Remedy is making a huge mistake with the FBC Firebreak system requirements

Remedy's highly anticipated co-op shooter is out soon, and the FBC Firebreak system requirements are looking very reasonable at first glance, but remarkably, we have another case of upscaling being used to possibly list older PC hardware, which is somewhat misleading.

You won't need the best graphics card to run this supernatural FPS, but you are going to need Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR, just like the Hell is Us system requirements, which admit to using upscaling at all tiers. More baffling is the fact that FBC Firebreak is using a version of the Northlight Engine, Remedy's in-house creation that has been in use since 2016, so it's not like this decision is driven by the introduction of a powerful new engine.

Here are the FBC Firebreak minimum and recommended specs:

Take our FBC Firebreak system requirements PC benchmark test to answer the question… Can I run FBC Firebreak?

The FBC Firebreak minimum requirements list an Intel Core i5 7600K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X alongside an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT. If you meet these requirements, you can expect 60fps gameplay at 1080p using the low graphics preset, but only if you set your upscaler to quality.

The GTX 1070 isn't DLSS compatible, meaning AMD FSR, Intel XeSS, or a proprietary upscaler built into the game will need to be used in the graphics settings. As for the RAM requirement, it is 16GB across every tier, so it's worth upgrading to some of the best gaming RAM compatible with your PC if you're still currently getting by with 8GB or 12GB.

As for the FBC Firebreak recommended specs, you'll need an Intel Core i5 8500 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT. These specs will get you 60fps at 1440p using the medium graphics preset and again, quality upscaling.

Here are the FBC Firebreak high and ultra specs:

Finally, we have the FBC Firebreak ultra specs, which call for an Intel Core i7 8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 or an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, the latter of which is making its first appearance in a set of system requirements that we've seen.

These specs will get you 60fps at 4K using the high graphics preset with ray tracing also set to high, however, you'll need much more aggressive upscaling here with your chosen method set to performance, lowering the native render resolution to 1,920 x 1,080 before being upscaled back to 4K.

The new DLSS 4 transformer model will ensure that image quality is still high, but if you don't have a compatible graphics card and are forced to use FSR 3 or XeSS, image quality won't be as good.

This is why upscaling doesn't belong in system requirements, and it's acting like a band-aid to cover up poorly optimized games, or the need to simply upgrade to better PC hardware. Worse still, the upscaling is only mentioned in the image released by Remedy on social media and in a community post; on the Steam store page, there is no mention of the upscaling requirements.

The FBC Firebreak download size is currently listed as 30GB, with an SSD required at all tiers. Given that this is set to be a live-service game, this file size could grow with time, so be sure to keep an eye on game updates as they are released, and check out our best SSD guide if you find yourself in need of a storage upgrade.

For a closer look at this hectic shooter, you can read our FBC Firebreak preview so you can get adequately hyped for the FBC Firebreak release date.

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