Capcom’s highly anticipated Dragon’s Dogma 2 has arrived with high expectations, yet the PC version quickly reveals a series of significant shortcomings that undermine its potential. Despite the reputation of Capcom’s RE Engine, known for its scalability and impressive performance on various hardware, this latest release struggles with optimization, stability, and overall gameplay experience. As players delve into the game, it becomes evident that the technical issues are more than just minor hiccups—they threaten to overshadow the game’s visual splendor and gameplay mechanics.
Even the best settings for Dragon’s Dogma 2 struggle
Dragon’s Dogma 2 features a familiar set of graphics options that enthusiasts will recognize if they’ve played other titles built on the RE Engine. After extensive testing and tinkering with the settings, I found that the optimal configuration still leaves much to be desired in terms of performance. Here are the adjustments I recommend for a more playable experience:
- Rendering Mode: Progressive
- Image Quality: Default
- Ray Tracing: Off (though enabling it can improve image quality if your hardware permits)
- Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
- Anti-aliasing: TAA
- Screen Space Reflections: Off
- Mesh Quality: Mid
- Texture Filtering: High (ANISO x4)
- Grass/Tree Quality: Mid
- Effects Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Shadow Cache: On
- Contact Shadows: On
- Motion Blur: Off
- Bloom: On
- Depth of Field: Off
- Lens Flare: On
- Lenses Distortion: On
- Subsurface Scattering: Off
- Motion Quality: High
This configuration serves as a solid starting point, but it highlights inherent issues with the engine’s performance. Notably, enabling ray tracing—despite supporting global illumination—can severely impact frame rates, especially on less capable hardware. The trade-off between visual fidelity and performance becomes glaringly apparent, as even enabling SSAO provides a noticeable depth enhancement without crippling frame rates.
The anti-aliasing options in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are also worth discussing. The game supports both Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) and FXAA, but turning off anti-aliasing produces significant flickering and visual artifacts—particularly in shadow rendering. Therefore, keeping anti-aliasing enabled is essential to maintain a visually smooth experience, even if it comes at a slight performance cost.
A crash course
Beyond performance issues, stability remains a major concern. Crashes are frequent, especially during gameplay or when entering towns crowded with NPCs, despite running on high-end hardware. The first step in troubleshooting involves updating your graphics drivers from Nvidia, AMD, or Intel, as driver support is crucial. Additionally, verifying game files via Steam can often resolve file corruption issues that cause crashes.
A tip I discovered involves deleting the “shader.cache2” file from the game’s installation folder. Since Dragon’s Dogma 2 compiles shaders on startup, corrupt or outdated cache files can trigger startup crashes. Removing this cache forces the game to rebuild shaders, which can resolve startup failures. Other measures include setting a frame rate cap—helpful for preventing instability—and disabling ray tracing if you encounter persistent crashes.
The developers have promised future patches to improve stability and performance. Until then, updating your GPU drivers and Windows is essential, alongside patience for official fixes.
Don’t believe the Dragon’s Dogma 2 system requirements
Capcom’s official specifications paint an optimistic picture, recommending an Intel Core i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X paired with an RTX 2080 or RX 6700 to achieve around 30 fps at 4K. However, real-world performance tells a different story. Even with a top-tier setup such as an Intel Core i9-13900K and RTX 4090, I faced frame rates between 40 and 50 fps in towns at 4K. Lower-tier but still capable hardware—like a Ryzen 7 5800X3D paired with an RTX 4070—struggles to maintain 40 fps outside towns, revealing that the game’s optimization is lacking.
The minimum and recommended specs listed by Capcom are misleading, especially in CPU-intensive scenarios. The game heavily taxes even high-end CPUs, with poor frame pacing and micro-stuttering in towns, regardless of hardware. It’s advisable to have a modern GPU, such as an RTX 30-series or AMD equivalent, and a recent CPU to mitigate some of these issues, but expectations should be tempered.
Horrific town performance in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Towns in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are a notorious bottleneck, primarily due to CPU limitations. Even with the most powerful current CPUs, including the Ryzen 7 5800X3D or Intel Core i9-13900K, I observed severe stuttering and frame drops upon entering populated areas. Lower graphics settings and advanced upscaling techniques like DLSS or FSR do little to alleviate the problem because the core issue is CPU overload, not GPU performance.
In one example, I tested with an RTX 4070 and Ryzen 7 5800X3D at the lowest graphics settings. Despite these respectable components, performance remained choppy, and enabling DLSS’s Ultra Performance mode at 4K did not improve the experience. The game’s optimization simply cannot handle the dense NPC populations in towns, forcing players to reduce CPU load manually—something no one wants to do.
Similarly, loading into caves or other environments triggers loading hitches, further emphasizing the game’s inconsistent frame times. Asset streaming and environment loading are suspect, leading to stuttering far from what modern hardware should deliver.
Tricky upscaling options
Dragon’s Dogma 2 supports Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR, including its own dynamic resolution feature. Both methods enhance performance, especially in open-world areas, but they do little to fix the CPU bottlenecks that cause major drops in frame rate. Resolution scaling can help with GPU load, but it doesn’t address the fundamental CPU limitations.
There is something peculiar about the FSR 3 implementation. Although listed as an upscaling and frame generation feature, it appears only to perform upscaling. If FSR 3 is indeed generating frames, that feature isn’t functioning properly here. From my tests, FSR 3’s upscaling produces a sharper image than DLSS, especially with the sharpening slider cranked up, but stability and performance remain inconsistent. DLSS still maintains a slight edge in stability and clarity, especially around delicate details like cloth and layered textures.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 on PC: the verdict
Dragon’s Dogma 2 on PC is a demanding and somewhat poorly optimized release. The game’s stunning visuals are marred by frequent stutters, especially in towns, and crashes that can disrupt the experience. Capcom has acknowledged these issues and promised future patches to improve stability and performance, but for now, players must accept a rough ride.
The game is playable, and with some patience, you can enjoy its world, but it’s far from the polished experience many hoped for. Expect ongoing updates, and in the meantime, prioritize updating your drivers and Windows to mitigate some of the most glaring issues. Until the developers deliver meaningful fixes, be prepared for a bumpy journey through Capcom’s ambitious but flawed PC launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2.