Test Setup
For our testing, we are using an AMD X670E AM5-based motherboard, with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU on board with the latest BIOS. We are running DDR5-6000 memory and have EXPO I enabled in the BIOS as well as Resizable BAR/AMD Smart Access Memory. We are running the latest chipset drivers at the time, as well as the GPU drivers which are GeForce 546.17 dated Nov. 14th, 2023, and AMD Adrenalin 23.11.1 dated Nov. 2nd, 2023. Both of these drivers were released after Alan Wake 2 was launched, and contain the latest updates for the game. These were the latest drivers at the time of testing. We have also upgraded our OS to Windows 11 23H2.
Manual Run-Through
We are testing Alan Wake 2 with patch version 1.0.12. Alan Wake 2 does not ship with a benchmark, so we performed a manual run-through in the game a bit deeper into the gameplay than our initial article. This new run-through is in the “Initiation 5: Room 665” chapter. The area is a mindscape, in a nighttime city street, with a lot of light reflection, and light bounces including a lot of world clutter and dense area. The flashlight is used, and this map is a great representation of what is experienced in the game in terms of the lighting and shadows and is also a great test for Ray Tracing.
This is one of the more graphically oriented areas that displays the graphics in the game very well and provides a perfect test bed for GPU comparison testing. It is also one of the more intense areas, compared to some others. Our manual run-through takes us on a walk through the street, in a long pattern that goes one way, and literally the opposite way, to take in all the views from every angle in our run-through, so that all angles of lighting and reflections are tested.