Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released in April of 2025 and runs on the Unreal Engine 5. This is one of those games where ‘Ray Tracing’ is enabled at all times, native to the game. The game features Lumen for global illumination and reflections, and Nanite for high-detailed geometry. It also features DLSS Upscaling and Intel XeSS, but not FSR. Instead, for ‘FSR’ we will utilize the game’s built-in TSR setting at Medium, which is the closest render resolution to DLSS Quality mode. We will also use the game’s built-in graphics presets for quality settings. We are testing an area near the beginning of the game, in the Prologue, near the end of where the first chapter begins, which offers an opportunity to test a large open area with NPCs and a long stretch of the map freely. We are performing a manual run-through in this area.
Native Resolution
The first graph below is at the “Epic” quality preset, the second graph is at the “Medium” quality preset at 1080p.
Running Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at the “Epic” preset at 1080p on the GeForce RTX 5050 is very unplayable, with framerates very low at 36FPS average and 1% Lows below 30FPS. For academic purposes, the GeForce RTX 5050 is 50% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050, and on par with the Radeon RX 7600 on the average framerate, but not the 1% Lows. Interestingly, the Radeon RX 7600 craps the bed on the 1% Lows in this game at Epic, at 18FPS, meaning the GeForce RTX 5050 has 1% Lows that are 59% faster! The GeForce RTX 5050 is slower than the GeForce RTX 4060 by 2%.
When we move down to the “Medium” quality preset on the GeForce RTX 5050, the game becomes much more playable, now averaging over 60FPS with 1% Lows not too far off from that, so the game is much more consistent. The GeForce RTX 5050 is actually the fastest card here, 1.2% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, 3% faster than the Radeon RX 7600, and 52% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
DLSS Upscaling
The first graph below is at the “Epic” quality preset, the second graph is at the “Medium” quality preset at 1080p with DLSS Upscaling enabled.
We did want to run Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at “Epic” quality with DLSS Upscaling enabled, just to see if we could make Epic quality playable. Unfortunately, you can see that even with DLSS Upscaling enabled here, the average can’t quite reach 60FPS, and the 1% Lows are in the mid-40s. Interestingly, though, the GeForce RTX 5050 does have the highest 1% Lows with DLSS Upscaling enabled at Epic quality.
At Medium quality with DLSS Upscaling enabled, the GeForce RTX 5050 is very playable, with 1% Lows well above 60FPS. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 2% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, 8% faster than the Radeon RX 7600, and 52% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
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.