Products at a Glance
How we chose the best GPU for Helldivers 2
We’ve made our choices for the best GPU for Helldivers 2 on a combination of factors including the resolution to play the game at, the target framerate, and the cost of entry. We’ve strived to include options across all budgets so that you’re able to play with your friends regardless of how much cash is in your wallet right now. Every setup is different, as no two computers are the same, so you’ll find our four top-tested options to suit most budgets and preferences.
Helldivers 2 has a range of graphical settings for different framerates from low, medium, high, and ultra whether you’re playing on an AMD Radeon RX or Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU. For smooth gameplay, you’re going to want to smartly scale factors such as your texture quality, shadow quality, anti aliasing, particle quality, fog, volumetric cloud quality, ambient occlusion, and reflections as these are going to be the most demanding elements on your graphics card’s available VRAM.
Toggleable settings such as motion blur will also impact your framerate regardless of your PC specs, especially in high settings and ultra quality settings. You’ll also want to take into account lighting quality and render distance as well, as Helldivers 2 doesn’t utilize DLSS or FSR and ray tracing is also off the table. That means it’s all about native performance without the benefit of AI-driven supersampling for the best graphics settings possible. That’s why we’ve omitted older Nvidia GeForce GTX cards here.
Product Reviews
- Excellent value for money
- 20% more CUDA cores
- Strong gaming performance
- Not the cheapest mid-range GPU
The RTX 4070 Super takes the top spot as the best GPU for Helldivers 2 and that’s for a couple of crucial reasons. Namely, the price-to-performance offered by the mid-range Ada graphics card. Launched earlier this year, this refresh model adds a full 20% more CUDA cores up from the original RTX 4070 without increasing the price for a far more capable gaming video card than its predecessor. It’s available from $599 firmly in the middle market of the generation but that doesn’t mean it has skimped on the power.
In our dedicated RTX 4070 Super review, we were consistently impressed with how this GPU handles demanding 1440p and even 4K gaming without breaking a sweat, and that’s without factoring in DLSS AI upscaling, which Helldivers 2 does not currently support. It’s armed with 12GB GDDR6X memory and a 192-bit memory bus forged on the AD104 silicon, with more than enough under the hood to push Arrowhead’s shooter to the limits while maintaining playable framerates. If you want the smoothest experience, we recommend a high refresh rate 1440p monitor, or another one of the best gaming monitors as the perfect pairing.
- Leading 4K performance
- Cheaper than base RTX 4080
- Slightly faster than base RTX 4080
- It still costs $1,000
- Partner cards may close pricing gap
If you’re solely interested in playing Helldivers 2 in 4K with high framerates and no compromises then look no further than the RTX 4080 Super. Debuting in January, this high-end Ada refresh packs in all the same hardware as its original iteration but knocks a full $200 off the sticker price, while bumping up the clock speeds slightly. That means you’re getting a staggering 16GB GDDR6X VRAM built on the AD103 die and 256-bit memory bus. There’s an ever-so-slight bump up in CUDA cores, too, from the 9,728 of the first run to 10,240 (a 5% increase).
Essentially that means paying less and getting more which effectively removes any need to rush out and buy the standard RTX 4080. In our RTX 4080 Super review, we praised the GPU’s abilities in 4K gaming which was confidently able to deliver framerates of well over 60fps natively in demanding titles, and Helldivers 2 should be no exception. You should be able to run the game in ultra settings and have a silky smooth experience thanks to the memory pool and larger memory bus, making this GPU perfect given its pricing of $999.
- Excellent in 4K and 1440p
- Large memory bus
- Tons of VRAM
- Limited to slower GDDR6 memory
While we’ve touched upon how Nvidia GPUs can play Helldivers 2, it would be amiss of us to leave out the RX 7900 XTX which is the best AMD GPU on the market. Armed with 24GB GDDR6 memory, the same memory pool as the RTX 4090, and a 384-bit memory bus, Team Red came storming out of the gate for the hardcore gaming audience with a video card that’s all about raw power over everything else. Considering Helldivers 2 doesn’t utilize the likes of FSR (AMD’s answer to DLSS), you’ll need to rely on native performance for frames well above 60fps in 4K.
In our dedicated RX 7900 XTX review, we praised AMD’s flagship for its stellar gaming performance which was confidently able to deliver 100fps averages and above in the vast majority of titles with ease. It should be the same story with Arrowhead’s shooter given Helldivers 2’s system requirements. You may be limited to slower video memory overall, but that’s counteracted by just how large the memory pool is, especially with a price tag of $999 matching the RTX 4080 Super. What’s more, you can sometimes even find it cheaper than this rate as sales and discounts are common in 2024.
- Aggressively priced
- Strong gaming performance in 1080p
- Faster than Intel or AMD equivalents
- Limited to 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
- Can struggle in 1440p
There’s no reason why the best GPU for Helldivers 2 necessarily has to burn a massive hole in your wallet and that’s where the RTX 4060 confidently steps up to the plate. The weakest of the Ada lineup, this mainstream offering is built on the AD107 die but packs in 8GB GDDR6 VRAM and 3,072 CUDA cores on a 128-bit memory bus. It may sound humble, but that’s more than enough to max out today’s games in 1080p targeting 60fps and above.
In our RTX 4060 review, we found that Nvidia’s entry-level option largely achieved its goals of providing cash-strapped gamers a way to game at max settings without splashing out too much. That’s thanks to the Ada architecture’s more power-efficient construction than its rivals, the Intel Arc A750 and AMD RX 7600 XT. This video card is not only leagues faster than the minimum recommended GPU for Helldivers 2, the GTX 1050 Ti, but also runs rings around the recommended RTX 2060, too. You’ll also be buying yourself overhead for many other games in the future thanks to DLSS 3 Frame Generation support and ray tracing capabilities.
Other things to consider with the best GPU for Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 happens to be a more CPU-intensive game and that means the title can be quite strenuous on your processor. While the minimum recommendations are fairly relaxed, we recommend a fairly modern Intel Core or AMD Ryzen chipset to ensure the best experience in 1080p and up. Then we get onto storage for your rig. The game is no slouch in terms of content and that adds up to a staggering 100GB of space needed, where an SSD is strongly recommended. We’ll go one step further and say that you should ideally install the title on a Gen 3 or Gen 4 NVMe SSD to ensure the fastest load times and the most consistent performance possible.
Helldivers 2 is an excellent game and shows no signs of slowing down with new content rolling out often and an incredibly active player base of over 230,000 at any one time according to Steam DB. That means whether you’ve been on board from day one or are looking to join the community, you’ll have tons of people to play with in spreading democracy across the known (and unknown) universe for Super Earth!
Is Helldivers 2 a CPU or GPU intensive game?
As the official system requirements indicate, Helldivers 2 is a CPU-intensive title that has fairly relaxed minimum specifications on PC for 1080p at 30fps, albeit far from the ideal experience.
Is Helldivers 2 a demanding game?
Helldivers 2 is not the most demanding game with fairly humble minimum requirements to play in 1080p at 30fps and 60fps. However, if you want to step things up to 1440p and 4K then you’re going to need one of the GPUs mentioned in our buying guide.
Our Verdict
The RTX 4070 Super takes pole position as the best GPU for Helldivers 2 for its competitive pricing, strong performance, and high amount of VRAM making it ideal for Arrowhead’s shooter and many games for the future, too.