Alan Wake II releases on October 27, 2023 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via the Epic Games Store. Understandably, video game graphics tech has evolved a bit since the first Alan Wake’s 2010 release on the humble Xbox 360. But if you’re looking to play Remedy Entertainment’s highly anticipated return to Mr. Wake’s unfortunate reality on PC, there’s an equally unfortunate reality awaiting you: You better have a beefy setup.
Check Out Alan Wake II: Xbox
But here’s some good news: if you haven’t upgraded your machine in a little while, Alan Wake II presents a good opportunity for you to reexamine what’s in your computer and what might be worth investing in.
Alan Wake II may sit at the higher end of graphics demands right now in 2023, but specs like these are going to become the new normal (if they aren’t already) for AAA gaming in the 2020s.
‘1080p is fine, I don’t care about ray tracing, and I don’t need 60 FPS for a narrative game’
If this is you, I applaud your modest gaming needs. But I have some bad news for ya, the specs even for the minimum settings are still pretty demanding:
Alan Wake II PC minimum requirements
- Graphics: Low
- Resolution: 1080p
- FPS: 30
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060/Radeon RX 6600 (6GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Quality
- CPU: Intel i5-7600K or AMD equivalent
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 90 GB SSD
Yeah, so that machine you built in 2017 and haven’t really upgraded probably isn’t going to cut it. At the bottom settings.
Granted, the CPU requirement of an i5 7600K isn’t too bad (it’s what I used to have in my last machine), but you’ll need to at least have an RTX 2060-equivalent card, and that’s for low graphics settings, folks. And you’re still expected to have supersampling by way of DLSS on here—or FSR2…which, while better than FSR1, still looks too melty to my eyes.
Also, the RAM and storage requirements of 90GB on an SSD (you should not, under any circumstances, be playing modern video games on your computer with an old school spinny HDD) might mean that rig that’s gotten you through the last few years of gaming without many upgrades might not be up to snuff for Remedy’s return to Alan Wake.
The good news is that 16 GB of RAM and storage requirements remain the same across the board.
‘I still really don’t care about ray tracing, but I want better graphics and higher resolutions’
If you’d like to make use of prettier graphics without flooring it, Remedy’s “Recommended” settings push us into the 3000-series of Nvidia GPUs, but a quad-core CPU probably isn’t cutting it anymore. Remedy splits up its Recommended settings into 1080p (for 60 FPS) and 1440p (for 30 fps). 4K is out the window at this tier.
Alan Wake II recommended 1080p settings
- Graphics: Medium
- Resolution: 1080p
- FPS: 60
- GPU: RTX 3070/Radeon 6700 XT (8GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Performance
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
Alan Wake II recommended 1440p settings
- Graphics: Medium
- Resolution: 1440p
- FPS: 30
- GPU: RTX 3060/Radeon 6600 XT (8GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Balanced
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
So if you want to be above low graphics settings, you’re looking at a meatier CPU/GPU combo. RAM will stay at 16GB, which really is the lowest any worthy gaming machine should have today (but like, maybe consider 32GB? You deserve it…), and Remedy still expects you to make use of DLSS here.
‘Um, I live in 4K and won’t play anything lower. But I still don’t care about ray tracing’
I get it. I too have a 4K monitor and my 3070 Ti is not friggin’ happy about how I use it most of the time. It definitely won’t be happy with Alan Wake II because an RTX 4070 is required for High graphics settings at 4K. That said, CPU recs stay the same as previous settings:
Alan Wake II Ultra 4k settings
- Graphics: Medium
- Resolution: 4K
- FPS: 60
- GPU: RTX 4070/Radeon 7800 XT (12GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Balanced
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
But okay, what if you want some pretty ray-tracing? Let’s get into it.
‘I just want a little bit of ray-tracing, as a treat’
Here’s some slightly good news, at medium graphics and low ray tracing settings, all you’ll need is an RTX 3070 or RX 6800 XT GPU. Bad news? You’re stuck at 1080p/30FPS.
Alan Wake II Low Ray Tracing settings
- Graphics: Medium
- Ray Tracing: Low
- Resolution: 1080p
- FPS: 30
- GPU: RTX 3070/Radeon 6800 XT (8GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Quality
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
All things considered, this isn’t too bad. I personally prefer to at least have ray traced reflections on if I can, as I find it adds a certain amount of believable depth and perception of the physics of light. Still, we’ll have to see just how low the ray traced settings will need to be at this level and what wiggle-room there is on a machine with similar specs.
Finally, if you have a large disposable income and can just throw money into your rig, let’s break down the higher end of the ray tracing options.
‘OMG give me all the rays, traced, thank you’
Medium and high ray traced settings for Alan Wake II are firmly in the 4000 series of Nvidia’s RTX cards. What about Radeon? Well, it ain’t listed here, folks.
Alan Wake II Medium Ray Tracing Settings
- Graphics: Medium
- Ray Tracing: Medium (Path tracing on)
- Resolution: 1080p
- FPS: 60
- GPU: RTX 4070 (12GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Quality
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
What happens if you try to do this on an AMD card? I think Sam Lake probably shows up to take you to the Dark Place. Or maybe you’ll just have bad performance. Probably the latter.
Probably.
If you want even higher settings, you’re looking at an RTX 4080,
Alan Wake II High Ray Tracing Settings
- Graphics: High
- Ray Tracing: High (Path tracing on)
- Resolution: 4K
- FPS: 60
- GPU: RTX 4080 (16GB VRAM)
- DLSS/FSR2: Performance
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
No matter how you configure the settings, Alan Wake II is going to require a strongly spec’d PC. I expect there’ll be some room between these different configurations to raise or lower individual settings to tailor the experience, but overall, Alan Wake II is either your siren’s song to upgrade, or a sign of what’s to come.