Spider-Man 2 Swings Onto Steam With Forgiving PC Specs

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 swings onto PC today, January 30th, and its PC port boasts impressive features and broad hardware compatibility. Developed by Nixxes Software, the port prioritizes optimized performance and visual fidelity across a wide range of systems.

The PlayStation Blog details the enhanced PC features, including the removal of the PSN requirement and the addition of advanced ray tracing capabilities such as DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction. According to Nixxes graphics programmer Menno Bil, this results in "more detailed ray-traced reflections and better-defined ray-traced shadows," along with improvements to interior ray tracing and reduced ghosting and noise.

Further enhancing visual quality are DLSS 3 and FSR 3.1 upscaling and frame generation technologies, with Intel XeSS also supported. While DLSS 4's Multi-Frame Generation isn't directly supported, users can potentially leverage the Nvidia app to utilize the newer transformer model for improved DLSS 3 frame generation.

Ultrawide monitor support extends to an impressive 48:9 aspect ratio, with cinematics viewable up to 32:9.

System requirements are categorized into ray-traced and non-ray-traced configurations. For players prioritizing performance over ray tracing, a modest system with an Nvidia GTX 1650, Intel Core i3 8100, and 16GB of RAM can achieve 720p at 30 FPS. High-end configurations targeting 4K 60 FPS with "Ray Tracing Ultimate" require an RTX 4090, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and 32GB of RAM.

Steam Deck compatibility remains uncertain due to the relatively high RAM requirements and need for a modern graphics card. Unlike the previous Spider-Man titles which had PS4 ports, Spider-Man 2's PS5 origins may present greater hardware demands.

Despite this, the broad range of supported configurations has garnered significant positive feedback online, with many praising the comprehensive and accessible system requirements.