S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is just a week away, arriving on PC and Xbox on November 20th. Ahead of the release date, we have an early look at system requirements and benchmarks for the long-awaited sequel. Nvidia has been sharing some performance tests for the game, chiefly to show off its gains with integrated upscaling and frame generation support.

While the inclusion of DLSS 3 and Frame Generation is an important addition to the game, we can see that Stalker 2 is going to be difficult to run smoothly, especially at higher resolutions – even the 4090 isn’t enough for 4K 60 FPS without relying on DLSS.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl system requirements

The official system requirements for the game were recently published on X and give us a closer look into the kind of hardware you’ll need to play the game. If you want to max out the game at 4K and achieve above 60 FPs, Nvidia’s RTX 4080 is suggested, or the RX 7900 XTX in the case of AMD.

Nvidia’s max settings benchmarks show impressive DLSS performance boost

Nvidia’s RTX 40 series boasts some excellent performance increases by leveraging the power of DLSS3 and Frame Generation, the latter being an exclusive feature of the current-gen GPUs. In a recent blog post, Nvidia announced day-one support for Stalker 2, while detailed how the game performed in max settings. The game supports DLSS 3, Frame Generation, and Super Resolution.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl DLSS benchmarks 4K

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl DLSS benchmarks 1440p

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl DLSS benchmarks 1080p

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As we can see from the benchmarks above, at 4K (3840 x 2160) max settings, the average frames per second for the flagship RTX 4090 fell short of 60, clocking in at 52.4 FPS. The RTX 4070 Super managed only 34.7 despite being one of the GPUs we praised for solid 4K gaming results in our review. In any case, the tests demonstrate a massive difference between DLSS off and DLSS 3 on (with Support Resolution Performance Mode & DLSS 3 Frame Generation).

Dropping down to 1440p, we can see that the RTX 4070, a card that should hold its own at this resolution, fails to maintain 60 FPS with max settings. Similar results can be seen in 1080p with both the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti. Of course, we’re talking about the very highest graphics settings here, so some tweaks should help bump the framerate back up without a problem.

The growing reliance on tech like upscaling and frame generation is becoming more apparent in modern games. While we have no doubt that Stalker 2 will be a fantastic-looking game, relying on frame generation to hit 60 FPS is less than ideal, to say the least. The game is confirmed to support AMD’s FSR upscaling tech as well.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.