Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: PC Performance Review

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a triumph, both as a game and a technical achievement.

As someone whose introduction to the spy/thriller genre was through Indiana Jones, I was very excited to see MachineGames working on recreating the magic with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Of course, when the publisher is Bethesda, expectations are naturally high. And while my team already tested it on Xbox, I wanted to try it out on PC—specifically, how well it’s optimized for NVIDIA GPUs.

Well, I’ve put the game to the test on multiple setups: a laptop with an RTX 4050, an RTX 4060, and a high-end custom gaming PC featuring an RTX 5080. After hours of gameplay and testing, I have some key insights to share. Let’s take a look at the game’s graphics settings, performance results, and how well MachineGames has optimized Indiana Jones‘ latest adventure for PC gamers.

Table of Contents

Game Settings and Features

One of the first things you’ll notice when booting up Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the extensive number of graphics settings available. The developers have gone above and beyond to ensure that players can tweak the game to suit their system’s capabilities. Whether you’re gaming on a mid-range laptop or a high-end desktop, there are enough options to balance performance and image quality.

The Texture Quality setting ranges from Low to Supreme, with higher settings bringing out intricate details in character models and environments. Shadow Quality is another customisable option, allowing players to adjust the resolution and sharpness of shadows, enhancing the game’s depth. For Anti-Aliasing, the game includes FXAA, TAA, and DLSS, with DLSS being a standout feature for NVIDIA users, as it boosts performance without significantly compromising visual fidelity.

Ray tracing is available for supported GPUs, enhancing reflections, shadows, and global illumination for a more immersive experience. Furthermore, NVIDIA’s DLSS and Frame Generation are also supported, though newer RTX 50-series cards particularly benefit from native support for DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation.

Performance Analysis

To kick things off, I first tried running the title on the ASUS Gaming V16, which combines an Intel Core 5-210H processor with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. At 1080p with a Medium preset, the game ran smoothly at around 55-65 FPS in most areas. Ray tracing was disabled to maintain performance, but the game still looked great thanks to DLSS. Keep in mind that this is a 65W TGP variant of the RTX 4050, so opting for a higher TGP version on other laptops could result in a 10-15% FPS boost. If you’re someone coming from consoles, you might enjoy gaming at High settings with an average of 30FPS, but for me, 60FPS is the bare minimum, especially for PC gaming.

I also tested the game on the Acer ALG laptop, which is powered by Intel’s Core i5-12450H processor and an NVIDIA RTX 3050 GPU with a 75W TGP. Sticking to the Low graphics preset at 1080p, the game held a stable 60FPS using DLSS on Performance mode. Switching to the Balanced preset dropped the average to around 55 FPS. However, without DLSS and with resolution scaling disabled, performance took a noticeable hit, hovering between 30-34 FPS and dipping to the high 20s during intense action scenes. It’s worth noting that the game immediately crashed when we tried increasing the texture quality, suggesting that the limited VRAM on this GPU might not play well with higher visual settings.

Climbing up the ladder, I also tried running the game on the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i, where I could crank the settings up a bit. At 1600p resolution, a little above the standard 2K, the game delivered a solid average of 74FPS, with ray tracing adding a noticeable layer of realism to the game’s lighting and reflections. The 140W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU coupled with the Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU could handle everything at the High preset without breaking a sweat.

Finally, to push the game to its absolute limits, I tested the title on my custom-built PC featuring an RTX 5080 Founders Edition. With the game running at 4K resolution, Ultra settings, and ray tracing fully enabled, the card delivered a buttery-smooth 100+ FPS. Ray tracing effects were stunning, and the game’s environments felt incredibly lifelike.

One standout feature on the RTX 5080 was its support for Multi Frame Generation. While this feature can be enabled manually in other titles, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle includes a native toggle. Once activated, my FPS jumped from 133 to an astounding 295FPS. Now, just to be clear—was there a slight increase in latency? Yes. But was that a deal-breaker? Not at all.

Another thing I noticed while testing was that the game is well-optimized for CPU usage, with minimal bottlenecking observed even on slightly older processors. Of course, anything older than a 12th-gen Intel or Ryzen 5000-series CPU might start struggling, but for modern hardware, performance remained smooth.

As for RAM usage, 16GB is sufficient for standard gameplay, though I’d recommend 32GB for those aiming for higher resolutions and ultra settings. However, VRAM usage is a different story. Enabling ray tracing significantly increases VRAM consumption, and toggling additional options like DLSS and Frame Generation only amplifies the demand.

Game Review

This review focused primarily on evaluating the game’s PC performance, but that doesn’t mean I can’t discuss the game itself.

The storyline is packed with twists, mystery, and adventure, seamlessly blending exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat. That said, the graphics play an equally important role in immersion. From lush Southeast Asian jungles to dusty, ancient temples, every location feels alive and cinematic.

The game’s visuals are stunning. Character models are detailed and expressive, while environments are rich with texture and depth. Ray tracing, in particular, adds realism, with accurate reflections and lifelike shadows. The lighting engine is another major highlight, featuring dynamic day-night cycles and realistic global illumination.

Verdict

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a triumph, both as a game and a technical achievement. The developers have done an incredible job of optimizing the game for PC, and NVIDIA users, in particular, will benefit from DLSS, Frame Generation, and Ray Tracing support. Whether you’re playing on a mid-range laptop or a high-end desktop, the game delivers a visually stunning and smooth experience.

Editor’s Rating: 9 / 10

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