Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will be officially released tomorrow. As we usually do prior to our PC Performance Analysis articles, we’ve decided to test it first on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. And although the game does not have any Ray Tracing effects, NVIDIA’s most powerful GPU cannot run it at constant 60fps.

For these initial benchmarks, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit, and the GeForce 560.94 WHQL driver. Moreover, I’ve disabled the second CCD on our 7950X3D.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is using Kylotonn’s KT Engine. This engine was used in most of the WRC games (before EA acquired the WRC rights). The latest game that used it was WRC Generations.

As said, the game does not have any Ray Tracing effects. At Native 4K/Ultra, the NVIDIA RTX 4090 can push framerates between 50-60fps, with some drops to 45fps on rare occasions. For a non-RT racing game, this performance is a bit disappointing.

To be honest, I’m not that surprised by those numbers. WRC Generations ran with a minimum of 64fps at Native 4K/Ultra on the NVIDIA RTX 4090. And that was a 2022 title. So, the KT Engine was never as optimized as the EGO Engine or the Forza Tech.

The good news here is that Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown supports DLSS 3. Thus, RTX owners can enable DLSS 3 Frame Generation to improve performance. With DLSS 3 Frame Generation and DLAA, the NVIDIA RTX 4090 pushes framerates above 80fps at all times.

Not only that but DLAA can significantly improve the game’s visuals. The default AA solution is truly awful in this title. At the end of the video, you can find a comparison between the game’s default AA and DLAA. Just look at that fence. Without DLAA, it looks awful as it’s full of aliasing. With DLAA, it looks amazing.

So, even though the game does not have any RT effects, it’s really demanding. As I said, there are ways to improve performance, even when using the Ultra settings. However, you’ll have to resort to Frame Generation, and that’s something that may annoy some PC gamers.

For what it’s worth, I did not notice any input latency issues when playing with DLSS 3 FG. I also did not notice any major visual artifacts. Contrary to some other games, the DLSS implementation seems great here.

Moreover, I did not experience any stutters during my tests. There are some stutters when entering the settings. During gameplay, though, there weren’t any. So, rest assured that you’ll get a smooth gaming experience.

Our PC Performance Analysis for this game will most likely go live this weekend. Until then, you can watch the following video!

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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