Best GPUs for Star Wars Zero Company (2026): Picks by Tier

Star Wars: Zero Company is a turn-based tactics game from the team behind modern XCOM, not a path-traced showcase or a twitch shooter. That shapes the whole graphics-card question. Its official requirements are modest by 2026 standards: a GTX 1080 from 2017 clears the minimum, and the recommended tier asks for nothing exotic to run 1440p at 60 frames per second.

So the real question is not what is fastest. It is whether the card you already own is enough, and if you are upgrading, where to stop spending on a game this light. These picks answer exactly that.

Our top pick: Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT (16 GB)

The Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT clears Zero Company's recommended tier with room to spare and brings 16 GB of VRAM, which makes it the comfortable pick here and in the heavier games that stress your rig.

Sapphire 11350-03-20G Pulse AMD Radeon™ RX 9060 XT Gaming OC Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA 4

$429.99

Buy the Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT on Amazon

Quick picks

Specs at a glance

What Zero Company actually asks of your GPU

Electronic Arts published the requirements at native resolution, with no DLSS, FSR, or XeSS assumed. That is the honest way to read them. The minimum tier targets 1080p at 30 frames per second on Low settings and lists a GTX 1080, an RX 5600 XT, or an Intel Arc B580. The recommended tier targets 1440p at 60 frames per second on High and lists an RTX 3080 or an RX 7800 XT, with 32 GB of system memory. For broader options at that resolution, see our best GPUs for 1440p gaming.

Read that against a turn-based tactics game and the picture is clear. There is no fast-twitch aiming, no 240 Hz competitive ceiling to chase, and the camera spends most of its time looking down at a battlefield rather than rendering a dense first-person scene at speed. Unreal Engine 5 can be demanding, but the recommended bar here lands well below what a modern shooter or an open-world title would ask for.

The practical takeaway: because the recommended numbers are native, any upscaling your card supports is pure surplus in this game. You will use DLSS, FSR, or XeSS in your other titles, not to make Zero Company playable. If you already own a card in the recommended class or better, you are done. If you are buying, the picks below are about comfort and the rest of your library, not about clearing a high bar this game never sets.

How we picked

We started from the official requirements and worked outward, not from a frame-rate leaderboard. For a light game with a pre-release spec sheet, the right question is which card gives comfortable headroom at the resolution you play, then stays useful in the heavier games you run alongside it. If you want the broader framework, see our guide on how to choose a GPU.

Every pick here carries enough VRAM to age well: 16 GB on three of them, 12 GB on the value Intel card. That is deliberate. The 8 GB versions of these chips exist and are cheaper, but they are the trap that turns a fine card into a stuttering one within a couple of years, so we left them out. We also kept the picks to current, in-stock cards rather than chasing clearance bins that may be gone by the time you read this.

Because Zero Company launches on August 27, 2026, there are no independent benchmarks yet. Rather than invent numbers, we anchored every recommendation to the published requirement tiers and to how these cards perform in comparable Unreal Engine 5 titles. When the game ships and reviewers post real figures, the tier logic here will still hold: all four picks sit at or above the recommended class.

Best Overall: Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT (16 GB)

Sapphire 11350-03-20G Pulse AMD Radeon™ RX 9060 XT Gaming OC Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA 4

$429.99

Buy the Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

The RX 9060 XT clears the official recommended bar for Zero Company and keeps going. The recommended spec asks for an RX 7800 XT or RTX 3080 to hit 1440p 60 at High, and this card sits comfortably in that class while drawing less power and costing less than the older recommendation. For a turn-based tactics game running on Unreal Engine 5, that means smooth play at 1440p with headroom to spare.

The 16 GB of GDDR6 is the real reason this is the pick. Zero Company will not stress it, but the cards you run alongside it in a mixed library will, and 16 GB is the amount that keeps a midrange card honest into 2027. RDNA 4 also brings FSR 4 and AV1 encode, so if you stream a campaign session the encoder is current.

What you give up

Ray tracing is not this card's strength, and the RT-focused titles where that matters are a different conversation. Zero Company is not one of them, so the gap does not cost you anything here.

Stock on RDNA 4 has been thin in stretches, so you may have to watch listings. Skip the 8 GB version of this card entirely; the 16 GB SKU is the one worth owning. If your wider library is built around DLSS specifically, you get FSR 4 instead, which is good in 2026 but not identical.

Who it's for

The 1440p mainstream player who wants one card that handles Zero Company without thinking about it and stays comfortable across a mixed Unreal Engine 5 library. If you are not chasing ray tracing and do not want to pay the premium for features this game never calls on, this is the sensible center of the lineup.

Best Value: ASRock Arc B580 Challenger OC (12 GB)

ASRock Intel Arc B580 Challenger 12GB OC Graphics Card, Intel Xe2-HPG, 12GB GDDR6, PCIe 4.0, Dual Fans, 0dB Silent, LED Indicator, DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.1a

$303.63

Buy the ASRock Arc B580 Challenger OC on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

Intel named the Arc B580 directly in Zero Company's minimum spec, which is a useful honesty signal: it is a baseline the developers tested against. In practice the B580 has real headroom for a game this light, holding 1080p easily and stretching to 1440p with XeSS 2 in the heavier titles you might pair with it.

The 12 GB of VRAM is generous for the price and far more than Zero Company asks for. You also get AV1 encode and a quiet build with a 0 dB idle mode. When it is in stock near its list price, this is the value floor of the current generation.

What you give up

Resizable BAR is effectively required for Arc to perform as intended, so check that it is enabled in your motherboard BIOS before you buy, especially on an older platform. Without it, performance drops noticeably.

Street pricing creeps above list when stock is tight, which can erode the value case. Intel's drivers occasionally show their seams in older DirectX 9 and 11 games, though Zero Company is a current Unreal Engine 5 title and unaffected by that.

Who it's for

The budget builder, or anyone who just wants Zero Company to run cleanly at 1080p or 1440p without spending up. If you are comfortable confirming Resizable BAR is on and you want the lowest sensible entry point, this is the card. If you are shopping the entry tier, our roundup of budget 1080p graphics cards covers the cheapest sensible picks.

Best Premium: ASUS TUF RTX 5070 Ti OC (16 GB)

ASUS TUF Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB GDDR7 OC Edition Graphics Card, (PCIe 5.0, HDMI/DP 2.1, 3.125-Slot, Military-Grade Components, Protective PCB Coating), 3 Year Warranty

Buy the ASUS TUF RTX 5070 Ti OC on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

The RTX 5070 Ti is far more graphics card than Zero Company needs, and that is the point. You buy it for a 1440p high-refresh monitor or a 4K panel and a library that includes genuinely demanding games, and Zero Company comes along for free, running native far above its target the entire time.

In the heavy titles that justify the spend, DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Gen are real levers, and 16 GB of GDDR7 keeps it current. It is the best-value slot in Nvidia's upper stack. In Zero Company specifically, it simply coasts.

What you give up

This is real money spent on performance Zero Company will never ask for. If this game is the only reason you are shopping, it is pure overkill and the Best Overall pick is the smarter buy.

It is a physically large card, so confirm case clearance before ordering, and pair it with a quality power supply. The standard OC Edition is the one to get here, not a specialty variant.

Who it's for

The 1440p high-refresh or 4K player whose wider library is demanding and who wants a card that disappears as a concern. Zero Company is the easy afternoon between the games that genuinely work this card.

Editor's Pick: ASUS TUF RTX 5060 Ti OC (16 GB)

ASUS TUF Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GDDR7 OC Edition Graphics Card (PCIe 5.0, HDMI/DP 2.1, 3.1-Slot, Military-Grade Components, Protective PCB Coating, Axial-tech Fans), 3 Year Warranty

Buy the ASUS TUF RTX 5060 Ti OC on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is the Nvidia answer for buyers who want DLSS 4 and NVENC in their wider library without moving up to the premium tier. It is comfortable in Zero Company and a clean mainstream Nvidia pick across most current games, with the encode and upscaling features that matter if you are committed to that ecosystem.

The 16 GB of GDDR7 is the right amount of memory for the tier and gives you the same futureproofing argument as the Best Overall. NVENC AV1 is there for streamers who have standardized on Nvidia's encoder.

What you give up

It costs more than the Best Value while not being meaningfully more card for Zero Company specifically. You are paying for DLSS and NVENC, so it only makes sense if you use them.

The 8 GB version of this card exists and should be avoided; the 16 GB SKU is the one worth buying. Raster performance per dollar trails the RX 9060 XT, which is the trade you accept for the Nvidia feature set.

Who it's for

The mainstream player who is committed to Nvidia for DLSS 4 or NVENC across their library and wants 16 GB of headroom. If you are optimizing purely for Zero Company frames, the Best Overall or Best Value get you there for less.

Bottom line

If you already own a graphics card in the recommended class, an RTX 3080 or RX 7800 XT or anything newer, you do not need to buy anything for Zero Company. Spend the money on the games that push your hardware.

If you are upgrading anyway, the Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT is the pick for most people: comfortable at 1440p, 16 GB of VRAM, and sensible power draw. Want the lowest sensible entry point, buy the ASRock Arc B580 and confirm Resizable BAR is on. Run a high-refresh or 4K monitor with a demanding library, the ASUS TUF RTX 5070 Ti is the card that disappears as a worry. Committed to Nvidia for DLSS 4 and NVENC, the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB covers you.

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