Ember Lab has just released Kena: Bridge of Spirits on PC. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, this game looks absolutely glorious on the PC. However, it’s also a really demanding game as an NVIDIA RTX3080 cannot run it with 60fps in 4K/Ultra.
As always, and before publishing our PC Performance Analysis, we’ve decided to capture some 4K/Ultra screenshots. In order to capture these screenshots, we used an Intel i9 9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at 3600Mhz and NVIDIA’s RTX 3080. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce 472.12 driver. Additionally, we’ve included MSI Afterburner which will give you an idea of the in-game performance.
Now let’s start with some good news. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is one of the most beautiful games we’ve seen on PC. It’s definitely a showcase of what Unreal Engine 4 can achieve. Keep also in mind that Ember Lab is a small studio. It’s not as big as, let’s say, 343 Industries, Rockstar, or Ubisoft (to name a few). And yet, Ember Lab has managed to create one of the best-looking games on PC. And for that, we have to congratulate it.
As you can see, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX3080 has trouble running the game in 4K/Ultra. In DX12, there are numerous drops to mid-50s, and some fewer drops to 49-50fps. This game really needs a high-end GPU for gaming at 4K/Ultra.
Unfortunately, and despite using Unreal Engine 4, Kena does not support DLSS. We strongly believe that this game would benefit from NVIDIA’s tech, so here is hoping that Ember Lab will add support for it via a post-launch update.
Our PC Performance Analysis for this game will go live later this week, so stay tuned for more!
UPDATE
We’ve decided to slightly change the title. The aforementioned tests and screenshots were in DX12. However, DX11 appears to be running by 10fps faster in 4K/Ultra. There are still some drops below 60fps, however, there aren’t any drops to the low-50s anymore. Unfortunately, though, frametimes are better in DX12 than in DX11. In DX11 we noticed some additional micro-stutters. So while framerates are better in DX11, the overall experience is smoother in DX12.
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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