Ahead of the full release next week, a Black Myth Wukong benchmarking tool has gone live on Steam, and it’s free to downaload. This will allow you to test your gaming PC and find the perfect settings before you play the full game, and I’ve been left impressed with the results that have come through so far, even though it fails to offer a peek at combat performance.
I’m not using the very best graphics card you can buy for this testing, instead I’m using the same Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 that we use for general game settings tests. It’s a great mid-range option in general and, based on this demo, it will make for a decent choice for playing Black Myth: Wukong too.
Running Black Myth: Wukong on the Very High preset that was selected for me by default, and at 2,560 x 1,440, my gaming rig produced an 82fps average with a low of 73fps, and a high of 96fps. With the exception of one major spike when first running the test, the benchmark ran smoothly and was visually stunning every other time.
Things only got prettier when bumping up to the Cinematic preset, where the performance took a small hit and dropped to a 75fps average, thanks to a generally slightly higher level of settings such as shadow quality, anti-aliasing, and view distance. There were no major spikes or drops, meaning the minimum sat at an impressively high 63fps, while the maximum was 86fps.
Finally, I ran the Cinematic preset one last time, but with ray tracing set to max settings. Here is where I expected my gaming PC to struggle, but remarkably, the result was a 58fps average with lows of 48fps and highs of 72fps.
Each test was run with Nvidia DLSS set to Quality mode, which in the Black Myth: Wukong settings is represented as a sliding resolution scale. It’s not possible to disable DLSS, FSR, or Intel XeSS, but you can set them to their lowest possible setting. Frame generation was also enabled in each test.
For context, my colleague also ran the benchmark at 4k with frame generation disabled and DLSS set to DLAA (no upscaling, just anti-aliasing), and an RTX 4070 Super could deliver a 25fps average, and that’s without ray tracing, so clearly this game has the potential to seriously stress even high-end hardware. That said, turning on frame generation and this figure jumped straight up to 40fps.
While I was left impressed with the results my gaming PC achieved in the benchmark, I’m left with questions over why the stunning combat sequences we’re seen in promotional material are entirely absent from the benchmark. It inherently raises the question of whether the game’s performance will be quite so consistent when there’s combat involved.
If you love special edition graphics cards, check out this Black Myth: Wukong design from MSI, although sadly it appears you can’t buy one… yet. Also, remember you can get Black Myth Wukong for free with certain new Nvidia GPU purchases.