Are you playing the Destiny 2 beta on PC? Are you planning to buy Destiny 2 when it launches on PC later this year?

The game looks fantastic. But if you want the game to look its best, then you need to play it at 60 fps in 4K.

Is such a thing even possible for your PC? How beefy does your rig need to be to run Destiny 2 at these specs?

The good news is that Destiny 2 isn’t some lazy console port. It’s a full-fledged PC that’s genuinely been optimized to run on your PC. Bungie has even partnered with Nvidia to ensure the game gets the best possible performance on PC.

In any case, PCGamer recently did a bunch of Destiny 2 testing with different graphics cards and settings. You can use that data to make a smart choice about your Destiny 2 hardware.

The Best Video Cards for Destiny 2

According to PC Gamer’s tests, the best video card for Destiny 2 is the GTX Ti running in SLI (which means you’ll need two cards and a lot of money). Running in SLI, the cards delivered an average FPS of 77.8 fps at 4k with maxed out graphics settings (and a minimum fps of 45.1).

If you can’t afford to drop $1000+ on a pair of high-end graphics cards, then you have other options. Here are the other minimum and average FPS readouts from other popular graphics cards:

GTX 1080 Ti SLI: Average of 77.8 fps, minimum of 45.1 fps.

GTX 1080 SLI: Average of 68.9 fps, minimum of 39.9 fps

GTX 1080 Ti: Average of 52.5 fps, minimum of 45.5 fps

GTX 1080: Average of 38.1 fps, minimum of 33.8 fps

GTX 1070: Average of 31.8 fps, minimum of 28.4 fps.

RX Vega 64: Average of 30.6 fps, minimum of 18.1 fps.

RX Vega 56: Average of 27.0 fps, minimum of 18.0 fps.

GTX 1060 6GB: Average of 22.6 fps, minimum of 20.0 fps.

RX 580: Average of 18.2 fps, minimum of 12.3 fps.

As you can see, the high-end graphics cards run the game smoothly with or without SLI configurations. However, performance drops sharply towards the bottom of the list. Keep in mind that the above framerates are based on the game running at the highest SMAA at 4k resolution (3840×2160).

You can also see that Destiny 2 is a very performance intensive game. The only way to consistently get 60fps at 4K and maxed out settings is to have a 1080 SLI or 1080 Ti SLI – anything less, and you’re going to have framerate dips into the 40 to 50 range.

How to Tweak Destiny 2 Graphics Settings for Maximum Performance

Even high-end rigs can’t run Destiny 2 on its highest settings without issue. So which graphics settings should you reduce to maximize performance? Which settings provide the best framerate improvements for the lowest cost? Here are some graphics settings to trim, based on descending order of noticeability.

Start with the highest preset, then set DoF to high (use this strategy if you’re using one of the top 5 or 6 cards listed above)

Start with the high preset, then turn off SSAO and DoF

Start with the medium preset, then turn off SSAO and DoF and set resolution scaling to 75

Start with the low preset, then set texture quality and shadow quality to “Lowest”

By running through the steps above, you can run Destiny 2 at 60 fps at 4K smoothly without issue – even if you’re not operating at the highest graphics settings.

Ultimately, all of the cards above can handle 60 fps at 4K resolution – but you’ll need to trim graphics settings in order to do so. If you’d rather sacrifice resolution instead of graphics settings, then you may want to drop the resolution while maintaining the highest graphic presets.