God Of War Ragnarok PC Performance Review: A Smooth Adventure In The Norse Lands

After waiting with bated breath for two years, God of War Ragnarok PC is finally available worldwide. Initially a PlayStation exclusive, GOW Ragnarok has been made accessible with a PC port by Jetpack Interactive. This is the same studio that made the God of War (2018) PC port, and it ran buttery smooth earlier. Well, after getting a copy from Sony, we were curious about that as well. So, I was able to thoroughly assess the performance of the game. Let’s talk about all that in our God of War Ragnarok PC Performance Review.

God of War Ragnarok: A Brief Overview

As everyone’s aware, God of War Ragnarök is a direct sequel to the God of War (2018) game. Therefore, the story of the father-son combo, Kratos and Atreus, continues their journey across the realms of Norse mythology as they face the consequences of their previous acts. Along with this, they have to pull through the prophesied apocalypse, Ragnarök, together.

Therefore, grab your Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos, as we are all set to go on an expanded and exhilarating expedition than the prequel. So, whether you are a longtime God of War franchise fan or a newcomer, you are guaranteed an epic Norse saga.

God of War Ragnarok PC Performance (Tested)

Before we discuss the performance of each resolution, here are the specifications of the PC we used for testing the game:

Test Setup:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D @4.20 GHz
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti SUPER
RAM: 32 GB
SSD: Samsung 990 PRO 1TB

One important thing to remember here is that I use a dual-chamber PC cabinet with reverse fans. Thus, the CPU and GPU temperatures may be a bit higher than what you can find. Additionally, the region I live in is undergoing a hot climate which can be taken into account as well.

We have tested the PC performance of God of War Ragnarok on all resolutions available to us, such as 1080p, 1440p, and 2160p. We ran the game on the highest possible settings, i.e., Ultra setting natively, as well as with DLSS and Frame Gen enabled to showcase you the best of both worlds. That said, here are the complete results of our performance evaluation:

God of War Ragnarok PC: 1080p (FHD) Ultra Settings

We have a strong setup here, so God of War Ragnarok ran silky smooth at 1080p in ultra settings as expected. During our tests, we got a stable 130-140 FPS running natively. During this run, the GPU temperature stayed around 60-64 Celsius and usage was around 83-90%. As the game is GPU-bound, the CPU temperature was around 60 Celsius and a 28% utilization.

As you can see, the game performed quite well and I didn’t run into any problems in the FHD run.

While it is already running smoothly, I enabled DLSS in Quality mode and also Frame Generation to see how much boost I can get in performance. To my surprise, the FPS skyrocketed to touch 200 FPS. As a result, you can feel the real smoothness of combat and the GPU temperature remained the same under 65 Celsius but the usage spiked to 99% in this case.

God of War Ragnarok PC: 1440p (QHD) Ultra Settings

I started my first playthrough in native 2K resolution with the ultra settings and was happy to see the game running with an average FPS of 144. However, as soon as I was done with the prologue and entered Svartalfheim (a graphically intensive region), the FPS dropped to the 95-100 range. This isn’t a huge problem per se and the GPU temperature went up to 69-70 Celsius, and the GPU utilization was 99-100% all the time.

Fortunately, we have DLSS and Frame Generation by our side to elevate the performance in this case. As I turned them on, I started to feel the enormous difference in performance with a slight dip in quality. I was now getting 150 FPS constantly with the GPU temperature sitting at 65-67 and the GPU usage was still at 99%.

Also during both the QHD test with and without DLSS, the CPU utilization stayed under 30% where as the temperatures were stable at 67-70 Celsius.

God of War Ragnarok PC: 2160p (UHD) Ultra Settings

Next up, we kicked the settings up a notch to 4K resolution in the ultra settings. Jumping up to 4k did drag us back in terms of performance. In native 2160p resolution without any upscaling, we were averaging around 75 FPS. However, the GPU temperature and usage remained at the same level as earlier, with 68 Celsius and 99-100% usage.

Now this is perfect for enjoying the highest resolution but I wanted to crank up the performance further with DLSS and Frame Generation. As I set the DLSS to Quality and enabled FG as well, I got back to the constant 115-120 average FPS. The GPU temperature was around 65-66 Celsius, and usage stayed up at 99%.

In native as well as with DLSS + FG enabled testings, the CPU temperatures were at 57-62 Celsius and the utilization was within 16-25%.

God of War Ragnarok PC: Playable Settings

As you can see from the data above, the game runs excellently in native resolution, and that too in the highest settings possible. So if you are seeking visually rich gameplay, you can play in your native resolution and can turn on the Frame Gen to smoothen the performance further. I didn’t notice any feelable input lag or unresponsiveness during my run.

Fortunately, you don’t need to restart every time after tweaking the settings. Thus, you can easily play with each setting to get the desired performance.

As I was averaging 100 FPS in 1440p and ultra settings, I enabled Nvidia’s Frame Gen alone to enhance the smoothness of the game. As a result, I got an average of 120 FPS with GPU temperature at 67 Celsius and usage at 100%. The CPU usage remained under 25% and as I have quite a power-hungry and hot CPU, thus it was under 65 Celsius.

God of War Ragnarok PC Verdict: Should You Pick up the Axe?

Without any doubt, the God of War Ragnarok is a nearly flawless PC port as its predecessor. While I didn’t have any hiccups in the performance department, I ran into some visual glitches. For example, the leaves of the trees turned all black in Midgard at the end of the prologue.

Also, the QTE buttons HUD sometimes looked blurry. Thankfully, after I restarted once things went back to normal, and they didn’t impair my experience. Thus, the small glitches and bugs can be annoying but as we speak the devs are releasing patches simultaneously to iron out these minor flaws.

Apart from these small-scale problems, I didn’t experience any serious issues. Jetpack Interactive has done a fantastic job with the PC port and you can experience the journey of Kratos and Atreus without any hindrances.

The upgraded combat can be felt as slick as ever and the revamped visuals are a treat to the eyes. Thus, you can play the game seamlessly in a stable FPS (with occasional drops rarely).

I’ve already completed the game twice on my PS5 but I’ve to accept that the game feels even sleek, especially the combat, thanks to AI upscaling technology. This game is a masterpiece and an 11/10 in my books so I wholeheartedly recommend it to every gamer to experience this wholesome and badass ride.