DOOM: The Dark Ages PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide
Conclusion
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a great game, especially on PC
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a master class on how to make a great PC game. Unlike many recent titles, we didn’t have a lengthy shader decompilation step when the game booted, traversal stutters, or shader compilation stutters. We also had no issues playing this game on 8GB GPUs (except at 4K). DOOM: The Dark Ages runs with a level of smoothness that is rare in modern PC releases. Furthermore, its loading times are incredibly short. Each load takes a few seconds at most.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a demanding PC release, but its visuals speak for themselves. This is a beautiful game, and it represents a major step up from DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal. DOOM: The Dark Ages’ larger, more open maps are also noticeable, as are its larger battles and higher enemy counts. id Software has clearly taken the technology in modern consoles and used it to take DOOM to the next level.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is an incredibly GPU-heavy game, so much so that the game was never CPU-limited during normal gameplay. The game can be incredibly hard on graphics cards, but a mixture of upscaling and the right graphical settings can make a big difference. For low-end GPU users, Medium settings are a good shout.DOOM: The Dark Ages looks great at medium settings, so much so that many people will be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Medium and Ultra Nightmare. Yes, an advanced “path tracing” mode is coming, but most PC gamers will ignore that mode due to its demanding nature.
Expect DOOM: The Dark Ages to become more advanced with the introduction of path tracing
DOOM: The Dark Ages is already a graphically advanced game. With the help of Nvidia, The Dark Ages will soon be taken to the next level with the addition of Path Tracing. This full ray tracing mode will arrive with a future update. We plan to test this new mode when it launches.
If you are a fan of fast-paced FPS games, you owe it to yourself to play DOOM: The Dark Ages. If you didn’t like DOOM Eternal’s traversal system, know that DOOM: The Dark Ages is much more grounded. That said, this game will feel different to all prior DOOM games, as its new Shield weapon and parry mechanics change the game in some fundamental ways.
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