ARK: Survival Ascended is, in a way, a remastered version of ARK: Survival Evolved. The title has been updated with a new engine, the Unreal Engine 5, and boasts improved graphics. However, the title is very greedy… Or maybe it’s just not optimized enough for early access. As things stand, the game struggles to run on a UHD RTX 4090… So much so that if you’re hoping to reach 60 fps, you’ll have to lower the game’s visual quality or activate DLSS!
ARK: Survival Ascended: DLSS as a lifeline!
Even with a muscular configuration (4090 7950X3D 32 GO DDR5 6000 MT/s), the game will struggle to function properly. As we can see, in UHD with Epic presets, it only runs smoothly when DLSS and Frame Generation are active. However, we don’t know how much latency their activation causes. If these options are deactivated, FPS are halved, with an average of 31 fps and drops to 26 FPS.
As a result, you’ll need to reduce the title’s graphics quality. Switching from Epic to High doesn’t do much, since the average rises to just 36 fps. It’s only by switching the visual quality to Medium that the gains are felt. Here, we’re starting to get something drinkable, with an average of 47 FPS. And if you switch to Low, the framerate is finally fluid, with an average of 77 FPS. However, the game is really ugly, with vegetation details taking a hit and lighting becoming dull, a real shame for a game set in a lush jungle.
Fortunately, there’s hope for this game, as it’s still in the early access stage. Optimizations will undoubtedly be made as development progresses. In the meantime, even with a €1,700 card, without DLSS it will be complicated to play smoothly without sacrificing visual quality. So, if you have a compatible card, save the furniture and activate it.