DLSS Tested – Is it worth it in Crysis Remastered?

Conclusion – Does Crysis Remastered require more patches? 

With DLSS, users of Nvidia’s RTX series GPUs can utilise the power of AI to enable higher performance levels within Crysis Remastered. That’s true, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. 

Even with DLSS, Crysis Remastered remains a game that’s CPU-limited. DLSS can only be used to provide gamers with more GPU headroom, and that will make Crysis fans screams for some more CPU-focused optimisations for Crysis Remastered. 

Aside from a few bugs, as mentioned on page 3, DLSS provides PC gamers with high-quality visuals within Crysis Remastered and higher framerates within GPU-limited scenes. This is especially true for gamers that target 4K resolutions. 

Sadly, even with DLSS, Crysis Remastered remains a tough game to play at 60 FPS or higher framerates. Even at 4K, Crysis Remastered is a CPU-limited title at high settings, so much so that even DLSS’ Ultra Performance setting can deliver us a 4K 60 FPS experience on our RTX 3070. While DLSS had the potential to increase Crysis Remastered’s framerates significantly, it highlights the fact that the game is primarily CPU-limited, and that undermines the benefits of DLSS. 

While Crytek has confirmed that Crysis Remastered will receive further updates, we hope that some of the studio’s focus is on CPU performance. PC gamers want a higher framerate Crysis experience, and addressing the game’s CPU performance limitations would go a long way towards achieving that. Addressing this issue would also make the game easier to recommend and create an appetite for a potential Crysis Warhead remaster. 

Is DLSS a worthy addition to Crysis Remastered? Yes, but it has shone a spotlight on the game’s lingering CPU performance issues. Yes, higher framerates can be achieved by lowering CPU-heavy settings like Ray Tracing and Vegetation, but these downgrades cut away at Crysis Remastered core visual improvements. Most PC gamers would like to see further CPU optimisations to Crysis Remastered, and we hope that Crytek can deliver that. Such optimisations would also open to door to a potential 60FPS PS5/Xbox Series X/S version of Crysis Remastered.

As always, Nvidia’s latest iteration of DLSS delivers a significant performance uplift to users of RTX series graphics cards with satisfying levels of image quality. That said, Crytek will need to address some of DLSS’ image streaking artefacts and optimise Crysis Remastered on the CPU-side to allow DLSS to be used to its fullest potential. As it stands, DLSS is a great addition to Crysis Remastered, but we feel that the engineering effort could have been better spent elsewhere. 

You can join the discussion on Crysis Remastered’s DLSS implementation on the OC3D Forums.