Black Myth Wukong In-Game Performance Benchmark

[W1zzard]

Black Myth Wukong has over two million gamers playing the game. This souls-like action RPG is a huge hit, especially in China. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the graphics look great, but hardware requirements are definitely not on the light side, we had to use upscaling. In our performance review, we're taking a closer look at image quality, VRAM usage, and performance on a wide selection of modern graphics cards.

Show full review

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Thanks for the benchmark, would have been nice to see the RT comparison although probably only the 4080 and 4090 can even do it with an acceptable level of upscaling so I get why it's not included.

My only nitpick with it is the lack of virtual shadow maps due to them not implementing nanite on the foliage which would have made the shadows look better and the foliage pop in less noticeable. It also seems over sharpened to me even when dropping the setting to 0.

 

[Daven]

That A770 performance…OMG!

 

[sethmatrix7]

With performance like that it better be more immersive than cyberpunk!

 

[Nater]

Looks like a game not worth playing until new hardware arrives.

 

[chrcoluk]

Thanks for the benchmark, would have been nice to see the RT comparison although probably only the 4080 and 4090 can even do it with an acceptable level of upscaling so I get why it's not included.

My only nitpick with it is the lack of virtual shadow maps due to them not implementing nanite on the foliage which would have made the shadows look better and the foliage pop in less noticeable. It also seems over sharpened to me even when dropping the setting to 0.

RT low/medium arent that heavy (on Nvidia) but to me RT low is way worse than RT off, and RT medium has some issues as well. So the conclusion seems about right probably better to keep it off.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Hi @W1zzard in the Test System section I believe you meant Nvidia drivers 560.94, not 570.94... and the 1440p/Cinematic chart is missing the Arc card? Did it fail at that setting?

Good one, stunning game for sure...

That A770 performance…OMG!

For what that card is, IMO it's by no means a bad showing, 17 fps is what I got with my 4080 at 100% resolution without FG and full RT.

Looks like a game not worth playing until new hardware arrives.

I don't blame you for thinking that... it really is very heavy, but quite manageable if you can forgo PC gamer's pride and lower settings accordingly. Of course, that's no fun either...

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Looks like a game not worth playing until new hardware arrives.

Obviously the 5080/5090 will probably be fine, but it will be interesting how RDNA 4 and the 5070 perform in high end UE5 games. My guess is not well but we will see.

For what that card is, IMO it's by no means a bad showing, 17 fps is what I got with my 4080 at 100% resolution without FG and full RT.

Arc cards don't usually perform well until Intel releases a driver which usually comes a bit late with them...... When I see Nvidia fanboys complain about AMD drivers I feel like they act like they are intel drivers lol.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

Obviously the 5080/5090 will probably be fine, but it will be interesting how RDNA 4 and the 5070 perform in high end UE5 games. My guess is not well but we will see.




Arc cards don't usually perform well until Intel releases a driver which usually comes a bit late with them...... When I see Nvidia fanboys complain about AMD drivers I feel like they act like they are intel drivers lol.

Intel release a beta driver yesterday with support - a day before nvidia and amd.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Intel release a beta driver yesterday with support - a day before nvidia and amd.

Do they work though. That is the question.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

Do they work though. That is the question.

Well, W1z used them and we see the results......

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Well, W1z used them and we see the results......

My bad I don't usually pay attention to Arc cards performance because they are usually at the bottom of charts.... Apparently they just really suck in UE5 games looked at the last 3 w1z tested bad performance in all 3.

Last time I noticed them was in Avatar and they looked ok....

 

[mechtech]

I think I prefer some of the low settings. Yes, it is more sparse, but it leaves something for the imagination to fill in.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

My bad I don't usually pay attention to Arc cards performance because they are usually at the bottom of charts.... Apparently they just really suck in UE5 games looked at the last 3 w1z tested bad performance in all 3.

Last time I noticed them was in Avatar and they looked ok....

I meant based on the bottom of the chart results, I guess they're "working" - I haven't looked in a while, but I thought they were about 4060 level and this is a pretty poor showing.

TBH, I like seeing games like this push the envelope for better graphics, but on the other hand, a 4090 needing DLSS and FG to be 'ok'. feelsbadman

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I meant based on the bottom of the chart results, I guess they're "working" - I haven't looked in a while, but I thought they were about 4060 level and this is a pretty poor showing.

TBH, I like seeing games like this push the envelope for better graphics, but on the other hand, a 4090 needing DLSS and FG to be 'ok'. feelsbadman

Happened to the 2080ti and then the 3090 in about the same time frame and it's mostly just this engine which even in it's software Lumen form is demanding.


Like I said when the first game using this engine came out with all the features this isn't to make games look better it's to make it easier for the devs.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Hardware Unboxed did an all-settings optimization video today, there is some good scaling and reasonable framerates are available for many cards with good image quality. FYI with their Performance settings my 3050 6GB (yes that one) gets 43fps at 1080p DLSS Quality (65% setting) in the benchmark.

Your cards aren't dead yet.

 

[AusWolf]

Why only test with 66% upscaling?

 

[QuietBob]

The game looks spectacular, but the GPU requirements to run it maxed out are absurdly high. This may be the first title where upscaling and/or frame generation is required to achieve 60 fps in 1080p on all but the most powerful cards. In native 1440p only the 4090 is able to break 60 fps without such aids

And that is even before we consider RT.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Why only test with 66% upscaling?

That's DLSS quality equivalent.

 

[AusWolf]

That's DLSS quality equivalent.

Exactly. I'd rather see no upscaling as default.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Exactly. I'd rather see no upscaling as default.

This game and most UE 5 games wouldn't be playable on most gpu so he likely used the settings that make the most sense

At least with the cinematic setting.

Hub has the native results if you want to see them.

 

[AusWolf]

This game and most UE 5 games wouldn't be playable on most gpu so he likely used the settings that make the most sense

At least with the cinematic setting.

Personally, I'd rather decrease some quality settings before considering any form of upscaling.

Hub has the native results if you want to see them.

That's cool, thanks.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Personally, I'd rather decrease some quality settings before considering any form of upscaling.


That's cool, thanks.

Without upscaling only a 4080 can barely manage to maintain 60fps or more at 1080p most people are going to need to both lower settings and use upscaling.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

Exactly. I'd rather see no upscaling as default.

From the review:

Hardware requirements of the game are super high, this is the first title that I'm testing where I'm not testing at 100% scaling—it just doesn't make sense—nobody can play the game like that. In order to reach 60 FPS at 1080p with the 66% scaling, highest settings, no path tracing or frame generation you need a RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 4070 Super or RX 7900 XT—that's still pretty steep! Got a 1440p monitor? Then you need a RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7900 XT and faster. 4K60? That won't be easy—only the mighty GeForce RTX 4090 is able to reach over 60 FPS here, 65.1 FPS to be precise. AMD's fastest the Radeon RX 7900 XTX hits 47 FPS.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

From the review:

Yeah I don't blame W1z if these are the results I was seeing.....



I would have been na, just gonna use scaling.

From the HUB testing.....