Every step closer we get to 8K gaming, something crops up to highlight it’s still a pipe dream for new titles. The latest Unreal Engine 5.4 (UE5) demo made by Scans Factory absolutely hammers your GPU to within an inch of its maximum capabilities. With how it even brings Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 to its knees, it reminds me of just how ruthless the legendary CryEngine was back in the day.
Debuting a new level of graphical detail, Forgotten Cemetary uses over 200 highly detailed assets, many made via photogrammetry. Add to that Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite tessellation and Lumen lighting, and you get a true-to-life 3D world. As you can imagine, it’s a scene that ultimately requires the best graphics cards money can buy just to be able to run above 30fps.
On a GeForce RTX 4080, for example, YouTube channel MxBenchmarkPC got around 32fps at 4K resolution. This figure increased to the 60s when taking shelter indoors and exploring less demanding areas. While great visually, the engine seems to still have room for optimisations. In some instances, much more complex scenes deliver better performance than ones you would assume are less taxing.
My Radeon RX 7900 XT, on the other hand, managed to draw between 52fps in open areas and high 80s indoors, though at 1440p which has less than half the pixel count. In other words, I should get around 25fps at 4K. Ouch.
Is this level of graphical detail worth the performance hit? As with most things, it depends on who you ask. Personally, I’d rather go one step lower in settings to get higher frame rates, as long as the game doesn’t turn into a potato. Now, if torturing your PC interests you, you can download the demo (5.1GB) from here.