Our 8K test system
PC built by Chillblast
Mother letter: Asus ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMES
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
Box fans: Noctua NF-A14 PWM Chromax 140mm
Processor: Intel Core i9-9900K, 8 cores/16 threads
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
Storage room: 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 PCIe
Secondary storage: 2TB Samsung 860 QVO
Can: Corsair RM850x 80 PLUS Gold 850W Power Supply
Caso: Tempered Glass Fractal Design RS Vector
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB DDR4 3200MHz
Display: LG 55NANO966PA
With FromSoftware, the team behind critically acclaimed titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, along with A Song of Ice and Fire author George RR Martin, it's no surprise that Elden Ring, the brainchild of this collaboration, is highly anticipated.
Now that it's out, the reviews have been fantastic. However, he was keen to see how the game looks and plays at 8K on TechRadar's monstrous 8K test machine.
As for testing Dying Light 2 at 8K, I used the LG 55NANO966PA 8K TV for testing, and when paired with the powerful Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics card, this setup may give us a glimpse of what the future of gaming may hold. .
Hard mode enabled
With 8K resolution weighing in at a whopping 7680 x 4320, running any game will be extremely demanding, especially ambitious open-world games with huge enemies, like Elden Ring.
However, we've seen recent games like Dying Light 2 and God of War support Nvidia's DLSS scaling technology, as well as AMD rival FidelityFX. Both of these features run games at lower resolutions and then upscale them to a higher resolution that provides better performance with minimal impact on graphics.
DLSS and FidelityFX Super Resolution have helped modern games achieve 8K resolutions while maintaining playable frame rates, with some even reaching 60 frames per second (fps) at 8K, which we consider to be the ultimate benchmark for 8K gaming. .
Unfortunately, the PC version of Elden Ring is relatively simple and doesn't offer support for DLSS or FidelityFX. This means we'll have to try to play the game in native 8K resolution, a challenge as difficult as FromSoftware's notorious difficulty levels in its games.
The game is also capped at 60fps, and while that doesn't affect how it plays at 8K, as HDMI 2.1 can only support a maximum of 60fps at 8K anyway, it suggests the PC port doesn't was a priority for FromSoftware. Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for how the game can be played at 8K.
Today's Best Elden Ring Deals
Play at 8K
First, I set the game to 8K with the graphics settings set to "Maximum". The game certainly looked great, but in my tests, the game averaged 30.5 fps. For one, it's pretty impressive, and above the 30fps minimum, I consider it playable.
However, there were noticeable drops in frame rate down to 8,3fps. This made the game quite uneven when playing. Interestingly, PC gamers have been complaining about sudden fps drops at other resolutions, and FromSoftware has promised a patch to fix this issue. So we might see performance improve a bit at 8K.
But while Elden Ring can certainly be played at 8K on max settings, it's a game where fast reflections really make a difference, and at 30fps the game feels sluggish compared to the 60fps it hits at 4K on the same screen. PC.
Then I lowered the setting to "High". While that didn't make a huge difference to the average frame rate, which was only slightly higher at 31,6 fps, I didn't see as big of a drop in fps this time around, with a low of 25,5 fps.
This led to much more consistent performance and the graphical difference was small enough to recommend this setting.
Lowering the setting to "Medium" didn't change the average frame rate much (31.4 fps), suggesting that the engine used by Elden Ring is simply not suited for extreme resolutions. However, graphics quality degraded noticeably, with annoying popups affecting distant objects and NPCs (Non-Player Characters), and rough edges on objects where anti-aliasing had degraded.
The drop in graphics quality and corresponding increase in performance means this is a setting to avoid.
Finally, I tested Elden Ring at 8K on "Low" settings. It gave me the best results yet, with an average frame rate of 38.9, a small jump from the previous setting. However, images once again took a hit, with textures and shadows particularly hit hard and prone to flickering. Again, the hit to the visuals wasn't worth the frame rate gains I did achieve.
8K crushed dreams (kind of)
So my Elden Ring 8K dreams were dashed. Sure, it can be played at 8K at 30fps and it looks great, but this is one game you really want to play at 60fps. Lowering the resolution to 4K allowed the RTX 3090 to hit a consistent 60fps on max settings, and gaming was much smoother and more responsive.
However, it's a shame that the PC version of Elden Ring feels underdone. Framerate issues don't just affect players at lower resolutions, but the lack of DLSS or FidelityFX support is a shame.
Also, while the game's art direction is impressive at times, it's not the most graphically impressive title. If you want a true 8K showcase, God of War is still the game to beat.
