There is no single toughest PC game. The best stress test depends on what you want to load: Cyberpunk 2077 with Ray Tracing: Overdrive is an extreme GPU and ray-tracing test, Alan Wake 2 with full path tracing is a modern GPU-and-SSD workload, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 at Ideal settings is unusually demanding on the CPU, memory, simulation and world streaming. Test at a fixed resolution and frame-rate target, and always disclose whether upscaling or frame generation is enabled.
The requirements below come from the developers’ published specifications. They are useful targets, not a universal FPS ranking: patches, drivers, cooling, background programs, ray-tracing options and image-reconstruction settings can change the result.
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The three best workload-specific stress tests
Choose the game that matches the component or behavior you want to challenge rather than treating “most demanding” as one permanent title.
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| Workload | Best current candidate | Why it is demanding | Published high-end reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU and ray tracing | Cyberpunk 2077, Ray Tracing: Overdrive | Path-traced lighting places a very heavy load on shader, ray-tracing and VRAM resources. | 2160p/60 target with a GeForce RTX 4080, Ryzen 9 7900X or Core i9-12900, 24 GB RAM and a 70 GB NVMe drive; the developer measured this tier with DLSS Frame Generation enabled. |
| Full path tracing and storage | Alan Wake 2 | Full ray tracing/path tracing is GPU-intensive, while the game requires an SSD and streams a large world and effects workload. | Remedy recommends a GeForce RTX 40-series GPU with DLSS 3.5 for full ray tracing; the PC download is 86 GB. |
| CPU, memory, simulation and streaming | Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Ideal settings | Multithreading, aerodynamics, aircraft systems, physics and cloud delivery of scenery data can keep the processor, RAM, storage and network busy together. | Ryzen 9 7900X or Core i7-14700K, Radeon RX 7900 XT or GeForce RTX 4080, 64 GB RAM and 50 GB storage. |
These three games cover different bottlenecks. A graphics card that handles a rasterized 4K game comfortably can still struggle with path tracing, while a powerful GPU cannot prevent a flight simulator from becoming CPU- or memory-limited.
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Cyberpunk 2077: the extreme ray-tracing test
What Overdrive changes
CD PROJEKT RED introduced Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode with Patch 1.62 as a preset above Ray Tracing: Ultra. It adds path-traced rendering and is described by the developer as “very GPU intensive.” The current requirements table covers Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, and explicitly notes that the game is both graphics- and processor-intensive.
Overdrive is the clearest choice when your question is, “How hard can I push a high-end ray-tracing GPU?” It is not a pure native-rendering test, however: the published 2160p/60 measurement used DLSS Frame Generation. Record that setting whenever you report a result, because generated frames do not represent the same rendering workload as fully rendered frames.
Published Cyberpunk targets
| Preset and target | CPU reference | GPU reference | System memory | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra without ray tracing, 2160p/60 | Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X | GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX | 20 GB | 70 GB NVMe |
| Ray Tracing: Overdrive, 2160p/60 | Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X | GeForce RTX 4080 | 24 GB | 70 GB NVMe |
The Overdrive article also lists minimum VRAM for path-traced screenshots: 8 GB at 1080p, 10 GB at 1440p and 12 GB at 2160p. Those figures describe the screenshot use case, not a guarantee of smooth play at the same resolution. Actual gameplay can need more headroom depending on texture settings, scene complexity and reconstruction mode.
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How to use Cyberpunk as a stress test
- Choose one output resolution, such as 2560×1440 or 3840×2160, and keep it fixed for every run.
- Record whether you are using rasterized Ultra, Ray Tracing Ultra or Overdrive. Do not call a DLSS or frame-generation run “native 4K.”
- Log the upscaler mode, sharpening, dynamic resolution and Frame Generation state alongside average and one-percent-low FPS.
- Watch GPU utilization, VRAM allocation, GPU temperature and clock behavior. If utilization is near full and VRAM is close to capacity, the graphics card is the likely limit.
- Repeat the same route or benchmark sequence after a cold launch and after the shader cache has settled. Keep the result tied to the game update and driver version.
Alan Wake 2: full path tracing on an SSD-based game
Why it stresses modern systems
Remedy Entertainment’s FAQ states that Alan Wake 2 requires an SSD. The game uses the Northlight engine, supports FSR2 and DLSS, and has a full ray-tracing/path-tracing mode. Remedy explains that full ray tracing is a very GPU-intensive form of ray tracing and recommends a GeForce RTX 40-series GPU with NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 for that mode.
The 86 GB PC download is not itself a performance score, but the SSD requirement matters when you are evaluating a system with a hard drive or a nearly full solid-state drive. Asset delivery and traversal can behave differently when storage is slow or heavily occupied, so include the drive type in your test notes.
A repeatable Alan Wake 2 test
- Use DX12 hardware with accelerated ray tracing if you are testing full ray tracing; older cards may run the game but are not representative of Remedy’s recommended configuration.
- Run one pass with ray tracing disabled, one with the game’s full ray-tracing/path-tracing option enabled, and a third pass with the same image-quality setting plus your chosen DLSS or FSR2 mode.
- Keep Frame Generation clearly labeled. Compare rendered-frame performance and perceived output separately instead of combining them into one number.
- Monitor frame-time consistency while moving through a repeatable, effect-heavy section. A high average can conceal stutter caused by shader compilation, streaming or VRAM pressure.
Alan Wake 2 is therefore a useful companion to Cyberpunk: both can expose ray-tracing limits, but their engines, scenes and reconstruction behavior are not identical.
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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: the broad CPU and simulation challenge
What makes it different
Microsoft describes Flight Simulator 2024 as improving multithreading, aerodynamics, physics simulation, aircraft systems and data management. Its cloud-streaming approach downloads only the textures, meshes and map data needed for the current experience. That combination can stress more than the rendering pipeline: processor scheduling, system memory, storage activity, network delivery and simulation complexity all matter.
Published PC tiers
| Tier | CPU | GPU | RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended | Ryzen 7 2700X or Core i7-10700K | Radeon RX 5700 XT or GeForce RTX 2080 | 32 GB | 50 GB |
| Ideal | Ryzen 9 7900X or Core i7-14700K | Radeon RX 7900 XT or GeForce RTX 4080 | 64 GB | 50 GB |
The Ideal tier’s 64 GB memory recommendation is a strong signal that this is not simply another 4K graphics benchmark. Dense airports, complex aircraft and detailed scenery can change the balance between CPU time, RAM use and GPU load. A low GPU utilization reading does not automatically mean the game is poorly optimized; it may indicate that the main simulation thread is limiting the frame rate.
How to test Flight Simulator 2024 fairly
- Select a fixed aircraft, weather preset, traffic level and route. A busy international airport and a remote area exercise very different parts of the simulator.
- Record the display resolution and graphics preset, but also note terrain and object-detail settings, live traffic and streamed-content conditions.
- Measure during the same flight phase, such as taxiing at the selected airport or a defined approach. Do not compare a quiet cruise with a crowded airport arrival.
- Track total CPU usage and per-core or main-thread frametimes, system RAM, GPU utilization and VRAM. Overall CPU percentage can look moderate while one heavily loaded thread limits the frame rate.
- Repeat the route with consistent network conditions where possible. Because scenery data is streamed, connection and cache state are part of the test environment.
Other demanding games worth adding to a test suite
AMD’s Radeon RX 9000-series performance material uses a broader set of 4K and ray-tracing workloads that includes Black Myth: Wukong, Star Wars Outlaws, The Last of Us: Part I, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Dying Light 2 and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, alongside Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2 and Flight Simulator 2024.
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That list is useful when you want varied coverage of modern engines, but it is not a neutral ranking. AMD’s document is a vendor performance comparison, not a standardized contest run on identical hardware, drivers, patches and settings. Treat these games as candidates for your own suite and publish the exact conditions rather than calling one of them definitively “the hardest.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to compare demanding games without misleading yourself
Hold the output target constant
Compare 1440p with 1440p or 4K with 4K, and decide whether your goal is 60, 120 or another frame-rate target. A game that is difficult at 4K/60 may be less demanding than a lighter title pushed to 4K/144. State whether the measurement is an average, a one-percent low, a frame-time graph or a subjective smoothness judgment.
Separate rendering modes
Rasterization, ray tracing and path tracing are different workloads. Keep them in separate rows or charts. Also identify DLSS, FSR2, dynamic resolution and Frame Generation. Upscaling changes the internal render resolution; Frame Generation increases displayed frames without rendering every frame conventionally. Neither should be hidden behind a simple “4K” label.
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Identify the bottleneck
- GPU-bound: GPU utilization is consistently high, GPU frametime dominates and lowering resolution improves FPS substantially.
- VRAM-bound: texture or ray-tracing changes trigger hitching, allocation approaches the card’s capacity or frame times worsen as new areas load.
- CPU- or simulation-bound: lowering resolution barely changes FPS, one or more CPU threads remain busy and the GPU is waiting.
- Memory-bound: system RAM use approaches physical capacity, paging increases and traversal becomes uneven.
- Storage- or streaming-bound: stutter correlates with asset delivery, cache misses or a slow drive rather than with steady rendering load.
A practical high-end test plan
If you want one compact suite for a new desktop, use all three workload leaders instead of chasing a single winner:
- Run Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive at a fixed 1440p or 2160p target to test ray-tracing throughput and VRAM. Label DLSS and Frame Generation explicitly.
- Run Alan Wake 2 once without full ray tracing and once with full path tracing. Keep the same upscaler mode for the meaningful comparison.
- Run Flight Simulator 2024 at Ideal settings in a repeatable, dense location to expose CPU, RAM, simulation and streaming limits.
- Add two or three games from the broader shortlist to avoid tuning a system for one engine. Use the same logging tools and reporting format for every title.
- Repeat the suite after changing only one variable—resolution, ray tracing, upscaler, driver or memory configuration—so the cause of a change is identifiable.
For a useful report, include the CPU and GPU models, driver version, RAM capacity and speed, storage type, operating-system version, game build, room temperature if relevant, resolution, graphics preset, ray-tracing state, upscaler and Frame Generation state. Without those details, two apparently conflicting results may both be correct.
What “can my PC run it?” really means
Meeting a listed requirement is a compatibility target, not a promise of a particular frame rate. Cyberpunk’s Overdrive specification is tied to 2160p/60 and DLSS Frame Generation; Flight Simulator’s Ideal tier assumes 64 GB of RAM; Alan Wake 2 requires an SSD and recommends RTX 40-series hardware for full ray tracing. If your system falls below one of those reference points, reduce the output resolution or ray-tracing level first, then adjust upscaling and texture settings while watching VRAM and frame times.
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Bottom line
Use Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive for a ray-tracing GPU torture test, Alan Wake 2 for full path tracing on an SSD-equipped system, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Ideal for a broad CPU, memory and simulation workload. There is no timeless overall champion: the most demanding game is the one that stresses the component and settings you are actually trying to evaluate.
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