"God of War Ragnarök on PC: Unlocked Frame Rate, Stunning Graphics, and Technical Challenges Explained!"

I have lost Kratos and Atreus. The new God of War games have become one of my favorite series, and this week Ragnarok launched in full race mode on PC.

We’ve plowed through the first 15 hours looking for technical hiccups and excitement, and luckily the whole world is nowhere to be found.

The game has received a lot of negative feedback on Steam, but this is mainly due to the same problem that Sony has had since Helldivers II – which is that you need a Sony account on PC.

For us here in Norway, that’s not a problem, and you only need to log in once to access achievements and the PlayStation trophy.

Nothing to stress about, that is.

Best on PC – of course

Higher resolution, unlocked frame rate, support for ultra-wide aspect ratios and several new graphics options are among the attractions for the PC version.

Visually, it is more beautiful than the PlayStation 5 version, but mainly the points above are what make this the best version of the game. I suspect that Sony is slowing down a bit to make room for the PS5 Pro upgrade in due course.

You get – like on PS5 – a bunch of different ways to customize the game through the menu, and also the ability to change down how often your companions come with hints if you’re slow in solving puzzles .

Jetpack Interactive is behind the PC version. They also made the PC version of the first God of War game in the new series, which was absolutely brilliant.

God of War Ragnarök is no exception.

Get it wrong

The optimization work in the game is impressive.

There have been some reports that it is not possible to start the game if you have a graphics card with less than 6 GB of video memory, but older cards can still run it with a little tweaking of the settings and modification.

So far there are also a few articles on social media about problems with performance.

I have gone through the first part of the game, and I have reached the end of Vanaheim. On the road, I mostly used an Nvidia RTX 4090.

The only technical problems I’ve come across are that the visuals don’t look particularly good in anything but 4K and some stuttering in a few places if the game runs for a bit hours.

He is sincere.

The 4090 always delivers over a very high frame rate in 4K:

RTX 4090 (Ultra)	Average FPS	1% minimum FPS average
3840×2160 (4K)	104	87
Pictures size 2560×1440	150	119
1920×1080 pictures	175	138

These measurements were taken in Svartalvheim, which are very representative of the first 10-15 hours.

The exception is the area around Yggdrasil, where the frame rate can drop to 50-60 in 4K. I guess I’ll be hooked after a couple of updates.

A beautiful game

There are several snacks on the graphic menu to play with. Ray tracing and a slider for viewing angle are missing, but otherwise have most of what you need.

It’s been almost two years since God of War Ragnarok came out. Although the graphics are not quite typical 2024 on PC, it is a beautiful game.

I usually recommend a set of settings that you should turn down to get a little more performance without sacrificing visual quality in particular, but the differences are both in terms of appearance and performance very little.

It’s a bit difficult for those with powerful video cards, but a boon for those with more affordable cards.

The video card is going to bottle up almost whatever you have in the machine, and then it’s okay that the low settings aren’t very 2008.

RTX 4090 (4K)	Average FPS	1% minimum FPS average
Ultra	104	87
Ultra Quality + DLSS	140	114
Ultra Quality + DLSS + Frame Generation	164	145
High	114	95
Medium	130	109
Low	161	131

You have to pay close attention to notice any visual difference between High and Ultra. The golden hair range here is high.

Shadow quality, model quality and shadows seem to make the most of the frame rate among the settings from High to Ultra, so you can start turning them down if you want to keep ultra as much possible and still increase the frame rate a little.

The differences between ultra and low are sometimes very small. Here the picture looks very similar, and only 15 FPS separates the two.

The options that require the most will vary slightly depending on the area in which you are located.

For example, Nivlheim has a bit more smoke and fog than other areas, which means that the “atmosphere” conditions are more challenging there.

Old stakes were kept standing

The RTX 3060 is still the most popular video card according to Steam’s own statistics, and is more than powerful enough to play God of War at higher setting levels:

RTX 3060 (Ultra)	Average FPS	1% minimum FPS average
3840×2160 (4K)	24	20
4K, Balanced DLSS	39	32
Pictures size 2560×1440	38	31
2560×1440, DLSS balanced	56	45
1920×1080 pictures	51	40
1920×1080, DLSS balanced	66	52

Turn down the settings a bit, and you’ll be well over 60 frames per second throughout the game​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Frame generation actually increases the frame rate significantly if you have a graphics card from the latest generation, but Nvidia users will have to stick with AMD’s frame generation here for now.

Decision

I’m totally hooked on God of War Ragnarök, even though it’s been almost a year since I last played through it on PS5.

There’s a huge benefit to having an unlocked frame rate in action games like this, and it’s something completely different to experience the rich nines in 100-150 FPS in 4K than it was in 60 FPS and 1440p on PS5.

I wish the developers had done a little more to improve the graphic quality, but Ragnarök is still a beautiful adventure.

This is one of the best action RPGs ever made, and this is the best version of the game.

So what are you waiting for?