2021 is almost over so here is the article that most of you have been waiting for. As we’ve already said, 2021 has been a… weird year. And, to be honest, this list is nowhere close to what we imagined at the beginning of this year. After all, some of the most anticipated PC releases, like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Days Gone, are not here.
As we’ve said numerous times, in our humble opinion, a game that is optimized for the PC is one that can look great and run smoothly on a wide range of PC configurations. An optimized PC game should also scale back on older graphics cards and CPUs. We also take into account other “small details“, like overall stability, mouse movement, whether there are frame pacing issues, etc.
So, without further ado, here are our Top 10 Most Optimized PC Games of 2021.
We were pleasantly surprised by Hitman 3. Contrary to its predecessor, Hitman 3 scaled wonderfully on multiple CPU cores/threads. Not only that, but the game looked and performed better than Hitman 2. Due to its heavy use of physics in some levels and scenes, the game does require powerful CPUs. However, and most of the time, it runs smoothly on a wide range of PC configurations.
The reason Kingdom Hearts 3 is not higher in the list is because it’s a somewhat old game. However, the game runs incredibly well on PC. At 4K, we were witnessing over 100fps on Max Details. The game also plays great with Keyboard & Mouse, and we had not experienced any stability issues. The only bad news is that the game does not offer a lot of graphics settings. Nevertheless, even an AMD Radeon RX580 can push framerates higher than 70fps at 1080p/Max Settings.
8) Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time surprised us pleasantly when it came out on PC in March 2021. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, the game runs silky smooth on a wide range of PC configurations. Not only that, but it looks great. This was a top solid PC release, and most PC gamers will have a great experience with it.
Hot Wheels Unleashed performs incredibly well on PC. The game does not require a high-end PC system and can run smoothly on a huge range of PC configurations. It also looks great, so kudos to Milestone for not dropping the ball. Although it doesn’t support any RT effects, it uses traditional rasterization techniques in order to provide a great overall image. The only downside here is some minor stutters that can occur when a race begins. Other than that, though, this is a pretty solid PC product.
Tales of Arise is another game that runs silky smooth on a huge range of PC configurations. The game uses Unreal Engine 4 and, surprisingly enough, does not suffer from any stuttering issues. Tales of Arise plays wonderfully with Keyboard & Mouse, does not require high-end CPUs or GPUs, and looks great mainly due to its art style. This is a game that all JRPG fans will enjoy.
Aliens Fireteam Elite looks and runs great on PC. While it’s not THE best-looking PC game to date, it certainly runs great on a wide range of PC systems. The game does not require a high-end CPU, and runs smoothly on mid-range GPUs. We also did not experience any crashes or instability issues.
Bright Memory Infinite is another game that pleasantly surprised us. This is a game from a really small team, so we weren’t expecting it to run this good on PC. However, its non-ray-traced version runs silky smooth on a huge range of PC configurations. Additionally, the game looks great. It’s not, graphically, as good as the next game. Furthermore, its Ray Tracing effects are not THAT impressive. Still, Bright Memory Infinite can challenge most other triple-A titles.
Contrary to Battlefield 2042, Call of Duty: Vanguard performed well on the PC right out of the gate, and did not have any major glitches or bugs. This is one of the most beautiful FPS games of 2021, and runs incredibly well on PC. Not only that, but the game supports both FSR and DLSS, so that PC gamers can further increase their in-game performance. The game does suffer from your usual “COD-issues” (like dumb AI, spawning enemies and pretty average storyline) but on a technical level, Vanguard was great.
Resident Evil Village runs currently smoothly on a variety of GPUs and CPUs. The game originally had some major optimization issues that Capcom has addressed. In its latest version, both the stuttering and framerate issues when facing Dimitrescu’s daughters have been fixed. And while there isn’t any FOV slider, PC gamers can use a mod in order to improve it. In its current state, Resident Evil Village looks great and performs well on PC.
1) Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition
We honestly cannot praise enough Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. In 2021, this is the best example of what Ray Tracing can achieve in PC games. While LEGO Builder’s Journey also looked great, it doesn’t have the scope of Metro Exodus. Although other games used Ray Tracing in order to slightly improve their visuals, Metro Exodus takes full advantage of the tech. While we’re not looking at a full path tracer model, like in Minecraft RTX or Quake 2 RTX, we can wholeheartedly say that this is the best hybrid rasterization/ray tracing solution we’ve seen to date. Furthermore, and thanks to DLSS, it’s also possible to run the game at 1440p/Max Ray Tracing and maintain framerates above 60fps. The fact that most other triple-A games didn’t use RT or used RT for only one effect (that also tanked their performance) speaks volumes about what 4A Games has been able to create.
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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Looks better than your dating prospects.
Agreed!
killing natzes…
You say that as if this is a bad thing…
It looks really nice to be fair (the fire effects are pretty good, the facial animations, the materials, etc), also it has a lot of prerendered (and boring) cutscenes.
Shamefully is all in service of a crappy game.
glad you’re not a gaming journalist
I remember you had to play the MW2019 gayme, no wonder you are coming to defend this pile of junk “Hey it looks pretty and good, the story and shlt doesn’t matter just consoom the top notch performance and visuals goy”
Yeah sure glorified gayddit gaymer.
Again, the last COD games (starting with the MW reboot) including these one look really good, of course they are propaganda…always were, now they added the mandatory pozzed element.
I can separate the technical aspects from the writing and “messages” in videogames since they are the result of both.
My disgust from the woke infesting propaganda doesnt blind me from the visual achievements the last COD has.
I agree with you, visuals aren’t among my priorities when it comes to games, for me the gameplay, setting and writing is key.
Are you impliying i paid for those games? LOL i wouldn’t even bother to pirate The last of Us 2, i dont like to waste my time.
I wont give a cent to companies like Activision, Ubisoft or Naugthy Dog (to mention the ones you put as examples), but i also won’t deny their games can look nice when they do, which is not something regular lately.
Nope, i think you are acting like a NPC in this one, the topic is purely about graphics that is what the discussion about.
Me saying x game looks good visually is not an endorsement of said game…my original comment laments how the technology is wasted in what is a sh*tty game.
For instance, Far Cry 6 looks like sh*t, worse than that it also is pozzed as sin. Horizon has awful character designs, also on the pozzed level, Watchdogs Legion…everything but the people looks nice, the raytracing is a joke, of course is pozzed since is made by Ubisoft
Again, i can separate the technological aspect from the rest, you can’t. That’s on you, you are honestly comparing what makes a game with what you consider are human’s components? don’t be ridiculous.
LOL likewise buddy.
I get your point, i just don’t completely dismiss every single aspect of games “just” because they are pozzed (and that’s our biggest red flag in order to play something or not, we know).
“I do not give 2 shlts about Visuals if the game has over the top ultimate subversion. This game and the recent Ubisoft titles are really horrible in terms of the political aspects.”
Spot on. This goes for tv shows and movies as well. Im sick of ham fisted, forced, mentally defective trends getting jammed into everything these days.
We can at least conclude that engine programming (+ maybe the art department too) at Infinity Ward or wherever isn’t staffed by talentless diversity hires.
From the MW 2019 campaign, the little Afghani girl child killing a fully grown Russian soldier was one of the most absurd moments that I’ve witnessed from a PC game in recent memory.
Because the Jews control the media. They will spread their woke influence throughout the universe and nothing will ever stop them.
Man, RE Village cant even hit 60 fps outdoors on 1050ti at lowest of lowest settings. Optimized my ***
COD MA’AMguard.
RE 8 was optimized…???? What about the whole Denuvo debacle…..
Next time I’ll simply drop the Top10 list without any context at all. I mean, what’s the point of preparing this article for over a day if you are not reading it 😛
“The game originally had some major optimization issues that Capcom has addressed. In its latest version, both the stuttering and framerate issues when facing Dimitrescu’s daughters have been fixed. “
they never read your articles, they just find things to get mad at lol
Who is “they”? i don’t comment before reading the article.
Don’t let these guys get you down. The people with the most issues are the most vocal here so it seems like a majority when it’s not.
Yeah to bad ppl give you sh*t whatever you do!
Well I say a Big Thank you buddy and a Happy New Year!
Love your work and this site – best there is really. Keep it up man and be well!
Lots of games using Epic’s engine.
The Chinese CCP’s media manipulator Tencent is getting a lot of influence on Western gaming through Epic.
Or would you rather they use Unity instead lmao? Stop being racist
Might want to look up the meaning of racist so you can use it properly in the future.
That hot wheels game, when it comes to “optimization” puts to shame the whole AAA gayming.
That thing runs great on patato hardware even on linux/wine AND is woke insanity bs free.
I feel Forza Horizon 5 should be on this list since it’s super smooth on many configurations. Aliens Fireteam should NOT be on this list since it stutters every level.
Quake Remastered
Lol ?
The game is from 1996 and they’ve done very little enhancements to the graphics engine. Quake remaster is hardly comparable to something like Darkplaces source port engine (eg which has real-time, dynamic shadows for one, IIRC). I’d be shocked if it DIDN’T RUN REALLY WELL on hardware from within the last decade.
? ..
So first off you exclude the obvious pick of Forza Horizon 5, then you mention Quake Remaster (a re-release of an ancient game from the mid-90s), and then you said that CoD Vanguard was one of the “most beautiful FPS games of 2021”? Lmfao. There’s more red flags in this article than a Chinese parade. This article was a swing…and a big miss.
The… “obvious pick”, lol. Forza 5 has numerous optimization issues (that can be exposed on mid-range PC configurations). We have a detailed PC Performance Analysis -> https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/forza-horizon-5-pc-performance-analysis/
So, contrary to the games we’ve listed, Forza 5 does not perform better. It does look better though on high-end hardware (and IF this was a Top 10 PC Games Graphics 2021, it would have won. It’s not that kind of article though). And, since I’m pretty sure that some will say “well I haven’t encountered those issues you mentioned”, then perhaps we should have included Final Fantasy 7 Remake on our list since the game runs and looks awesome on our PC test sytem, on both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs (so by that “I haven’t encountered these issues” logic, this game is great as even with the lack of graphics settings it runs with 50-60fps on an “ancient” AMD RX580. See the irony here?).
As for Quake Remastered… who the hell talked about Quake Remastered? Are you imagining things? We only mentioned Quake 2 RTX which features A FULL PATH TRACING RENDERER. If you don’t know what this means and what it does, you should either educate yourself or stop posting.
Metro exodus enhanced edition is extremely cpu limited in areas where you can see distant landscapes. I get significantly higher fps on my 12900K vs my 5950X in that game.
How much more bro?
I don’t know why metro is on this list. That game tanks all over the place.
Crash 4 looks and plays awesome, I really loved it. hoping for Crash 5.
Metro EEE is really impressive, and for the visuals it offers runs fairly well, the only thing that can come close when it comes to raytracing and performance is Control, but that game is mostly corridors.
Metro exodus enhanced is a stutterfest here
It really isn’t, this list is dump.