Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is currently available to those who have pre-ordered the Gold or Ultra Editions. The game will become available to everyone on September 9th. So, before publishing our PC Performance Analysis, we’ve decided to test the game at Native 4K with Ultra Settings on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Can NVIDIA’s high-end GPU run it with over 60fps? Time to find out.
For these early benchmarks, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit, and the GeForce 560.94 WHQL driver. Moreover, I’ve disabled the second CCD on our 7950X3D.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 does not feature any built-in benchmark. This is a bit disappointing, as World War Z had one. For those unaware, World War Z and Space Marine 2 use the same engine. As you’ll see, though, Space Marine 2 is way more demanding than WWZ. It’s also better looking than it.
The good news here is that even during chaotic battles, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 can run the game with over 60fps at Native 4K with Ultra Settings. Space Marine 2 does not use any Ray Tracing effects. However, the game can display A LOT of enemies on screen. It also looks amazing, even though it uses rasterized techniques. The lowest I’ve seen was 64fps. That’s from a swamp area at the beginning of the first mission. In that area, our average framerate was 73fps. Since this was one of the most demanding areas, it’s the one we’ll also use for our PC Performance Analysis.
What I found interesting is the last screenshot. As we can see, that shot with all those marines is as demanding as the scene with the swarm. Saber has done a terrific job here. Yes, the game is demanding. However, the huge amount of enemies does not bring high-end PCs to the ground. So, that’s good news.
At launch, Space Marine 2 does not support NVIDIA DLSS 3 or AMD FSR 3.0. Instead, the game uses older versions of these techs. There is also no support for Frame Generation. So, that’s a bummer, especially for those who might be CPU-limited. Still, Saber has stated that it will add both of them via a post-launch update.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 cannot match the visuals of Hellblade 2 or Black Myth: Wukong. This does not make it a bad-looking game though. Don’t get me wrong. What we have here is a great-looking title. And although the Swarm Engine does not seem to be as advanced as UE5, Space Marine 2 has an incredible art style.
As said, we’ll be sure to benchmark the game with numerous AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. So, expect a PC Performance Analysis in the next couple of days. I’ve also captured a video (which will be added to the article once it’s live on YouTube). Do note that the footage was recorded with the NVIDIA App. The app brought a 5fps performance hit, so make sure to keep that in mind while watching it.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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