Resident Evil 2 Remake PC Performance Review

CPU Performance – Do you need a beefy processor to run RE2?

Do you need an extreme-grade processor to run Resident Evil 2? The short answer to this question is no, as it is relatively easy to keep average framerates high in Resident Evil 2’s remake. 

However, we will note that then using simulated 4-core, 4-thread configurations with both our Ryzen and Broadwell-E processors, we found that the game experience some micro stuttering in select locations. These dips were infrequent enough to not register as 1% minimums in our testing, but they are common enough for us to recommend 4-core, 8-thread CPUs for completely smooth gameplay. 

In most cases, these dips occur when moving from one area to another, possibly due to streaming in new assets, when entering new rooms or passing specific in-game boundaries. In our dual-core quad-thread config these dips became more common. In future, we will try to showcase these dips graphically, perhaps with 0.1% minimum frametimes. 

30FPS Animation Issue? 
  
An oddity within the PC version of Resident Evil 2 is the game’s use of low refresh rate animations on distant enemies, resulting in strange looking zombies in the far distance. This technique is typically used to reduce CPU utilisation in console games, but on PC today’s hardware can push past these limitations.

Full refresh rate animations are used when zombies are close to the player, so we don’t see why the game can’t have a graphical option that enabled higher refresh rate animation LODs on PC. This is quite a nitpicky complaint, but it is something that modern PC hardware should be more than capable of handling.