God of War Ragnarokis finally on PC after two year being chained to the PlayStation 5 . The biz , which we praise in ourGod of War Ragnarokreview , comes complete with the Valhalla DLC and muckle of PC - exclusive features . But two major job with the port are already sullying the experience for players .
I ’ve been act the game since it launched Thursday morning , and overall , the experience has been prescribed . The game run well , there are a ton of artwork choice , and it ’s packed to the rim with technical school likeNvidia ’s DLSS 3andAMD ’s FSR 3 . I have some major concerns about how many microcomputer will be able to encounter this game due to some demand VRAM restraint , even among thebest art cards , and the requirement of a PlayStation connection ( PSN ) account , despite a pure want of online features .
Two big problems
get ’s get the easy one out of the way . God of War Ragnarokrequires a PSN explanation to play , according to Sony . This alone has plump the secret plan to a Mixed brushup status on Steam , with nearly all of the negative reviews focused on the PSN requirement . We experience a massive pushback from microcomputer players in the first place this class whenSony seek to ram PSN inHelldivers 2,ultimately force Sony to backpedal on the requirement . gratuitous to say , God of War Ragnarokis in a dissimilar position as a unmarried - player secret plan with no on-line features .
I did n’t need to use a PSN account to dally the game , though . I had the choice to bless into PSN , but the plot did n’t ram me to even after test on two dissimilar PCs . Across both , however , the game mechanically installed the PlayStation PC SDK . That could create trouble on non - Windows gadget , such as the Steam Deck OLED . In plus , there are around 170 countries were Sony has sold its previous PC waiver where PSN is n’t available — I have n’t jumped on a plane , but presumablyGod of War Ragnarokisn’t uncommitted in those regions .
Even if you do n’t sign in , the plot still gather data point on your system of rules . you’re able to cut back the amount of information Sony collects , but the secret plan defaults to full data assembling . This is a repeat of whatwe saw withGhost of Tsushima , which at least had some online features to warrant the PSN demand .
The other egress concern functioning , and it ’s badly troubling . Given the cinematic nature of the secret plan , I live through the opening hour or so on my personal personal computer with anRTX 4090andRyzen 7 7800X3Dbefore getting any serious examination underway . I set the game to 4 1000 , cranked up the Ultra preset , and usedNvidia ’s Deep Learning Anti - Aliasing ( DLAA)along with DLSS 3 Frame Generation . With this frame-up , I was go steady between 90 and 110 frames per second ( Federal Protective Service ) with no stutters .
After starting the game and through the first half hour or so , it consumed about 11 GB of VRAM . That ’s not unheard of for a PC spill in 2024 , but the number keep wax . After the first major knob of the game , I checked in and saw the plot was consuming 18 GB of VRAM — the highest consumption I ’ve ever seen . And in the first hour of the game , up to the first major party boss , you do n’t visit many new locations . It ’s all focused in one area , suggesting there is a memory leak .
If you ’re unfamiliar , a memory board leak happens when a game ( or any practical app ) does n’t flush the memory tight enough . The usage of memory slowly rifle up over time , meet up with fresh information without getting rid of the old data point , usually ending in either major performance issues or a full crash .
That show up in functioning , too . After beating the first boss , you ’re given a pathway back to where you initiate the battle — sorry for the dim terminology here , but I ’m test to avoid spoilers . walk through this orbit dead tanked my frame rate . I drop down down to around 50 fps as the VRAM counter climbed over 18 GB . After about 20 seconds , the memory utilization drop down to 17 GB and performance instantly ameliorate .
I ’ve only had a few hours withGod of War Ragnarokso far , but that variety of performance suggests that the game is n’t clearing out occupy area in VRAM fast enough . Another hint descend when I reopened the game . When I closed the secret plan , it was consuming around 18 GB of VRAM . When I reopened it in the exact same area and starting play again , it dropped down to 11 gigabyte .
I ’m quiz on an 8 GB graphics card now , but I have some serious concern about operation over longer play seance . Even the biz ’s Medium preset can max - out an 8 GB artwork circuit card at resolution above 1080p , which might push some otherwise muscular GPUs to play at depleted graphics preferences . With an RTX 4060 , the game devolved into a stuttering fix once the 8 GB of VRAM was occupy but ran cleanly if I was able to get under the 8 GB bound .
Otherwise impressive
The originalGod of Waralso endure from a retentivity leak when it first released on PC , which the developers fixed in a patch presently after launching . HopefullyGod of War Ragnarokwill get a exchangeable plot of land . Still , there are some clear improvements over the original port here . For starters , you have four graphics presets , push beyond the Enhanced and Original options we saw in the originalGod of Waron PC .
In addition , the game pre - compiles shaders to reduce stuttering in the biz , and it does so in a very interesting way . The biz does n’t lock you out of play while the shaders are compiling . In fact , you may begin the game ’s chess opening cutscene while the shader hoard is still building , which is a nifty timber - of - life improvement . The game does n’t stammer up to the point of finishing shader digest , either , which is great .
I ’ll continue working my manner through the game on dissimilar scheme to see if any other problem pop up . The major concern right now is VRAM , and in special , the remembering leak issue I saw during the opening hour of the game .
