Alan Wake II, which we’ve already reported on here, is once again the subject of controversy. Indeed, while the title is offered with (not all) RTX 40s, the game will still require a violent configuration to run. Worse still, you’ll need a fairly recent graphics card to play it. The title exploits DirectX 12 features that are not compatible with certain GPUs!
Alan Wake II: AMD RX 6000 or RTX mandatory!
First of all, Alan Wake II promises to be a rather demanding game. As you can see, the game’s recommended configurations require at least an RTX 2060 or an RX 6600 to run in 1080p, with low detail at 30 FPS. Worst of all, this configuration is advertised with DLSS/FSR2 in quality mode.
If you want to play in medium at 1440p at 30 fps or 1080p at 60 fps, you’ll need :
- RTX 3060/RX 6600 XT in 1440p @30 FPS DLSS/FSR2 in balanced mode
- RTX 3070/RX 6700 XT in 1080p @60 FPS DLSS/FSR2 performance
Finally, in UHD with high detail and targeting 60 FPS, an RTX 4070/RX 7800 XT will be required… Provided you set FSR2/DLSS to performance mode. And we’re not even talking about ray-tracing configurations. In 1080p @30FPS, an RTX 3070 or an RX 6800 XT will be required to play games with details set to medium and ray tracing set to low.
As for the processor part, a Ryzen 7 3700X will be needed almost every time. The only minimum is a Core i5 7600K.
Clearly, the game is optimized for the c*l, at some point you just have to say it… In fact, it’s easy to see why NVIDIA isn’t offering the game with its RTX 4060/Ti. But worst of all, the game exploits a DirectX12 Ultimate feature: mesh shading. The thing is, AMD’s GTX 10 and RX 5000 don’t support this feature, so they’re not compatible. With these cards (and older ones, we suppose), you won’t be able to play the game.
Tom’s Hardware France defines mesh shading as:
“[…] an adaptive technology that increases or decreases the rate of triangles on an object depending on its importance on the screen. This technology takes some of the load off the CPU by not unnecessarily displaying elements that could significantly slow it down. “
In short, yet another title that relies heavily on DLSS/FSR2-type technologies to generate framerate. Since the arrival of these technologies, it’s almost as if the devs no longer bother to optimize their games, which is becoming tiresome.