Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong was released in August of 2024 and is based on the Unreal Engine 5. Black Myth: Wukong features realistic lighting, shadows, a detailed environment detailed by motion capture, and utilizes the Lumen Global Illumination lighting system. The game also features Ray Tracing, global illumination, and shadows. We are utilizing the game’s built-in graphics preset options for main graphics and Ray Tracing. We are also using the DLSS and Upscaling option at 66% quality mode for all GPUs. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We are reporting the Low 5th result from the benchmark result.
Native Resolution
The first graph below is at the “Cinematic” quality preset, the second graph is at the “High” quality preset, and the third graph is at the “Medium” quality preset at 1080p.
Running Black Myth: Wukong at the Cinematic quality is purely for academic reasons, and we can see that no video card here is playable even at 1080p on Cinematic quality. The GeForce RTX 5050 averages 25 FPS with a Low 5th of 23FPS. The GeForce RTX 4060 is a frame faster, and the Radeon RX 7600 is a frame lower. For what it is worth, the GeForce RTX 5050 is 79% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
Moving down to the “High” preset at 1080p, we start to see performance ease up, though it is still not playable at all. The GeForce RTX 5050 is on par with the GeForce RTX 4060 and the Radeon RX 7600. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 72% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
Finally, on the “Medium” setting, the game is playable on the GeForce RTX 5050, averaging 67FPS with a Low 5th close to 60FPS. However, performance is pretty much matched between the GeForce RTX 4060, GeForce RTX 5050, and Radeon RX 7600. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 63% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
DLSS Upscaling
Leaving Black Myth: Wukong at the “High” quality setting and enabling DLSS Upscaling at 66%, we found this to be playable on the GeForce RTX 5050. The GeForce RTX 5050 is a bit slower than the GeForce RTX 4060, however, by 3%, but the Low 5th performance is above 60FPS here. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 5% faster than the Radeon RX 7600 and 75% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
Ray Tracing w/ DLSS Upscaling
Even with this game on “Medium” quality and enabling “Low” Ray Tracing, it is generally unplayable on the GeForce RTX 5050. It does show, though, how much the RT performance has improved on the GeForce RTX 5050 over the GeForce RTX 3050, with it being 87% faster, greater than the Raster performance. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 6% slower than the GeForce RTX 4060.
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →Buy a used 4060.
Seems like a particularly hard sell when the 50-series' biggest party trick is at its least useful when the base framerate is a little tenuous.
The 130w/8GB combo is also kind of harsh. That's high enough draw that going for the modern card on an efficiency basis (while it will help a bit) won't be as dramatic an effect as you might like; and if you hit a VRAM wall anywhere it will be in the same place you would on a 3050; and one of the 12GB 3060s will still be chugging along for 40 watts more.
OEMs love these low end SKUs.
- Yeah, this is basically a repurposed laptop chip that would otherwise be used to bump a $499 office laptop into the $799 "entry gaming laptop" market.
These cards absolutely have their place however, good way to stand up a hella basic gaming PC that will be thesus' shipped into something respectable over time.
If you know what you're doing though, used 3080's and 6800XT's are starting to hit the $299 and lower price point (while 3070 and 6700XT are at $250 and below) and you'd get a helluva lot more bang from your buck there.