Conclusion
In our Alan Wake 2 graphics settings performance review today, we took the release version of Alan Wake 2 for a spin on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition to test game feature performance. Our goal today was to see how each game graphics quality setting scaled, and to see how demanding Ray Tracing and Path Tracing is, and to see how DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction fits into the equation.
We also looked at the benefits of DLSS Upscaling performance, and DLSS 3 Frame Generation. We examined performance scaling between all pre-made Quality Preset settings for the base game settings and for Ray Tracing, including a custom Highest Setting option we did to test the highest image quality settings in the game. Stay tuned for more GPU-focused comparisons on our site.
Graphics Quality Presets Summary
Let’s first start off by summarizing our findings on the game’s base graphics quality settings, outside of ray tracing. This game has three built-in presets, Low, Medium, and High. We were shocked to find, however, that the High preset does not actually enable the highest possible settings available.
You can still manually turn up the Volumetric Lighting, Volumetric Spotlight Quality, Shadow Resolution, and Shadow Detail to a High level. We wish there had been an “Ultra” setting option that just enabled everything, but that is left up to you to do. But we certainly had to test this, to see what the performance burden is by doing it, which we did.
We found that at 4K display resolution, and 4K render resolution, going from Low to Medium caused a drop of 6%, so that is relatively small. Moving from Medium to High caused a bigger 13% drop, and from High to Custom Highest Settings was 14%. So we can definitely see how enabling the highest possible settings drops performance the most, and High is a good middle-ground for both quality and performance savings. You basically save about 16% by lowering the game from the Highest Settings to the High Preset, so that’s a good amount of performance you’ll gain back by doing that.
If you are really struggling for performance though, we recommend Medium Quality preset. Moving down to Medium from High gives you a 15% performance boost, and may be worth it for a smoother experience. The move to Low is not that big, and you are better off getting better image quality at Medium and accepting that, if you really need to claw back some performance, Medium truly seems to be a good option for slower video cards.
We also experienced the difference in performance between quality settings decline when DLSS Upscaling and also with Frame Generation. It seems the difference between quality settings diminishes when upscaling or Frame Gen is used, which is interesting. The largest difference between the quality modes will come if you are using native rendering.
Ray Tracing Graphics Quality Presets Summary
We also dove into testing the game’s Ray Tracing graphics quality presets, which it has three of, Low, Medium, and High. Interestingly in the Low mode, the Path Tracing isn’t used, but it becomes enabled at the Medium and High settings, so this can account for a greater loss in performance at these presets. In addition, on supported cards, the DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction will be enabled by default in any mode of Ray Tracing. You can toggle it off, but as we saw, it’s slower without it.
The biggest thing we wanted to see was how much of a drop in performance Ray Tracing makes compared to having it off, and then how each level affects performance. Starting off in 4K display resolution and 4K rendering resolution we saw that turning on Low Ray Tracing dropped performance by 47%, which is a pretty big drop, not the biggest we’ve ever seen in a game though, but certainly enough to make the game un-playable at 4K.
However, what was interesting, is that the subsequent quality modes of it don’t decrease performance to a drastic degree. Moving up to Medium from Low dropped performance by 14%, but this mode also enables the Path Tracing, so that accounts for that. Moving up to High from Medium was even less at 7%. Overall, it seems the Medium to High difference is very small, but the Low to Medium difference is larger.
Another point that was interesting was that while using DLSS Upscaling and DLSS 3 Frame Generation the difference between the Ray Tracing quality options, and also turning it on, decreased than without these features. The drop turning on Ray Tracing when using DLSS is a lesser 36% drop, as opposed to 47% when not using DLSS. Again, using Frame Gen the drop is only 28% now. We also see the difference in quality modes narrow, when these features are enabled.
DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction Summary
DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction’s goal is to improve image quality, full stop. However, due to the complexity of game denoisers with multiple layers, the AI Ray Reconstruction has the potential to improve performance slightly, as it lessens the burden. Well, in Alan Wake 2 this is what happened, Ray Reconstruction improves performance, and not a small amount either.
In fact, we are seeing a larger increase with Ray Reconstruction compared to Cyberpunk 2077 2.0. Ray Reconstruction improved performance without DLSS by 17%, which is pretty big. With DLSS Upscaling it improved performance by 16%, and with Frame Generation, it improved performance by 11%. DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction for the win, better IQ, better performance, what else can you want?
Path Traced Indirect Lighting Summary
I think a lot of gamers were jaded by the Preview Test of Path Tracing in Cyberpunk 2077 simply by the fact it demands and costs so much performance. Cyberpunk 2077 uses Path Tracing for everything, including Global Illumination. However, Alan Wake 2 uses it more discretionally, it’s used for Indirect Lighting, and as such, doesn’t cost as much of a performance burden. It still costs something of course, but it isn’t as big as Cyberpunk 2077.
In our testing, we found that turning on Path Traced Indirect Lighting from OFF to Low dropped performance by 11%, which is not major. In addition, the Medium and High-quality modes of it also don’t negatively impact performance in any big way, only 3% for Medium and 7% for High. The total drop from High to Off is 20%, so overall, yes it affects things, and would be worth it to disable if you are on a lower-end video card for a performance savings for sure. The total drop lessens to 15% when DLSS Upscaling is used.
Final Points
Alan Wake 2 pushes gaming forward, it’s a progression of image quality and enhancements that we want to see in gaming. It really does push the industry forward, in many ways, ways that are beyond the scope of this article, but it uses some really nice advanced graphics features.
There are some more visible improvements to gamers, like the Ray Tracing, Ray Reconstruction, and Path Traced lighting. Lighting is the key word in this game, but there are of course more features beyond that which improve the overall immersion. That immersion means it’s demanding, no doubt, part of pushing games forward also means advancing the need for better hardware, it goes hand-in-hand, and we want this.
Quality Settings Recommendations
Here are our recommendations for settings we’ve tested so far in Alan Wake 2. If you need to lower the game’s base quality presets for better performance, we think a great middle-ground for image quality and performance is the “Medium” quality preset. This will claw back much-needed FPS, while still giving you a visually impressive experience.
We wouldn’t mess with Low though, if you have to run in Low, you might want to think about a GPU upgrade or start using Upscaling and Frame Gen. If you have the horsepower for it, the custom Highest Game Settings is impressive, and worth it, but if that is just a tad too much, High is also perfectly acceptable.
For Ray Tracing, well for sure you want to have Ray Reconstruction enabled. This game both looks better and performs better with Ray Reconstruction. If you have a GPU that supports it, leave Ray Reconstruction enabled for a better experience in every way. If you are having performance issues with Ray Tracing, then think about using the “Low” Ray Tracing option.
With Low Ray Tracing the Path Traced Indirect Lighting is disabled, and this will claw you back many FPS that could make the experience worth having Ray Tracing enabled. Once you move up to Medium you might as well just use High since there isn’t much of a difference, so really the choice is between Low Quality Ray Tracing or High Ray Tracing Quality, depending on what is playable for you.
Upscaling Recommendations
This game is demanding, and really Upscaling is going to be important if you want to reach for those high game settings, or play at 4K, or have a lower-end GPU. We found DLSS Upscaling offers a great experience and allows things like the highest graphics settings to be playable at 4K, or even Low Ray Tracing Quality at 4K.
However, if you want high-ray tracing at 4K, you are going to have to use DLSS 3 Frame Generation, full stop. This is going to be important for a High/High RT experience at 4K. If you are however playing at 1440p, you will be able to get away with just DLSS Upscaling, and no Frame Generation.
Have Fun
Well, that’s our experience so far, and keep in mind this is all on one GPU, and we haven’t tested other things like FSR yet. We can’t wait to look at GPU scaling in this game and to see how video cards compare to each other. Enjoy Alan Wake 2 fellow gamers.