Game Science has lifted the last embargo on Black Myth: Wukong and we can finally share our technical impressions. In this article we share our impressions, comparison screenshots and benchmarks on the ray tracing effects and NVIDIA's DLSS 3.
Black Myth: Wukong supports AMD FSR 3.0, Intel XeSS and TSR, and NVIDIA DLSS 3. However, FSR Super Resolution does not seem to work optimally. As Game Science specifically told us: “FSR Super Resolution is still being optimized and current performance may not reflect the final result..” For this reason, we'll only focus on DLSS 3 (which already works wonderfully).
For our benchmarks, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB DDR5 at 6000MHz, and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit and the GeForce 560.87 WHQL driver. In addition, I disabled the second CCD on our 7950X3D.
For anyone wondering, yes. The benchmark tool published by Game Science is representative of in-game performance, so if you can run it, you won't experience any performance issues in-game.
I should also mention that the slider for DLSS is not a “Slider for the scale of the actual resolution.“The slider doesn't adjust the resolution scale exactly. Instead, it just cycles through the available presets (once you go over a certain percentage). Here are two examples. The first image is with DLSS resolution scale at 40% (this is listed as DLSS Performance in the game's Information tab) and at 50%. As you can see, the performance is exactly the same. If the slider was working properly, the image with the 40% resolution scale should have been faster (also look at the GPU usage, in both we have 99% usage, so it's not a CPU bottleneck).”
Black Myth: Wukong uses full ray tracing. This means that pretty much everything is done by RT. If you enable it on the highest setting, you get ray-traced global illumination, ambient occlusion, reflections, and shadows.
NVIDIA also revealed some additional details about the different RT settings. On the low setting, you get ReSTIR GI (at half resolution) with RT Shadows. On the medium setting, you also get RT Reflections (at half resolution). On the very high setting, you get all of these effects at full resolution, plus RT Caustics.
There are places in Black Myth: Wukong where you can clearly see the benefits of ray tracing. Here are some examples. On the left are the screenshots without RT, on the right are the ones with RT.
The RT screenshots look objectively better. There's no doubt about it. With RT you get better lighting, better ambient occlusion and most importantly better shadows.
For some strange reason, the shadows in Black Myth: Wukong (non-RT) look terrible. The resolution of the removed shadows is very low and there are major pop-in issues. Fortunately, RT Shadows has completely solved this problem. On the other hand, RTGI can introduce light pop-ins that are not present in the non-RT version. Still, I find the shadow pop-ins to be worse than the GI pop-ins.
It is also important to note that there are scenes where RT does not provide any noticeable visual improvement. Here are some examples where the non-RT and RT scenes look too similar.
In short, the full ray tracing in Black Myth: Wukong can look a bit disappointing at times. This is mainly due to the carefully designed lighting of the non-RT version. However, there are numerous scenes where RT can greatly improve the game's graphics. So what I'm saying is that you can easily find areas that suit your narrative. RT lovers can find spots and say, “See, that's why RT looks amazing“Then RT haters can find other places and say:You see, there is no difference at all. It is a complete waste of resources.”
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's look at the game's performance on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 at 4K. At native 4K without RT, Black Myth: Wukong runs at an average of 41 fps. Yes, the game is really hard even without RT effects. With RT on Very High, the average frame rate drops to 21 fps. So basically, path tracing cuts your performance in half.
I also found the lower RT settings a bit disappointing in terms of performance. RT Low performed EXACTLY the same as RT Medium. I ran the benchmark multiple times and the results remained the same, so I don't know if this is a bug or not. What I do know is that there are no performance benefits at all from lowering the RT setting to Low.
For a smooth gaming experience, you need to use both DLSS 3 Super Resolution and DLSS 3 Frame Generation. At 4K with DLSS 3 SR Quality and Frame Generation, we were able to achieve a consistent 60 fps. However, in my opinion, this is not the optimal way to play. Instead, I recommend using Balanced Mode (which allows you to achieve 70-80 fps).
I also tried running the game at native 1440p with DLSS 3 Frame Generation and DLAA. With this combination, the game was always above 70fps (with all the bells and whistles enabled). However, if you are using a 1440p monitor, I highly recommend using 4K DLDSR. At 4K, DLSS 3 Performance Mode has less aliasing than native 1440p with DLAA. Additionally, the 1440p+DLAA image looked too sharp on my LG 32GK850G-B. This, combined with the additional aliasing, made the overall image worse than 4K DLSDSR.
What I also found a bit odd was the game's motion fluidity. Without VRR, Black Myth: Wukong didn't feel buttery smooth at 60-70fps. To get ideally smooth motion, I had to run the game at frame rates above 90fps. With VRR, however, even 60-70fps felt smooth. Again, I'm talking about motion fluidity, not frame times. So in a way, Black Myth: Wukong also shows the benefits of a VRR/G-Sync monitor.
In short, Black Myth: Wukong requires a high-end GPU for its full ray tracing effects. Since we're talking about path tracing, that shouldn't be a surprise. One thing that is a little disappointing is the performance at the lower RT settings. We hope Game Science fixes this in a post-release update. Whether the game's path tracing justifies the performance hit… well… that's for you to decide!


John is the founder and editor-in-chief of DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fanatic and is a huge supporter of the modding and indie communities. Before founding DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. Although he is a diehard PC gamer, his gaming roots lie on consoles. John loved – and still loves – the 16-bit consoles and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. However, the PC platform won him over consoles. This was mainly due to 3DFX and its legendary dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on “The Evolution of PC Graphics Cards”.
Contact: Email