Old games with high GPU requirements (and look great)

i have a pretty good GPU now.

besides crysis, what old games can i go back and play on ultra-super-max settings and would still give my GPU a good workout?

or what games looked really good on ultra at the time but struggled to deliver fps, and would now be a joke for a modern high end GPU?

87 points · 38 comments · view on lemmy.world

38 Comments

Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip · 50 pts · 355d (6 replies)

What’s your threshold for “old”?

Couple more demanding games / difficult to run at launch that come to mind for me:

Cyberpunk 2077 is about to be 5 years old (2020)

Red Dead Redemption 2’s PC Port is about to be 6 years old (late 2019)

Metro Exodus is coming up on 7 (early 2019)

If this is your first foray into Ray Tracing capable cards, Control makes good use if that feature (Mid 2019)

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider was used as a benchmark for years (2018)

As you start going older than that, even the Steam Deck ends up being very capable.

People had a rough time with Batman Arkham Knight, still looks pretty IMO (2015)

If you’re looking for games that are coming up on 15-20 years old, like Crysis:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R (2007)

Metro 2033 (2010)

Rage (2011)

Doom 3 (2005)

Elder Scrolls Oblivion (2006)

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 355d (5 replies)

RDR2 was one of the first things i tried to replay, but i was having weird problems with rockstar launcher (maybe only a problem on linux)

i'm playing gtaV enhanced maxed out. Looks great

Shadow of TR, great suggestion. I'll grab it on sale

Metro and stalker are great suggestions, but i'm really not into horror (i like to sleep at night)

Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 355d (3 replies)

There's a specific version of proton to use for RDR2. I believe it's Hotfix. Do a search for getting it to run on Steam Deck, because I recall there may have been a command line argument to add to get it to run.

Set proton to Experimental.

Set this as the launch options:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES=vulkan-1=n,b %command%

massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 9 pts · 354d

Wined L lover rides? Got it.

flying_centipede@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 354d

Thanks for the advice, but no-go for me on my Legion-Go with Bazzite. Tried deleting the Rockstar Games folder in Documents, tried Experimental/GE/Hotfix Protons, tried combining the two each time, tried using Cloudflare DNS, tried yelling at it...

It kills me that all my other R* games run fine, launcher included, just RDR2 has this issue.

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 354d

Thanks. It wasnt a proton issue. The game runs OK randomly if the rockstar launcher signs in properly. Otherwise it just stalls and the rockstar launcher throws an error saying the game is already running

massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 3 pts · 354d

If you're interested in TR, then also try the Uncharted collection.

Great looking and it plays without hiccups (had a couple of crashes in specific places due to forcing my GPU).

Note though: has a bumpy start but after the first level it is all smooth sailing.

who@feddit.org · 16 pts · 355d (6 replies)

How about Skyrim with a bunch of heavyweight ENB effects?

dukemirage@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 354d (5 replies)

ENB is not state of the art for visually modding Skyrim anymore, and modding would be artificially reducing fps anyway. They could as well run a number cruncher in the background.

BlackVenom@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 354d (4 replies)

Add something productive like what an alternative to ENB would be.

dukemirage@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 353d (3 replies)

The easiest way to install a modlist is Wabbajack. Unfortunately I don’t have a specific recommendation.

who@feddit.org · 2 pts · 353d (1 reply)

Wabbajack is not an alternative to ENB.

dukemirage@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 351d

Yes but visual overhauls with modlists perform and look better than ENB solutions.

BlackVenom@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 352d

So ENB may still be state of the art?

brb@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 354d (1 reply)

Minecraft with rtx + texture pack + shaders

Holytimes@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 354d

That shit still will bring a 5090 to its knees.

x1gma@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 354d (1 reply)

In addition to all the suggestions - check out modding databases like nexusmods or whatever. Many older games that would not fit your definition have graphical mods that will make your GPU work.

Personally I've played modded stalker, fallout, elder scrolls. Hell, you can make Minecraft look absolutely amazing, but it's a pain to set up properly. You've mentioned you're not into horror games, some games also have total conversions available that do a some genre bending too.

Cyberpunk is not that old, but it's one of the best looking games ever made IMHO.

Witcher 3, also potentially with mods.

ohshit604@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 353d

PSA Se7enSins has helped me find some really obscure and cool mods in the past, they’ve been around for decades. Worth keeping an eye on relevant forums.

ICastFist@programming.dev · 10 pts · 354d (3 replies)

Total War games, like Shogun 2, Rome 2, Three Kingdoms or any of the newer Warhammer TW. It sucks that blood is a fucking dlc on those games

Titanfall 2

Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal

Monster Hunter World (currently on sale, too)

Max Payne 3

Metal Gear Solid 5

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 354d

Oh damn, that's a good one! i never got to watch a battle in total war with max number of troops

blackfire@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 354d (1 reply)

Isn't doom optimised to work on a toaster? The others I agree with

bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 354d

I think they mean for high/max settings.

xep@discuss.online · 9 pts · 355d

Any of the Battlefield titles look pretty great.

tomatoely@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 354d

not that old (2019) but Control with RT and Ultra quality will probably stress it some, looks really nice too!

Brkdncr@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 355d

Mechwarrior 2 had a Titanium Edition that really stepped up the gfx.

AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 354d

Age of Empires, Definitive Edition is honestly amazing to look at. Cities Skylines with mods and all DLC. Fallout NV with mods can get insanely good looking. Just cause 2 and Just Cause 3 are both beautiful at ultra settings. Star Wars The Old Republic gets fairly pretty for an MMO. Obligatory EvE Online, just don't try to play the game. Took me 16 years to win EvE.

B0NK3RS@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 354d (1 reply)

The Division is almost 10 years old and the environment is one of the best ever created.

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 354d

Thanks for the reminder. That was on my wishlist for a while. Totally forgot

Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com · 7 pts · 355d

I know you said Crysis (1?), but I think Crysis 3 still looks great

nanoswarm9k@lemmus.org · 7 pts · 354d

Morrowind with ALL the good mods. So many.

noughtnaut@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 353d (1 reply)

I had the bright idea to run Carmageddon many, many years after I got a "proper" video card!

...It was still just 256 colours VGA pixelation central. Didn't use the video card at all. 😂 Still fun though!

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 353d

Classic openGL software rendering.... kids these days dont know what they're missing

Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 354d

Cities in Motion 1 with the free look and largest size maps mods. Even at 1440p (not to mention 4K) it will bring a modern CPU to its knees in the mid to late game if you completely disable fog.

Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 354d
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metalaco@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 353d

Maybe Uncharted 4?

wesker@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 355d

Unreal.

Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 354d

Battlefield 5 is quite good.

I'd say BF2042 but its a glitchy mess

Elevator7009@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 354d

Friendly reminder for those looking here about !videogamesuggestions@lemmy.zip. (Stuck this question on the thread of links to video game suggestion threads started outside the community, so no need to repost at my community.) Wish I could answer your question but I always just happily played on whatever graphics my laptop would run and paid high-end graphics zero attention, so no idea. Fun question though!

orochi02@feddit.org · 1 pts · 354d

Call of Duty till mw3/bo2