Back in the old days, Crysis killed more graphics cards than crypto mining, but it is a very rare occurrence these days. GPU cooling architecture has come a long way since then. Nowadays, thermal throttling minimizes the danger of an overworked graphics card being burnt out, but some games can still push the average GPU to its max heat allowance in no time! At the same time, if you do have a gaming PC powerful enough to run them in ultra settings though, the visual experience will be awe-inspiring.
Crysis Remastered by Crytek
When Crytek re-released Crysis Remastered in 2020, an ancient meme called “but can it run Crysis?” came back to life again. Initially, gamers believed that the latest RTX and RX GPUs would be more than enough to handle whatever a 13-year-old game could possibly throw at them with just a remaster. The meme would only be a nostalgic joke because this was, after all, just a remaster and not a remake. All such illusions were put to rest after the most powerful consumer grade GPU till date, aka the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti) failed to maintain even an average of 40fps – 45fps in 4K.
When the mythical RTX 3090 also failed to maintain a steady 60fps average in “Can It Run Crysis” settings (yes, that’s an actual setting in the game), bad memories of burning silicon resurfaced in the minds of old gamers. With outcries of poor optimisation, Crytek decided to dumb down the graphics and add DLSS support to the Crysis Remastered Trilogy. Now, the games are at least playable with even a comparatively affordable gaming PC. Don’t worry about 4K though, because all three Crysis Remastered titles look stunning in 1440p as well.
Elden Ring by FromSoftware
Elden Ring could very well have been titled Dark Souls Expanded and Enhanced because it does feel a lot like Dark Souls. However, that’s a good thing because Elden Ring improves on every aspect of the Dark Souls series and adds a truly vast open world to it all that’s nothing like anything we have seen before from the Dark Souls series. It’s a massive bonus that a game as good as Elden Ring is also backed up by what could very well be the best graphics ever seen in an RPG game!
If you are worried if your current PC will be able to handle all that eye candy and still maintain a workable 50fps – 60fps throughout, then that’s for good reason. Even after several optimisation updates and bug fixes, Elden Ring is a highly demanding, GPU-intensive game. Check out these Gaming PCs at Lenovo if you are interested to see the vast, beautiful and horrifying world of Elden Ring in its full glory.
Red Dead Redemption 2 by Rockstar Games
Red Dead Redemption 2 is by far the most scalable game on this list. Tinker with the settings a bit and you can play it on almost any PC, even if it does not have a dedicated graphics card. However, if you want to have the true Wild West experience in vivid details, that is when you will hear that classic fan noise which indicates that the workload just got serious for your PC’s internals. Red Dead Redemption 2 was already gorgeous on the PS4, but on PC, everything looks more realistic than we have seen before in any game set in the Old Wild West.
Honorable mention goes out to Microsoft Flight Simulator, Far Cry 6, and especially, Cyberpunk 2077. Any of these three could have also made the list and all titles mentioned here will put your gaming PC through the gauntlet at its highest settings.