Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 - PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards and Processors
We conducted a review and benchmarks Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2 on video cards of different generations, starting from RTX 3060 to RTX 5090 и RX 6700 to RX 9070 XT and various processors AMD и Intel. Revealed the real system requirements, real SPF, and also during the tests we conducted we assessed graphic display quality the game itself.
| THE GRAFICAL PART |
This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.
| Supported OS and Graphics API |
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is being developed Unreal Engine 5 with an emphasis on a dark atmosphere, detailed lighting, and detailed interiors of Seattle at night. The game uses DirectX 12, supports DLSS and FSR, as well as modern post-processing effects, including realistic light scattering and reflections. The project is optimized for both mid-range systems and powerful next-generation graphics cards.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 System Requirements
Minimal:
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OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
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Processor: Intel Core i3-8350K / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
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Memory: 8 GB
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Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 480 (8 GB) / Intel Arc A580 (8 GB, Resizable BAR enabled) / AMD Radeon 780M
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DirectX: 12
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Storage: 30 GB
Recommended:
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OS: Windows 11 (64 bit)
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Processor: Intel Core i5-12600K / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
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Memory: 16 GB
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Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB)
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DirectX: 12
| DEVELOPMENT HISTORY |
Bloodlines 2 has become one of the most high-profile and simultaneously most disturbing developments of recent years. Initially announced back in 2019, it was conceived as a direct sequel to the cult 2004 action RPG. Work began at Hardsuit Labs, published by Paradox Interactive, with the ambition to recapture the original's atmosphere and depth—with vampires, politics, social mechanics, and rich lore.
However, development proved extremely challenging. Technical difficulties combined with internal personnel changes: Hardsuit Labs lost key members, the project was rebooted, and in 2021, work was transferred to another team, The Chinese Room. Under the new leadership, the game's concept underwent significant changes: the character became fixed (the player does not create a completely new personality, as fans expected), some mechanics of the traditional RPG format were simplified or eliminated, and the open-world scale was reduced in favor of a more linear, story-driven approach.
Finally, after numerous delays, the game launched on October 21, 2025, on PC and major consoles. However, the launch was met with mixed reviews: fans of the original had expected extensive freedom of action, character customization, multiple clans, and the ability to shape the world—and some of these expectations weren't fully realized. The developers explained that they had decided to focus on "quality over scale," but many players perceived this as a reduction in capabilities.
Ultimately, Bloodlines 2 turned out to be something of a compromise: on the one hand, the atmosphere, setting, and lore remained recognizable, on the other, the scale and depth were smaller than many had hoped. This made the game interesting, but not without a pinch of disappointment.
| GRAPHICS |
Visually, Bloodlines 2 looks quite impressive—but not without its caveats. The game takes place in a neo-noir version of Seattle, in winter, under the snow, in a harsh adaptation of the vampire theme. The city's architecture is stylized: tall buildings, neon signs, shadows, dawn and dusk, and snowfall create an atmosphere of loneliness and danger. The detailing of textures, character clothing, and environmental materials is all high: leather, fabric, metal, blood—everything looks harmonious.
In combat and exploration scenes, it's clear the developers have invested heavily in atmosphere: streetlights cast light on wet asphalt, reflecting in puddles, tree shadows swaying in the snowy silence, and halls and dungeons filled with twilight and ethereal light. The scenery is beautifully crafted: bas-reliefs, dust, smoke particles, and sparks create the feeling that the city is alive and breathing, even when you're wandering alone.
However, there are significant compromises. Although the engine is advertised as using modern technologies, ray tracing (RT reflections and RT shadows) officially does not work As a function, this means the game doesn't rely on cutting-edge visuals. Some distant objects and backgrounds appear simplified, building geometry can appear flat during fast camera movements, and textures of fine details sometimes lack definition. In densely populated scenes with multiple light sources and snow, performance suffers, and simplifications are visible—shadows become less realistic, and particle effects lose density.
The final verdict on the graphics is this: Bloodlines 2 is visually ambitious and atmospheric, but not revolutionary. It's a high-quality visual experience with character, but not a technological masterpiece.
| GAME ENGINE |
Bloodlines 2 PC version is coming to the game Unreal Engine 5 — The Chinese Room studio confirmed the use of UE5 as the technical base. The PC version features frame rate unlocking and flexible settings, allowing for higher than 60 fps on powerful systems, although many scenes are still limited by settings and load.
It's worth noting that the developers strived to optimize asset streaming: transitions between locations and loading textures and models are performed with shorter pauses than in many modern projects. However, users report micro-lags and performance drops, especially on mid-range systems when numerous effects, snow, dynamic lighting, and vehicle movement are enabled.
Enemy and ally AI has been reworked: while the mechanics are closer to an action game than a deep RPG, enemies react more frequently to light, sound, and your vampiric activity than in older RPGs. However, the system is far from perfect—players have noted a patterned enemy behavior and suspicious predictability. Customization and clans are scaled back compared to expectations: clan and skill selection are limited, reducing variety, although each clan's design is high-quality and distinct in style. This is a compromise between engine and design: less variety means less system load and greater stability.
It's important to note: the PC version of the game doesn't impose a hard frame rate lock—if your hardware allows it, you can achieve a smooth experience. However, there's no official guarantee of 120 fps or higher in all scenes, especially at high settings. Cutscenes are traditionally locked at around 30 fps, which is the norm for story-driven sequences.
In conclusion, Bloodlines 2's engine is modern, advanced, and designed for a stable PC version, but it sacrifices some visual and mechanical ambitions for stability and gameplay focus. If you have a capable system and are willing to customize the game, you'll get a decent experience; if not, you'll have to make compromises.
| QUALITY |
On the minimum settings Bloodlines 2 has a simplified look: building and clothing textures are noticeably less crisp, lighting is static, and shadows are low-resolution. The city appears dim and less deep, with neon signs and damp streets reflecting light in a simplified manner, lacking realistic material response. Indoors, there are noticeably fewer particle and smoke effects; the atmosphere is retained, but the visuals are less vibrant.
On the maximum settings Highly detailed textures, complex post-processing effects, soft dynamic shadows, and global illumination are activated. Surfaces become rich and three-dimensional—glass, metal, and fabric react naturally to light. Neon lights add depth to scenes, and indoor environments are enhanced with haze and soft brightness transitions. Visually, the game becomes cinematic and atmospheric, maintaining high clarity even during dynamic action.
| TEST PART |
Below you will find a table of equipment that was kindly provided by our sponsors: GIGABYTE, ASUS, Kingston и Deep Cool. It reflects the list of motherboards, video cards, memory modules and cooling systems used in the tests, and also indicates the current configuration of the operating system and drivers.
| Test configuration | |
| GIGABYTE | |
| motherboards | |
| ASUS | |
| motherboards | |
| Video Cards |
Asus GeForce RTX 5070 TUF Gaming OC ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC |
| KINGSTON | |
| RAM |
16 GB DDR4 4600 CL19 Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB DDR4 3600 CL16 Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB DDR4 4000 CL18 Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB DDR5 5600 CL40 Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB DDR5 6000 CL30 Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB DDR5 7200 CL36 Kingston FURY Renegade 48GB DDR5 7200 CL36 Kingston FURY Renegade |
| Storage devices |
Kingston FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Deep Cool | |
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Cases and cooling |
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| Software configuration |
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| Operating system | Windows 11 24H2 |
| Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 581.57 WHQL AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.10.1 |
| Monitoring programs | MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 Beta 5 Build 16555 |
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. Below is a video of a test segment from the game:
Our video cards were tested at different screen sizes of 1920×1080, 2560×1440 and 3840×2160 with maximum graphics settings in native mode.
In the video card test, the default resolution is 1920x1080, other resolutions are added and removed manually. You can also remove and add any video card positions. You can also select any of our test processors from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given video card tests (the most productive solution is selected by default). The test is carried out on the most productive in this game CPU and scales to other processors, taking into account their testing on NVIDIA and AMD video cards.
- Ultra
When resolved 1920x1080:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Reached on video cards of the level of Radeon RX 6700 XT or GeForce RTX 3060.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the Radeon RX 6700 XT or GeForce RTX 3060 level.
- Comfortable average FPS (60 frames): Possible with video cards of the Radeon RX 7700 XT or GeForce RTX 5060 Ti level.
When resolved 2560x1440:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Reached on video cards of the level of Radeon RX 6700 XT or GeForce RTX 3060.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the Radeon RX 6750 XT or RTX 2080 Ti level.
- Comfortable average FPS (60 frames): Possible with video cards of the Radeon RX 7900 XT or GeForce RTX 5070 level.
When resolved 3840x2160:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Reached on video cards of the level of Radeon RX 7000 XT or GeForce RTX 4070.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the Radeon RX 6950 XT or GeForce RTX 3080 level.
- Comfortable average FPS (60 frames): Possible with video cards of the GeForce RTX 5090 level.
| VIDEO MEMORY CONSUMPTION |
Testing of the video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the MSI Afterburner program. The results on video cards from AMD and NVIDIA at separate screen resolutions of 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 with different anti-aliasing settings were taken as an indicator. By default, the most current solutions are displayed in the graph. Other video cards are added and removed from the graph at the reader's request.
- Ultra
GameGPU
Resolution 1920x1080:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 7 GB
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 7 GB
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 7 GB
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 7 GB
Resolution 2560x1440:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 8 GB
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 9 GB
Resolution 3840x2160:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 10 GB
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 10 GB
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 10 GB
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 11 GB
| TEST CPU |
Testing was carried out at a resolution of 1920x1080. In the processor test, you can remove or add any processor positions. You can also select any tested video card from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given processor test results (by default, the most productive solution from NVIDIA is selected). Testing takes place on the most powerful NVIDIA and AMD video cards and scales to low-end models.
- Ultra
When using NVIDIA video cards:
- Processors for acceptable FPS (not lower than 25 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100
- Intel Core i3-10100
- Processors for comfortable FPS (at least 60 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600
- Intel Core i5-10600
When using AMD video cards:
- Processors for acceptable FPS (not lower than 25 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100
- Intel Core i3-10100
- Processors for comfortable FPS (at least 60 frames per second):
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700
- Intel Core i3-12100
- Ultra
Loading and using streams:
- Maximum load: The game can load up to 16 streams.
- Optimal loading: Uses up to 12 threads as efficiently as possible.
| RAM TEST |
The indicator was taken as all used RAM. The RAM test on the all system was conducted on various video cards without launching third-party applications (browsers, etc.). In the graphics, you can add and remove any resolutions and video cards as desired.
- Ultra
GameGPU
Resolution 1920x1080:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 14 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 16 GB of RAM
Resolution 2560x1440:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 14 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 16 GB of RAM
Resolution 3840x2160:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 15 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 16 GB of RAM
| SPONSORS TESTS |
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