2022 was a rough year. Ironically, it was easier to pick our Top Worst Optimized PC Games of 2022 than the best optimized ones. I mean, we could hardly get a Top 10 list this year. And, if we excluded some titles, we could barely hit a Top 5 list. Ouch.
In our opinion, a game that is optimized for the PC is one that can scale well on multiple CPU cores, that is not plagued by ‘console-ish’ side effects (like really low FOV, controller-only on-screen indicators, awful K&M controls and mouse acceleration/smoothing issues). We also take into account the stuttering issues that affected a lot of PC games in 2022. Furthermore, a really demanding game that can at least justify its GPU requirements also falls on this list. So keep that in mind for one particular game. Lastly, this list is in random order. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at them.
Portal RTX
Portal RTX is a fully path-traced modern game. Let me repeat that. This is a fully path-traced game. This is HUGE. Now I’m certain that most of you have no idea what this means, but we’ve been talking about Path Tracing since 2012 (remember the Brigade 2 Engine?). Thus, it comes as no surprise to us that Portal RTX is as GPU-demanding as it is. Everything in this game looks spectacular, from its newly enhanced textures to its lighting, reflections, shadows… this is a graphical showcase. And, to be honest, the game’s graphics do justify its high GPU requirements. Additionally, and by using its settings menu, you can lower the quality of the RT effects, enable DLSS 2, and run it smoothly even on an RTX3070. Again, this isn’t a hybrid rasterization/ray tracing game. This is a pure and fully path-traced game!
Stray
Stray is a game that pleasantly surprised us in 2022. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, the game has some of the best environments we’ve seen in a video-game. The game does not require a high-end system, meaning that it can run with over 60fps on a variety of PC systems. The only downside here is the shader compilation stutters. However, this isn’t a stutter-fest like The Callisto Protocol. Some of you may not even notice them.
FIFA 23
EA has finally ported the current-gen version of its soccer game, FIFA, to the PC. And while its real-time cut-scenes are quite demanding, the game during gameplay is silky smooth. There is a reason also why the real-time cut-scenes are locked at 30fps on consoles. Seriously, an AMD Radeon RX580 can offer 60fps at 1080p/Ultra during gameplay. FIFA 23 currently looks and plays best on PC, and does not have high PC system requirements.
GRID Legends
GRID Legends is a racing game that looks and runs superbly on PC. The game does not require a high-end PC system, meaning that it will run smoothly on a wide range of PC configurations. Additionally, we did not experience any stability issues, and there are proper keyboard/gamepad on-screen prompts.
Sonic Frontiers
We were pleasantly surprised by Sonic Frontiers. Powered by the Hedgehog 2 Engine, this open-world 3D Sonic game runs silky smooth on PC. Moreover, and contrary to other open-world games, it does not suffer from any stuttering issues. Surprisingly enough, the game also works wonderfully with K&M. The only downsides are its low draw distance (modders are working on fixing this) and the 60fps lock (which did not really bother me as it’s constant 60fps. You can also use Cheat Engine to unlock it).
Need for Speed: Unbound
Need for Speed: Unbound is another game using the Frostbite Engine. This new NFS title does not require a high-end PC system, does not suffer from any stuttering issues, and looks absolutely beautiful. Criterion has offered an incredibly-looking racing game that runs silky smooth on PC.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
When Sackboy: A Big Adventure came out, it suffered from major shader compilation stutters. Thankfully, Sumo Digital resolved these issues via a post-launch update. In its latest version, Sackboy: A Big Adventure runs silky smooth on PC. This is also one of the best-looking 3D platformers out there, even without its Ray Tracing effects. Yes, the game’s RT Ultra effects are quite demanding, and we strongly suggest avoiding them. However, and since the rasterized version still looks great, we had to include this game on our list.
Sniper Elite 5
Powered by the Asura Engine, Sniper Elite 5 looks and performs great on PC. The game does not require a high-end CPU, shows proper on-screen K&M prompts, and does not suffer from any stuttering issues. Additionally, it can scale down to older/less powerful GPUs via its graphics settings. DX12 also appeared to perform similarly to Vulkan on both our AMD and NVIDIA hardware. Rebellion did a solid job here.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is one of the best-looking open-world games for the PC in 2022. Although the game would benefit from DirectStorage GPU decompression, it can at least run smoothly on a wide range of PC configurations (provided you do not crank up its Ray Tracing effects). Nixxes has also included DLSS3 in order to further improve performance, especially in CPU-bound areas or when enabling its RT effects. Contrary to God of War, the game also offers a fullscreen mode, and supports the DX12 API. Furthermore, the game does not suffer from any stuttering issues, which is a big plus for an open-world game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 runs incredibly well on PC. In fact, this is one of the most optimized PC games we’ve seen in 2022. This game looks incredible and runs silky smooth on a wide range of PC configurations. Not only that, but it looks amazing, and can take advantage of more than eight CPU cores/threads. Furthermore, the game allows you to pre-compile your shaders before launching its single-player campaign and multiplayer modes, thus eliminating any potential shader compilation stutters.
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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Thanks for the article! Happy new year!
Brilliant list of games, John. ?
Fifa and Portal is a joke or dso did not play those games. Fifa is horribly optimalized and has “mixed” on Steam because of it…
Yeah who cares about that Fifa POS crap!
But your totaly Wrong on Portal buddy. Learn what Path Tracing is – before speaking shall we 😉
Path Tracing is the future. It’s a revolution!
Portal might be path traced. But imagine when games are fully using effects with everything on screen in real time. We might be 5 years away from that in terms of GPU power.
I don’t think we need it. Good hybrid implementations can be so good you cannot tell the difference. Lumen is a good example, its not even ray tracing as such
I’d hardly call it one of the most optimized games, but the scope and scale of Elden Ring was really impressive at times. The draw distance isn’t always great, but at its best it’s quite good looking. I didn’t play til it got a few patches, so I didn’t really experience the stuttering issues that were present at launch.
Great list and Happy New Year team DSO!
And to all of you fellow Pc (REAL) Gamers over here 🙂
FIFA? Haha, these lies!
You should never put a game with shader comp stutters on this list… the only reason it doesn’t have more it’s because it’s short af
Wow, i thought it was New Years not April 1st 2023 already
FIFA 23? WTF is doing in that list.
Finally tried portal because it was $1. I remember this game getting so much praise in the 2000s.
What a disappointment. You just make holes in walls and trigger the door to open. It’s incredibly boring, claustrophobic, the rooms all look depressingly similar. Why in god’s name did such a game that looks like someone made it in their basement on a sunday afternoon, get so much praise. I literally refunded the $1.
Portal is a first-person puzzle game. It’s not Half Life 2. There is more action later in the game when the test chambers start to include turrets, but for the most part is more about figuring out the puzzles (which get progressively harder) and enjoying the humor of the writing team.
it was praised for being a non combat puzzle game with portal technology. This was non existance back then, since then we got better puzzle fps games like quantum conundrum and talos principle.
Always the same 3 fcktards keep downvoting me. What a bunch of losers! Do something John.
Haha, how is John gonna stop them from downvoting you? Down and up voting doesn’t mean anything here. This ain’t china bruh. It’s not a social currency system. Are you mental?
The main problem with raytracing is the cost. Unless performance is unlimited, it is never a good tradeoff. You don’t want to cut your FPS in half for some minor benefits that are much more efficiently done with rasterization.
If the reverse happened, and we started out with raytraced games, and we only later discovered blinn-phong rasterisation, it would be praised into high heaven for doubling FPS with only minor visual differences.
Thank you! Happy New year John & team DSOG!
2022 was such a horrible year. Stupid woke tv shows and movies, woke games and woke people downvoting and sending hate messages to me. Henry Cavill no longer Superman and Geralt. Then, there’s still covid and the war in Ukraine. 2023 is gonna be even worse.
What War and what Covid?
For PC gaming, 2022 was awesome and surprising.
One of the worst years. They have no excuse for buggy releases yet they keep doing it.
Miles Morales have DirectStorage ???
Talk sh*t
He didnt say it has it but that it would benefit from DirectStorage GPU decompression, as in it would be a nice addition
But for me this game is really far from optimized, runs like crap with constant fps drops in a few places on the map, its just crazy cpu hungry
It’s fairly clear from this list you have no actual indication on what makes a game “optimized”.
Portal RTX, Stray, Sonic Frontiers? Nigger-Man Morales? You’ve obviously ran out of actual titles that are optimized and ignored their phag-filled downsides.
What a hack you are John.
Call of duty modern warfare 2 worst optimized game ever on cross play inconsistent time to kll bullets register is shockingly bad bullets dont even resister hits on occasions guns dont fire i have at least 20 vids of this game cockng up all could be avoided but the cheap a$$es dont use dedicated servers anymore i bet every one out there who has played Call of duty World At War cant argue with the accuracy level of the old call of duty games.
Portal RTX best optimized? wtf
Portal RTX is light on hardware (on 40-series GPUs of course). This game is not for anything older. Valve should have made it mandatory to have a 40-series GPU to run the game. I 100% agree with this list as even a potato PC can run them.