Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has finally made its long-awaited return to the zone after a 15-year absence. This game leverages Epic's Unreal Engine 5 to deliver impressive visuals, but it also poses significant challenges for lesser PCs. In our benchmarks, we've found that this game demands both GPU and CPU horsepower, and don't forget about the VRAM if you plan to run with maxed-out settings.
Unleashing the Power of Stalker 2 in the Chornobyl Zone
Stalker 2 Test Setup
Stalker 2 comes with a full suite of upscaling technologies from Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Unreal Engine 5, including DLSS (3.7.0), FSR 3.1, XeSS 1.3.1, and TSR (Temporal Super Resolution). Our main test PC features a soon-to-be-retired Core i9-13900K, 32GB of DDR5-5600 CL28 memory, an MSI Z790 Ace motherboard, and a 4TB Crucial T700 SSD. We'll also be testing additional GPUs on different CPUs to showcase the CPU limitations of the game.Our typical testing involves using medium settings at 1080p and then 1080p, 1440p, and 4K with ultra or "epic" settings. We'll do all the baseline testing with TAA and 100% scaling and then run additional tests at 1440p and 4K with upscaling and framegen. Our benchmark sequence consists of a manual run through the starting village of Zalissya, where there are no mutants or enemies but plenty of NPCs and scenery.Stalker 2 1080p Medium GPU Performance
One thing that stands out immediately is the CPU bottleneck. AMD's top GPUs run slightly faster than Nvidia's top GPUs, but everything lands around the 100 fps mark. Considering the relatively low target, this is a bit surprising, but Stalker games have always pushed the hardware of their time to the limit. Some of this is also due to the use of Unreal Engine 5. While it's possible to hit higher framerates with the right settings and optimizations, UE5 seems to be quite heavy on both the CPU and GPU fronts.Stalker 2 1080p Epic GPU Performance
The CPU bottleneck becomes more obvious at 1080p and epic settings. Now, the three fastest GPUs are tied at 85-86 fps, and the next two GPUs aren't far behind. The 1% lows are also consistently below 60 fps. Stalker 2 looks good graphically, but not amazing. UE5 has a lot of pop-in, especially on trees, which is distracting. Dragon Age: The Veilguard has similar graphics but manages to avoid a lot of the pop-in. We also dropped the 8GB GPUs from testing as 1080p high settings exceed their VRAM capacity and performance tanks.Stalker 2 1440p Epic GPU Performance
1440p epic settings start to move away from the CPU bottleneck, but the 4090 is still held back. Power use for many of the faster Nvidia GPUs is low, indicating CPU limitations. In the overall standings, the 4090 and 4080 Super take the top two spots, with the 7900 XTX close behind. The 7900 XT matches the 4070 Ti Super in value, given its current price. There are significant price-to-performance discrepancies throughout the GPU landscape.Stalker 2 4K Epic GPU Performance
Native 4K at maxed-out settings is too much for most GPUs. Even the 4090 only manages 57 fps, which is playable but not perfectly smooth. The 4090 leads the 4080 Super by 20%, but AMD's 7900 XTX shows a 13% lead over the 7900 XT at these settings. VRAM also becomes an issue on GPUs with less than 16GB. The RTX 4070 falls below both the 7800 XT and 7900 GRE, and AMD's RX 7700 XT also struggles.Stalker 2 with Upscaling
Given the CPU bottlenecks at lower resolutions, upscaling shows similar limitations. At 1440p epic settings with quality mode upscaling, the top six GPUs land in the 80-85 fps range, with minimums of 48-52 fps. Lower-tier GPUs benefit from upscaling, but DLSS, FSR3, and XeSS are not the same. Software algorithms can be beneficial, but they don't look the same.Stalker 2 with Upscaling and Frame Generation
Frame generation is a controversial feature. In Stalker 2, it gives significant improvements in perceived FPS at 1080p due to the heavy CPU bottleneck, but it's basically "frame smoothing" and not true frame generation. FSR3 gives AMD a bigger boost in overall performance than DLSS gives to Nvidia. At 1440p, FSR3 makes some rendering issues go away, but it's not a fair comparison as the GPUs aren't running the same workloads. At 4K, upscaling and framegen yield mostly playable results, but 12GB cards can struggle.Stalker 2 Settings and Image Quality
We haven't had time to do a full image quality analysis yet, but we'll update this section soon.Stalker 2 Closing Thoughts
There's a lot to consider when it comes to performance and system requirements. Make sure to exceed the minimum recommendations and plan on using upscaling and framegen for most GPUs, especially at higher resolutions. We still need to test some CPUs and additional GPUs and will update the article in the next day or two. Stalker 2 carries forward the Stalker legacy in both good and bad ways. The graphics have improved, but the gameplay feels similar. Unreal Engine 5 still requires a lot of help to reach higher performance levels, and framegen should not be the baseline recommendation. Other games and game engines seem to manage this better.