Forward-looking: Remedy Entertainment is continuing its close partnership with Nvidia by designing the PC version of Alan Wake II to take full advantage of Team Green's hardware. From now until mid-November, customers who purchase high-end Ada Lovelace graphics cards receive a game optimized to push those GPUs to their limits.
Nvidia is bundling Alan Wake II with desktop and laptop GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards until November 13. The GPUs come with a free code redeemable when the game launches exclusively through the Epic Games Store on October 27. The offer applies to the laptop and desktop GeForce RTX 4070, 4080, 4090, and the desktop-only 4070 Ti. Official North American retailers include Best Buy, Costco, Newegg, Micro Center, and others. Eligible OEMs include Asus, MSI, Zotac, and more.
After purchasing one of the listed GPUs, users will receive an email with redemption instructions. Using the code requires installing the card and Nvidia's GeForce Experience client. Then, log into an Nvidia account and select the "Redeem" button under the account tab in the top right corner of the GeForce Experience window. The codes are valid until December 13 to redeem it.
Remedy's close collaboration with Nvidia has made Alan Wake II an ideal and predictable candidate for the bundle, as the game, along with Cyberpunk 2077, employs path tracing and DLSS Ray Reconstruction. The two companies previously demonstrated (above) how path tracing alters the game's lighting, reflections, and shadows dramatically.
While it's too soon to expect exact performance metrics, prior experience from Cyberpunk indicates Alan Wake II's path tracing will have a tremendous performance impact. The flagship RTX 4090 struggles to maintain 30 frames per second running Cyberpunk with path tracing at 4K without engaging upscaling, but the two games feature significantly different environments.
Nvidia's brief clip showcasing Alan Wake II's path-traced effects shows its framerate jumping from 30fps without DLSS to over 100fps with DLSS 3.5 but offers no information regarding resolution or hardware. It's also unclear how the RTX 20 or 30 series GPUs handle the ultra-high-end visual effects using DLSS 2 Super Resolution.
Ray Reconstruction, also known as DLSS 3.5, uses Nvidia's AI tools to integrate the denoising step necessary in ray tracing with the company's super-resolution upscaling, resulting in a cleaner picture and more responsive lighting with minimal performance impact. Although Nvidia confusingly branded the feature as part of DLSS 3, it doesn't require Frame Generation and supports RTX 20 series and 30 series hardware.
Alan Wake II is Remedy's second major showcase for Nvidia's ray tracing and AI technologies. Award-winning Control, from 2019, was one of the first titles to heavily employ ray tracing and demonstrate the performance benefits of DLSS Super Resolution.
Remedy has not yet announced when Alan Wake II will launch on Steam. Additionally, the game has sparked controversy due to its digital-only console release.
https://www.techspot.com/news/100443-alan-wake-ii-nvidia-next-rtx-40-series.html
