Community Benchmark: How does Stalker 2 perform on your graphics cards and processors? 182 comments
Image: GSC Gaming World
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is finally released after several postponements. Technically, there are a lot of problems at the beginning and the developers are constantly trying to improve, but the Techoutil community continues to eagerly play. How many FPS can you achieve with your system?
Table of Contents How does Stalker 2 run on your graphics cards and processors? Stalker 2 1.0.3 in Community Benchmarking The Community Benchmarking ProcessWhat is being tested? Other preparations Here’s the benchmark scene Here’s how it’s measured The process at a glance Submit benchmark results Community test resultsBenchmarks in Full HD (16:9) Benchmarks in WQHD (16:9) Benchmarks in UWQHD (21:9) 9) Benchmarks (with path tracking) in UHD (16:9)
Stalker 2 1.0.3 in the community benchmark
If a short, snappy description was the measure of things, then Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl could be described as an Eastern Bloc paranormal Far Cry. The first-person shooter places players in an open world around the Chernobyl reactor accident exclusion zone, where there are all kinds of anomalies to discover and monsters to fight. Fittingly, the game also comes from a currently war-torn Ukraine, which is why developer GSC Game World can do next to nothing about the multiple postponements and technically problematic condition at the time of release.
Nevertheless, early players not only face radioactive radiation and many other dangers in the game world, but also many bugs and huge performance obstacles. The open-world title, made in a heavily modified Unreal Engine 5.1, undoubtedly looks good, even if the graphics may not mark a milestone in 2024. And at first glance, Stalker 2 performs well. But only at the beginning.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl in the test: benchmarks within the limits of GPU and CPUStalker 2: Patch 1.0.1 with more than 650 fixes released, 1.0.2 immediately after Stalker 2: Patch 1.0.3 eliminates other causes of crashStalker 2: Shooter arrives directly for release in Game Pass
Depending on the area of the game world, it is not the graphics card that sets the tone, but the processor. Even on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D that is currently de jure sold out and only available at excessive prices, Heart of Chornobyl still runs at a hard CPU limit and sometimes well below 60 FPS. Looking at these and other construction sites, the general consensus from many tests and reviews was that Stalker 2 was probably the best game you shouldn’t be playing right now. Jan and Fabian summarized the test results in the podcast.
Not only have many members of the Techoutil community been waiting for the game for a long time and eagerly – and therefore already playing Stalker 2 diligently. It is anything but easy to get solid predictions about the performance of your own system before purchasing it , because the processor can have a very significant influence. In addition to the usual GPU tests, the test also included a series of CPU limit tests; For reasons of temporal feasibility and taking into account the unfinished and still under development state of the game, only on said R7 9800X3D. The question of how Stalker 2 runs on systems with weaker CPUs remains.
System Requirements for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Minimum Medium Recommended Very High Default 1080p, 30 FPS 1080p, 60 FPS 1440p, 60 FPS 4K, 60 FPS CPU Intel i7-7700K
AMD Ryzen 5 1600XIntel i5-9700K
AMD Ryzen 7 3700XIntel i7-11700K
AMD Ryzen 7 5800XIntel i7-13700KF
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X RAM 16GB 32GB Nvidia GTX 1060 Graphics Card
AMD RX580
Intel Arc A750 Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
RTX4060
AMD RX 5700XTNvidia RTX 3070 Ti
RTX4070
AMD RX 6800XTNvidia RTX 4080
AMD RX 7900 XTX 160 GB SSD storage Windows 10 & 11 64-bit operating system
It can be particularly interesting to see how different processor and graphics card combinations perform and where and in which cases limitations apply. The curiosity is not only of an academic nature, as the corresponding results would also be of great help to players interested in Stalker 2 who are currently wondering whether they can already play the game well on their system or whether they should wait purely for performance reasons.
The community benchmarking process
The answer is therefore obvious: a community benchmark is necessary. The goal is to test dozens of different CPU-GPU configurations in a gaming scene that requires both components and can therefore also determine the CPU limits on different processors. This kills two birds with one stone, as the benchmarks from the editorial team’s initial test are already three weeks out of date and a few fixes later.
What is tested?
As usual, it is necessary to agree on a few sets of benchmark tests in advance in order to be able to compile reliable and comprehensive results for specific graphics settings. This time, the editorial team has retained the following four configurations, which only differ in resolution for the sake of simplicity.
The four test sets for the community benchmark for Stalker 2 resolution VSync graphics detail 1920 × 1080 (16:9) from the “Epic” preset, DLSS/FSR quality.
Image generation: Off 2560 × 1440 (16:9) 3440 × 1440 (21:9) 3840 × 2160 (16:9) “Display” tab Display mode: Full screen (Exclusive) , Image format: Auto, Field of view: 90
The ultra-wide resolution of 3440 × 1440 was not yet represented in the test report, so the community benchmark provides additional added value at this stage. The choice of graphics settings relies four times on the highest preset, because the demands on the GPU are usually not too high – especially not if oversampling is used in the quality profile, which is also the case in all four community testing profiles. However, it is not the performance that is decisive, but rather the image quality: Stalker 2 is better, especially with DLSS, than with TAA, as already shown in the test.
Other preparations
As usual, it is important to ensure that VSync and FPS limiter are not active – neither in-game nor through the graphics driver. Speaking of which: participants should also make sure they have the latest drivers installed. All three GPU makers have released game-ready graphics drivers for Stalker 2, and Nvidia and Intel are already offering even newer versions. For comparison purposes, the editorial staff therefore recommends using the most recent drivers:
AMD Radeon: Adrenalin 24.12.1Nvidia GeForce: GeForce 566.36Intel Arc & Xe: Arc 6319
This is the reference scene
As already mentioned in the introduction, the benchmark scene is a sequence which can be limited in particular by the CPU. The editorial team actually organizes such community benchmarks via a downloadable backup from Techconseil. However, due to the game’s cumbersome save system and the fact that save points created with the Deluxe or Ultimate edition of Stalke 2 cannot be loaded with the regular version of the game, this save is optional this time.
The save spawns players directly in front of Zalissja Village. Participants with their own score must go to the location indicated below themselves; the area is accessible at the start of the game. Once in place and ready for benchmarking, i.e. with the camera position shown in the video below, it should then be recorded manually – ideally at the same time and weather. This save point must then be loaded.
After indicating the save point, you must remain silent for about 5 seconds until the mission description at the top left is completely hidden. Then begins the 20-second baseline sequence, during which you walk down the street through the village. The character must only be moved using the W key; no sprint should be done. The gaze must be turned towards the horizon.
This is how it is measured
FPS are traditionally recorded using a tool like CapFrameX (download). For the sake of simplicity, we only ask for the average FPS so that we can directly exclude a source of error when reporting the results.
Hazard! The default keyboard shortcut to start recording in CapFrameX (F11) switches to window mode in Stalker 2. In CapFrameX, a different key must therefore be assigned to start capturing.
The process in brief
Download Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl or update to the latest version of the game. Download CapFrameX or a comparable tool and check capture hotkey compatibility. Update the graphics driver and restart the PC. In the options, select the exclusive full screen mode, the desired resolution and select the epic preset. DLSS/FSR quality is active in all four resolutions. DLSS/FSR frame generation is disabled. Disable VSync and FPS limiter, also on the driver side. Download the benchmark save, insert it, and load it into the game. Wait five seconds, then start the benchmark.
Submit benchmarking results
The determined measured values must also be submitted for this reader test using the form below. When the form is submitted, the CMS automatically creates a post in the comment thread for this article. Participants can add additional information here, but necessarily outside the preformatted area – these are automatically evaluated by the CMS. Only when the post is saved are the values visible on Techastuce.
It is important to pay attention to the correct name, which must always contain information about the GPU and CPU. The information must be entered as shown in the following list and in the already available benchmarks – this increases clarity enormously. Ideally, the comments created can be supplemented with screenshots of the benchmark results.
RTX 4070 Ti S, 7800X3DRX 7800 XT (OC), 5600XArc A770 (180W), 14,700K (UV)
For GPU and CPU, you can specify whether the chip has been overclocked (OC) or the voltage reduced (UV). For GPUs, it must also be mentioned whether it is a mobile chip (Max Q = MQ, Mobile = M, ideally specifying the TGP) or whether the power consumption has been reduced. The difference between reference and custom design is not made in this case. RAM information is also not required and is not taken into account.
The form does not have to be fully completed; selected results can also be reported. Additional measurements can be added later by resubmitting the form.
Community test results
The community test results are successively checked by the editorial team and then integrated into the benchmark charts – depending on the community’s involvement, this may take some time. The orange system name in the diagrams refers to the corresponding forum post.
Benchmarks in Full HD (16:9)
Benchmarks in WQHD (16:9)
Benchmarks in UWQHD (21:9)
Benchmarks (with Pathtracing) in UHD (16:9)
The entire editorial team would like to thank in advance all those who participated in this campaign. Good benchmark!
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Marc deciphers processors by testing their performance for gaming, content creation, and artificial intelligence.
