Sony has unveiled The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered for PC, a significant addition to its gaming portfolio. Utilizing Naughty Dog’s proprietary engine, this release invites gamers to explore its performance capabilities on various hardware configurations.
Benchmarking the Performance
For our performance analysis, we employed a robust setup featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor, complemented by 32GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 6000MHz. Our graphics card lineup included AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, and RX 9070XT, alongside NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. The benchmarks were conducted on a Windows 10 64-bit system, utilizing GeForce driver version 572.83 and Radeon Adrenalin Edition 25.3.2 drivers.
The development teams at Nixxes and Iron Galaxy have integrated a plethora of graphics settings, allowing players to customize aspects such as Textures, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, and Reflections. Additionally, the game supports advanced technologies including Intel XeSS, NVIDIA DLSS 3, and AMD FSR 3.1, although it does not feature any new ray tracing effects exclusive to PC.
Due to the absence of a built-in benchmark tool, we focused our testing on an early city area in the game, teeming with NPCs, which provided a reliable gauge of overall performance.
At both 1080p and 1440p resolutions with Max Settings, our tests revealed that all GPUs maintained frame rates exceeding 60FPS. Notably, even the NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti managed to deliver a smooth 60FPS experience, a remarkable feat considering the original Last of Us struggled to achieve similar performance on this GPU. This improvement highlights the advancements made in the remastered version, which outperforms its predecessor significantly.
In terms of graphics cards, the AMD Radeon RX 9070XT demonstrated superior performance compared to the RX 7900XTX, while the RX 6900XT lagged behind the NVIDIA RTX 3080. For those aiming to game at 4K with Max Settings, the AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX is essential for achieving 60FPS, while NVIDIA’s RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090 handled the demands effortlessly.
It’s important to note that The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered appears to require a minimum of six CPU cores/threads for optimal performance. Our tests indicated that dual-core and quad-core systems experienced severe stuttering, rendering the game unplayable. Transitioning to a hexa-core CPU improved frame rates to above 70FPS, yet stutters persisted until we upgraded to an eight-core processor.
Interestingly, discrepancies arose between CPU and GPU benchmark results due to an unexpected corruption of my Windows 10 operating system after completing the GPU tests. Despite attempts to restore the system, a complete reinstallation was necessary, resulting in a shift from version 21H2 to 22H2, which may have influenced the performance metrics observed.
Visually, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered impresses with its stunning pre-baked lighting, a hallmark of the original game. Although it may not be a graphical showcase compared to more recent titles, it still holds its own as an aesthetically pleasing experience. However, some traversal stutters were noted, and the game compiles shaders asynchronously, which could lead to performance issues on CPUs with fewer cores. While this asynchronous compilation allows for quicker access to gameplay, an optional pre-launch shader compilation setting could enhance the experience further.
On a positive note, the game’s keyboard and mouse controls function seamlessly from the outset, avoiding the pitfalls seen in previous titles like “Uncharted.” Overall, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered delivers a commendable performance on PC, far surpassing the initial PC release of the first game. While it is not without its flaws, particularly concerning traversal stutters and CPU demands, it stands as a testament to the efforts of Nixxes and Iron Galaxy in creating a well-optimized port for a diverse range of hardware.
