Steam's Latest Hit Fails at Optimization; Even RTX 4090 Lacks Power

Source: Gunfire Games /Gearbox Publishing.

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The second part of the Remnant series was warmly received by players and reviewers. However, also in this case the saying that there is no rose without thorns proves true. Optimization of Remnant II disappointed even owners of the most efficient hardware.

Technical issues were tested by numerous websites, including the crew of Digital Foundry and TechPowerUp. As a reminder: Gunfire Games recommends playing on Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 and Radeon RX 5700 cards or their more powerful counterparts. However, even the slightly more powerful Radeon RX 5700 XT allowed for the game to play at only 46 frames per second at 1080p resolution on Ultra settings.

Of course, it's hard to expect high performance from a four-year-old GPU in a new game, especially when playing on the highest settings. The problem is that even the most powerful GPUs like RTX 4090 perform less than stellar in Remnant 2.

1. On identical settings, the flagship graphics card achieves 126 fps, but when playing at 4K resolution (3840 / 2160), the performance drops to 45 frames per second. For comparison: on identical settings RTX 4090 enables you to play Resident Evil 4 at nearly 128 frames per second (228 fps at 1080p resolution; via TechPowerUp).
2. Nvidia's latest "mid-range" model - the GeForce RTX 4060 - fails to deliver stable 60 fps even at 1080p resolution. Heck, even the more powerful RTX 3070 Ti barely exceeds this treshold.
3. On consoles, the situation looks slightly better (via Digital Foundry). Nevertheless, on the PS5 and XSX there are dips below 60 fps (even to just over 30 fps), and the performance mode did not actually improve the game's performance.

As the editors of TechPowerUp rightly point out, such poor results in Remnant II may be due to the use of Unreal Engine 5. It's one of the first brand-new games based on Epic Games' latest generation technology - so far we've been able to check it out mainly in updates to older titles and in, among others, Layers of Fear. And from elsewhere we know that UE5 has its requirements.

The problem is that graphics of the second Remnant in no way justifiy such poor performance.

1. This opinion is echoed by journalists and gamers alike. Remnant II does not scare with graphics, but it also does not look like a next-gen title.
2. True, one can notice very detailed designs of locations, partly the result of Nanite technology (via Digital Foundry). Nevertheless the game definitely does not take full advantage of the benefits of Unreal Engine 5. It lacks, for example, advanced ray tracing effects and the Lumen real-time lighting system.

1. It is also worth mentioning that the RTX 4090 performed much better in Layers of Fear, despite the fact that this game also used Unreal Engine 5 (via Dark Side of Gaming).

DLSS is the default option in Remnant 2. Source: Gunfire Games /Gearbox Publishing.

Interestingly, apparently Remnant II was optimized with so-called upscaling in mind.

1. In an official thread on Reddit dedicated to technical issues, we read that the game was developed from the beginning to use DLSS, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution and the like. In other words, the game was to use this technology not to achieve more fps, but to achieve the target animation smoothness.
2. Gamers were less than forgiving for the developers. In their view, this approach confirms the fears of some people had after the DLSS was revealed - that it would give developers an excuse to neglect game optimization.

Gunfire Games has promised to release updates to improve game performance. The first hotfix for PC already appeared on the day of release, but - as you can see - the developers are still far from balancing optimization to a satisfactory degree.