Focus Entertainment has just released Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 on PC. Powered by an updated version of the Swarm Engine, it’s time to benchmark it and examine its performance on the PC. So, let’s dive in.
For our benchmarks, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX580, RX Vega 64, RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, NVIDIA’s GTX980Ti, RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080 and RTX 4090. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce 560.94, and the Radeon Adrenalin Edition 24.8.1 drivers. Moreover, we’ve disabled the second CCD on our 7950X3D.
Space Marine 2 comes with a few graphics settings to tweak. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Textures Filtering, Textures, Shadows, Effects and more. The game also supports NVIDIA DLSS 2 and AMD FSR 2. And although there is no support for DLSS 3 and FSR 3.0, Saber plans to add them via a post-launch update.
Saber has not added any built-in benchmark tool in this game. As such, we used this scene for both our CPU and GPU benchmarks. This was one of the most demanding areas early in the game. Thus, it should give us a pretty good idea of how the rest of the game will run.
To see how the game runs with different types of CPUs, we simulated dual-core, quad-core, and hexa-core CPUs. And, from what we can see, Space Marine 2 benefits from the new architecture of the latest AMD Ryzen (and most likely Intel) CPUs.
Even with only two CPU cores (but with SMT, meaning that it supported four threads), the game ran with over 90fps at 1080p/Ultra. SMT/Hyper-Threading is a must for owners of such CPUs. Without it, we had MAJOR stuttering issues.
From the looks of it, the sweet CPU spot is at 6 cores. Moreover, the game will run slightly faster on high-end CPUs if you disable SMT/Hyper-Threading. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as the game mainly hammers three to four CPU threads.
At 1080p/Ultra, our top four GPUs had no trouble running the game with over 70fps. The NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti was also able to provide a smooth gaming experience.
At 1440p/Ultra, the AMD Radeon RX 6900XT, the RX 7900XTX and the NVIDIA RTX4090 were able to provide a smooth experience. Interestingly enough, although the RTX3080 is able to match the performance of the AMD RX 6900XT, at 1440p (and 4K) it’s noticeably slower.
Finally, for Native 4K/Ultra, you’ll need an NVIDIA RTX 4090. Provided you are not CPU bottlenecked, NVIDIA’s high-end GPU is able to run the game smoothly.
As I said, Space Marine 2 supports DLSS 2 and FSR 2. However, it appears that DLSS 2 has some visual issues right now. Below you can find a comparison between Native TAA, Native FSR 2 and DLAA. And, as you will see, DLAA looks blurrier than even TAA.
In my opinion, the best way to play the game right now (at least on high-end GPUs at 4K) is with Native FSR 2. For what it’s worth, we’ve already informed NVIDIA about this issue. So, hopefully, the team will work with Saber to improve the implementation of DLSS.
Graphics-wise, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 looks great. This is mainly due to the game’s huge battles and amazing art style. Space Marine 2 is one of the few titles that can push hundreds of enemies on screen. Yes, the game does not have any Ray Tracing. And yes, you’ll definitely notice some low-res textures and some SSR artifacts. The skin shaders also feel a bit dated. Still, Space Marine 2 has style, and it’s pleasing to the eye. It’s one of the few cases where art does the heavy lifting.
Before closing, I should note that the game suffers from some stutters. Although it will pre-compile shaders when you first launch it, you’ll still get minor shader compilation stutters. The good news here is that these stutters are not as frequent as those we’ve seen in other games like Dead Space Remake or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. So, most of you may not even notice them. Keyboard and mouse controls are also great here. There are no mouse acceleration or smoothing issues. I also didn’t experience any crashes.
All in all, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 can run smoothly on a wide range of GPUs at 1080p. I’ve seen reports of issues on older CPUs. However, if you own a modern CPU, most of you won’t encounter any issues. And contrary to consoles, PC gamers can get over 60fps on various PC systems. Yes, there are some stutters here and there. However, they will not ruin your experience. I’ve played over 3 hours and I’ve barely noticed them. So, in general, this is a solid PC release. As I noted, it has some issues. So, let’s hope that Saber will do something about them.
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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