PC tech is getting more impressive every year. NVIDIA has released a video giving us a look at Alan Wake 2 with full ray tracing and DLSS 3.5 enabled (seen below). This comes on the same day that we got confirmation of the game’s demanding system requirements. The video gives a look with settings turned off and on. Full ray tracing, also known as path tracing, is a level-up to make lighting, shadows, and reflections more realistic. Ray Tracing reconstruction will sharpen visuals for added realism. When you turn on DLSS and have a 40 Series GPU, you will go from approximately 30 frames to over 120.
NVIDIA Highlights Alan Wake 2 With Full Ray Tracing and DLSS 3.5
The big push in gaming has been ray tracing. The feature makes lighting react in a more realistic way. Full ray tracing, or path tracing, makes this technology more like what the film industry uses. As seen in the video above, a display of donuts without the setting is not catching the windows in front. Turn it on, and then everything in front, like the open sign and trees outside, reflects off the glass.
For PC gaming, much of what can be possible is due to stronger hardware than on consoles, which still push limits with powerful SSDs and ray tracing utilization. To take the weight off of PC games has been upscaling technology, like how NVIDIA uses DLSS for Alan Wake 2. Other companies, like AMD and Intel, have versions that do the same thing. It uses AI to reconstruct frames and rays to make for a smoother experience and put less strain on your hardware.
No matter your build, you will need something like the upscaling technology developed by NVIDIA or AMD to run Alan Wake 2 on PC. Even if it is well-optimized, which feels rare for PC games nowadays, it is demanding. For the lowest settings to reach 30 FPS at 1080p, you will need a GeForce RTX 2060/Radeon RX 6600, 16 GB of RAM, DLSS/FSR set to quality, Intel i5-7600K or Ryzen 3700X, and 90 GB SSD. The bar skyrockets from there at maximum settings as you will need the current generation graphics card and a powerful processor, with 16 GB of RAM and your upscaling settings turned on.
Alan Wake 2 will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 27.
