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Stellar Blade: Blood Rain vs Tomb Raider: Catalyst
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| shopping_cart Where to Buy | |
| info General Information | |
| Release Date | |
| Aug 20, 2027 | Oct 24, 2028 |
| Developer | |
| Shift Up | Crystal Dynamics |
| Publisher | |
| Shift Up | Amazon Game Studios |
| Genre(s) | |
| Action-Adventure / Character Action | Action-Adventure / Open-World |
| Engine | |
| Unreal Engine 5 | Unreal Engine 5 (UE 5.8) |
| stars Ratings & Price | |
| Content Rating | |
| M | Mature 17+ |
| Avg. User Rating | |
| 4.8 / 5.0 | 4.8 / 5.0 |
| Current Price (USD) | |
| $69.99 | $69.99 |
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| trending_up Progression & Upgrades | |
| Skills & Progression | |
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The combat and progression systems in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain have been completely overhauled to complement Evie's unique fighting style. Unlike Eve's elegant, sword-centric choreography, Evie relies on a brutal, high-velocity gauntlet-based Close Quarters Combat (CQC) system, supplemented by a secondary reverse-grip blade for fast parries and lethal finishers. The skill tree is divided into three primary disciplines: Brawler, Tactician, and Blade. The Brawler tree focuses on upgrading the kinetic impact of Evie's gauntlets, allowing players to unlock devastating combo strings, guard-breaking heavy strikes, and shockwave ground pounds. The Tactician tree enhances Evie's synergy with her support companion, Canna, granting access to combat drones, elemental traps, and defensive shields. Finally, the Blade tree improves the utility of her reverse-grip sword, enabling lightning-fast dodges, perfect parry counter-attacks, and sweeping area-of-effect slashes. Players will earn skill points by defeating Elite Naytibas and discovering hidden memory drives scattered throughout the Nexus Sector. |
The character progression and skill systems in Catalyst beautifully reconcile the arcade-action roots of the franchise with modern survival mechanics. Players engage deeply with a localized crafting economy, harvesting exotic animal hides and salvaged cloth to construct vital gear upgrades such as the Adventurer's Quiver, Shotgun Shell Bandoliers, and Large Rifle Ammo Pouches. More importantly, the game introduces a comprehensive, highly demanded non-lethal combat methodology. Players can invest skill points into pacifist techniques, unlocking the use of tranquilizer darts, tasers, chloroform equivalents, and intricate non-lethal physical takedowns. Additionally, the game features a highly disruptive 'ally recruitment' system. Breaking from the franchise's strict tradition of solitary exploration, players can recruit specialized NPCs and even defecting members of the rival Society of Raiders. These allies assist in localized open-world combat encounters and strategic stronghold defense operations, requiring players to level up leadership and tactical command skills. |
| public World & Exploration | |
| World & Level Design | |
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The world design in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain moves away from the wide-open, desolate wastelands of the first game in favor of highly dense, vertical, and intricate urban environments. The primary setting, the Nexus Sector, is a massive, multi-tiered cyberpunk-inspired city battered by perpetual rain. Players will explore neon-lit alleyways, claustrophobic transit stations, and towering corporate spires. The game's opening sequence takes place on a high-speed steam locomotive, showcasing a dynamic, moving environment where players must navigate train cars while fending off transforming citizens. The interconnected level design emphasizes the new protagonist's agility and close-quarters combat style, featuring extensive environmental destruction and interactive combat arenas. While the total landmass might be more concentrated than the previous game's Great Desert, the sheer density of explorable buildings, underground subway networks, and hidden facility sectors makes the overall map feel significantly more expansive and immersive. |
Representing the most profound architectural paradigm shift in the series' history, Catalyst abandons the traditional 'wide-linear' or hub-and-spoke level design in favor of a massive, fully systemic open-world structure. The Northern Indian ecosystem serves as an incredibly diverse, vertically rich platforming playground. Players will seamlessly navigate across meticulously crafted biomes, ranging from towering, snow-capped mountain ranges and vast desert expanses to dense tropical jungles and complex, labyrinthine subterranean ruins. The game's inciting cataclysmic event justifies extreme topological anomalies throughout the landscape—violently fractured earth, suspended ancient structures, and distorted geology. These deliberate environmental deformities break up the natural terrain, facilitating complex, physics-based traversal puzzles and emergent gameplay loops that demand spatial awareness. This massive geographic footprint necessitates new modes of high-speed overworld navigation, ensuring that players remain constantly engaged without succumbing to traversal fatigue across the sprawling wilderness. |
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| Multiplayer Details | |
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True to the legacy of its predecessor, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is an uncompromisingly solitary experience, featuring absolutely no cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes. Shift Up has explicitly stated that their development resources were entirely focused on crafting a dense, highly polished single-player campaign with intricate combat mechanics and a compelling narrative. The introduction of multiplayer would require significant compromises to the game's meticulously tuned, high-speed CQC combat and the dramatic pacing of the story. Evie's journey through the horrors of the Nexus Sector is designed to evoke a sense of isolation and desperate survival against overwhelming odds. While players cannot directly interact in the game world, Shift Up has implemented asynchronous community features, such as global leaderboards for the 'Boss Rush' mode and a system where players can discover the fallen bodies of other players to retrieve minor resources, subtly connecting the community without breaking immersion. |
While Catalyst firmly retains its identity as a premier single-player narrative experience, it introduces sophisticated asynchronous multiplayer mechanics designed to organically extend player retention. Evolving from the 'Remnant Resistance' mode of past titles, players will engage in complex stronghold management and defense operations. Utilizing the game's expansive open world, players can construct custom defensive parameters around discovered ruins, positioning recruited NPCs and traps to secure the location against the Society of Raiders. Once established, these custom stronghold scenarios can be uploaded to a global server. Other players across all platforms can then download these asynchronous challenges, attempting to infiltrate and conquer the custom-built fortresses for rare crafting materials and leaderboard dominance. This system cleverly blends the systemic AI of the ally recruitment mechanic with user-generated content, providing endless, dynamic combat scenarios without the latency issues of live PvP. |
| extension Editions & DLC | |
| Available Editions | |
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As part of Shift Up's new strategy to self-publish their titles globally, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain will be available in multiple robust editions across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. The Standard Edition includes the base game and a pre-order bonus cosmetic, the 'Classic Eidos' combat suit. The Deluxe Edition offers the base game alongside a digital artbook, the official game soundtrack featuring the acclaimed Korean sci-fi ambient tracks, and an exclusive 'Crimson Fury' gauntlet skin that alters the visual effects of Evie's attacks. For dedicated fans, the premium Collector's Edition includes a highly detailed, 12-inch PVC statue of Evie in her iconic pure white suit performing a mid-air gauntlet strike, a steelbook display case, a physical replica of a 'Scarlet Sin' vial, and a physical artbook filled with breathtaking concept art of the Nexus Sector and the new enemy designs, alongside all digital bonuses. |
To maximize revenue across multiple consumer demographics, Tomb Raider: Catalyst will launch with three distinct retail and digital tiers. The Standard Edition ($69.99) includes the base game and access to standard cross-progression saves. The Deluxe Edition ($89.99) offers three days of early access, an exclusive Amazon Luna cosmetic pack featuring classic low-poly character models, and a digital copy of the orchestral soundtrack. Finally, the premium Collector's Edition ($249.99) is aimed strictly at franchise enthusiasts. This physical bundle includes a highly detailed, 12-inch resin statue of Lara Croft utilizing her grappling wrist strap, 1:1 scale die-cast replicas of the iconic dual pistols, an authentic canvas adventurer's map of the Northern Indian open world, and a beautifully bound hardcover artbook detailing the historical lore of Emperor Ashoka's ruined stupas and the architectural design of the game. |
| Post-Launch Content / DLC | |
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Shift Up has outlined an ambitious post-launch roadmap for Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, capitalizing on their new self-publishing independence. The developer is committed to providing a steady stream of cosmetic DLC, including a vast array of new combat suits, gauntlet designs, and hairstyles for Evie, ensuring the game retains the highly customizable aesthetic appeal of the original. Furthermore, a major gameplay expansion titled 'Echoes of Eve' is slated for release a year after launch. This premium DLC will bridge the narrative gap between the first game and Blood Rain, allowing players to briefly take control of the original protagonist, Eve, as she uncovers the initial outbreak of the Scarlet Sin. Additionally, free updates will introduce a highly requested 'Boss Rush' mode, a 'New Game Plus' feature with remixed enemy encounters, and extreme difficulty settings designed to test the limits of players who have mastered the CQC combat system. |
The post-launch roadmap for Catalyst is designed to sustain long-term engagement far beyond the primary narrative campaign. Crystal Dynamics is reviving and expanding the highly successful 'Expedition Modes' originally seen in Rise of the Tomb Raider. This includes the implementation of digital challenge cards that dynamically modify gameplay parameters—such as enemy health multipliers, weather conditions, and starting weapon loadouts—creating highly replayable scenarios. The post-launch strategy also heavily leans into transmedia integration. Alongside digital DLC expansions featuring new subterranean tombs, the franchise is simultaneously launching intricate tabletop and board game adaptations. These physical expansions feature miniature representations of iconic enemies, ensuring the brand remains ubiquitous and highly monetized. Future digital updates are confirmed to expand the 'ally recruitment' system, adding new NPC defectors with unique AI behaviors to assist in high-level stronghold defense operations. |
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| Graphics & Visual Fidelity | |
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Leveraging the full capabilities of Unreal Engine 5, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain sets a new benchmark for visual fidelity in the character action genre. The game features breathtaking environmental rendering, utilizing Lumen global illumination to realistically cast neon reflections across the rain-slicked pavement and steam-filled corridors of the Nexus Sector. Character models are astonishingly detailed, with Evie's pure white tactical suit displaying dynamic wear, tear, and environmental reactions, such as accumulating grime and blood splatter during prolonged combat sequences. Shift Up continues to excel in advanced character physics, boasting fluid, motion-captured combat animations that seamlessly blend together without sacrificing responsiveness. The creature designs for the transforming citizens are a masterclass in body horror, featuring grotesque, real-time flesh mutations that dynamically react to the sheer concussive force of Evie's gauntlet strikes. The result is a visually arresting, cinematic experience that pushes modern PC and console hardware to its absolute limits. |
Tomb Raider: Catalyst stands as a definitive, uncompromising graphical benchmark for the interactive entertainment industry, built entirely upon the bleeding-edge architecture of Unreal Engine 5. The implementation of Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry is a revelation for open-world design; it allows environmental artists to import film-quality source art comprising tens of millions of polygons directly into the dense tropical jungles and intricate temple carvings without any texture pop-in or traditional Level of Detail (LOD) degradation. This geometric density is perfectly paired with real-time Lumen global illumination, which dynamically calculates light bounce and indirect shadows without pre-baked lightmaps. Whether a player lights a flare in a pitch-black cavern or utilizes explosive environmental destruction, the entire lighting model instantly recalculates exposure and shadow casting. This visual fidelity is heavily supported by the integration of DLSS 5 and FSR 4 frame generation, ensuring smooth performance on high-end hardware. |
| Audio & Soundtrack | |
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The auditory experience of Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is a spectacular evolution of the beloved soundscape established in the original game. Shift Up has once again partnered with renowned composers to deliver a breathtaking soundtrack that blends melancholic, ethereal vocals with aggressive, heart-pounding electronic beats. The music dynamically shifts based on the on-screen action; exploring the quiet, rain-drenched alleys of the Nexus Sector features haunting, atmospheric synths, while engaging in high-octane combat against grotesque mutants seamlessly transitions the score into heavy, adrenaline-fueled cyberpunk tracks. The sound design of the combat itself is incredibly visceral. Every punch, parry, and pile-bunker blast from Evie's gauntlets lands with a satisfying, bass-heavy crunch, effectively communicating the kinetic impact of the CQC system. Additionally, the voice acting has been meticulously directed, capturing the raw emotion and tension between Evie and Canna as they navigate the horrific consequences of the Scarlet Sin outbreak. |
The auditory landscape of Catalyst is anchored by the commanding performance of British actress Alix Wilton Regan, who assumes the mantle of Lara Croft. With a rich classical background, Regan infuses the character with a heightened theatricality, wit, and aristocratic charm, while maintaining the vulnerable emotional depth established in the reboot era. Her full-body motion capture and vocal delivery perfectly encapsulate a seasoned protagonist at the absolute height of her career. The game's sound design is fundamentally tied to its mechanical gameplay loop; spatial audio and dynamic reverberation are critical for survival. Because Lumen lighting dynamically shifts shadows, the audio engine utilizes complex occlusion algorithms to simulate enemy footsteps and dialogue realistically across vast subterranean caverns. The orchestral score adapts dynamically, swelling with traditional Indian instrumentation during high-speed motorcycle traversal, and stripping down to isolated, tension-building strings during stealth infiltrations. |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | |
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The User Interface in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is designed to be sleek, non-intrusive, and highly informative, fitting perfectly with the game's cyberpunk-adjacent aesthetic. The HUD is dynamically contextual; it fades away during exploration to allow the breathtaking visuals of the Unreal Engine 5-powered Nexus Sector to shine, and instantly snaps into view the moment combat is initiated. Evie's health, stamina, and 'Sync' meter (used for executing devastating team-up attacks with her handler, Canna) are displayed via a minimalist, holographic overlay anchored to the bottom corner of the screen. The game features an updated 3D holomap that projects directly from Evie's gauntlet, allowing players to easily navigate the complex, multi-tiered verticality of the city streets without pausing the game. Furthermore, the inventory and skill menus have been streamlined for rapid access, ensuring that players can swap out gauntlet attachments and upgrade abilities with minimal downtime. |
The User Interface in Tomb Raider: Catalyst has been aggressively streamlined to maximize immersion within the stunning Unreal Engine 5 environments. Traditional HUD elements, such as permanent health bars and ammo counters, dynamically fade away during traversal, allowing the environmental storytelling and lighting to take center stage. The most significant UI innovation is the 'Archaeological Scanner.' Functioning as a diegetic, augmented reality forensic analysis tool, the scanner fundamentally shifts puzzle-solving away from simple lever-pulling. By equipping the device, players can actively analyze structural weaknesses, trace ancient power conduits, and decode historical Ashokan lore seamlessly within the game world. This diagnostic view replaces the older, simplistic 'Survival Instincts' glow, demanding that players engage intellectually with the architecture rather than simply following a highlighted breadcrumb trail toward the next objective marker. |
| Accessibility Options | |
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Shift Up has made significant strides to ensure Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is accessible to a wider audience without compromising the game's core challenge. The game includes an extensive suite of accessibility toggles designed to accommodate various player needs. A highly customizable 'Action Assist' mode allows players to adjust the parry timing windows, automate certain defensive maneuvers, or enable auto-targeting for Evie's micro-missiles. For visually impaired players, the game offers high-contrast UI options, scalable subtitle sizes with speaker names and directional indicators, and specific colorblind filters that adjust the telegraphing flashes of unblockable enemy attacks. Additionally, the game features fully remappable controls, an optional 'Hold to repeatedly attack' toggle to reduce repetitive strain injuries, and a 'Story Focus' difficulty mode that significantly reduces enemy health and aggression, allowing players to experience the narrative and the stunning world of the Nexus Sector without hitting insurmountable skill walls. |
Recognizing the diverse needs of the modern gaming audience, Catalyst incorporates an industry-leading suite of accessibility options. The game's mechanical addition of a comprehensive non-lethal combat system fundamentally serves as an accessibility feature for players who experience moral apprehension or ludonarrative dissonance when forced into mass lethal combat. The game allows for extensive UI scaling, high-contrast visual modes to assist visually impaired players during dark subterranean exploration, and highly granular difficulty sliders that separate puzzle complexity, combat lethality, and platforming timing into distinct, adjustable metrics. Furthermore, by integrating the title directly into the Amazon Luna cloud infrastructure accessible via Prime Video, the publisher has effectively removed the extreme financial barrier of entry associated with high-end PC hardware, ensuring that casual and lower-income demographics can experience the flagship narrative via a standard television and controller setup. |
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| launchWatch | launchWatch |
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| settings_applications System Requirements | |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Minimum (Low preset, 1080p/30 FPS (DLSS/FSR Balanced)) CPU: The bare minimum core count needed to handle basic enemy AI and geometry streaming. CPU (Laptop): Requires at least a 6-core mobile processor to prevent severe bottlenecking. GPU: Minimum VRAM and hardware capability to run basic UE5 rendering pipelines. GPU (Laptop): Needs DLSS Performance mode to maintain a playable 30 FPS. RAM: Absolute minimum to prevent stuttering during fast traversal. Storage: NVMe strongly recommended. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 6600 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i5-11400H / AMD Ryzen 5 5600H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (85W+) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-8600 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GTX 1070 (8GB) / RTX 2060 Super / AMD RX 5700 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-10750H / AMD Ryzen 7 4800H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3060 (115W+) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 100 GB NVMe SSD |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Recommended (High preset, 1080p/60 FPS (DLSS/FSR Quality)) CPU: Needed to smooth out 1% lows and ensure stable 60 FPS during chaotic CQC combat. CPU (Laptop): High core counts help manage the heavy physics calculations of mutating enemies. GPU: Provides excellent rasterization power and DLSS 3 Frame Generation support for smooth 60 FPS. GPU (Laptop): Frame generation is highly recommended for sustaining 60 FPS. RAM: The sweet spot for seamless asset streaming and minimizing background stutter. Storage: Ensures near-instant load times. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 / AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-13700H / AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4060 Mobile (115W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | — |
| 1440p (QHD/2K) - Recommended (Max preset, 1440p/60 FPS (DLSS/FSR Quality)) CPU: High-end CPUs are required to feed data quickly for the game's intensive ray-tracing operations. CPU (Laptop): Enthusiast-level mobile processors required to match desktop-class performance. GPU: Ample compute power and VRAM to handle Lumen Global Illumination at higher resolutions. GPU (Laptop): Necessary for maintaining steady framerates with all visual features maxed out. RAM: Essential for caching high-resolution textures. Storage: Maximizes data bandwidth. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-13600K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-13900HX / AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4080 Mobile layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-9700K / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (or higher) developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080 / AMD RX 6800 XT (or RTX 4070/5060 equivalent) laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-12700H / AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4080 Laptop GPU (150W+) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 100 GB Gen 4 NVMe SSD |
| 2160p (UHD/4K) - Ultra (Max preset, 4K/60 FPS (DLSS/FSR Balanced)) CPU: The absolute peak of current CPU technology to eliminate any bottlenecks. CPU (Laptop): Heaviest CPU load scenario. GPU: The only GPUs capable of running the game at 4K Native or with light upscaling while holding 60 FPS. GPU (Laptop): Requires maximum TGP and DLSS Performance mode. RAM: Standard requirement for 4K enthusiast builds. Storage: Absolute necessity. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i9-14900K / AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-14900HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4090 Mobile (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i9-13900K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 / AMD RX 7900 XTX laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-14900HX / AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4090 Laptop GPU (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 100 GB Gen 4 or Gen 5 NVMe SSD |
| save Overall Storage | |
| Spec: 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD Note: SATA SSDs and HDDs are completely unsupported; Gen4 speeds are required for seamless open-world streaming. Type: NVMe | Spec: 100+ GB Gen 4 NVMe SSD Note: Traditional HDDs and SATA SSDs do not possess the required bandwidth to stream Nanite micropolygon geometry. A Gen 4 NVMe SSD is strictly mandatory. Type: NVMe |
| desktop_windows Operating System | |
| Spec: Windows 10/11 64-bit Explanation: Requires a modern 64-bit OS for DirectX 12 Ultimate support, utilized extensively by the game's rendering engine. | Spec: Windows 10/11 (64-bit Required) Explanation: The game requires modern OS architecture to support DirectX 12 Ultimate and advanced memory management for Unreal Engine 5's asset streaming. |
| gamepad DirectX Version | |
| Spec: DirectX 12 Ultimate Explanation: Mandatory for hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shaders, and advanced volumetric rendering. | Spec: DirectX 12 Ultimate Explanation: Mandatory for real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shaders, and sampler feedback essential for Lumen and Nanite functionality. |
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info_outline Feature details based on available data. System requirements and performance estimates may vary.
laptop_chromebook Laptop Recommendations
Common Recommendations (Handles All Compared Games)
For Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Specifically
For Tomb Raider: Catalyst Specifically
info_outline Laptop recommendations are estimates based on available component benchmarks and game requirements. Actual performance may vary depending on settings, drivers, cooling, power limits, etc. Prices and availability subject to change. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.