Black Myth: Wukong System Requirements & PC Benchmark

Black Myth: Wukong, developed by Game Science on a heavily customized build of Unreal Engine 5, presents one of the most taxing real-time rendering workloads in modern PC gaming. The game relies on micro-polygon geometry virtualization (Nanite), dynamic indirect global illumination (Lumen), and a full hardware path-tracing pipeline implemented in direct partnership with NVIDIA. Rather than relying on traditional discrete Level of Detail (LOD) pop-in, Nanite streams geometry clusters dynamically through GPU compute passes. This architectural approach shifts the primary rendering bottleneck away from raw draw-call counts on the CPU and places it squarely on GPU compute capability, cache residency, and memory bandwidth.

Black Myth: Wukong Minimum System Requirements (1080p 30 FPS Low)

To achieve a consistent 30 FPS baseline at 1080p using Low settings with temporal upscaling (TSR or AMD FSR set to 50% internal resolution scale), the baseline hardware requires a 6-core processor, 16 GB of system RAM, and a graphics processor with at least 6 GB of dedicated VRAM:

• Operating System: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
• Processor (CPU): Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
• Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)
• Video Memory (VRAM): 6 GB dedicated memory minimum (cards with 4 GB suffer severe paging stutters)
• System Memory (RAM): 16 GB RAM (dual-channel configuration recommended)
• DirectX: Version 12 (DirectX 11 is not supported)
• Storage: 130 GB available space on a Solid State Drive (NVMe M.2 or SATA SSD mandatory)

Black Myth: Wukong Recommended System Requirements (1080p 60 FPS High)

For native-level visual fidelity targeting 60 FPS at 1080p High settings (rasterized, without Full Ray Tracing), hardware requirements scale noticeably in GPU shading units and memory bus width:

• Operating System: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
• Processor (CPU): Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 5 5500
• Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB), AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB), or Intel Arc A750 (8 GB)
• System Memory (RAM): 16 GB dual-channel RAM
• Storage: 130 GB on an NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive for seamless virtual texture streaming

Ray Tracing & 4K Ultra System Requirements (Full Path Tracing Tier)

Enabling Full Ray Tracing replaces Unreal Engine 5’s software Lumen surface cache with hardware-accelerated path tracing. This computes multi-bounce indirect diffuse lighting, fully ray-traced reflections, and water caustics directly against the scene’s Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH). Because every light bounce is ray-marched through dedicated RT cores, this mode demands cutting-edge silicon and tensor-accelerated reconstruction:

• Ray Tracing Low (1080p 30 FPS, Low RT): Intel Core i5-9400 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600, paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB) and 16 GB RAM with DLSS Quality.
• Ray Tracing Medium (1080p 60 FPS, Medium RT): Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 5 5500, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 4070, and 16 GB RAM with DLSS Frame Generation enabled.
• Ray Tracing Ultra (4K 60 FPS, Very High RT): Intel Core i7-14700K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super (16 GB) or RTX 4090 (24 GB), 32 GB DDR5 RAM, and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction.

Performance Optimization: In-Game Graphics Settings for 60+ FPS

Benchmarking individual graphics toggles reveals significant performance deltas between presets. If your GPU struggles to hold 60 FPS, apply these specific adjustments:

• Super Resolution Scale (Sampling): Keep between 62% and 67% (Quality mode). Dropping below 50% introduces edge shimmering on dense foliage and character fur.
• Frame Generation: Enable only if your baseline frame rate without interpolation is already above 45 to 50 FPS. Enabling frame generation at sub-30 FPS baselines increases input latency, which directly degrades timing in combat dodges.
• Global Illumination: Set to Medium. High and Very High substantially increase ray step calculations in Lumen, yielding an 18% to 25% performance penalty in dense forests.
• Shadow Quality: Set to Medium. Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM) at High and Cinematic cost excessive GPU fillrate for marginal perceptual gain.
• Visual Effects: Set to Medium or High. Ultra induces frame pacing stutters during heavy elemental transformations.
• Hair Quality: High. High preserves strand rendering while avoiding the 10% compute penalty of Cinematic.
• Full Ray Tracing: Keep toggled Off on any GPU below an RTX 4070 or Radeon RX 7900 XT.

Technical Engine Analysis: Unreal Engine 5 Bottlenecks & VRAM Consumption

Black Myth: Wukong is distinctly GPU-bound across almost all gameplay scenarios. Its geometry pipeline processes millions of micro-triangles per frame, placing intense pressure on GPU rasterizers and raster cache. However, specific engine behaviors create notable secondary bottlenecks:

• DirectX 12 Shader Compilation: The initial launch executes an intensive Pipeline State Object (PSO) caching phase. Allow this process to finish completely; interrupting it forces runtime shader compiling that manifests as micro-stutters during boss encounters.
• VRAM Memory Pools: At 1080p, the game consumes roughly 5.8 GB to 6.5 GB of video memory. At 1440p High, consumption reaches 7.8 GB. Running on 8 GB cards at 1440p leaves virtually zero overhead for background applications; when VRAM saturates, frames drop precipitously as the driver swaps textures to system RAM over the PCIe bus. For 4K or any Ray Tracing tier, a 12 GB or 16 GB buffer is strictly required.
• Storage I/O & Nanite Streaming: Running Black Myth: Wukong on a mechanical hard drive is unfeasible. Nanite and Virtual Texturing constantly stream high-resolution mipmaps and mesh clusters from disk. A PCIe NVMe SSD prevents the audio desync and streaming pauses common on legacy storage.

To benchmark and compare your system with other heavy modern titles, consult our performance guides for Monster Hunter Wilds PC system requirements, God of War Ragnarök PC performance, and The Last of Us Part I benchmarks. You can also explore our full database of tested titles in the PCRunIt Games Directory.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I run Black Myth: Wukong without an SSD?
An SSD is mandatory. While the game will launch on an HDD, streaming Nanite geometry and high-resolution textures will produce frequent hitching, asset pop-in, and cutscene desynchronization.

Is Black Myth: Wukong playable on the Steam Deck?
Yes, with significant compromises. To maintain 30 to 38 FPS, graphics settings must be set to Low, TSR set to 50% render scale, and Frame Generation enabled to smooth frame pacing on the handheld’s display.

How do AMD Radeon graphics cards perform in Black Myth: Wukong?
AMD Radeon RX 6000 and RX 7000 series GPUs run well in standard rasterization mode using FSR 3 upscaling. However, when Full Ray Tracing (Path Tracing) is enabled, NVIDIA RTX architectures maintain a distinct lead due to dedicated ray tracing silicon and DLSS Ray Reconstruction.

Check system stability with the interactive benchmark simulator above, or consult the official Black Myth: Wukong Steam page for the latest developer updates.