God of War Ragnarök review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

The Return of Kratos.

Almost three years after its predecessor, God of War Ragnarök is set to be released for PC. While many gamers are frustrated by the PSN requirement, the technology and system requirements are quite impressive. We have created numerous benchmarks for this review.

Florian Glaser, 👁 Florian Glaser (translated by Carmen Pol), Published 09/23/2024 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 ...

Test systems

be quiet! Silent Base 802 (RTX 4080 & RX 7900 XT)

We ran our gaming benchmarks on these devices. Clicking on the various images will take you to the respective producer's website. Further details on the devices' specifications are listed at the end of the article.

Tech

In contrast to the 2022 release of God of War, which has an overall rating of "Extremely good" on Steam, the sequel currently holds a "Mixed" rating. The main reason for this is the requirement for a PlayStation Network account, which many find frustrating for a single-player title on PC.

God of War Ragnarök delivers a high-quality gameplay experience. The same can be said for the graphics; just like its predecessor, the developers have created atmospheric and detailed landscapes that come to life on screen. Players will also find plenty of options in the settings menu. In the display section of the graphics tab, users can change the aspect ratio, enable or disable V-Sync, set a frame rate limit, and adjust latency reduction, as well as activate or deactivate Frame Generation. Additionally, the picture mode offers only the native resolution without upscaling in full screen.

We continue with the modern scaling features. God of War Ragnarök supports the full range of DLSS, FSR, and XeSS across several quality levels. There are also four presets that affect nearly ten settings. A VRAM usage display can assist in finding the optimal level. The remaining options primarily relate to the camera and are thus less relevant for graphics enthusiasts.

Top: All customizations are applied without the need for a restart. The shader compiling process, familiar from many games, takes between a few seconds and a few minutes on the initial launch, depending on the system or graphics card. The loading times are also reasonable. However, the game's size is quite substantial. While the download is around 100 GB, it requires more than 170 GB on the storage device. We did not encounter any crashes or graphics errors during our testing.

Benchmark

For the benchmarks, we focus on the very beginning of the game, where the two main characters travel through a snowy landscape on a dog sled (see video). The CapFrameX tool is utilized to record the frame rate for just under a minute. Based on our experience, the game can be enjoyed adequately at an average frame rate of 40 FPS.

▶ load Youtube video

Results

FHD (1,920 x 1,080)

Intel graphics chips currently do not seem to perform well with God of War Ragnarök. The iGPU Arc 8, which typically matches or even outperforms the Radeon 780M, struggles significantly in this case and cannot run the game smoothly at any resolution or settings. With a Radeon 780M, you can achieve at least 1,280 x 720 pixels at the Low preset (approximately 35 FPS). For Full HD gaming, a dedicated mid-range GPU is recommended. The GeForce RTX 4050 can handle 1,920 x 1,080 pixels at the Ultra preset with more than 60 FPS, indicating moderate system requirements.

God of War Ragnarök
1920x1080 Low Preset AA:T 1920x1080 Medium Preset AA:T 1920x1080 High Preset AA:T 1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:T
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	294 (208^min, 231^P0.1, 251^P1) fps ∼100% 260 (178.2^min, 209^P0.1, 225^P1) fps ∼100% 230 (176.9^min, 192.2^P0.1, 205^P1) fps ∼100% 214 (167.9^min, 179.4^P0.1, 189.5^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	225 (139.3^min, 163.8^P0.1, 179^P1) fps ∼77% 219 (135.7^min, 159.3^P0.1, 172.7^P1) fps ∼84% 195.7 (132.7^min, 142.8^P0.1, 157.3^P1) fps ∼85% 182.9 (117.7^min, 127.5^P0.1, 147.4^P1) fps ∼85%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 16 E23	225 (50^min, 156^P0.1, 181.3^P1) fps ∼77% 201 (138^min, 154^P0.1, 167.7^P1) fps ∼77% 177.7 (105.3^min, 139.4^P0.1, 152.4^P1) fps ∼77% 163.3 (116.1^min, 131.4^P0.1, 141.5^P1) fps ∼76%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	180.1 (45.1^min, 114.6^P0.1, 141.1^P1) fps ∼61% 153.1 (66.7^min, 105.1^P0.1, 124^P1) fps ∼59% 140.4 (59.7^min, 88.7^P0.1, 113.3^P1) fps ∼61% 126.8 (74.9^min, 88.9^P0.1, 103.9^P1) fps ∼59%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	147.7 (96.2^min, 108.4^P0.1, 122.7^P1) fps ∼50% 123 (95^min, 100.1^P0.1, 106.9^P1) fps ∼47% 110.9 (84.4^min, 91.4^P0.1, 96.9^P1) fps ∼48% 101.1 (82.8^min, 85.7^P0.1, 89.8^P1) fps ∼47%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	118.7 (77.6^min, 96.8^P0.1, 104.2^P1) fps ∼40% 97 (79.1^min, 83.3^P0.1, 87.2^P1) fps ∼37% 85 (73.8^min, 75.5^P0.1, 78.1^P1) fps ∼37% 78.9 (66.5^min, 69^P0.1, 71.4^P1) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	83.8 (46.4^min, 49.6^P0.1, 58.8^P1) fps ∼29% 82.3 (47.3^min, 52^P0.1, 57.2^P1) fps ∼32% 72.7 (37.4^min, 46.3^P0.1, 52.7^P1) fps ∼32% 67.2 (40.2^min, 42.5^P0.1, 50.1^P1) fps ∼31%
AMD Radeon 780M, Z1 Extreme Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme	25.4 (10.4^min, 11.9^P0.1, 21.2^P1) fps ∼9% 25.2 (13.4^min, 14.1^P0.1, 21.3^P1) fps ∼10% 21.6 (12.3^min, 16.1^P0.1, 18.5^P1) fps ∼9% 19.1 (5.31^min, 10.3^P0.1, 15.8^P1) fps ∼9%
Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU, Ultra 7 155H Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14	10.6 (7.47^min, 7.47^P0.1, 7.7^P1) fps ∼4% 10.4 (7.69^min, 7.76^P0.1, 7.86^P1) fps ∼4% 10.1 (7.34^min, 7.4^P0.1, 7.53^P1) fps ∼4% 10 (6.78^min, 6.8^P0.1, 6.95^P1) fps ∼5%

QHD (2,560 x 1,440)

Even in the QHD range, a high-end graphics card is not necessary. The aforementioned GeForce RTX 4050 exceeds the 40 FPS mark while running at 2,560 x 1,440 pixels with maximum details.

God of War Ragnarök
2560x1440 Ultra Preset AA:T 2560x1440 Ultra Preset + Quality DLSS 2560x1440 Ultra Preset + Quality FSR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	166.4 (141.7^min, 146^P0.1, 152.3^P1) fps ∼100% 216 (161.8^min, 179.2^P0.1, 192.1^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	140.1 (106.3^min, 112.2^P0.1, 119.4^P1) fps ∼84% 177.9 (126.3^min, 133.7^P0.1, 146.4^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 16 E23	123.1 (79.1^min, 97.7^P0.1, 108.3^P1) fps ∼74% 166 (112.6^min, 128.3^P0.1, 144^P1) fps ∼77%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	94.8 (50.5^min, 66.4^P0.1, 79.9^P1) fps ∼57% 129.7 (67.1^min, 86.5^P0.1, 106.1^P1) fps ∼60%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	74 (57^min, 62.5^P0.1, 66.5^P1) fps ∼44% 102.5 (83.4^min, 84.8^P0.1, 90.6^P1) fps ∼47%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	58 (51.8^min, 53.1^P0.1, 54^P1) fps ∼35% 80.2 (65.6^min, 71.1^P0.1, 73.5^P1) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	49 (31.8^min, 34^P0.1, 37^P1) fps ∼29% 68.4 (43.6^min, 44.9^P0.1, 49.5^P1) fps ∼32%

UHD (3,840 x 2,160)

As is often the case, 4K screens can be quite demanding. For 3,840 x 2,160 pixels (without upscaling) at the Ultra preset, we recommend at least a GeForce RTX 4070. However, if you enable DLSS in Quality mode, an RTX 4050 will be sufficient.

God of War Ragnarök
3840x2160 Ultra Preset AA:T 3840x2160 Ultra Preset + Quality DLSS 3840x2160 Ultra Preset + Quality FSR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	100.8 (77.6^min, 89.2^P0.1, 94^P1) fps ∼100% 146.5 (120.6^min, 129.1^P0.1, 134.5^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	86.1 (51.4^min, 74.2^P0.1, 77.5^P1) fps ∼85% 117.4 (91.9^min, 96.5^P0.1, 101.8^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 16 E23	73.5 (55.8^min, 63.5^P0.1, 67.5^P1) fps ∼73% 109.6 (67.3^min, 93.4^P0.1, 99.4^P1) fps ∼75%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	56.2 (41.6^min, 46.5^P0.1, 50.3^P1) fps ∼56% 83.7 (21.4^min, 52.8^P0.1, 71.8^P1) fps ∼57%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	43 (38.2^min, 38.3^P0.1, 39.9^P1) fps ∼43% 63.3 (53.1^min, 54.6^P0.1, 57.6^P1) fps ∼43%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	33.9 (30.9^min, 31^P0.1, 31.7^P1) fps ∼34% 50.5 (45^min, 45.3^P0.1, 47.2^P1) fps ∼34%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	21.2 (16^min, 17.5^P0.1, 18.3^P1) fps ∼21% 41.3 (29.6^min, 30.3^P0.1, 32.3^P1) fps ∼28%

Overview

Test system details

Laptop	Graphics card	Processor	RAM
XMG Neo 16 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @175 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 @175 W TGP (12 GB GDDR6X)	Intel Core i9-13950HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
XMG Pro 15 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS	2 x 8 GB DDR5
Medion Erazer Scout E20	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 @100 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-13700H	2 x 8 GB DDR5
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14	Intel Arc 8	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H	2 x 16 GB LPDDR5-7467
Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme	AMD Radeon 780M	AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme	16 GB LPDDR5-6400

Tower PC	Graphics card	Processor	RAM
Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB GDDR6X) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-13900K	2 x 24 GB DDR5 G.Skill

4K monitor	Operating system	Nvidia driver	AMD driver	Intel driver
Philips Evnia 329M1RV	Windows 11	561.09	24.8.1	101.6078

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 663 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2009

I discovered my interest in computers in my childhood, growing up with MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s. I was especially fascinated with computer games, even from an early age. From Monkey Island through Lands of Lore to Doom, I tried every game I could get my hands on. I have been working for Notebookcheck since 2009 with my focus mostly being on high-performance gaming laptops.

Translator: Carmen Pol - Translator - 783 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2023

Having spent the greater part of my early years in Germany facilitated my upbringing as a bilingual kid. In 2007, I found myself having to reinstall my Windows weekly ... So, one day I bought a MacBook Black. It was during this period that I developed a profound appreciation for technology, which significantly improved my life.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > God of War Ragnarök review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2024-09-23 (Update: 2024-09-23)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > God of War Ragnarök (2024)
Pos	Model	low 1920x1080 Low Preset TAA	med. 1920x1080 Medium Preset TAA	high 1920x1080 High Preset TAA	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra Preset TAA	QHD 2560x1440 Ultra Preset TAA	4K 3840x2160 Ultra Preset TAA
1	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090			387	362	300	192.7
2	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	307	289	277	263	225	139.6
3	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080				275	219	129
5*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti	330.5ⁿ²	279.5ⁿ²	251ⁿ²	239.5ⁿ²	184ⁿ²	109.05ⁿ²
6	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	314ⁿ²	274ⁿ²	241ⁿ²	222.5ⁿ²	179.55ⁿ²	109.1ⁿ²
7*	AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT	350	291	258	239	186.3	109.8
8	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080	294	260	230	214	166.4	100.8
12*	AMD Radeon RX 9070	322.5ⁿ²	266.5ⁿ²	230.5ⁿ²	211.5ⁿ²	162.3ⁿ²	94.15ⁿ²
14	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT	225	219	195.7	182.9	140.1	86.1
17	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070	261	221	199.4	186.7	141.1	81.5
19*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti	207	178.8	159.2	146.8	109.7	62.7
22	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU	225	201	177.7	163.3	125.1ⁿ²	78.15ⁿ²
24	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	221	190.2	171.6	159.8	125.6	74.6
31	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU	180.1	153.1	140.4	136.55ⁿ²	103ⁿ²	56.2
32*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060	186.2	157.2	137.6	126.5	90.4	36.6
39	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	240	200	179.4	166.3	123	67.4
40*	AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB	206	167.7	148.5	136.4	103.8	59
48	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	192ⁿ²	158.6ⁿ²	140.7ⁿ²	131.2ⁿ²	100.45ⁿ²	57.85ⁿ²
54	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU	155.15ⁿ²	123ⁿ³	110.9ⁿ³	95.8ⁿ⁴	73.2ⁿ³	31.3ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >God of War Ragnarök
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
60	AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	154.1	128.5	108.5	98.1	74.5	44.2
61	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU	131.6	109.7	95.2	94.35ⁿ²	70.15ⁿ²	41.95ⁿ²
63	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	161.6	132.8	114.6	105.4	78.8	44.9
64	Intel Arc B580	123.1	104.3	88.4	81.5	62.8	33.8
65	Intel Arc A770	103.9	87.5	79.9	75.1	58.8	34.6
66	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060	147.15ⁿ²	119.35ⁿ²	103.9ⁿ²	95.05ⁿ²	70.1ⁿ²	38.7ⁿ²
72	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU	118.7	99.9ⁿ²	86.5ⁿ²	79.55ⁿ²	58	33.9
82	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU	127.7	107	91.4	83.1	63.2	35.6
86*	AMD Radeon 8060S	103.05ⁿ²	86.8ⁿ²	74.3ⁿ²	67.9ⁿ²	51.65ⁿ²	35.95ⁿ²
87*	AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT	120.1	105.5	90.8	52.1	5.8
89	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	126.7ⁿ²	102.2ⁿ²	87.7ⁿ²	82.4ⁿ²	61.05ⁿ²	34.3ⁿ²
121	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (Desktop)	100.2	84.1	73.4	67.9	51.3	28.9
123	AMD Radeon RX 6600	105.2	85.6	72.3	65.1	48.4
168	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop)	72.6	59.1	49.4	44.9	31.8
172	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU	83.8	82.3	72.7	67.2	49	21.2
192	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super (Desktop)	55.5	7
195*	AMD Radeon 890M	41.1	34.3	30.6	24.9
231*	Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU	10.6	10.4	10.1	10
234	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile	43.6	34.2	31.7	27.4
235*	Intel Arc Graphics 140V	25.8	25.7	21.9	20.6
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >God of War Ragnarök
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
237	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Desktop)	5.7
251*	Intel Arc Graphics 130V	18.7	18.5	16.2	15.7
284*	AMD Radeon 780M	25.4	25.2	21.6	19.1
386*	AMD Radeon 740M	19.9	14.3	11.9	10.5
642*	AMD Radeon 610M	10.1	8

Legend
5	Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
	May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
	May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?	Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
	Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.