Dune Awakening Beta - PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards and Processors
We have tested Dune Awakening Beta on maximum graphics settings with GeForce RTX and Radeon RX series video cards. We also evaluated the performance and quality of the game's graphics during our tests.
| 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 |
Dune: Awakening — a multiplayer open-world survival game powered by Unreal Engine, set on the desert planet Arrakis. The game uses DirectX 12, requires an SSD, and is adapted for modern 64-bit systems.
System Requirements
The minimum
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (or newer)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-7400 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200
• RAM: 16 GB
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB)
• DirectX: 12
• Network: broadband connection
• Storage: 60GB (SSD required)
Recommended
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (or newer)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K / AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
• RAM: 16 GB
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB)
• DirectX: 12
• Network: broadband connection
• Storage: 75GB (SSD required)
| DEVELOPMENT HISTORY |
The idea of creating an MMO project based on Dune had been in the air for a long time. The universe, filled with conflicts, struggle for resources, religious and political themes, was ideal for a multiplayer format. However, adapting it turned out to be much more difficult than expected. After acquiring the rights to the universe, the studio began working on the concept - not just an online action game, but a full-fledged sandbox in which players themselves influence the course of events. This took several years of preliminary discussions and prototyping.
Development began with an attempt to find a balance between the RPG component, survival, social interaction and construction. But due to ambitions, the project was repeatedly rolled back to the early stages. Changes concerned both the basic mechanics and the plot framework. Unlike other MMOs, the developers decided not to rely on traditional role-playing progression and quest structure, but to focus on an open world, dynamic interaction between players and the "living" ecosystem of Arrakis.
The development process was also complicated by constant changes in priorities. Initially, it was planned to implement a deeper RPG system with leveling and dialogue, but due to budget and engine limitations, these elements were simplified. Many ideas - for example, full-fledged factional wars, integration of political systems and developed diplomacy - remained on paper. Some employees left the project, which also affected the deadlines.
The open beta testing phase was the culmination of many years of work. However, its launch was accompanied by a number of organizational problems. Not all registered users were granted access to the game, keys were distributed haphazardly, and the servers could not cope with the load. This caused a negative reaction from the community, especially against the background of inflated expectations. Many questions were also raised by the behavior of the developers on social networks, who did not provide clear information about the roadmap.
Nevertheless, the studio continued to work on the game, gradually introducing feedback. Some mechanics of movement in the desert were reworked, interaction with worms was improved, and new objects on the map were added. However, all this looks more like a “fire” response, rather than part of a pre-planned development. The development history of Dune: Awakening is a typical example of an ambitious project stuck between concept and reality, with a constant struggle for stability and audience trust.
| GRAPHICS |
The visuals of Dune: Awakening are a mixed bag. On the one hand, the environment conveys the spirit of a desert planet – huge dunes, mysterious ruins, desert canyons and large-scale sandstorms look convincing. However, the overall picture suffers from technical unevenness and carelessness in details. Many textures seem low-quality even at maximum settings, especially upon close inspection.
The game's environments are generally monotonous: after a couple of hours of exploration, it feels like almost all the zones are made up of the same elements. While there are some interesting locations (like fallen ornithopters or abandoned outposts), they are few and far between and don't change much with repeated visits. Adding to the disappointment is the fact that the architecture barely reflects the cultural features of the Dune world - many buildings look like template structures from other sci-fi games.
The character models also leave much to be desired. The animations are jerky, the transitions between states look mechanical, and there are almost no facial expressions. Character customization is minimal, and even the choice of equipment does not affect the appearance as much as we would like. The weather effects - sandstorms, heat, fumes - are well implemented, but they are often repeated and lose their novelty in the first hours.
Lighting works well at times, especially during day/night transitions, but in enclosed spaces the lighting behaves unnaturally, often overexposing objects or disappearing. The dynamic lighting of the worm bursting out of the sand is inconsistent, especially at low frame rates. Audio is one of the most controversial aspects. The soundtrack is minimalistic and fits the desert environment well, but the sound effects for many events, including attacks, vehicles, and doors opening, sound dull and unconvincing. This is especially noticeable in combat scenes, where the audio simply doesn’t support the sense of menace or power.
Bottom line: the game's visuals are average for an MMO project, falling short of its stated ambitions. There are rudiments of atmosphere, but the overall execution suffers from technical and design compromises. The promised scale gives way to formulaicity, and without radical improvements, the graphics will remain the project's weak link.
Dune: Awakening is powered by Unreal Engine 5 — one of the most powerful and modern game engines. However, the current implementation shows that the engine's potential is only partially used. The game suffers from unstable performance even on top systems: there are drops to 30 FPS in the open world, especially when worms or mass events appear. This raises questions about the quality of optimization.
Many of the stated features Unreal Engine 5, such as Lumen (global illumination) and Nanite (streaming geometry loading), are either disabled or unstable. Visual analysis shows that the lighting system is simplified, and object detail is often cut at long distances. This is done for the sake of performance, but the atmosphere suffers. Decorative elements disappear or load with a delay, which breaks the immersion effect.
The network infrastructure implemented on this engine cannot withstand the load yet. During testing, frequent lags, desynchronization with servers, and bugs with player positioning were observed. Transport turned out to be especially problematic - cars often get stuck in geometry, and collisions are processed incorrectly. This indicates that the network code is not ready for mass load, despite the capabilities of the engine.
The physics system, which theoretically should have been realistic, is reduced to a minimum. Falls, collisions and interaction with the environment are primitively implemented. Objects most often either do not react to the player or disappear. There is no destruction of the environment, despite hints in the trailers. It is worth noting that Unreal Engine 5 provides a fairly flexible toolkit for developers, and if the team continues to actively improve, the situation may improve. But in its current state, the engine is not used to its full potential. It performs basic functions, but does not reveal its key advantages, for which it is usually chosen.
Bottom line: Using UE5 feels more like a marketing ploy than a technological advancement. Without further optimization, reworking of the network code, and integration of promised features, the engine will feel like an overloaded foundation that holds the game back rather than advances it.
| QUALITY |
Minimum settings use reduced texture resolution and simplified materials. The geometry of rocks and buildings is rendered with reduced detail, shadows have hard edges, and lighting is limited to basic shaders. Sandstorms and dust effects are simplified, and the drawing distance of objects and fauna is severely limited. NPC and vehicle animations look less smooth, but the overall style is preserved.
Maximum settings Activate high-quality textures, complex environment models and improved lighting. Sand surfaces reflect the sun's glare, shadows become soft and multi-layered, and particle effects become denser and more saturated. Sand swirls, vehicle tracks and dynamic dust add realism. Environments are worked in depth, and scenes acquire atmospheric density due to the extended draw distance and post-processing.
| 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 |
| Storage devices |
Kingston FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Deep Cool | |
|
Cases and cooling |
|
| Software configuration |
|
| Operating system | Windows 11 24H2 |
| Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 576.40 WHQL AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.5.1 |
| 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 1920x1080, 2560x1440 и 3840x2160 with maximum graphics quality settings without upscales.
| TEST GPU |
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.
- Max
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 68000 or GeForce RTX 4070 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 6700 XT or GeForce RTX 2080 Ti level.
- Comfortable average FPS (60 frames): Possible with graphics cards like Radeon RX 9070 or GeForce RTX 4070 Ti s.
When resolved 3840x2160:
- Average FPS (25 frames): Achieved on Radeon RX 6800 XT or GeForce RTX 4070s level graphics cards.
- Minimum FPS (25 frames): Provided by video cards of the Radeon RX 6900 XT or GeForce RTX 4070s level.
- Comfortable average FPS (60 frames): Possible with video cards of the GeForce RTX 5090 level.
| VIDEO MEMORY CONSUMPTION |
Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on the results on video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 with various anti-aliasing settings. By default, the graph displays the most current solutions. Other video cards are added and removed from the chart at the request of the reader.
- Max
GameGPU
Resolution 1920x1080:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 6 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 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 8 GB
Resolution 3840x2160:
- 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 8 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.
- Max
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 7 3700
- 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 9 3900
- Intel Core i7-10700
- Max
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.
- Max
GameGPU
Resolution 1920x1080:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 18 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 19 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 19 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 20 GB of RAM
Resolution 2560x1440:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 19 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 19 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 19 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 20 GB of RAM
Resolution 3840x2160:
- Video cards with 12 GB of video memory: consume 20 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 16 GB of video memory: consume 20 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 24 GB of video memory: consume 19 GB of RAM
- Video cards with 32 GB of video memory: consume 20 GB of RAM
| SPONSORS TESTS |
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