Alan Wake 2 PC Requirements Are A Beast—Play on Console

Alan Wake 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the year. A sequel to the iconic horror game, Alan Wake 2 is developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games. But with so much anticipation for the game’s launch, you’re probably wondering which platform you should buy it on. And I’m here to tell you, probably stick to the console. It’s apparent by what Remedy has released that Alan Wake 2 PC Requirements are a beast— but the truth is even when you have a recommended set-up, you may face severe quality drops during gameplay.

I ran Alan Wake 2 on “Low” after trying to get it to run at a consistent 60 fps and “Medium” settings. I even went sofar as to turn the raytracing off in order to try and inch my way up to 60 fps, but to no avail, I was stuck at around 45 FPS and made the switch. You can see my set-up below with what I ran the game on below:

• Graphics Preset: Low
• Resolution: 1440p
• FPS: 30
• GPU: AMD Radeon 6700 XT
• DLSS/FSR2: Balanced
• CPU: Intel Core i7 – 12700F
• RAM: 16GB

My GPU and CPU should mean that I would have no problem playing Alan Wake 2 on “Medium” graphics settings per the PC Requirements, which are:

• Graphics Preset: Medium
• Resolution: 1080p
• FPS: 60
• GPU: RTX 3070/Radeon 6700 XT (8GB VRAM)
• DLSS/FSR2: Performance
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 90 GB SSD

For “Recommended” on 1440p, you’re looking at a little more power:

• Graphics Preset: Medium
• Resolution: 1440p
• FPS: 30
• GPU: RTX 3060/Radeon 6600 XT (8GB VRAM)
• DLSS/FSR2: Balanced
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 90 GB SSD

However, when I did play, even on low, I was in framerate drop hell. My computer could be my heater for winter, and most egregiously, I had to play with little to no sound. I’m not writing this article to keep you from playing the PC version but rather to encourage you to play on console due to how truly phenomenal the game is.

While our review is unscored as of yet, Alan Wake 2 is very close to being my favorite horror game ever, thanks to the time and care that Remedy has put into its characters, narrative, and sound design. That’s something that deserves to be experienced without interruption, and unless you have the Alan Wake 2 PC requirements for peak performance, I doubt that will be the experience you will get.

So the biggest question for requirements then is: Can my PC run Alan Wake 2?

Well, according to pass the bar for “Low,” all you need is:

• Resolution: 1080p.
• FPS: 30.
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060/Radeon RX 6600 (6GB VRAM)
• DLSS/FSR2: Quality.
• CPU: Intel i5-7600K or AMD equivalent.
• RAM: 16GB.
• Storage: 90 GB SSD.

That said, after experiencing the game on recommended, aiming for “Ultra” is going to be the best way to ensure a quality experience:

• Graphics Preset: High
• Resolution: 2160p
• FPS: 60
• GPU: RTX 4070/Radeon 7800 XT (12GB VRAM)
• DLSS/FSR2: Balanced
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel equivalent
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 90 GB SSD

Do what works best for you, but know that Alan Wake 2 is one of the best games of the year, so choose the platform you know you can play uninterrupted on. Even after downloading updates for both my AMD GPU (here is the NVIDIA equivalent) and my Intel CPU, I was still left at a loss. Choose the right path for you, but know that could mean pivoting to a new platform.

Alan Wake 2 is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store.