STALKER 2 PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide

CPU Performance

STALKER  is a CPU-hog on PC

STALKER 2 can be very CPU-limited. Even with an i9-13900K CPU, this game can dip below 60 FPS when using the game’s Epic preset. We will note that disabling E-cores does result in a tiny performance boost, though you would not notice this change in-game. Below, we can see that access to more cores positively impacts STALKER 2’s performance. Having eight strong CPU cores appears to be optimal. That said, demanding areas of this game will cause all CPUs to struggle.

For the results below, we tested one of STALKER 2’s first major settlements. High NPC counts impact CPU performance, causing sub-60 FPS performance dips. With this in mind, PC gamers must rely on Frame Generation to maintain high framerates in STALKER 2. AMD, Intel, if you are listening, STALKER 2 shows us that we need faster CPUs!