Ghost of Tsushima PC Performance Review: Slice Smoothly
May. 20, 2024Ghost of Tsushima, the open-world masterpiece set during the 1274 Mongol Invasion of Japan, has finally been released on PC. Originally here as a PlayStation exclusive, the game is hereafter, and fans have eaten Sony’s ears off. However, many of Sony’s PC ports of PS-exclusive games have often faced performance issues on release. Well, we were concerned about that, too. Thanks to a copy provided by Sony, we got the game and decided to put it through its paces to provide you with a complete performance review. So, with that, let’s begin testing!
Ghost of Tsushima PC: A Brief Overview
While I think most of you know the game, let me give you a small recap. Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world RPG set in 1274 feudal Japan during the Mongol Invasion. The story follows the young Samurai,Jin Sakai, who is trying to free the land of Tsushima from the Mongols. One of the antagonists isKhotun Khan, a fierce Mongol who has trapped Jin’s uncle, Shimura.
A big part of the story focuses on Jin Sakai transforming into a Ghost, a stealthy operative who performs assassination, going against his Samurai code of honor. While the story begins slowly, it quickly gets intense and gripping and doesn’t let go. So, regardless of who you are, you’ll love it.
Now that you have a basic understanding of the game, let’s begin discussing our tests and results. For our performance tests, we used a system with the following specifications:
Test Setup:
We tested Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC on our desired resolutions of 1080P and 2K with the highest graphical settings. Our testing also included running with and without DLSS to measure AI frame generation and the lack of it. While we also wanted to test 4K, certain errors stopped us from doing so. With that, here are the results:
Almost as expected, Ghost of Tsushima on PC ran comfortably at 1080p on the Highest Settings, giving astable 60-65 FPSwithout DLSS upscaling. The GPU temperature remained around56-58 Celsius, with utilization sitting at45-55%in most areas. While it would spike a few times to 70% while traveling through the beautiful grass meadows, overall, it remained stable.
TheCPU utilization comfortably sataround47-50% of usage,occasionallyspiking to 60%when going through the grass meadows.
Using DLSS, on the other hand, caused a massive spike, with the game getting100+ average FPSwithout problems. This is amassive increase, and we could easily feel it while playing. The GPU temperature remained mostly unaffected with DLSS Onat 60 degrees Celsius.
However, with DLSS and Frame Generation On, theGPU utilization spiked to 65-75%, while the CPU utilization remained mostly unaffected.
Compared to 1080p at the highest setting,the game saw adistinct drop in performanceat 1440pat the highest setting. We began with DLSS off and saw Ghost of Tsushima run at an average FPS of30-35. This was barely playable, and I could feel the drop in frames.
The GPU temp soared to65 degrees, and so did the fans. The GPU was used about65%, with the CPU in the 55-60% range.
Thankfully, turning on DLSS for frame generation was a much better experience. On average, the frames spiked to55-60and occasionally dropped to 40 while traveling through some areas. The CPU utilization remained around60%, spiking a couple of times to 80%. The GPU utilization sat mostly between 70-80%, touching100%severaltimes.The GPU temperature soared to 68 degrees, occasionally spiking over70 degree Celsius.
Compared to the Highest Settings, Ghost of Tsushima ran comfortably well without DLSS on 1080p at the preset “High Setting.” The game noticed abig jumpin performance when turning down the Volumetric Fog option to High from Ultimate, receiving aspike of 15 FPS.
The game ran easily in the preset High Setting without DLSS, with an average of70 FPS. While there was a dip here and there, it was minor. The GPU utilization remained constant ataround 50%, occasionally spiking to 70%. The GPU temperature was also comfortable at56 degrees.
The CPU utilization also remained around 47-50% without much change, and I didn’t notice it spike.FPSDLSS + Frame Generation OFF at High SettingsAverage70Maximum80Minimum65
Ghost of Tsushima isalmost a perfect PC port. Why do I say almost? Well, it would be fully perfect if it didn’t have its set of issues. My time with the game included minor glitches, such as textures not loading in a few scenarios and thescreen flickeringin dark cutscenes (especially at the start of the game). Thankfully, they weren’t that frequent to harm the game’s overall experience.
Additionally, the FSR 3.1 frame generation is currently not working for many players, crashing the game after selecting the settings.Other than that,I faced a particular issue of textures and shaders not loading, replaced by green flashes. This was not frequent, but it definitely put my experience off, especially during cutscenes where you are engrossed in the story.Image Courtesy: In-game Screenshot (Captured by Sanmay Chakrabarti)
All these issues aside, the game feels particularly smooth during the combat, and the occasional spikes and drops only occur while traveling through the beautiful graphically intensive areas in the game, keeping the game unaffected.
Putting a few problems aside, the Ghost of Tsushima port is a fantastic game, and I would recommend it to every gamer. The game can run completely offline and doesn’t require a PSN account if you only want to play the single-player version.
An old soul who loves CRPGs and Souls-Like to death. Takes pleasure in simplifying “Complex and Hard” games for casual players with tailored guides and videos. He loves to explore new places, read fantasy fiction, watch anime, and create wacky character builds in his off time.
