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Ratchet & Clank to debut a revolutionary graphics tech on PC

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It’s been a tough time for PC gamers in 2023, but Sony’s next major PC port could finally solve some problems. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, originally released for the PlayStation 5 over two years ago, is finally arriving on PC. It supports all of the latest PC bells and whistles, but also something completely new: DirectStorage 1.2.

That may not seem like a big deal — after all, Forspoken arrived with DirectStorage and still had performance issues, while promises of a patch in Diablo IV have yet to manifest. However, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the first game to take advantage of the GPU decompression portion of DirectStorage.

Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This dedicated hardware decompression can help alleviate traversal stutter (or loading stutter), which has been present throughout a number of games in 2023. The list includes Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Dead Space, but it doesn’t look like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will struggle with those same issues.

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That’s great news, especially considering Sony’s last PC port was such a disaster. The Last of Us Part 1 released in a dire state on PC, and although it has gotten better after a series of patches, it still isn’t a great performer. That’s unlike most of Sony’s other PC releases, which, short of a few notable exceptions like Horizon Zero Dawn, have been stable at launch.

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In addition to GPU decompression, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart supports a slew of next-gen features. It comes with the full suite of upscaling options, including Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling 3 (DLSS), AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (FSR), and Intel’s XeSS, along with the developers’ own Temporal Injection image reconstruction feature.

In addition, the game supports Nvidia DLAA and Reflex, along with ray tracing for reflections and exterior shadows. It’s a long list of features, and it looks like you’ll need a beefy PC to unlock them all.

At minimum, the game calls for an Nvidia GTX 960 and Intel Core i3-8100, which the developer says is to maintain 30 frames per second (fps) at 720p with the Very Low quality preset. To max the game out, you’ll need at least an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti or AMD RX 6800, and if you want full ray tracing, you need an RTX 4080 or an RX 7900 XTX.

PC requirements for Ratch and Clank Rift Apart.
PlayStation Studios

The port is being handled by Nixxes, which was also responsible for bringing Marvel’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales to PC. Those games both have some issues when it comes to CPU bottlenecks, but they’re otherwise stable, feature-rich ports. Hopefully Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will join their ranks.

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Jacob Roach
Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
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