Alan Wake 2 Path Tracing Performance
Path tracing performance has improved dramatically on GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs since the game launched in late November. The RTX 4090, 4080 Super (54.6 FPS), and 4080 now deliver smooth gameplay at 1080p with path tracing. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX averages only 21 FPS with single-digit lows, resulting in an unplayable experience. Beyond this point, path tracing is required for acceptable performance even on the GeForce RTX 40 GPUs.
The frametime spikes on the Radeons reach new heights when path tracing is enabled. This is the only setting where these issues surface at 1080p.
Alan Wake 2 ties the ray count to the render resolution. The higher your internal resolution, the more rays will be cast. It also means that the DLSS/FSR preset determines the original number of rays cast, before the upscaling/interpolation process. This is highlighted by the GPU-busy charts below:
Optimized PC settings on the next page…