A GeForce RTX 3080 for 1080p raytracing: eyebrow-raising Dying Light 2 specs hint at possible optimization issues

Techland recently released minimum and recommended system specifications for Dying Light 2. The minimum specifications are reasonable and, indeed, lower than many 2021 AAA games like Deathloop. For a 1080p/30 FPS experience, Dying Light 2 calls for a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or RX 560, paired with a Ryzen 3 2300X or i3-9100. At 1080p/60 FPS we're still just looking at the GeForce RTX 2060 or Vega 56 as the suggested card. 

If you're planning on setting ray-tracing to "high," however, Techland suggests that you'll need the GeForce RTX 3080, again at just 1080p. This sounds unusually strict, even for a game that makes extensive use of RTX effects. 

The game's RTX reveal trailer indicated that Techland would be making use of a whole host of RTX effects, from ray-traced global illumination and shadows to reflections. Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro: Exodus come to mind as two games that make similarly extensive use of ray-tracing in an open world setting. Even these, however, have no trouble handing in 60 FPS or higher at 1080p. 

It is possible that this could just be the result of poor marketing communication. The spec sheet makes no reference to Techland's 4K ray-tracing recommendations, nor does it talk about NVIDIA DLSS. Dying Light 2 is confirmed to use DLSS 2.3 upscaling.

With DLSS Performance Mode enabled, where games upscale a 1080p image to 4K, the GeForce RTX 3080 usually has enough headroom to deliver a playable 4K/60 FPS experience with RTX effects enabled across most AAA games. It'll be interesting to see if the same holds true for Dying Light 2 or if it'll turn out to be the most demanding ray-traced game yet. 

Check out Dying Light 2 for the Xbox Series X/S here on Amazon.