Urban Dreams: Unleashing the Potential of Cities: Skylines 2 on PC

Cities: Skylines 2 PC Performance and System Requirements

Cities: Skylines 2, the highly anticipated city-building sequel, has been met with mixed reviews regarding its PC performance and system requirements. Developers Colossal Order initially set high system requirements for the game, but have admitted that they have not achieved the performance benchmark they intended. As a result, future improvements through patches are promised.

The updated official system requirements for Cities: Skylines 2 do not demand excessive amounts of RAM or storage. However, the demands on the CPU and GPU are significant, particularly considering that these requirements are meant for 1080p gameplay. Mid-range or low-end PCs may struggle to run the game smoothly.

Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 10
• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K / AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
• RAM: 8GB
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon RX 480
• Storage: 60GB available space

Recommended System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 / 11
• CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
• Storage: 60GB available space

These hardware requirements are accurate and honest. Although newer and more powerful GPUs may struggle with the game, older GPUs, such as the GTX 970 and Radeon RX 480, are still capable of running the game, albeit not at optimal performance. Owners of high-end PCs may find that even at 1440p or 4K resolutions, the game does not run smoothly.

The Challenge of Running Cities: Skylines 2

One of the main challenges with running Cities: Skylines 2 smoothly is the game’s unreasonable performance demands for its Medium and High graphics presets. While the game can run well at the Very Low preset, the visual quality suffers due to a dynamic resolution setting that sacrifices sharpness and clarity. The game lacks modern performance technologies such as DLSS support and the newer FSR versions from AMD, leaving players with limited options to improve performance without sacrificing visuals.

Another performance issue faced by players is stuttering, which occurs frequently regardless of the average frame rate. Additionally, even the recently released Steam Deck struggles to handle the game, experiencing frame rate drops and difficulty in reading certain text due to the preset’s resolution scale cuts.

Optimizing Graphics Settings for Better Performance

While there are numerous graphics settings in Cities: Skylines 2 that can be tweaked, focusing on the essential ones can help improve performance while maintaining visual quality. By experimenting with these settings, players can strike a better balance between performance and visuals.

Here are the recommended settings:

• Volumetrics quality settings: Disabled
• Ray Steps: 16 (Advanced settings, in Global illumination quality)
• Depth of field quality: Disabled
• Motion blur: Disabled
• Level of detail: Low
• Max Light count: 8192 (Advanced settings, in Level of detail section)

By implementing these settings, players can expect a significant improvement in performance. However, it is important to note that even with these settings, the game may not achieve a consistently high frame rate, especially on lower-end and mid-range hardware. As Cities: Skylines 2 prioritizes detailed simulations over fast-paced gameplay, players may find that visuals take precedence over performance.

Advice and Conclusion

While it is disappointing that Cities: Skylines 2 launched with suboptimal PC performance and demanding system requirements, it is important to remember that the game is a work in progress. The developers have acknowledged the need for improvements and have promised future patches to address these issues.

For players with mid-range or low-end PCs, it may be necessary to lower graphics settings or resolution to achieve smoother gameplay. It is worth experimenting with the recommended settings mentioned above and considering the use of AMD’s FSR 1.0 upscaling filter to improve performance without sacrificing too much visual quality.

Despite the performance challenges, Cities: Skylines 2 remains a highly detailed and immersive city-building experience. If players are willing to adjust their expectations and find the right balance between performance and visuals, they can still enjoy the game.