Alan Wake 2 may have released to loads of critical acclaim in 2023, but the horror classic also featured jaw-dropping graphics that stunned players. Predictably, the game also demanded hefty hardware requirements, particularly for older systems.
The culprit? The game’s utilization of mesh shaders in the DirectX 12 Ultimate API, which helped balance playable framerates with gorgeous visuals. Sadly, users of Nvidia’s old-but-still-popular GTX 10-series (Pascal architecture) were left behind due to the hardware not supporting this feature. Thankfully, a recent patch rectifies the situation for Pascal users.
GTX 1060’s Popularity Isn’t Good Enough For Alan Wake 2
The GTX 1060 has consistently ranked among the highest on the PC graphics card popularity charts. According to Steam’s February 2024 Hardware Survey, it’s still the fourth most popular card among PC gamers, which is bonkers considering how old it is.
As popular as it is though, in Alan Wake 2, the 1060 often stuttered and delivered unplayable frame rates, even at low resolutions. This tracks back to the Pascal hardware non-support for mesh shaders. However, Remedy has issued a patch slated for release on 6 March that brings impressive improvements.
Digital Foundry tested the patch, and headline figures are indeed striking: a 45% performance boost in Chapter 1’s forest area, and a near 3x increase in Saga Anderson’s Mind Place, which has proven to be a demanding section in the past.
Interestingly, the performance uplift increases as you move up the Pascal family, with the GTX 1070 seeing a 57% improvement in the forest, rising to 85% for the GTX 1080. The beefy GTX 1080Ti effectively doubles performance from pre-patch code.
Pascal Users Rejoice, Unless You Have A 1060
Unfortunately, the GTX 1060 remains the exception. Even with the patch, it struggles to reach a consistent 30fps, even at resolutions at or below 720p. This suggests limitations beyond the card’s shader setup are hindering its performance; possibly other aspects of the GPU’s architecture.
Based on patch testing, the GTX 1070 has become the new baseline Pascal card for a playable Alan Wake 2 experience, as it’s capable of reaching 30fps on low settings. The higher-end GTX 1080 and 1080Ti can achieve even better results, with the 1080Ti capable of delivering a PS5-esque 1440p (using AMD FSR2 upscaling) at equivalent performance settings.
It’s important to note that while the patch works wonders for Pascal, newer GPUs with dedicated mesh shader support continue to reign supreme. In stress tests, the RTX 3060 outperforms the GTX 1080 Ti by 22%, highlighting the hardware advantage mesh shaders provide.
Newer GPUs Also See Improvements
While Remedy has shown love to the veteran Pascal series, modern GPUs have also been fettled. Re-running benchmarks with the new patch revealed improvements, particularly for RTX 40-series cards, which saw a 14% boost in rasterization and a 6% increase in path tracing performance.
These gains can be attributed to a combination of driver upgrades as well as optimizations from Remedy. Although marginal, the enhancements are still welcome for the demanding title.
Thanks to the upcoming patch and ongoing work from Remedy, Alan Wake 2 is now in a much better place for PC gamers. While the GTX 1060 still struggles, the patch allows Pascal GPUs from GTX 1070 and above to deliver a decently smooth and polished experience.
The 1060 is a veteran of a graphics card that has held up brilliantly over the years. However, with current-generation games really pushing the tech envelope, the time might have come to invest in a newer card that supports cutting-edge technologies like ray-tracing, AI upscaling, and mesh shaders.
