Alan Wake 2 PC: how demanding is it - and what hardware do you need?

Alan Wake 2 is the best looking game released so far this generation. Whether you're playing on PlayStation 5 in either of its quality modes, or on a PC without hardware-accelerated ray tracing features active, you're still getting a frankly incredible-looking game. The PC version hasn't been without its controversies though, not least when Remedy's recommending a relatively powerful GPU like an RTX 3070 for 1080p gaming at 60fps on the medium preset... with DLSS active, upscaling from 540p. 540p native on a 3070? It sounds baffling, but the good news is that provided you have a modern GPU, it is possible to get a great experience on a range of hardware.

There's a few things to get out in the open straight away. First of all, the medium preset does not mean that all settings are run at the medium quality level. Secondly, the names of the various presets mean very little anyway - based on our setting-by-setting testing, the PS5 version of Alan Wake 2 in its performance mode is essentially running with all settings at their minimums, backed by medium/high textures. Crucially: it still looks great.

So let us start with some cold hard facts. For one, the game runs at 1440p FSR 2 balanced mode on PlayStation 5 with a flat resolution and no signs of dynamic resolution while targeting 60fps. This should already be throwing up massive red flags to anyone with common sense about the whole controversy with the RTX 3070. How is the PS5 running the game at 1440p balanced mode FSR2 at 60 fps when we know quite well that an RTX 3070 is better at rasterisation and far better in ray tracing than a PS5?

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