Capcom restricts Pragmata performance reviews amid concerns over GPU VRAM usage

Capcom has produced another title that has earned high marks on Metacritic. Still, a performance-focused Pragmata review suggests some PCs may find the final version more taxing than the demo. Digital Foundry discovered that a GPU with 8GB of VRAM encountered significant frame rate drops. Oddly, the publisher also limited testers to sharing results from one graphics card.

How memory usage impacts Pragmata performance

With an RTX 5090 at 4K, Digital Foundry measured high fps, even with all settings maxed out. On a mid-range system using an RTX 4060 at 1440p, the experience starts off promising. Frame rates occasionally fell to 50 fps or below, but the problems worsen once progressing past the level in the demo.

After reaching the control center, more pronounced stuttering is obvious. Readings plummeted to well under 60 fps, and the street environment that followed posed additional challenges. Some cutscenes exhibited single-digit frame rates during the Pragmata performance review.

The site decided to tweak settings and disable the shadow cache. Immediately, the graphics became less choppy and held closer to 60 fps. The tester realized that freeing up memory on the RTX 4060 resulted in a dramatic difference. Pragmata benefits from ray tracing and strand-based hair effects, making it less desirable to sacrifice these perks.

PC gamers may learn that the option menus don’t accurately indicate memory usage. At 1440p, the RTX 4060 should run the Capcom game smoothly with DLSS in Balanced mode. Digital Foundry believes the issues reflect a VRAM limitation rather than a lack of processing power or support for Nvidia features.

Capcom's strange benchmarking conditions

This analysis included multiple GPUs, but that wasn’t the case with many Pragmata reviews. As it turns out, according to TechPowerUp, journalists can only display results for one graphics card. The writer found the restriction unusual, forcing edits after publishing.

It’s unclear if Capcom’s demand is related to subpar performance on some PCs. Websites could choose to exclusively show results from an RTX 4060 or another card with 8GB of VRAM. Regardless, after April 16th, they will be able to release more in-depth comparisons.

Some gamers worry that more titles will expose these bottlenecks. Even with the ongoing memory shortage, a rumor hinted that Nvidia could add higher-capacity GDDR7 RAM to the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti.

Notebookcheck has also posted its initial impressions of Pragmata in a YouTube short.