Enlisted is Gaijin and Darkflow's large-scale WWII shooter, running on the same Dagor engine lineage that powers War Thunder — which means it inherits both that engine's strong long-range visual clarity and its reputation for being CPU-hungrier than its visuals suggest. You're commanding a squad of AI soldiers while also personally gunning, driving tanks, and occasionally taking to the air, often with dozens of players and their squads on screen at once. That mix — infantry, armor, and aircraft in the same fight — is exactly the scenario where a badly tuned PC turns a winnable firefight into a slideshow at the worst possible moment. Here's what we run.
What you need, and what it costs
Gaijin's official requirements split cleanly into "it'll launch" and "it'll actually hold highest settings":
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i3-2120 | Intel Core i5-3570K or better |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 |
| RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB+ |
| Storage | 12 GB | 12 GB (SSD strongly preferred) |
In practical budget terms, a build that clears minimum spec for 1080p Low settings lands around $600, while a build that comfortably holds the highest presets runs closer to $1,500 or more. For competitive play specifically, we'd skew that budget toward the CPU and away from chasing the highest GPU tier — Enlisted's big multi-squad, multi-vehicle battles are more CPU-bound than GPU-bound once you're past 1080p-1440p, since the engine has to simulate AI squadmates, ballistics, and destruction physics for everyone on the map simultaneously.
A sensible competitive-tier build: a 6-core CPU from the last three to four generations (Ryzen 5 7600 / Intel Core i5-13400 class or newer), 16 GB of RAM, an RTX 4060-class GPU, and an NVMe SSD — Enlisted streams a lot of terrain and squad assets during large battles, and a slow drive shows up as texture pop-in exactly when a firefight starts.
Graphics settings for consistent frame times, not screenshots
The goal for competitive play isn't the prettiest screenshot, it's the most consistent frame time when a battle escalates — spotting an enemy half a second earlier matters more than any shadow detail. These are the settings worth actually changing:
- Improved filtering textures — off. This adds processing overhead you're very unlikely to notice mid-firefight, and turning it off is close to a free performance win on any hardware tier.
- Shadow quality — Low. Even low shadow quality reads fine at gameplay speed, and it's one of the more expensive settings on the list. Critically, disable effects shadows specifically — explosion and muzzle-flash shadow calculations are a common source of frame drops during the exact moments (a firefight, an artillery barrage) where you most need stable performance.
- Global illumination — keep at Medium minimum. Unlike shadows, dropping GI too far starts to hurt your ability to read terrain contrast and spot camouflaged enemies at range, which actually costs you gameplay information — this is one setting where going lower isn't a pure win.
- Resolution / anti-aliasing: Native resolution with a lighter AA mode (FXAA or a low TAA setting) keeps distant infantry silhouettes readable, which matters more in Enlisted's engagement ranges than it does in a close-quarters shooter.
- V-Sync — off, paired with an uncapped or high frame limit if you're on a high-refresh monitor. Input lag from V-Sync is a real disadvantage in a game with this much simultaneous vehicle and infantry action.
Competitive settings beyond graphics
A few non-graphics settings matter just as much for actually winning fights, since Enlisted mixes infantry gunplay with vehicle control in the same session:
- Separate sensitivity for infantry ADS, vehicle turret control, and aircraft. Enlisted lets you tune these independently — don't leave vehicle and plane sensitivity tied to your infantry mouse setting, since the ideal feel for tracking a tank turret is nothing like tracking a sprinting soldier.
- FOV: A slightly wider field of view than default helps with situational awareness in the chaotic multi-squad fights this game is built around, at a small cost to distant target size — worth testing in a practice match before committing.
- Squad AI command binds: Map your squad orders (follow, hold, attack) to easily reachable keys near WASD. In the middle of a firefight, fumbling for a menu-based command costs you the AI support that's central to how Enlisted's squad system works.
The bottom line
Enlisted rewards a CPU-forward build more than a GPU-forward one, thanks to how much simulation work large multi-squad, multi-vehicle battles put on the processor. Hit the recommended i5-3570K-tier CPU or better, pair it with an SSD to avoid asset pop-in, turn off improved filtering textures and effects shadows, and keep global illumination at Medium so you don't lose the ability to spot enemies at range. That combination gets you consistent frame times exactly when battles get chaotic — which is when they matter most.
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