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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteThere is no single game that is objectively the hardest PC game to run. The answer changes with resolution, ray tracing, path tracing, CPU simulation, VRAM, streaming, the GPU vendor, and whether upscaling or frame generation is enabled.
For a pure visual stress test, Cyberpunk 2077 with RT Overdrive/path tracing and Alan Wake 2 with full ray tracing are the leading candidates. Black Myth: Wukong is one of the harshest Unreal Engine 5 tests when full ray tracing is enabled. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and DOOM: The Dark Ages are notable because hardware ray tracing is required even at minimum settings. For a test of the whole system rather than the GPU alone, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the standout.
This guide separates those workloads instead of pretending that an upscaled 1080p game, a native 4K game, and a CPU-limited flight simulator belong in one precise ranking. Requirements and feature information below are current to August 10, 2026, but game patches, drivers, and official specifications can change.
Quick answer: the hardest PC games by workload
| Use case | Best candidates | What makes them demanding |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum GPU load | Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2 | Full path tracing or ray tracing, dense lighting, reflections, volumetrics, geometry, and effects. |
| Most punishing Unreal Engine 5 showcase | Black Myth: Wukong | Dense environments, foliage, effects, and an optional full-ray-tracing mode that behaves very differently from rasterized rendering. |
| Mandatory hardware ray tracing | Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, DOOM: The Dark Ages | RT-capable hardware is part of the baseline PC specification, not merely an optional quality setting. |
| CPU, simulation, and streaming | Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 | World simulation, aircraft systems, CPU scheduling, asset streaming, and network-delivered scenery. |
| Frame-generation-dependent official target | Monster Hunter Wilds | The recommended 1080p/60 specification assumes frame generation, while the minimum target renders internally at 720p. |
| Open-world frame-time stress | S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws | World streaming, AI, foliage, weather, crowds, geometry, and traversal consistency. |
These are categories, not a universal first-to-last ranking. A game that is hardest for an AMD GPU in full RT may not be hardest for an Nvidia GPU in rasterized mode, and a game with a lower average frame rate may be less demanding than one with severe CPU or traversal stutter.
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What does graphically demanding actually mean?
The phrase usually refers to GPU work, but modern PC games can stress several different parts of a system. Identifying the bottleneck matters more than looking at an Ultra preset or a minimum system requirement.
GPU shader and rasterization demand
Traditional rasterization makes the GPU process geometry, textures, shadows, particles, post-processing, foliage, and other screen-space effects. Resolution multiplies much of this work: 4K renders four times as many pixels as 1080p before accounting for additional effects.
Black Myth: Wukong at Cinematic settings, Assassin’s Creed Shadows in dense outdoor scenes, and Star Wars Outlaws in busy open-world locations are examples of demanding rasterized or mixed workloads. A game does not need path tracing to overwhelm a GPU.
Ray tracing demand
Ray-traced shadows, reflections, ambient occlusion, and global illumination can be substantially more expensive than rasterized alternatives. The impact depends on how many rays are cast, how they are denoised, how many bounces are simulated, and how much of the scene uses the effect.
Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and DOOM: The Dark Ages are important RT tests, but their RT modes are not interchangeable. In the last two games, hardware RT is required; in the first two, the most expensive effects are optional.
Path tracing or full ray tracing
Path tracing uses a more unified simulation of direct and indirect lighting. In practical PC-game discussions, developers and hardware companies sometimes use full ray tracing and path tracing for closely related modes. It is normally far more demanding than adding one or two selective RT effects.
Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive replaces conventional lighting approaches with a fully ray-traced pipeline covering direct and indirect lighting, reflections, and shadows. Alan Wake 2 uses full ray tracing for lighting, reflections, and shadows. NVIDIA’s technical explanations of the two modes are available for Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive and Alan Wake 2 full ray tracing.
CPU, simulation, and world-streaming demand
The CPU can be the limiting component when a game must simulate a large world, manage crowds and AI, submit many draw calls, calculate physics, decompress assets, or stream data while the player moves. A powerful GPU cannot compensate for a CPU-limited frame.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the clearest example. Aircraft complexity, flight systems, scenery, world simulation, and continuous data streaming can all affect frame time. Cyberpunk 2077 can also become CPU-limited with high crowd density, traffic, and dense city scenes, even when its path tracing is disabled.
VRAM, system RAM, storage, and network demand
Memory pressure is not the same thing as insufficient shader performance. A game can average 60 fps and still stutter because the GPU is short on VRAM, system RAM is exhausted, assets are being read from a slow drive, or world data is arriving inconsistently over a network.
- VRAM: large texture pools, RT acceleration structures, geometry, and render targets can exceed an 8 GB card’s comfortable capacity.
- System RAM: simulation, open-world asset caches, background applications, and large remasters can make 32 GB useful or officially recommended.
- SSD/NVMe storage: fast storage improves loading and can help asset streaming, traversal consistency, and texture pop-in. It does not directly raise average GPU FPS.
- Network bandwidth: streamed-world games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 can be affected by connection quality as well as local hardware.
The hardest pure GPU games
1. Cyberpunk 2077 with RT Overdrive
Cyberpunk 2077 remains one of the clearest GPU torture tests because Night City combines dense geometry, traffic, crowds, reflections, volumetric effects, and a full path-tracing option. RT Overdrive is the strongest version of the test: it uses fully ray-traced direct and indirect lighting, shadows, and reflections rather than simply adding a single RT effect.
CD Projekt Red’s official current requirements list a 4K/60 RT Overdrive target using an RTX 4080, 24 GB of system RAM, and a 70 GB NVMe SSD. Crucially, that measurement was made with DLSS Frame Generation enabled. It should not be presented as a native-rendering requirement for 4K/60. See the current Cyberpunk 2077 PC requirements.
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- Raster baseline: 1440p or 4K, High or Ultra, RT disabled, frame generation disabled.
- Maximum visual load: 4K, RT Overdrive, and no upscaling if the purpose is to measure native rendering.
- Practical play mode: DLSS Quality or Balanced, with Frame Generation reported separately from the base-rendered frame rate.
It is also a useful CPU test. High crowd density, traffic, and busy city areas can expose a processor limit even if the GPU has headroom. Later updates, including support changes for FSR Frame Generation and XeSS 2, also mean that older benchmark articles may not describe the current version accurately; record the game patch when testing.
2. Alan Wake 2 with full ray tracing
Alan Wake 2 is one of the most punishing visual tests because its forests, interiors, volumetric lighting, transparent and opaque reflections, and multi-bounce indirect lighting produce a difficult combination of shader, RT, and memory workloads.
Remedy’s official PC FAQ says full ray tracing requires a DirectX 12 GPU with hardware-accelerated DXR and recommends GeForce RTX 40-series hardware with DLSS 3.5 for the path-traced mode. The game is not limited to Nvidia hardware, but vendor performance is not automatically equal in this workload.
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For a clean comparison, test full RT with Frame Generation off first, then repeat with the relevant upscaler and Frame Generation. That shows both the actual rendering workload and the practical display output.
3. Black Myth: Wukong with full ray tracing
Black Myth: Wukong combines dense Unreal Engine 5 environments, foliage, effects, geometry, and demanding cinematic settings. Its full-ray-tracing mode is a separate class of workload from its rasterized presentation.
NVIDIA’s official full-RT table lists an RTX 3060 for 1080p/30 Low RT and an RTX 4080 Super for 2160p/60 High RT, with 16 GB of VRAM and 32 GB of system RAM in the higher target. Those are vendor-published targets, not a universal guarantee across every GPU or patch. The table is available through NVIDIA’s Black Myth: Wukong full-ray-tracing information.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesIndependent testing from Tom’s Hardware found that maximum RT performance is dramatically harsher than standard rasterized settings and particularly favors Nvidia hardware. AMD cards can show a different and more competitive balance in rasterized modes, so do not use a raster result to predict full-RT performance.
Use Very High or Cinematic with full RT for a maximum test, but keep the RT-off result in a separate column. Upscaling and Frame Generation should also be disclosed; otherwise a reported frame rate can hide a much lower base-rendered rate.
4. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the most important modern PC examples because hardware ray tracing is mandatory. A GTX or other non-RT GPU is not simply a slower choice here; it falls outside the supported baseline regardless of how well it runs older rasterized games.
Bethesda’s official requirements list a 1080p native baseline using an RTX 2060 Super, RX 6600, or Arc A580-class GPU, 16 GB of RAM, an SSD, and hardware RT. The official Ultra target is native 4K with an RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XT, a Core i7-13900K or Ryzen 9 7900X, and 32 GB of RAM. The listed storage requirement is 126 GB plus additional space for DLC.
That native-4K label matters: it is not equivalent to a 4K output produced from a lower internal resolution. At the other end, the 1080p baseline is a supported target, not a promise of high settings or high-refresh performance.
5. DOOM: The Dark Ages
DOOM: The Dark Ages has an unusually demanding minimum because hardware ray tracing is required even at Low settings. Bethesda lists an 8 GB RT-capable GPU for 1080p/60 Low, 16 GB of system RAM, and 100 GB available on a 512 GB-or-larger NVMe SSD. Its Ultra 4K/60 target rises to a 16 GB RT-capable GPU and 32 GB of RAM. The complete specification is on Bethesda’s official PC requirements page.
This is designed around a 60-fps target: the minimum is already 1080p/60 Low rather than a more forgiving 30-fps baseline. RT is mandatory, but mandatory RT is not the same as mandatory path tracing. Bethesda maintains a separate path-tracing support notice, so benchmark reports should identify which lighting mode is actually being tested.
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Demanding open-world games
Open-world games often stress more than the GPU. Their worst moments may occur while traversing the world, entering a crowded city, triggering AI encounters, or loading a new area rather than standing in a visually impressive screenshot.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows uses an updated Anvil engine with ray-traced global illumination, real-time reflections, virtualized geometry, dynamic weather, wind, particles, and environmental destruction. Its official recommended target is 1080p/60 High with an RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, or Arc B580 and an SSD. The current Steam specification and graphics-feature listing should be checked before testing because requirements can change.
It is a good mixed workload for foliage, geometry, RT, weather, and moving through a world rather than a narrowly controlled indoor scene. Do not treat the recommended GPU as a 1440p or 4K guarantee.
Star Wars Outlaws
Star Wars Outlaws uses Snowdrop to render large environments, cities, dynamic landscapes, weather, and ray-traced effects. Its official minimum target is 1080p/30 Low with a Quality upscaler, using a GTX 1660, RX 5600 XT, or Arc A750-class GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD. The recommended target is 1080p/60 High with a Quality upscaler, an RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6700 XT, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD, according to the official Steam requirements.
Those are 1080p output targets, not native 1920×1080 rendering targets. That distinction makes the game a useful example of how official requirements can rely on reconstruction technology.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 stresses large-world streaming, dynamic weather, AI encounters, anomalies, foliage, and Unreal Engine rendering. Its official minimum is 1080p/30 Low with a GTX 1060, RX 580, or Arc A750-class GPU, 16 GB of dual-channel RAM, and an SSD. The recommended target is 1440p/60 High with an RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 4070, an RX 6800 XT, 32 GB of RAM, and an SSD. See the official requirements.
Average FPS is not enough for this game. Test traversal and frame-time consistency as well as a static combat scene. A 60-fps average can conceal 1% lows, asset-streaming hitches, or traversal stutter that are much more noticeable during play.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a useful reminder that a remaster can be demanding without being a path-tracing showcase. Its large Unreal Engine-based world has substantially higher requirements than the 2006 original.
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The official minimum lists a GTX 1070 Ti or RX 5700, 16 GB of RAM, and a 125 GB SSD. The recommended specification rises to an RTX 2080 or RX 6800 XT, 32 GB of RAM, and the same 125 GB SSD requirement. The complete details are on the official Steam page.
Crimson Desert
Crimson Desert is a 2026 open-world contender with a substantial 150 GB SSD requirement. Its official minimum lists a GTX 1060 or RX 5500 XT and 16 GB of RAM; the recommended specification lists an RTX 2080 or RX 6700 XT and 16 GB of RAM. Those details are available on the official Steam page.
It belongs on a current demanding-games shortlist, but it should not automatically be declared harder than established path-tracing tests without a controlled, multi-GPU benchmark covering the same patch and settings.
Borderlands 4
Borderlands 4 has a relatively high baseline for a current-generation game. Its official minimum already specifies an eight-core CPU, an RTX 2070, RX 5700 XT, or Arc A580-class GPU, 8 GB of VRAM, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD. The recommended configuration rises to a Core i7-12700 or Ryzen 7 5800X, an RTX 3080, RX 6800 XT, or Arc B580-class GPU, and 32 GB of RAM. Check the official Borderlands 4 requirements for the current wording.
Its CPU core-count requirement and VRAM specification make it valuable in a system-capacity comparison, even though it is not established as a universal path-tracing benchmark.
The hardest games on the whole PC
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: the CPU and streaming test
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the clearest answer when the question is which game can stress the entire PC rather than produce the lowest GPU frame rate. It combines world simulation, aircraft systems, scenery generation, AI and traffic, CPU workload, asset streaming, and network bandwidth.
The official Steam requirements list a minimum CPU of a Ryzen 5 2600X or Core i7-6800K, 16 GB of RAM, an RX 5700 or GTX 970, and a 10 Mbps network connection. The recommended target lists a Ryzen 7 2700X or Core i7-10700K, 32 GB of RAM, an RX 5700 XT or RTX 2080, and a 50 Mbps connection. See the official requirements.
Independent testing of 23 GPUs and four CPUs found the 2024 version more demanding than Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020; the Tom’s Hardware analysis is useful evidence that this is not simply a conventional GPU benchmark.
Monster Hunter Wilds: a lesson in internal resolution
Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the clearest examples of why output resolution and native rendering resolution must be reported separately. Its official minimum target is 1080p output reconstructed from a 720p internal resolution at 30 fps on the Lowest preset, using a GTX 1660 or RX 5500 XT, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD.
The official recommended target is 1080p/60 on Medium with Frame Generation, using an RTX 2060 Super or RX 6600, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD. Both the resolution caveat and the Frame Generation requirement are listed on the official Steam page.
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This does not automatically make it the single hardest game. It does make it an important practical stress test: a stated 1080p/60 target can involve lower base rendering resolution and generated frames. Test its CPU load, shader compilation, frame-time consistency, and combat scenes rather than reporting only the displayed FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077 without path tracing
Even without RT Overdrive, Cyberpunk 2077 can stress the CPU through crowd density, traffic, vehicles, world streaming, and dense city areas. That makes it useful for separating a GPU-limited path-tracing result from a CPU-limited open-world result.
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Official requirements: what the numbers actually indicate
The following table summarizes the official or publisher-provided targets cited above. These are not a performance ranking. Minimum specifications commonly target Low settings and 30 fps, while some recommended specifications rely on upscaling or Frame Generation.
| Game | Official minimum or baseline | Official high-end or recommended target | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 1080p/30 Low non-RT: GTX 1060 6 GB, RX 580 8 GB, or Arc A380; 12 GB RAM; 70 GB SSD. | 4K/60 RT Overdrive: RTX 4080, 24 GB RAM, 70 GB NVMe; measured with DLSS Frame Generation. | One of the strongest pure visual tests, but the official 4K/60 target is not native-rendered 4K/60. |
| Alan Wake 2 | SSD required; PC download listed at 86 GB; full RT requires a DX12 GPU with hardware-accelerated DXR. | Remedy recommends RTX 40-series hardware and DLSS 3.5 for full path tracing; later updates added Ultra RT, RTX Mega Geometry, and DLSS 4 features. | Use the post-2025 PC version when comparing results. |
| Black Myth: Wukong | NVIDIA’s full-RT table lists RTX 3060 for 1080p/30 Low RT, 16 GB RAM, and 8 GB VRAM. | NVIDIA lists RTX 4080 Super for 2160p/60 High full RT, 16 GB VRAM, and 32 GB RAM. | Keep raster and full-RT classifications separate; vendor scaling changes substantially. |
| Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | 1080p native: RTX 2060 Super, RX 6600, or Arc A580; 16 GB RAM; SSD; hardware RT required. | 4K native Ultra: RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XT; 32 GB RAM; 126 GB plus DLC storage. | A clear example of mandatory RT and a genuinely native 4K official target. |
| DOOM: The Dark Ages | 1080p/60 Low: 8 GB RT-capable GPU; 16 GB RAM; 100 GB available on a 512 GB-or-larger NVMe SSD. | 4K/60 Ultra: 16 GB RT-capable GPU; 32 GB RAM. | Its minimum is unusually demanding because hardware RT and a 60-fps target are baseline requirements. |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 | Ryzen 5 2600X/Core i7-6800K; 16 GB RAM; RX 5700/GTX 970; 10 Mbps network. | Ryzen 7 2700X/Core i7-10700K; 32 GB RAM; RX 5700 XT/RTX 2080; 50 Mbps network. | CPU, simulation, bandwidth, and streaming matter as much as GPU rendering. |
| Monster Hunter Wilds | 1080p output from 720p internal resolution, 30 fps, Lowest; GTX 1660/RX 5500 XT; 16 GB RAM; SSD. | 1080p/60 Medium with Frame Generation; RTX 2060 Super/RX 6600; 16 GB RAM; SSD. | The official target demonstrates why output resolution and base rendering must be reported separately. |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 | 1080p/30 Low: GTX 1060/RX 580/Arc A750; 16 GB dual-channel RAM; SSD. | 1440p/60 High: RTX 3070 Ti/4070 or RX 6800 XT; 32 GB RAM; SSD. | Test traversal and 1% lows, not only a static average FPS result. |
| Star Wars Outlaws | 1080p/30 Low with Quality upscaler: GTX 1660/RX 5600 XT/Arc A750; 16 GB RAM; SSD. | 1080p/60 High with Quality upscaler: RTX 3060 Ti/RX 6700 XT; 16 GB RAM; SSD. | Both official targets rely on upscaling, so neither is a native-1080p claim. |
| Assassin’s Creed Shadows | GTX 1650/RX 5500 XT/Arc A380; 16 GB RAM; 115 GB SSD. | RTX 3060 Ti/RX 6700 XT/Arc B580; 16 GB RAM. | A mixed test of RT, geometry, foliage, weather, and open-world streaming. |
| Oblivion Remastered | RX 5700/GTX 1070 Ti; 16 GB RAM; 125 GB SSD. | RX 6800 XT/RTX 2080; 32 GB RAM; 125 GB SSD. | High RAM, GPU, and storage requirements do not automatically mean path tracing. |
| Crimson Desert | GTX 1060/RX 5500 XT; 16 GB RAM; 150 GB SSD. | RTX 2080/RX 6700 XT; 16 GB RAM; 150 GB SSD. | A current 2026 contender, but strong ranking claims require independent multi-GPU testing. |
| Borderlands 4 | Eight-core CPU; RTX 2070/RX 5700 XT/Arc A580; 8 GB VRAM; 16 GB RAM; SSD. | Core i7-12700/Ryzen 7 5800X; RTX 3080/RX 6800 XT/Arc B580; 32 GB RAM. | A demanding current baseline, particularly for CPU core count, VRAM, and system RAM. |
Which games require hardware ray tracing?
Important: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and DOOM: The Dark Ages require a hardware-RT-capable GPU. Older GTX 10-series, GTX 16-series, and other non-RT cards are not merely slower in these games; they may be outside the supported PC baseline.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle lists the RTX 2060 Super, RX 6600, and Arc A580 classes at its 1080p native baseline. DOOM: The Dark Ages lists an 8 GB RT-capable GPU for 1080p/60 Low. Refer to the respective Indiana Jones requirements and DOOM requirements rather than assuming a non-RT card will work because it meets some other game’s minimum.
Mandatory RT also does not mean that every scene uses path tracing. It means the game’s supported rendering baseline depends on RT hardware. A benchmark must still name the particular RT or path-tracing mode.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How frame generation changes the answer
Frame rates reported by modern games can describe three different things:
- Base-rendered FPS: frames rendered from new game inputs by the conventional game-rendering pipeline.
- Upscaled FPS: output reconstructed from a lower internal resolution using DLSS, FSR, XeSS, TSR, or another technique.
- Generated FPS: additional intermediate frames created between traditionally rendered frames.
A statement such as an RTX 4060 runs a game at 120 fps is incomplete unless it says which upscaler, resolution, preset, and Frame Generation mode were used, and whether 120 fps is an average or a base-rendered result.
Frame Generation can improve displayed smoothness, but it does not erase the latency and frame-pacing characteristics of a low base rate. For that reason, a practical test should report the base-rendered rate before generated frames. This is especially important in Cyberpunk 2077, whose official RT Overdrive 4K/60 target used DLSS Frame Generation, and Monster Hunter Wilds, whose official recommended 1080p/60 target assumes Frame Generation.
Alan Wake 2 also illustrates why patch dates matter: its 2025 PC update added DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation, with the highest generated-frame claims applying to supported RTX 50-series hardware. See Remedy’s official update announcement.
Which game is hardest at native 4K?
There is no defensible universal winner without one controlled test suite using the same patch, driver, GPU, preset, and definition of maximum settings. At native 3840×2160 with maximum ray tracing or path tracing and no upscaling, the principal contenders are Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Black Myth: Wukong, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
The qualifications are significant:
- Cyberpunk 2077 has an official 4K/60 RT Overdrive target, but the measurement used Frame Generation.
- Indiana Jones explicitly labels its Ultra target as native 4K and lists an RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XT.
- NVIDIA’s Black Myth: Wukong table lists an RTX 4080 Super for 2160p/60 High full RT, but independent results show large vendor differences.
- Alan Wake 2 can change category depending on whether the current Ultra RT and updated DLSS features are used.
Do not put native 4K, 4K output from a lower internal resolution, dynamic resolution, and generated 4K output in one ranking column.
Which games favor Nvidia, AMD, or Intel?
There is no permanent vendor winner across all games. The rendering API, RT implementation, upscaler, driver, VRAM capacity, and game patch can change the balance.
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- Black Myth: Wukong: independent testing found a strong Nvidia advantage in maximum full RT, while rasterized results showed a different balance. This is one of the clearest examples of why RT and raster performance must be reported separately. See Tom’s Hardware’s analysis.
- Alan Wake 2: hardware-accelerated DXR is supported broadly, but Remedy recommends RTX 40-series hardware and DLSS 3.5 for full path tracing. That is an official recommendation, not proof that other vendors cannot run the mode.
- Indiana Jones: its minimum and high-end specifications list Nvidia, AMD, and Intel GPU options, but hardware RT and adequate VRAM remain baseline requirements.
- DOOM: The Dark Ages: Bethesda officially specifies Nvidia and AMD RT-capable GPUs. Intel support should be treated cautiously because Bethesda has described Intel GPUs as not officially supported in an update notice, even though some Intel cards may run with specific drivers.
When comparing vendors, use the same resolution, preset, RT state, upscaler, Frame Generation state, and driver age. A result from one game cannot establish a universal architecture ranking.
Choosing games for your GPU class
System requirements are starting points, not performance guarantees. The following guide is deliberately conservative.
| Your hardware situation | Good tests | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Non-RT GPU, such as an older GTX card | Non-RT Cyberpunk 2077, rasterized Black Myth: Wukong where supported, and lower-demand settings in open-world games. | Avoid treating Indiana Jones or DOOM: The Dark Ages as ordinary settings challenges; their hardware RT requirement may make the GPU unsupported. |
| Entry-level 8 GB RT GPU | Indiana Jones at its official 1080p baseline, DOOM at its 1080p/60 Low baseline, or Black Myth: Wukong at the lower full-RT target. | These are official floors. Upscaling, reduced settings, and careful VRAM management may be necessary, and a minimum target is not a high-refresh guarantee. |
| Mainstream modern GPU with 8–12 GB VRAM | Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Monster Hunter Wilds, and rasterized S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. | 1080p or 1440p with upscaling is more realistic than native 4K. Watch 1% lows, VRAM use, and whether the official target assumes Frame Generation. |
| High-end GPU with 16 GB or more VRAM and 32 GB system RAM | Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, Indiana Jones, and DOOM with demanding RT modes. | 1440p high-quality RT is a practical target for some configurations; 4K maximum is generally a technology showcase and may still benefit from upscaling. |
| Enthusiast 4K system | Native 4K tests in Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, and full RT Black Myth: Wukong. | Compare native and reconstructed modes separately. Even very high-end hardware does not make path tracing equivalent to conventional raster rendering. |
How to benchmark your own PC properly
- Update the game and GPU driver. Record the game version, patch date, driver version, and Windows version.
- Restart the PC. Close browsers, launchers, recording software, overlays, and background downloads that could affect CPU, RAM, or storage activity.
- Record the hardware. Note the CPU, GPU, VRAM, system RAM, storage device, and monitor resolution or refresh rate.
- Choose one repeatable test. Use a built-in benchmark when the game provides a useful one; otherwise use the same route, save, flight plan, city section, or combat encounter each time.
- Start with a baseline. Use 1440p, High, no Frame Generation, and RT off unless the game requires RT. If upscaling is enabled, name the technology and Quality, Balanced, or Performance mode.
- Test maximum raster separately. Use 4K Ultra or Cinematic with RT off where possible. This isolates conventional GPU and shader load.
- Test maximum RT separately. Enable the highest RT or path-tracing mode and record whether rendering is native or reconstructed.
- Run each test at least three times. Allow shader compilation and asset caches to settle, but record first-run stutter if it is part of the real user experience.
- Measure more than average FPS. Record average FPS, 1% low, and ideally 0.1% low. Include a frame-time graph because a stable 45 fps and a 60 fps average with repeated stalls do not feel the same.
- Monitor the bottleneck. Track GPU utilization, VRAM, system RAM, CPU utilization by core, temperatures, clock speeds, and storage activity. Low GPU utilization with one CPU core saturated usually indicates a CPU or engine limit.
- Repeat with practical settings. Test High or Ultra at the resolution you actually use, with Quality or Balanced upscaling and Frame Generation as a separate optional pass.
For a shared GPU comparison, a useful matrix is:
- Baseline: 1440p High, RT off unless mandatory, no Frame Generation.
- Maximum raster: 4K Ultra or Cinematic, RT off, native where practical.
- Maximum RT: 4K, highest RT/path tracing, native and upscaled results in separate columns.
- Practical play: 1440p High or Ultra, Quality/Balanced upscaling, Frame Generation reported separately, and a target of 60 or 120 fps.
A shared benchmark suite is more useful than a universal listicle ranking. Tom’s Hardware’s current GPU hierarchy includes Black Myth: Wukong, Alan Wake 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Cyberpunk 2077 as representative modern workloads. That demonstrates which games are useful tests, but it does not prove that one is universally hardest.
Recommended settings by target
For 1080p/60
Begin with High settings rather than automatically selecting Ultra. Use Quality upscaling where the game’s official target already assumes it, enable RT selectively, and disable Frame Generation until the base frame rate is healthy. For mandatory-RT games, confirm that the GPU is officially supported before troubleshooting image-quality settings.
The Tool Desk
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High or Ultra with Quality or Balanced upscaling is a reasonable practical starting point. Watch VRAM and 1% lows in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and open-world titles. Frame Generation can be useful, but report the base-rendered rate and do not use the generated total as the only measure of responsiveness.
For 4K/60
A high-end GPU is appropriate, but native 4K, full RT, and path tracing are separate ambitions. Quality or Balanced reconstruction is often the practical compromise, particularly for Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, and Black Myth: Wukong. Check whether an official 4K target is native or uses Frame Generation before comparing it with another game.
For 4K maximum
Consider this a technology showcase rather than a normal gaming setting. Use it to compare GPUs, RT implementations, reconstruction quality, VRAM behavior, and frame-time consistency. A displayed 60 or 120 fps that depends heavily on generated frames should not be described as equivalent to 60 or 120 traditionally rendered frames.
Final verdict by use case
- Best overall visual stress test: Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive, with native and DLSS-assisted results reported separately.
- Best path-traced horror and atmosphere test: Alan Wake 2 with its current Ultra/full-RT configuration.
- Best Unreal Engine 5 stress test: Black Myth: Wukong at Cinematic or maximum full RT, with the GPU vendor identified.
- Best mandatory-RT adventure: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
- Best mandatory-RT high-frame-rate shooter: DOOM: The Dark Ages.
- Best CPU and streaming test: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
- Best example of frame-generation-dependent requirements: Monster Hunter Wilds.
- Best current open-world stress candidates: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Star Wars Outlaws.
The most useful answer is therefore not one winner. Choose Cyberpunk 2077 or Alan Wake 2 to load the GPU with path tracing, Indiana Jones or DOOM to test mandatory RT hardware, and Flight Simulator 2024 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 to expose CPU, streaming, and frame-time weaknesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the single most demanding PC game?
There is no universal answer because the result changes with resolution, ray tracing, path tracing, GPU vendor, game patch, and whether upscaling or Frame Generation is enabled. Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive and Alan Wake 2 full ray tracing are the strongest pure-GPU candidates, while Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the more demanding whole-system test.
Can a non-ray-tracing GPU run Indiana Jones and the Great Circle or DOOM: The Dark Ages?
Both games require hardware ray tracing at their minimum PC baselines. A GTX 10-series, GTX 16-series, or other non-RT GPU may therefore be unsupported rather than merely slower. Check the current official requirements before buying or troubleshooting.
Does Frame Generation count as real FPS?
It counts as displayed output, but it is not the same as base-rendered FPS. A proper benchmark reports the traditionally rendered base rate, the upscaler and internal resolution, and the generated total separately. Generated frames do not remove the latency or frame-pacing characteristics of a low base rate.
Which game is best for testing a CPU rather than a GPU?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the clearest choice because it combines simulation, aircraft systems, world streaming, AI, scenery, and network-delivered data. Cyberpunk 2077 with high crowd density and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 traversal are also useful CPU and frame-time tests.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsIs 4K output the same as native 4K?
No. Native 4K renders at 3840×2160 internally, while upscaled 4K reconstructs that output from a lower resolution. Monster Hunter Wilds officially lists 1080p output from a 720p internal resolution at its minimum target, while Indiana Jones explicitly labels its Ultra target native 4K.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Use Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive or Alan Wake 2 full ray tracing for the most punishing visual GPU tests; Black Myth: Wukong for an especially vendor-sensitive Unreal Engine 5 test; Indiana Jones and DOOM: The Dark Ages for mandatory hardware RT; and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 for CPU, simulation, and streaming load. Always report native versus upscaled resolution, Frame Generation, average FPS, 1% lows, and the exact patch before calling one game the hardest to run.
Quick Recap
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