The best games to benchmark your new gaming PC

Before you fire up your favorite games after building a new gaming PC , benchmark your machine with some demanding games. This list includes the best games to benchmark a new gaming PC with.

Table of Contents

• 1. Cyberpunk 2077
• 2. Alan Wake 2
• 3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• 4. Metro Exodus
• 5. Red Dead Redemption 2
• 6. Forza Horizon 5
• 7. Baldur's Gate 3
• 8. Dying Light 2
• 9. The Last of Us Part 1
• 10. Ark: Survival Ascended

1. Cyberpunk 2077

https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1091500/

CD Projekt RED's RPG tops the list if you want to really stress test your gaming PC. Cyberpunk 2077 didn't launch in the best shape in 2020, but a few years later, the release of the Phantom Liberty DLC has now made it one of the most graphically advanced experiences on PC.

Whether you enable Cyberpunk 2077's Path Tracing mode or go with the Ray Tracing preset , the game won't hold you back. Your PC will need to be pretty powerful to experience the game and all its fancy features. Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR will help recover some of the FPS lost due to Ray Tracing.

The game is known to have 90% CPU usage, even on an 8-core CPU. A 6-core CPU might not be enough to maximize this visual masterpiece.

2. Alan Wake 2

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/alan-wake-2

If there's anything that could make PC gaming more difficult than Cyberpunk 2077, it's Remedy's latest title, Alan Wake 2. The long-awaited sequel to the 2010 horror game and the latest entry in Remedy's ever-expanding universe takes gaming graphics to the next level with Path Tracing. It's also the first game to use mesh shaders instead of traditional vertex shaders, so it performs poorly on anything less than the best graphics cards out there .

Even the RTX 4090 struggles to maintain playable frame rates without some upscaling, at all settings at 4K resolution. The game was developed with Ray Tracing in mind from the start, and it needs powerful hardware to showcase it to its fullest. If your gaming PC can play Alan Wake 2 at over 60 FPS, it can play just about anything.

3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1774580/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Survivor/

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may have a reputation for terrible PC optimization, stuttering issues, poor performance even on recommended hardware – but it's a beautiful game. It requires a pretty powerful system to run at max settings.

The recommended graphics cards for this game are the RTX 2070 and RX 6700 XT, but you'll find that systems with RTX 3000, RTX 4000, or RX 7000 graphics cards will struggle to maintain high frame rates at 4K resolution and highest settings. If your gaming PC is powerful enough to keep the game running smoothly, you should be fine for other games.

4. Metro Exodus

https://store.steampowered.com/app/412020/Metro_Exodus/

If you’re a fan of survival games, you’ve probably heard of Metro Exodus. The third and final entry in the Metro series, the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter had stunning graphics when it first launched in 2019. An enhanced version was released two years later, bringing Ray Tracing and Global Illumination to the game’s already beautiful world.

While the game can run just fine on an RTX 2070 or RX 6700 XT, you'll need a high-end GPU to really take things up a notch. Whether it's the realistic lighting and shadows or the immersive environments, Metro Exodus is one of the best story-driven games around, and it's also a great benchmark for your gaming PC.

5. Red Dead Redemption 2

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1174180/Red_Dead_Redemption_2/

Rockstar's ability to create immersive open worlds is well known, and Red Dead Redemption 2 is perhaps the studio's finest achievement to date (at least until GTA VI comes along). The game features incredible storytelling, a beautifully rendered open world, and immersive gameplay. RDR2 is not only one of the best PlayStation games, but also one of the most popular titles for benchmarking PC gaming.

For a game that’s over five years old, it looks incredibly realistic. Even without any Ray Tracing features, it’s still capable of pushing even fairly capable gaming PCs to their limits. You can run it on a cheap graphics card at the lowest settings, but to really experience the incredible lighting and textures, you’ll need a modern high-end GPU.

6. Forza Horizon 5

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1551360/Forza_Horizon_5/

Racing games don't usually get mentioned when it comes to demanding graphics, but Forza Horizon 5 deserves a mention on this list. While it's not as demanding as some other titles, it still requires a powerful PC to get consistent performance. The fifth installment in the Forza Horizon series features a fictional and visually stunning version of Mexico, allowing you to experience open-world driving in its purest form.

One of the best games on Xbox Series X, Forza Horizon 5 is playable even on a GTX 1070, but if you want an excellent 100+ FPS experience at max 4K settings, you'll need a pretty high-end, latest-generation graphics card.

7. Baldur's Gate 3

https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1086940/

An isometric RPG might not seem like it belongs on this list, but Baldur's Gate 3 is. One of the best games of 2023, it brings Dungeons & Dragons to the video game medium, offering tons of content and highly satisfying gameplay. The RTX 2060 Super is the recommended GPU for this game, but you may want to aim higher.

As you start increasing the resolution to 1440p and 4K and maxing out the settings, you’ll notice the game becomes more demanding. You’ll need at least an RTX 4070 for consistent 4K 60+ FPS performance. It’s good to run something different when benchmarking your gaming PC to know you’re covered in all situations.

8. Dying Light 2

https://store.steampowered.com/app/534380/Dying_Light_2_Stay_Human_Reloaded_Edition/

Dying Light has already garnered a huge fan base, thanks to its unique take on the zombie genre and the engaging world the developers created. But Dying Light 2 has grown and become even better - a larger open world, more characters, more gameplay mechanics, and of course, more immersive visuals. The game has one of the most impressive open worlds, further enhanced by Ray Tracing technology.

Most people should leave ray tracing off to get playable frame rates, as ray tracing is largely reserved for high-end RTX 3000 and RTX 4000 cards in this game. If you have it, crank it up to 11, enable DLSS or FSR, and find the optimal balance between settings to your liking. Over two years old at this point, Dying Light 2 is still one of the best-looking games of this generation.

9. The Last of Us Part 1

https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1888930/

One of the best games of the past decade, The Last of Us needs no introduction. Originally released on PlayStation, it remains one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed games to date. Released on PC as The Last of Us Part 1, the game brings upgraded visuals, improved gameplay, and new game modes.

While the game had some stability and optimization issues at launch, regular updates have improved things significantly. It’s now one of the best modern titles to test your gaming PC’s capabilities. The developers recommend an RTX 2070 Super, but you’ll need an RTX 4070 to get 60+ FPS at 1440p. For 4K, an RTX 4070 Ti is the minimum you should aim for. Be prepared for some pretty high CPU usage!

10. Ark: Survival Ascended

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2399830/ARK_Survival_Ascended/

Ark: Survival Ascended is a remake of the hit dinosaur-taming survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. The original game was released in 2015 and looks dated. This remake rebuilds the game from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5, taking advantage of all the Lumen and Nanite in the engine to deliver a visually stunning experience for this generation.

The recommended RTX 3080 graphics card might be a concern, as it’s a relatively new high-end GPU. However, the game’s graphics are so sharp, they need all the power they can get. Even on the RTX 4070 Ti, the resolution is limited to 1440p. This is one of the toughest and best games to benchmark your gaming PC with.

With the way modern games are testing the most advanced PC hardware, it seems like the days of budget gaming PCs are slowly coming to an end if you want to experience the most graphically demanding games at their peak. Fortunately, you can still build a great value gaming PC for under $1400 that can handle most games at 1440p. Before you start the build process, there are a few things to consider and some mistakes to avoid. Read on to avoid these mistakes.