Contents
Resident Evil Requiem: Pushing Visual Boundaries with RTX 5080
Capcom’s latest title, Resident Evil Requiem, is visually stunning and boasts a captivating storyline. The game leverages advanced rendering techniques like path tracing to deliver an incredibly immersive experience. This in-depth analysis explores how this demanding title performs on one of the market’s most powerful graphics cards, the RTX 5080.
Resident Evil Requiem: A Visual and Narrative Masterpiece
Our esteemed reviewer, Szymon Baliński, has already completed Resident Evil Requiem and shared his comprehensive impressions in a recent review. My focus, however, was on performance, as I haven’t yet finished the main story. My observations regarding the narrative and gameplay align perfectly with Szymon’s review – the developers have truly outdone themselves in crafting an exceptional gaming experience.
Visually, the game is simply breathtaking. From the very first moments, Resident Evil Requiem masterfully crafts a heavy, dark atmosphere. This is significantly enhanced by ray tracing and the even more advanced path tracing techniques. The game’s presentation is brilliant, featuring incredibly detailed character models, with individual hair strands visible during cutscenes when the “hair strands” setting is enabled.
The initial hours of gameplay primarily unfold within confined environments. However, one of the most hardware-intensive scenes appears right at the beginning. Players guide the protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, along a highly detailed street lined with cars. This area is rich with numerous light sources and reflective surfaces, all adorned with intricate particle effects. It provides an ideal testing ground for evaluating various graphical settings and their impact on PC performance. I specifically used this location to observe the visual transformation upon activating both ray tracing and path tracing.
The Impact of Ray Tracing and Path Tracing
The visual difference between no ray tracing, low ray tracing, high ray tracing, and path tracing is truly immense. The game offers “Low” and “High” Ray Tracing settings, but the ultimate enhancement comes from Path Tracing. This most advanced, and consequently most demanding, graphics technology looks phenomenal in practice, delivering astonishingly realistic lighting and reflections that redefine realism in gaming environments.
Test System Configuration
I conducted performance tests on a robust, though not the absolute top-tier, system configuration available today. Several components in my PC match the manufacturer’s recommendations for enabling path tracing at Full HD resolution, specifically an RTX 5080 graphics card and 32 GB of RAM. While the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X isn’t exclusively a gaming processor, it provides ample processing power for such demanding tasks.
Test System Specifications:
- Case: Be Quiet Light Base 600 LX
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
- Graphics Card: MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Gaming Trio
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7
- RAM: GOODRAM IRDM DDR5 32 GB
- SSD: GOODRAM PX700 SSD 2 TB
- Cooling: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro 360
- Power Supply: Be Quiet Straight Power 12 1200W
- Monitor: AOC U27G3X/BK
- Mouse: Razer Deathadder V3 Hyperspeed
- Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow V4 75%
Resident Evil Requiem Performance with RTX 5080
Traditional Rasterization Performance
To begin, I assessed the RTX 5080’s performance with traditional rasterization in Resident Evil Requiem. The initial test was conducted using “High” settings, with DLSS technologies disabled and ray tracing deactivated. The results demonstrate the raw power of the RTX 5080:
Performance without Ray Tracing (High Settings, DLSS Off):
- 1080p: Avg. FPS: 174.7, Max. FPS: 185.6, 1% Low: 122.6, 0.1% Low: 82.5
- 1440p: Avg. FPS: 144.6, Max. FPS: 153.2, 1% Low: 101.8, 0.1% Low: 74.0
- 2160p (4K): Avg. FPS: 96.9, Max. FPS: 104.4, 1% Low: 77.4, 0.1% Low: 67.6
Unsurprisingly, the RTX 5080 with its 16GB of VRAM demonstrated excellent performance across all scenarios. Even from these initial tests, the stable frametime graph was evident, indicating that the hardware maintains very high gameplay fluidity, ensuring a smooth, lag-free experience for the user.
Ray Tracing Pushes the Limits
The subsequent test truly challenged the graphics card. Again, DLSS was deactivated, but this time the RTX 5080 had to handle both “High” graphics settings and “High” Ray Tracing. The addition of ray tracing significantly impacts performance:
Performance with High Ray Tracing (High Settings, DLSS Off):
- 1080p: Avg. FPS: 128.6, Max. FPS: 135.1, 1% Low: 99.8, 0.1% Low: 85.8
- 1440p: Avg. FPS: 91.0, Max. FPS: 96.5, 1% Low: 74.6, 0.1% Low: 69.4
- 2160p (4K): Avg. FPS: 44.6, Max. FPS: 46.9, 1% Low: 39.1, 0.1% Low: 35.9
While optimization is excellent and all resolutions remain playable, performance at 2160p (4K) wasn’t ideal. The 1% and 0.1% low framerates (representing the lowest 1% and 0.1% of framerates, respectively) approached the 30 FPS mark, which is noticeably felt during gameplay. In this demanding scenario, it’s advisable to either reduce some graphical details or utilize upscaling techniques.
DLSS Significantly Improves Smoothness
The next step involved activating NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), an intelligent upscaling technology. While not yet DLSS 5, which has stirred debate among gamers, the current iteration still makes a significant difference. Visually, there isn’t a drastic change, but users can expect considerably smoother gameplay. At this point, I ceased testing at lower resolutions and concentrated solely on 2160p (4K). Apart from DLSS activation, the other settings remained unchanged, meaning we were still dealing with “High” detail and “High” Ray Tracing.
Performance with High Ray Tracing and DLSS (2160p):
- DLSS Quality: Avg. FPS: 77.2, Max. FPS: 81.5, 1% Low: 64.8, 0.1% Low: 59.6
- DLSS Balanced: Avg. FPS: 89.5, Max. FPS: 93.9, 1% Low: 72.5, 0.1% Low: 66.4
- DLSS Performance: Avg. FPS: 104.0, Max. FPS: 110.8, 1% Low: 82.6, 0.1% Low: 76.3
Even the “Quality” preset dramatically transforms the gaming experience. Average framerates around 77 FPS and 0.1% low values nearing 60 FPS provide ample fluidity to fully enjoy the title. Any degradation in detail is imperceptible during normal gameplay. The “Balanced” and “Performance” modes further boost framerates, though the visual difference compared to standard anti-aliasing becomes more pronounced with these aggressive DLSS settings.
Multi Frame Generation (MFG) Enhances Fluidity
NVIDIA recently announced that DLSS 4.5 will introduce Dynamic Multi Frame Generation (MFG), capable of generating up to six additional frames. Currently, I had access to MFG up to X4. Aside from enabling frame generation, all other settings remained consistent. For the most accurate detail representation in this test, I used DLSS in “Quality” mode.
Performance with High Ray Tracing, DLSS Quality, and MFG (2160p):
- MFG X2: Avg. FPS: 127.3, Max. FPS: 134.9, 1% Low: 57.3, 0.1% Low: 49.9
- MFG X3: Avg. FPS: 177.4, Max. FPS: 184.9, 1% Low: 55.7, 0.1% Low: 52.1
- MFG X4: Avg. FPS: 221.4, Max. FPS: 230.9, 1% Low: 52.7, 0.1% Low: 44.6
In practice, MFG X2 doesn’t quite double the framerate of DLSS in “Quality” mode, but it comes very close. Average and maximum framerates, particularly with MFG X3 and X4, soared to previously unattainable levels. Unfortunately, the 1% and 0.1% low framerates experienced a noticeable drop. While the game feels significantly smoother, visual updates on screen might reach the player with a slight delay due to the interpolated frames.
Path Tracing: A Game Changer
Finally, it was time to test path tracing, NVIDIA’s flagship rendering technique. Enabling path tracing automatically activates DLSS upscaling settings. I maintained DLSS in “Quality” mode, with all other settings remaining consistent (apart from using Path Tracing instead of Ray Tracing).
Performance with Path Tracing, DLSS Quality, and MFG (2160p):
- DLSS Only: Avg. FPS: 39.5, Max. FPS: 44.0, 1% Low: 35.0, 0.1% Low: 32.8
- DLSS + MFG X2: Avg. FPS: 72.2, Max. FPS: 79.5, 1% Low: 33.4, 0.1% Low: 32.0
- DLSS + MFG X3: Avg. FPS: 103.7, Max. FPS: 113.2, 1% Low: 32.4, 0.1% Low: 30.8
- DLSS + MFG X4: Avg. FPS: 133.2, Max. FPS: 145.9, 1% Low: 31.2, 0.1% Low: 26.9
Without frame generation enabled, playing the title with path tracing is generally reserved for the most conservative players, as the measured FPS values are not impressive, a sentiment reinforced by the in-game experience. However, MFG in 2X mode introduces a massive improvement. The drop in 1% and 0.1% low values is negligible, and an average of 72 frames per second provides sufficient fluidity for smooth gameplay. This was the setting I used for several hours, and I observed no significant artifacts or errors related to image generation.
Resident Evil Requiem Summary
Resident Evil Requiem stands out as an exceptional game. It offers an engaging and immersive storyline while pushing PC hardware, especially graphics cards, to their limits. Visually captivating, the game also boasts excellent optimization, with no noticeable major lags or stutters.
To fully enjoy the game at its highest settings with path tracing enabled, a graphics card like the RTX 5080 or better is essential. Fortunately, Resident Evil Requiem still looks impressive with standard ray tracing, ensuring that players with more modest gaming PCs can still have a great experience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the difference between ray tracing and path tracing in Resident Evil Requiem?
Both ray tracing and path tracing are advanced rendering techniques that simulate the physical behavior of light to create incredibly realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections. Ray tracing simulates individual light rays, often focusing on direct light and specific reflections/shadows. Path tracing, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive and computationally intensive technique that simulates multiple light bounces and interactions, providing a more physically accurate and global illumination solution, leading to a much more natural and immersive visual experience. In Resident Evil Requiem, path tracing offers a phenomenal visual upgrade over standard ray tracing.
How much does DLSS improve performance in Resident Evil Requiem, especially at 4K?
NVIDIA’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) significantly improves performance in Resident Evil Requiem, particularly at higher resolutions like 4K, where the GPU is under more strain. When ray tracing is enabled at 4K with DLSS set to “Quality” mode, average framerates jump from around 44.6 FPS (without DLSS) to 77.2 FPS. Utilizing DLSS “Performance” mode can push average framerates over 100 FPS, making the game much smoother and more playable without a noticeable degradation in visual quality during gameplay.
Is an RTX 5080 essential to enjoy Resident Evil Requiem with high-fidelity graphics?
While an RTX 5080 (or a similarly powerful graphics card) is highly recommended and almost essential to fully experience Resident Evil Requiem with its most demanding settings, specifically path tracing at higher resolutions, it’s not the only way to enjoy the game with high-fidelity graphics. The game is well-optimized and still looks impressive with standard ray tracing enabled, even on less powerful GPUs. Players with more modest gaming PCs can still achieve a great visual and gameplay experience by adjusting settings or utilizing DLSS without necessarily needing the absolute top-tier hardware for every feature.
Source: Author’s Own Research
Opening photo: Krzysztof Wilamowski
About Post Author
