STALKER 2 receives massive performance boost with new 2.0 update, game gets upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.5.4

STALKER 2 just received its largest patch to date with a boatload of changes improving the game's performance, including a switch to a newer version of Unreal Engine 5, version 5.5.4. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that the improvements made in patch 2.0 have improved the game's performance by over 30% in demanding areas.

The outlet tested the game on an RTX 5080, Steam Deck, and Steam Machine in Rostok town and the Zalissya woods. In Rostok, the RTX 5080 saw a massive 33% performance uplift from patch 1.7 to patch 2.0, jumping from an 83 FPS average to 110 FPS average. In the Zalissya woods, performance improved by 8% from 106 FPS to 114 FPS with patch 2.0.

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On the Steam Machine, performance improved by 28% in Rostok with patch 2.0, but in the Zalissya woods performance was within the margin of error between the two patches. The Steam Deck reportedly saw a massive improvement with patch 2.0, moving from unplayable performance to a roughly 30 FPS average with aggressive FSR upscaling, though Rock Paper Shotgun reports that the game won't provide a minimum 30 FPS experience on the Deck.

It's unclear how much of the performance improvements come from code optimizations from the devs directly, but undoubtedly much of the performance improvements comes from the game's jump from Unreal Engine 5.1 to Unreal Engine 5.5.4. Over the span of the past several years, Epic has added a significant amount of CPU and GPU optimizations to the engine, including Asynchronous RDG execution, parallel translation, batch ticks, enhanced PSO precaching, multi-process cooking, and more. Hardware ray tracing also received a massive boost with 2x performance gains for HWRT primitives for Lumen.

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Question #1

How much FPS improvement did STALKER 2 patch 2.0 provide on an RTX 5080 in Rostok and Zalissya?

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What performance changes were observed on the Steam Machine after patch 2.0 in Rostok and Zalissya?

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Question #3

Besides engine upgrades, what other improvements and fixes did patch 2.0 introduce?

Patch 2.0 also added about 500 bug fixes, improved visuals, and enhancements to the game"s A-Life simulation. It introduced better outdoor and indoor lighting, improved shadows and reflections, and vastly improved vegetation to look less buggy and more natural.

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Question #4

How did hardware ray tracing (Lumen) performance change with the Unreal Engine upgrade in patch 2.0?

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In addition to the engine changes, the game also received a whopping 500 bug fixes, improved visuals, and improvements to the game's A-Life simulation. Patch 2.0 introduces improved outdoor and indoor lighting, shadows and reflections, as well as vastly improving the vegetation to look less buggy and more natural.