How we tested
Alan Wake II is the first game to support Nvidia DLSS 3.5 from the start. In addition to the technological aspect, there is also the high popularity among gamers. This gives us the basic reasons to take a close look at the performance under different settings. In diving in with the gaming performance, we will be interested not only in the visual side, but also the power consumption. Not just of the graphics card, but the CPU as well.
How we tested
The measurements were performed in the same conditions as our standard graphics card tests. This means with active system cooling with strictly controlled air temperature (21-21.3 °C) at the wind tunnel intake. The accuracy of the measurements depends on it as well.
The general settings are set to the highest possible, as you can see in the screenshots below.
Only the inclusion and mode of DLSS 3.5 technology changed from test to test (Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction) and rendering resolution, where we went from the highest, native (with DLAA) smoothly (through DLSS Quality, Balanced, Performance) to the lowest (DLSS Ultra Performance). We also have the results without ray-tracing graphics for comparison.
All measurements are performed in three passes, from which we plot the arithmetic average in the graphs, at 2160p, 1440p and also at 1080p. The test scene is in Bright Falls, starting at the beginning of the street where the heroine runs to the door of the diner at which the measurements end.
For the tests, the graphics cards used are the Nvidia RTX 4070 Super FE, the MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X and the Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4080 Super Master 16G (with th „OC“ BIOS). With the most powerful RTX 4080S, we also measure in detail the power consumption curves of both the graphics card and the processor. We do this traditionally using a combination of current clamps and a custom PCIe Express shunt.
The processor of the test build is the Intel Core i9-13900K without power limits cooled by the Noctua NH-U14S and with Patriot Viper Venom DDR5 memory (2×16 GB, 6000 MHz/CL36). Underpinning everything is the Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming WiFi II (BIOS v0801) with ReSizable BAR enabled.
Graphics drivers are Nvidia GeForce 551.76 Game Ready. For a PSU, we have the BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 12 (1200 W) and for completeness, SSDs – these are the Patriot Viper VP4100 1 TB (system storage) and the Patriot VPN100 2 TB (Alan Wake II is installed on this one). The operating system is Windows 10 (22H2).
- Contents
- Visual analysis I
- Visual Analysis II
- How we tested
- Game performance tests...
- ... and power consumption tests
- Conclusion
