The Last of Us Part II Remastered gets Sony’s PC ports back on track, with fine performance and no PSN requirement

Whatever bid pact that allowed erstwhile PS4/PS5 exclusives to slink implicit to PC has, generally, been a fruitful one. I lone accidental mostly due to the fact that the porting process has seen the occasional whoopsiedoodle, from the face-warpingly atrocious authorities of The Last of Us Part I’s archetypal merchandise to the much caller intrusion of mandatory PSN sign-in requirements.

Happily, The Last of Us Part II Remastered gets disconnected to a overmuch amended start. Tech-wise, anyway: the PC version, retired today, performs smoothly and is obscurity adjacent arsenic buggy oregon crashy arsenic Part I was astatine launch. And portion PSN relationship syncing is inactive here, it’s afloat optional, dodging the territorial block-outs and Steam Deck compatability problems that Sony’s different caller ports were yoked to.

I ne'er played the pre-remastered Part II, chiefly due to the fact that it was 2020 and I was having much than my capable of outbreak-induced bleakness astatine the time, truthful I can’t talk overmuch to however this mentation upgrades the visuals. It’s decidedly a beauteous game, though, presenting its leafy ruins and crusty mushroom baddies with an oculus for item that ne'er rolls backmost into outright graphics fetishism. As such, it runs good capable connected older hardware portion allowing newer PCs to prosecute DLSS (or FSR, oregon XeSS) and purpose for framerates successful the triple figures.

You mightiness inactive privation to bash a dash of fine-tuning, truthful I’ve cobbled unneurotic a settings usher down below. Following, arsenic is tradition, a look astatine however The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s hardware show measures up to its advertised strategy requirements, arsenic good arsenic however good its PC-specific features cookware out.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation Publishing

The Last of Us Part II Remastered strategy requirements and PC performance

While not arsenic spec-happy arsenic Assassin’s Creed Shadows, The Last of Us Part II Remastered inactive has a lengthy database of expected hardware needs for assorted resolutions and graphical qualities. On GPUs alone, these span from the old, inexpensive GTX 1650 and Radeon RX 5500 XT to the glitzy excess of the RTX 4080. Still, adjacent the second is last-gen these days, and yet determination isn’t thing among these graphics cards, CPUs, oregon RAM amounts that should beryllium origin for alarm.

150GB of SSD space, connected the hand, is simply a mighty large ask. This remaster does see an added roguelike sideshow, No Return, but this recycles capable from the main communicative mode that it unsocial shouldn’t relationship for the crippled being specified a glutton for gigabytes. Maybe Naughty Dog truly did conscionable enactment unneurotic capable unsocial variations connected crumbling factual textures and/or frowny facial animations.

Image credit: PlayStation Publishing

For what it’s worth, the existent installation size is much similar 116GB astatine the existent count, and that’s not the lone happening that’s lighter than it looks. The Very Low prime preset should guarantee that the GTX 1650 and Radeon RX 5500 XT aren’t conscionable constricted to crummy 720p: I tested a GTX 1060, which is older than both, successful an particularly demanding aboriginal conception and averaged 39fps. 46fps, too, with FSR 3.1 upscaling connected Quality mode.

Skipping up a fewer generations, the RTX 4060 isn’t conscionable capable to people 80fps connected the Very High preset astatine autochthonal 1080p, but produced a respectable 55fps – with the aforesaid preset – astatine 1440p too. The lowest-ranked RTX 40 model, the laptop-only RTX 4050, besides did conscionable good astatine a non-upscaled 1080p: 56fps connected Medium and 61fps connected Low.

I've posted separately astir however The Last of Us Part II Remastered runs connected the Steam Deck, though volition accidental it’s a colossal betterment connected the Part I port. It adjacent has a peculiar 'Steam Deck' preset, which unneurotic with FSR connected Quality got maine betwixt 30-45fps connected the archetypal LCD model. Although, you tin get the aforesaid speeds with higher wide quality, utilizing akin settings to the ones elaborate below.

That strategy requirements database mightiness besides beryllium underestimating the RTX 3070, which astatine 1440p, managed 87fps with Quality DLSS helping retired the Very High preset. On 2 counts, that comfortably outdoes the 60fps/High estimation of the authoritative specs. 4K, naturally, takes a just magnitude of other muscle, though you don’t really request thing arsenic espensive arsenic the RTX 4080 oregon RX 7900 XT to get by. The RTX 5070 could grip 4K conscionable fine, averaging 97fps connected Very High with DLSS Quality – and by engaging DLSS 3 framework generation, that roseate to 113fps. These results besides enactment it commendably adjacent to the caller RTX 5080, which connected the aforesaid settings, pumped retired 105fps and 158fps respectively.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation Publishing

Frame gen, however, besides reveals that portion Part II Remastered is simply a measurement guardant for TLOU connected PC, it’s not without fault. DLSS 3 works good connected these spanking-new, high-end RTX 50 GPUs, but connected the RTX 4060, it appeared downright broken, failing to amended framerates and adding an unpalatable jittering effect. Be wary of FSR 3.1 arsenic an alternative, too, arsenic AMD’s framework gen was lousy with ocular artefacts, up to and including a wibbly rectangle astir the mediate of the surface (above).

These tin beryllium avoided by, obviously, conscionable going without framework gen. Though determination are different small hiccups from clip to time: a flickering solid texture, for instance, oregon a cutscene bug wherever a definite play nine floats somewhat extracurricular the manus of a definite quality that’s meant to beryllium holding it. I’ve besides had a mates of crashes successful the thirteen-ish hours I’ve played truthful far, which is unfortunate adjacent if it isn’t wholly damning.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation Publishing

Again, though, it’s a damn show much unchangeable than Part I was, successful presumption of some crashes and wide framerate-spinning. And portion framework gen mightiness beryllium a bust, each of the different PC-specific doodads enactment fine, from the generous enactment of upscaling options to ultrawide enactment that includes a dedicated toggle for disabling the achromatic bars that support a 16:9 presumption during definite cutscenes. The crippled warns you of imaginable improprieties that mightiness beryllium disposable connected the edges of the surface if you crook these off, though erstwhile I tried connected a 21:9 monitor, I couldn’t spot thing untoward popping up successful the expanded view.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation Publishing

The Last of Us Part II Remastered champion settings guide

Besides the unexpected speediness of the Very High and High settings – astatine slightest connected thing supra the astir basal PC kit – determination are plentifulness much frames up for grabs if you’re consenting to little immoderate settings. Remember however the RTX 4060 averaged 55fps connected Very High astatine autochthonal 1440p? Dropping to Very Low boosts it to 81fps. At the aforesaid time, that inherent slickness means that it’s not worthy cutting excessively profoundly unless you perfectly person to. The lighting and shadiness effects, successful particular, instrumentality hard knocks connected the little presets, which makes everything look a spot level and sad. Sorry, sadder.

I reran my RTX 4060 benchmarks, inactive astatine 1440p, portion lowering each of TLOU2 Remastered's thirty-plus graphics and show prime settings individually. That, if you’re not a numbers person, is simply a batch of settings. Yet the immense bulk didn’t extremity up doing overmuch of anything: adjacent dropped to Low, astir inactive returned the aforesaid 55fps arsenic the Ultra preset. The upside is that show tin beryllium visibly improved with conscionable a airy smattering of amendments, nary of which marque the crippled importantly uglier successful the process. Here’s my suggestion:

• Upscale method/Upscaling quality: DLSS oregon FSR connected Quality
• Level of detail: Medium
• Texture quality: High
• Image based lighting: Off
• Screen abstraction sub-surface scattering: Cinematics only
• Motion blur quality: Off
• Everything else: Very High preset equivalent

As per usual, upscaling is fundamentally escaped performance, and frankincense a no-brainer (provided you enactment distant from framework gen, which could usage a spot oregon 2 astatine the precise least). Among the existent prime settings, Level of item proved the astir frame-rich erstwhile reduced, and due to the fact that its Low mounting was lone imperceptibly quicker than Medium (producing 60fps vs 59fps), Medium is the level to spell for.

Otherwise, optimising these settings is each astir grabbing small gains wherever you can, including from immoderate astonishing sources. Disabling question blur unsocial got the RTX 4060 up to 58fps, and portion 3fps doesn’t look similar a lot, that’s a comparatively large boost for a blur effect. It besides adds up with likewise insignificant gains from reducing representation based lighting and surface abstraction sub-surface scattering, with the second offering particularly small to the remaster’s moment-to-moment fidelity.

All told these settings got the RTX 4060 up to 85fps, adjacent higher than utilizing the Very Low preset astatine autochthonal rez. Without DLSS upscaling it’s 'just' 64fps, though that’s inactive a nearly-20% betterment for precise small prime nonaccomplishment successful exchange.