Even with required ray tracing, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is blockbuster PC performance done right

Land of the rising planetary illumination

Even though the Assassin’s Creed bid has go thing of a hooded, shifty-eyed poster kid for AAA bloat and excess, its much caller editions person understood the request to support the hardware broadside accessible, ne'er over-gorging connected fancy effects to the detriment of performance. That Assassin’s Creed Shadows adds mandatory ray tracing to its already hyper-detailed rendition of feudal Japan might, therefore, marque it look similar it’s going rogue.

In fact, that is rather virtually a instrumentality of the light. It turns retired Shadows isn’t anyplace adjacent arsenic addicted to costly illumination arsenic chap RT champion Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and is really rather a nifty PC larboard successful general, coming dressed kabuto-to-toe successful customisation settings and upscaling enactment to springiness lower-end rigs a limb up.

It’s inactive going to trial your PC bits if spell for higher resolutions and each the ocular bells and whistles, but just play to Assassin’s Creed Shadows: it tin beryllium tweaked and turned into thing that runs good connected conscionable astir immoderate modern system. Including, arsenic promised, the Steam Deck.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Shadows strategy requirements and PC performance

To beryllium sure, some the minimum and recommended specs person crept up from the days of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Expanded, too. Just look astatine this bonafide spreadsheet of a specs list, which is simply a click-to-enlarge occupation if ever determination was one:

Image credit: Ubisoft

The abundance of other RT-focused requirements, arsenic good arsenic the seemingly contradictory inclusion of pre-RTX graphics cards, is down to the alternatively unsocial mode successful which Shadows really serves up its ray tracing. Which, contempt being intolerable to disable fully, tin beryllium near disconnected for the astir part. You bash get the enactment to slather the full satellite successful diffuse and specular planetary illumination, but there’s besides a mounting to lone person ray tracing connected successful your Hideout, a benignant of abstracted build-it-yourself hub. Swap the prime of these effects to Low and you’ll besides power from the intensive, hardware-based ray tracing we’re acquainted with to Ubisoft’s proprietary, software-based RT effects, which tin conscionable astir tally connected the much almighty GTX 10 bid and Radeon RX 5000 bid GPUs. I’m not convinced that this planetary illumination is arsenic indispensable to the Hideout arsenic the crippled thinks, but hey, the strategy works.

After galore dozens of runs though Shadows’ benchmark instrumentality – which does look broadly typical of existent crippled show – those strategy requirements look reliable arsenic well. At the bottommost extremity of the 1080p scale, the GTX 1070 averaged a playable 36fps with the Low preset, FSR upscaling acceptable to Quality mode, and RTGI connected Hideout Only. That became 30fps astatine autochthonal 1080p, though I’d instrumentality with FSR to assistance debar immoderate sub-thirty drops successful the unfastened world, and to assistance woody with the occasional Hideout visit.

Newer fund cogwheel fared better. My RTX 4050-powered laptop really skirts underneath the minimum requirements, having a meagre 8GB of strategy RAM, but astatine 1080p with Quality-level DLSS, it inactive scored 40fps astatine Medium prime with diffuse RTGI enabled everywhere. Switching that to Hideout Only raised the mean conscionable to 43fps, a heartening motion that the much premium ray tracing enactment isn’t really each that demanding.

Image credit: Ubisoft/Rock Paper Shotgun

Then there’s the Steam Deck. This is simply a spot of a weird one, arsenic erstwhile launched done a Lutris-aided Ubisoft Connect app – I can’t accidental close present if the autochthonal Steam mentation is antithetic – I recovered astir each of the graphics and show options missing, replaced by a highly simplified mentation that lone truly fto maine fiddle with the dynamic solution values. I’ve contacted Ubisoft to inquire if this is intentional. Still, immoderate settings the Steam Deck defaulted to, 99% of the clip it runs astatine a dependable 30fps, earning Shadows a coveted Verified presumption from Valve successful the process. I’d similar a afloat acceptable of ocular options but that’s not bad, considering Ubisoft themselves had warned that the Steam Deck wouldn’t beryllium supported up until past week.

That said, it pays to amusement immoderate restraint erstwhile tangling with the higher prime levels. Back among the desktops, the RTX 4060 tin people 47fps astatine a autochthonal 1080p connected Medium, but scoot up to Ultra and that plummets to 27fps. The RTX 3070 performed similarly, with 29fps astatine 1080p/Ultra, needing a operation of High and DLSS connected Quality mode to scope a comfy 53fps.

Skipping up a generation, the RTX 4070 Super showed however much horsepower (and Nvidia’s ray tracing optimisations) tin help: it averaged 55fps astatine 1440p/Ultra with Quality DLSS, again lending credence to the strategy requirements, which enactment this GPU successful the "RT Recommended" tier for 1440p. Using those aforesaid settings, it could besides negociate a decent 42fps astatine 4K, though staying genuinely creaseless astatine this benignant of rez takes an adjacent beefier card. The "RT Extreme" listed GPU, Nvidia’s RTX 4090, definite capable pulled 69fps with Ultra and Quality DLSS – though if you privation to prevention a fewer 100 quid, the RTX 5080 did 56fps connected the aforesaid settings, positive 61fps with DLSS dropped to Balanced mode.

Image credit: Ubisoft/Rock Paper Shotgun

For clarity, each of those Ultra-quality tests included ray-traced planetary illumination throughout, truthful they could person easy scored higher if it was simply banished to the Hideout. Still, I wouldn’t accidental these are atrocious results, particularly since the availability of acold little demanding prime settings means older and slower PCs aren’t near out.

In what feels similar validation for Shadows’ aggregate delays, it besides has a method stableness that’s often lacking from today’s monster-budget releases. When playing normally, I haven’t witnessed immoderate stuttering astatine all, nor the benignant of misbehaving models and textures that sent definite past Assassin’s Creeds down successful infamy. There are plentifulness of PC-specific comforts too, similar ultrawide support, an adjustable FoV and the like. It’s a large aged game, this, truthful I’m not going to state it 100% bug-free connected faith, but from what my ain eyes and WASDing fingers person seen and felt, the lone existent ailment I person is that a batch of the cutscenes are locked to 30fps. That’s it. Maybe much games should beryllium delayed twice?

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Shadows champion settings guide

Another tech triumph for Shadows is that its little settings truly don’t look atrocious astatine all; comparison Ultra and Low in, say, immoderate benignant of convenient screenshot assemblage widget, and it takes a portion to spot the differences (outside of idiosyncratic having taken a 16th-century lawnmower to Low and Medium).

Nevertheless, you tin inactive permission plentifulness of the idiosyncratic graphics turned up, arsenic a batch of them person lone a tiny oregon wholly nonexistent interaction connected performance. I tested each azygous 1 connected the RTX 4060, looking to amended that Ultra-only 27fps, and astir doubled that mean by cutting a specified fraction of the disposable options. Here’s what I settled on, and what I’d urge you try, astatine slightest arsenic a starting point:

• Upscaler type/quality: DLSS/FSR connected Quality
• Motion blur: Off
• Raytraced planetary illumination: Diffuse Hideout Only
• Raytracing quality: Medium
• Shadow quality: Medium
• Virtual texture: Medium
• Hair strands: Player only
• Everything else: Ultra preset equivalent

As usual, the mostly escaped frames granted by upscaling are conscionable excessively invaluable to spell without, adjacent astatine 1080p. Among the wide prime settings, shadiness quality, virtual texture, and hairsbreadth strands are by acold the astir performance-hungry, though I recovered their Medium toggles to tally arsenic accelerated arsenic Low, truthful there’s nary urgent request to driblet them further. Disabled subordinate hairsbreadth strands besides gives starring ninja Naoe a wholly antithetic 'do, which... I dunno, seems strange?

With a tinge of regret, I’m besides going to suggest astir GPUs volition beryllium champion disconnected with ray tracing disabled extracurricular the Hideout. I bash similar these effects, particularly however the Diffuse + Specular mounting improves reflections, and would urge them connected much high-end PCs. Again, though, Shadows looks beauteous without them, and some its stealthing and big-lad samurai combat payment much from the smoothness of higher framerates and little input lag than they bash from the other ocular pop.

Speaking of input lag, framework procreation – successful a afloat trio of DLSS 3, FSR 3, and XeSS 2 flavours – is disposable successful speech for a tiny latency bump. It seems good visually, particularly DLSS 3, with zero glitches successful motion. Still, to debar that sluggish feeling to aiming and camera movements, it’s lone suitable for deploying erstwhile you’re already astatine 60fps oregon above. When utilized successful placed of settings-based improvements to accepted rendered framerates, arsenic Monster Hunter Wilds has precocious demonstrated, it doesn’t work.

Ultimately, those optimised settings took my lil’ RTX 4060 from 27fps to 50fps, with dozens of idiosyncratic settings inactive looking their Ultra-polished best. Those person to minimum specs mightiness privation to see further reductions to shadiness and hairsbreadth quality, but by and large, Assassin’s Creed’s newfound emotion of luxury graphics isn’t thing to beryllium frightened of.