Yeah you don't need much. The game isn't very demanding. Like he said, anything in the last couple years. And a $300 video card and you can probably play on the highest settings.
Agreed, there's little need to overdo things on the GPU front unless you're also planning to play more demanding titles. My 3GB 780Ti (2013 vintage) finally threw its feet in the air earlier in the week and I've replaced it with an 8GB 1080. Not the cutting edge but a few generations ahead of what I had. In practical terms it's made very little difference to my
ED experience (2560 x 1080).
If I analyse the frame rates they've gone up by between 10% and 30% depending on location, but if I turn all the metrics off it plays subjectively pretty much as it did before. The biggest difference is that the PC doesn't run out of resources as quickly when running multiple third-party apps, but that's more of a side benefit.
ED itself is amazingly GPU efficient. The biggest performance drags tend to be the various antialiasing options. The Cobra engine doesn't seem to play well with any of them.
Obviously if you're looking at eventual 4K, VR, triple-monitor or beyond, or playing more demanding games alongside
ED, then you need a more future-proof GPU and it all starts to get pricier. But for a dedicated 1080p
ED rig you're better off spending any extra cash you might have on a faster CPU or more RAM, which will give immediate benefits to the whole system and a bit more future-proofing. GPU-wise,
ED is surprisingly light and you should be able to pick up a suitable card for relatively little outlay.
