Just a couple of days ago we got a take a look at some official Stalker 2 benchmarks provided by Nvidia and they revealed that even the RTX 4090 isn’t enough to max out the game at 4K without resorting to DLSS and frame generation. This has many people asking about system requirements, and while the devs laid out detailed specs in a post on X, many people’s first port of call will the be Steam store page.

An eagle-eyed user online noticed that the game’s requirements on Steam were updated not long before launch day on November 20th. Previously, the minimum and recommended specs didn’t look too demanding – but that has all changed. Newer and better hardware is now suggested, and that’s even with help from upscaling tech such as DLSS, FSR, and XeSS.

Updated system requirements appear on the Stalker 2 Steam store page

Now that the Steam store has been updated with new system requirements, here’s how they look:

Upscaling is required to target 60 FPS at high settings

While it makes sense for Nvidia to show off its gains with tech like DLSS frame generation, we don’t think that frame generation should exist to reach 60 FPS. In any case, frame gen seems to be left out of the equation with the store page requirements, so let’s turn our focus to upscaling specifically.

Looking at the recommended specs, targeting 1440p at the high graphics preset, we can see that popular GPUs like the RTX 4070 or RX 6800 XT are what you’ll need to reach 60 FPS. That’s with DLSS and FSR enabled, Nvidia’s and AMD’s respective upscaling technologies. It is not immediately clear whether the ‘high’ preset includes demanding settings such as ray tracing, an aspect where the Nvidia cards will be preferred. Even still, the need for upscaling to target 60 FPS high graphics on a current-gen GPU like the RTX 4070 doesn’t sound ideal.

There is no 4K-spec target listed on the Steam store page, but we know from the full requirements table that you’re going to need something like the RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX to reach that. The graphic doesn’t actually make any mention of upscaling, but now we may be able to assume these 4K benchmarks follow the same practice.

Generally speaking, gaming benchmarks are run for rasterization results – in other words, at native resolution without upscaling or frame generation. This is how we do it in our testing lab and is common practice among hardware reviewers. So, many people expect to see the same when it comes to system requirements; upscaling should maybe be seen as a bonus.

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.