Ark: Survival Evolved is an action-adventure/survival game that is available on a variety of gaming platforms with the PC being one of them. Without going too in-depth about the game, we are here to figure out the best graphics settings and the best graphics card for Ark: Survival Evolved. Without further a due, here is the heart of the content:
Best Graphics Configuration Settings
The ideal operating system for this game is Windows 10 64-bit. The computer processing unit or CPU should be a quad 4 core processors with 4,0 Ghz. You will need at least 16 gigabytes of RAM and 4GB of VRAM. Your graphics card will need to be compatible with Direct X 12. Furthermore, you will need storage space of 100GB on your gaming PC. Lowering the resolution scale can improve frames per second. General shadows and terrain shadows should be set to ‘low’. Textures should be set to ‘high’. Sky quality can be lowered in order to improve FPS, but it would be very minimal at best. Moreover, you should turn on high-quality anisotropic filtering and turn off motion blur. Motion blur may need to be turned on if you have a monitor that has a refresh rate less than 120Hz.
One last trick I would like to mention will help you speed up the game response time.
Lowering the resolution scale can improve frames per second. General shadows and terrain shadows should be set to ‘low’. Textures should be set to ‘high’. Sky quality can be lowered in order to improve FPS, but it would be very minimal at best. Moreover, you should turn on high-quality anisotropic filtering and turn off motion blur. Motion blur may need to be turned on if you have a monitor that has a refresh rate less than 120Hz.
One last trick I would like to mention will help you speed up the game response time.
- Open steam client and right click properties for ARK
- Click ‘Set Launch Options’
- Type: “USEALLAVAILABLECORES – nomansky-lowmemory-high” without quotations.
- Save and run the game
Best Graphics Cards
Now we will do a rundown of the best graphics cards for ARK: Survival Evolved. If you need help installing the graphics card or replacing your current one then consult the owner’s manual supplied with purchase.
AMD Radeon RX 580
This is a parent graphics card and there are many brands that sell it with their own custom configurations. For example, MSI supports VGA whilst Sapphire supports HDMI connectivity. Check what ports your monitor is compatabile with to know the exact graphics card you should buy for your computer.
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Regarding the graphics card itself, this is one that is an excellent choice that has 8GB of VRAM which is well above the required 4GB. Its maximum memory bandwidth is 256GB which basically means you have a good storage space and it will be good for gaming with other well-known titles and not just ARK. You get 2305 steam processors, 144 texture units, 5.7 transistors, 32 ROPs, and peak pixel fill rate of 42.88 GP/s. Boost frequency is 1340MHz. In addition to these specifications, it features a wide variety of supported technologies such as Direct X 12.0, OpenGL 4.5, and AMD Liquid VR. The price point is not terribly expensive with the cost range being only a couple hundred dollars for the MSI or Sapphire models. Furthermore, you get the support of FreeSync 2 monitors, so you know that you get lots of value for price especially since FreeSync is royalty free and much cheaper than NVIDIA.
Geforce GTX 1060
We wanted to recommend a good NVDIA graphics card but also wanted to avoid recommending one that would break your bank. The GTX 1060 is a great choice for pairing with ARK Survival Evolved and lots of other games at an affordable price. The more expensive option would be the GTX 1080 but unless you need a higher FPS or shaders then the GTX 1060 is the best option.
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The graphics card is available from EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and even PNY. It is powered by NVIDIA Pascal technology which has won many technology awards. It was introduced in 2016 mainly with its selling point being a better and improved virtual reality gaming experience. Overwatch, Fortnite and other battle royale games have been very popular with the graphics card. Regarding specifications, you’ll get 1280 shader CUDA Core units, 8GB memory, 1.4X clockers, and display connectors that include DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, and Dual Link-DVI. When purchasing, just make sure you get the 6GB version as that’s the correct version for optimal gaming with ARK: Survival Evolved.
Conclusion
The GTX 1060 does outperform the Radeon RX 580 even with less GB on the benchmark scale. It is priced almost the same with the NVIDIA being around $50 more expensive. This of course will depend on which brand and seller you choose to opt for. There is very little point in using the INTEL HD 630 as you’ll get awful graphics performance with that card. Stick with AMD RX 480 if you need a modern graphics card that will last for several upcoming years and also require it to pair with a FreeSync monitor or go for the extra-premium option and pick up the NVIDIA GTX 1060 along with the best G-Sync monitor for the ultimate gaming experience.
