The video benchmarks “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl” across 31 GPUs at various resolutions and quality settings, highlighting the significant performance differences between 8 GB and 16 GB VRAM cards, particularly under demanding conditions. It emphasizes the game’s high resource requirements and suggests that players may need to adjust settings for optimal performance, while also promoting Thermal Grizzly’s graphene thermal pads.
The video focuses on benchmarking the game “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl” across various graphics processing units (GPUs) and settings. The presenter humorously reflects on the lengthy shader compilation loading screens experienced during testing, which, despite their frustration, were more enjoyable than some products reviewed in 2024. The video is sponsored by Thermal Grizzly, promoting their graphene thermal pads as a superior alternative to traditional thermal pastes, emphasizing their durability and high thermal conductivity.
The game, developed using Unreal Engine 5, is a first-person shooter and survival horror title, marking the first new release in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series in 15 years. The benchmark testing involved 31 different GPUs at three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4K) and three quality presets (Epic, High, and Medium), along with quality upscaling results. The testing was conducted using the day-one patch and focused on a demanding area in the game called the Lesser Zone, specifically in one of the first towns players encounter.
The presenter highlights the significant performance differences between 8 GB and 16 GB VRAM GPUs, particularly under the Epic quality preset at 1440p. While both the RTX 4060 Ti models (8 GB and 16 GB) initially showed similar performance, the 8 GB variant struggled severely after extended play due to VRAM saturation, leading to significant stuttering and poor frame rates. In contrast, the 16 GB model maintained a smoother experience, illustrating the importance of VRAM capacity in demanding titles like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
As the benchmarking progressed through various resolutions and quality settings, it became clear that the game is highly demanding on both CPU and GPU resources. At 1080p with the Epic preset, the RTX 4090 performed well, but performance varied greatly with lower-end GPUs. Enabling upscaling helped improve frame rates, especially for lower-end GPUs, but 8 GB cards still faced challenges even at 1080p, leading to a consensus that they may be unsuitable for playing the game at higher settings.
In conclusion, the video underscores the demanding nature of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and the rapid obsolescence of 8 GB graphics cards in modern gaming. The presenter suggests that while the game is enjoyable, achieving optimal performance requires careful consideration of hardware, particularly VRAM capacity. Future optimizations may improve performance, but for now, players may need to adjust settings or resolutions to achieve a satisfactory gaming experience. The video wraps up with a call to action for viewers to like, subscribe, and engage with the content, while also hinting at the potential for further benchmarking and optimization discussions in the future.