Spider-Man 2 Thwips Onto Steam with User-Friendly PC Requirements

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 swings onto PC today, January 30th, and its PC port boasts impressive features and broad hardware compatibility. Developer Nixxes Software, in a PlayStation Blog post, detailed the extensive PC optimizations designed for "finetuned performance and fidelity across a wide range of hardware configurations."

A new trailer showcases the enhanced PC version, notably dropping the PSN requirement and integrating advanced ray tracing features, including DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction. Nixxes graphics programmer Menno Bil highlighted the improvements: "With ray reconstruction enabled, we see more detailed ray-traced reflections and better-defined ray-traced shadows... improvements in the ray-traced interiors and less ghosting and noise in the ray-traced ambient occlusion.”

The game also supports DLSS 3 and FSR 3.1 upscaling and frame generation technologies, along with Intel XeSS. 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 quality.

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 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 RAM.

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

Despite this, the broad range of supported configurations has been widely praised online, with Reddit users commending the comprehensive system requirements. The positive reception suggests high expectations for the game's performance across various PC setups.