today. Getting smooth 60 FPS gameplay or higher requires a powerful modern gaming PC, especially at 1080p or 1440p resolutions with maxed graphical settings.

Official Minimum and Recommended PC Requirements

According to developer Respawn Entertainment and publisher EA, the minimum graphics card needed is a GTX 650 or Radeon HD 7750 to run at 720p resolution on Low settings targeting 30 FPS. However, for a solid 60 FPS even at 1080p Medium settings, an older GTX 970 or R9 290 is recommended instead.

For High settings and 60+ FPS at 1080p, a newer recommended card would be at least a GTX 1070 or RX Vega 56 instead. And stepping up to 60 FPS on High at 1440p demands an RTX 2070 Super or RX 5700 XT level card or better.

We can see there is a big difference between barely scraping by at 30 FPS and enjoying a smooth 60+ frame rate throughout. A modern mid-range or better GPU is recommended for the best experience.

The recommended requirements also call for 16GB of RAM and a Core i7 or Ryzen 7 level quad-core CPU. This indicates the game does demand a balance of solid PC specs to run well.

Performance Impact of Graphical Settings

Digging deeper into the graphical settings shows that ambient occlusion, shadows, texture quality, and anti-aliasing have the biggest individual performance impacts:

• **Volumetric Lighting** – Up to 20% FPS drop from Low to High on a GTX 1060
• **Texture Quality** – Up to 15% slower on a GTX 1060 between Low and Epic
• **Shadow Quality** – Reduces FPS around 10-15% per notch increase from Low up to Epic
• **Anti-Aliasing** – Biggest drop comes from enabling medium Temporal AA (~15% slower)

And especially at 1440p or 4K resolutions, the Resolution Scale slider is very demanding. Setting this above 100% renders at a higher internal resolution before downsampling, greatly increasing GPU load for sharper clarity.

So a balanced rig is recommended not only for good general performance but also to max these settings out and experience the game‘s fantastic lighting, environments, and post-processing at their highest fidelity.

Jedi Fallen Order VS Other Popular Games

Up against other graphic-intensive games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Cyberpunk 2077, Jedi: Fallen Order is certainly in the same ballpark regarding hardware demands.

It requires similar GPU power to run at High settings and 60 FPS as these other visually stunning open world titles. Especially considering its sequenced levels avoid the cost of rendering extremely long view distances.

Compared specifically to the Dark Souls series that it takes inspiration from, Fallen Order also ups the graphical demands over those older titles. Running it with maxed settings takes around 50% more GPU power than what‘s needed for smooth Dark Souls 3 gameplay.

And crucially, its High/Epic settings and 60 FPS targets give it an edge over the 30 FPS console experience. So PC gamers have the headroom to make the most of its visuals.

The Impact of Mods and Updates

There are also various graphics mods available that can significantly increase both the visual quality and performance demands compared to vanilla Ultra settings.

Popular mods like the 4K Texture Pack and Photorealistic Reshade inject higher resolution textures, enhanced lighting and post-processing that add to the workload. Just using 2-3 of these mods together can require upwards of 30% more GPU power.

And there is also the upcoming next-gen update for Jedi: Fallen Order releasing in 2024. This is confirmed to add ray traced reflections along with enhanced assets and effects to better take advantage of newer graphics cards and consoles.

So both mods currently and built-in upgrades down the road will let the game push hardware even further for fans wanting to max out graphical fidelity.

Target Framerates For Different Setups

Based on tested benchmark data the following cards can reach these average framerates at High settings:

And competing AMD cards like the RX 6700 XT can deliver extremely similar framerates. We see cards under the RTX 2070 tier will start to struggle more for 60 FPS at 1440p and especially 4K resolution.

But overall Jedi: Fallen Order provides a great showcase for mid-range to high-end modern GPUs to flex their processing power driving its demanding graphics.

The Verdict – Striving For Next-Gen Fidelity

In summary, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sets its graphical sights high to be among the top AAA eye-candy on PC. Keeping above 60 FPS with all the bells and whistles maxed out at higher resolutions can challenge even beasts like an RTX 3070.

But this hardware ceiling also means newly released GPUs in 2022 and 2023 won‘t be overkill. JediOrder provides a stellar, intensive benchmark for visual splendor that continues to scale well with future graphics tech. And upcoming additions like ray tracing support will let it stay relevant on the bleeding edge.

So for PC gamers seeking a cutting-edge title to put their rigs through its paces, Jedi: Fallen Order absolutely delivers a new gold standard in Star Wars graphical beauty that calls for some powerhouse hardware backing it up!