S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released to PC in November 2024 and is based on Unreal Engine 5. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl features UE5’s Lumen and Nanite. Lumen is used for direct and indirect global illumination, realistic reflections and a detailed environment. Nanite is used for complex geometry and detailed terrain with high-quality props. High-poly models are also used, along with physically based materials. There are post-processing effects, including volumetric smoke and fog. The game supports NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR 3, and Intel XeSS as well as TAA. We will be using the game’s built-in graphics preset options and adjust Upscaling where needed. We perform a manual run-through in the open world of the Lesser Zone, in an outdoor environment in the daytime in a GPU-oriented run-through.
Stalker 2 is a demanding game at the highest quality setting, but here we are running at at 1080p on the “Epic” quality setting with a native resolution performance of 73FPS on the PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Ti OC 8GB. The game runs smoothly and has a playable gameplay experience on the PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Ti OC 8GB. With DLSS Upscaling, it is boosted to 100FPS. The PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Ti OC 8GB is 23% faster than the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB, which is very significant. Overclocking the PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Ti OC 8GB provides a 5% performance uplift.