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PC Performance Analyses

Dune: Awakening Benchmarks & PC Performance Analysis

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Funcom has just made available Dune: Awakening to those who have pre-ordered its Deluxe Edition. The team has provided us with a review code, so it’s time now to benchmark it and examine its performance on the PC.

For our benchmarks, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, RX 9070XT, as well as NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce 576.66, and the Radeon Adrenalin Edition 25.5.2 drivers.

A while ago, Funcom released an official benchmark tool for Dune: Awakening. From what we’ve seen, this benchmark tool is representative of the in-game performance. So, this is what we used in order to benchmark the game.

Dune: Awakening is powered by Unreal Engine 5 and supports Lumen. However, contrary to a lot of the latest UE5 games, it appears to be running smoothly on a wide range of GPUs.

At 1080p/Ultra Settings, we were able to get a smooth gaming experience even on an NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti. The game could drop to 55FPS, but if you use a G-Sync monitor, you may not notice those framerate drops.

Dune Awakening benchmarks-1

I was also impressed by the game’s performance on the AMD GPUs. As we can see, the AMD Radeon RX 6900XT is able to match the performance of the NVIDIA RTX 3080. Then, we have the AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX and RX 9070XT, which beat the NVIDIA RTX 5080.

At 1440p/Ultra Settings, you’ll need at least an AMD Radeon RX 6900XT for a smooth gaming experience. Well, that is if you use a FreeSync monitor. Our top five GPUs had no trouble at all running the game with over 60FPS at all times.

Dune Awakening benchmarks-2

Finally, for gaming at Native 4K/Ultra Settings with 60FPS, you will need an NVIDIA RTX 5090. Again, this is with Lumen enabled. The NVIDIA RTX 4090 can also provide a smooth gaming experience for those who have a G-Sync monitor.

Dune Awakening benchmarks-3

Dune: Awakening supports NVIDIA DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Gen from the get-go. So, here are some in-game benchmarks with NVIDIA DLSS 4. The reason I used an in-game scene for these benchmarks is because the benchmark tool has not been updated to support NVIDIA DLSS 4. Yes, you can enable it via the NVIDIA App. However, since the game runs similarly to the benchmark tool, it was easier to use an in-game scene.

Dune Awakening benchmarks-4

With DLSS 4 Quality Mode, we were able to get to 100FPS at 4K/Ultra. That was without Frame Gen. Then, by enabling MFG X2, X3 and X4, we got some impressive results.

Since our base framerate was really high, I did not experience any major latency issues. However, Frame Gen introduces some ghosting issues, even at X2. Below you can find a couple of examples (in which I circled the ghosting issues). These shots are with MFG X2. With MFG X3 and X4, the ghosting issues are worse, especially during quick camera movements.

DuneAwakening DLSS Frame Gen ghostingDuneAwakening DLSS Frame Gen ghosting-2

Before closing, I should note that the game also appears to suffer from some traversal stutters. They are not as annoying as those we’ve seen in some other titles. Still, some of you may immediately notice them. Thankfully, the game does not have any shader compilation stutters.

All in all, Dune: Awakening performs great on PC. Although it uses UE5 and Lumen, the game can run great on a wide range of GPUs at native resolutions. NVIDIA users can also use DLSS 4 to further improve their in-game performance. Similarly, AMD and Intel users can enable FSR 3.1 or XeSS. My only gripe with Dune: Awakening are the traversal stutters. As I said, they are not as bad as those we’ve seen in Oblivion Remastered. Still, this is the only area in which the game could be improved. Other than that, this is a solid PC release!

Dune Awakening - 8K & 4K Benchmarks - Max Settings - NVIDIA RTX 5090