We ran extensive benchmarks of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on graphics cards ranging from the RTX 3060 to the RTX 5090 and the RX 6750 XT to the RX 9070 XT in conjunction with CPU AMD and Intel. We reveal real system requirements, FPS, and rendering quality.
This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.
Flight simulator Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve requires a 64-bit operating system. Windows 11 and runs on the DirectX 12 graphics API with support for Shader Model 6.6 and higher. The developers set strict standards: a solid-state drive (SSD) and a graphics card with hardware ray tracing support are required for all configurations, and 150 GB of free disk space is required to install the game.
Minimum system requirements for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
These settings are designed to run the game at the base graphics level (1920×1080 upscaled at 30 FPS, Low preset):
- OS: Windows 11 (64 bit)
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel Core i7-10700K
- Memory: 16 GB
- Video card: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB)
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage device: 150 GB (SSD required)
Recommended system requirements for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
This configuration is aimed at medium image quality (1920×1080 upscaled at 60 FPS, Medium preset):
- OS: Windows 11 (64 bit)
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel Core i7-12700K
- Memory: 32 GB
- Video card: AMD Radeon RX 6800 (16 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB)
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage device: 150 GB (SSD required)
Project Aces, an in-house studio, is collaborating with publisher Bandai Namco on the large-scale arcade flight simulator Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. The project is being developed as a direct sequel to the cult series for PC, as well as for current-generation consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The new installment aims to build on the commercial success of Chapter 7 and take the scale of aerial combat to a whole new level.
The story campaign once again unfolds in the alternate universe of Strangereal, engulfed in yet another geopolitical crisis surrounding the Theve region. The narrative is structured in a traditional cinematic vein: the personal drama of the squadron's pilots intertwines with the collapse of military alliances, the secrets of experimental weapons, and the clash of ideals in the midst of total war. Players assume the role of an ace pilot for a mercenary wing, flying dangerous combat missions into the thick of combat.
Series veteran Kazutoki Kono once again led development. The Project Aces team expanded the production pipeline, bringing in military consultants and aerodynamicists to create a more comprehensive flight experience. The developers paid special attention to the single-player campaign, eliminating service elements, while maintaining the classic mission structure with massive superweapons, gigantic flying fortresses, and narrow canyons for low-level flight.
The gameplay foundation of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve builds on the game's signature concept of high-speed aerial duels with an emphasis on tactical maneuvering and G-force management. The game features a vast fleet of licensed modern and future aircraft, including air superiority fighters, multirole attack aircraft, and fictional futuristic interceptors. Controls maintain a balance between dynamic accessibility and depth: players can perform super-maneuverability maneuvers like the Pugachev Cobra and the Somersault to quickly shake off pursuers.
A key new feature is the expanded electronic warfare (EW) and weather system. Dense thunderstorm fronts, thermal updrafts, and gale-force winds directly impact flight stability and onboard radar performance. Players can deliberately enter thunderstorm clouds to lose lock-on to enemy missiles, risking lightning strikes and temporary avionics failure. Jamming systems can now jam the guidance of entire enemy formations, opening windows for missile and bomb strikes.
Vehicle customization and development are built around a branching "Aircraft Tree" tech tree. By successfully completing combat missions and destroying rare enemy aces, players earn credits, unlocking access to new types of guided weapons, suspended laser mounts, propulsion modules, and stealth coatings. The variety of missions ranges from quick interceptions at altitudes of tens of kilometers to large-scale assault operations to suppress enemy air defenses.
The visuals of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve impress with their cinematic detail and the realistic atmosphere of high-altitude combat. The combat aircraft models are recreated with meticulous precision: physically based rendering (PBR) captures the micro-relief of rivets on the skin, the glare of the sun on titanium alloys, the sooty afterburner nozzle doors, and the worn surfaces of camouflage paint. Inside the meticulously detailed cockpits, all analog and digital instruments function, displaying real-world G-forces and angles of attack.
The sky and cloudscapes received a particularly visual overhaul. The developers implemented multilayered volumetric clouds with dynamic density that realistically scatter light, cast soft shadows on the ground, and swirl turbulently as a jet fighter flies past in afterburners. Raindrops and condensation flow realistically down the canopy glass, and a physically accurate Prandtl-Glauert condensation cone is generated when the sound barrier is broken.
The landscape beneath the aircraft's wing no longer appears as a flat texture, even at low altitudes. Rocky fjords, urbanized megacities with skyscrapers, mountain ranges, and expanses of sea have a true geometric depth. Bomb explosions, smoke trails from missiles, and fires on the ground act as dynamic light sources, illuminating the aircraft's belly during turns.
The technological core of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is a modern graphics engine Unreal Engine 5To render the vast open spaces spanning hundreds of square kilometers, the studio utilized the Nanite virtualized geometry system. It ensures smooth streaming of high-polygon landscapes, buildings, and military bases at supersonic speeds without any sudden loading or compromised levels of detail.
The Lumen module is responsible for global illumination and atmospheric ray scattering modeling. The system calculates in real time the changes in light flux as the aircraft penetrates multiple cloud layers, accurately illuminating the cockpit and reflecting sunlight off the wet metal surfaces of the wing. The Chaos physics module provides reliable calculations of the separation of aircraft control surfaces, the scattering of debris from downed aircraft, and the deformation of ground fortification structures.
An audio engine with 3D spatial sound support creates a dense acoustic image of a fighter's cockpit. The roar of afterburners, the whistle of air cutting through at transonic speeds, the pilot's breathing in an oxygen mask, the roar of enemy aircraft's turbines during turns, and the persistent warnings of radar and radar systems are positioned in space with absolute precision, heightening immersion in the tense atmosphere of aerial combat.
Below you'll find a hardware table kindly provided by our sponsors: GIGABYTE , ASUS , Kingston , and DeepCool . It lists the motherboards, graphics cards, memory modules, and cooling systems used in the benchmarks, as well as the current operating system and driver configurations.
All video cards were benchmarked at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of benchmarks is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. Below is a video of a benchmarked segment from the game:
Our video cards were benchmarked at separate screen resolutions of 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160 with maximum graphics settings in native mode.
In the video card benchmarks, the resolution 1920x1080 is selected by default, other resolutions are added and removed manually. You can also remove and add any video card positions. You can also select any of our benchmark processors from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given video card benchmarks (the most productive solution is selected by default). The test is carried out on the most productive one in this game CPU and scales to other processors, taking into account their benchmarks on NVIDIA and AMD video cards.
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When resolved 1920x1080:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Achieved on video cards of this level Radeon RX 6750 XT or GeForce RTX 3060.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the level Radeon RX 6750 XT or GeForce RTX 3060.
- Comfortable average FPS (not less than 60 frames): Possible with video cards of the level Radeon RX 6900 XT or GeForce RTX 4070.
When resolved 2560x1440:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Achieved on video cards of this level Radeon RX 6750 XT or GeForce RTX 3060.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the level Radeon RX 9060 XT or GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.
- Comfortable average FPS (not less than 60 frames): Possible with video cards of the level Radeon RX 7900 XTX or GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.
When resolved 3840x2160:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Achieved on video cards of this level Radeon RX 7900 or GeForce RTX 3080.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the level Radeon RX 9070 or GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- Comfortable average FPS (not less than 60 frames): Possible with video cards of the GeForce RTX 5090 level.
Testing of the video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the MSI Afterburner program. The results on video cards from AMD and NVIDIA at separate screen resolutions of 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 with different anti-aliasing settings were taken as an indicator. By default, the most current solutions are displayed in the graph. Other video cards are added and removed from the graph at the reader's request.
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Resolution 1920x1080:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 7 GB
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
Resolution 2560x1440:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 9 GB
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 10 GB
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 9 GB
Resolution 3840x2160:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 12 GB
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 10 GB
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 12 GB
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 11 GB
Testing was conducted at a resolution of 1920x1080. You can add or remove any processor entry in the processor benchmarks. You can also select any graphics card to be benchmarked from the drop-down menu and compare its performance with the provided processor benchmark results (the most powerful NVIDIA solution is selected by default). Testing is performed on the most powerful NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards and scales down to lower-end models.
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Ultra
When using NVIDIA video cards:
- Processors for acceptable FPS (not lower than 25 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 3 5300
- Intel Core i3-10100
- Processors for comfortable FPS (at least 60 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 3 5300
- Intel Core i3-10100
When using AMD video cards:
- Processors for acceptable FPS (not lower than 25 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 3 5300
- Intel Core i3-10100
- Processors for comfortable FPS (at least 60 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 3 5300
- Intel Core i3-10100
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Loading and using streams:
- Maximum Load: The game can load up to 16 threads.
- Optimal Loading: Maximally utilizes up to 12 threads.
The indicator was taken as all used RAM. The RAM test on the all system was conducted on various video cards without launching third-party applications (browsers, etc.). In the graphics, you can add and remove any resolutions and video cards as desired.
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Resolution 1920x1080:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 28 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 28 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM
Resolution 2560x1440:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 28 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM
Resolution 3840x2160:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 28 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 28 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 30 GB of RAM