Alan Wake 2 PC requirements Ray Tracing and More Revealed

We love a good rundown of system requirements, but even more so, I love it when developers give you a clear presentation of the hardware you’re expected to need, what settings you’re likely to be using, and what the frame rate you can expect will be. Today, it’s Remedy who’ve done it the right way, showing us everything (well, close enough to everything) about the graphics settings for their upcoming horror survival game, Alan Wake 2.

Alan Wake was an amazing game, it is quite old now, but when it launched, it was a stunning game to behold, with some impressive graphics of its own that hold up well today. It looks like Alan Wake 2 will be packing some graphical prowess too, with support for Ray Tracing and Path Tracing on compatible systems.

Can I Run it?

What I am pleased to see is that even an RTX 2060 or RX 6600 will be enough to play on low, so any half-decent gaming PC from the last 5 years should get away with some respectable performance here. I also appreciate that they didn’t just stick the RTX 4090 on the higher end of Ray Tracing, saying you’ll get 60 FPS on the less expensive RTX 4080. However, they only list the RX 6800 XT for low ray tracing and no AMD cards on the medium or higher tier.

For playing the game at 4K high, the RTX 4070 and RX 7800 XT will manage 60 FPS, but this is with DLSS and FSR modes enabled respectively. So while the point of entry may be relatively low, you’re going to need some GPU grunt to get the best out of this game.

Alan Wake 2 will use DLSS 3.5, which features Ray Reconstruction and will improve the fidelity of Ray Tracing and Path Tracing effects, a feature which is also available on the RTX 20 series of GPUs.

Where to Play

Alan Wake 2 releases on October 27th on the Epic Games Store for £39.99.

• Solve a Deadly Mystery – What begins as a small-town murder investigation rapidly spirals into a nightmare journey. Uncover the source of the supernatural darkness in this psychological horror story filled with intense suspense and unexpected twists.
• Play As Two Characters – Experience both Alan Wake’s and Saga Anderson’s stories and see events unfold from different perspectives. Switch between Anderson’s life-or-death race to solve the case and Wake’s desperate attempts to rewrite his reality to escape the depths of the Dark Place.
• Explore Two Worlds – Experience two beautiful yet terrifying worlds, each with its own rich cast of characters and deadly threats. Discover the majestic landscapes of Cauldron Lake in the Pacific Northwest and the idyllic towns of Bright Falls and Watery. Contrasting sharply, attempt to escape the nightmarish cityscape of the Dark Place.
• Survive With Light – With limited resources, take on powerful supernatural enemies in desperate close-combat situations. It takes more than just a gun to survive: light is the ultimate weapon in the fight against the darkness and will be your refuge when enemies threaten to overwhelm you.