Spider-Man 2 Swings Onto Steam With Forgiving PC Specs

Sony's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 swings onto PC today, January 30th, and the wait is finally over! While the PC port has been anticipated for some time, details on its performance across various systems were scarce until now.

On the PlayStation Blog, developer Nixxes Software unveiled the impressive PC features included in this meticulously crafted port, designed to deliver optimal performance and visual fidelity across a wide range of hardware configurations.

Accompanying a new trailer (see below), the PC version of Spider-Man 2 removes the PlayStation Network (PSN) requirement for PC players and boasts advanced ray tracing features, including DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction.

“With ray reconstruction enabled, we see more detailed ray-traced reflections and sharper ray-traced shadows, particularly at steep angles,” explains Nixxes graphics programmer Menno Bil. “We've also improved ray-traced interiors and reduced ghosting and noise in ray-traced ambient occlusion.”

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

For those with expansive monitor setups, ultrawide support is available up to an incredible 48:9 aspect ratio, with all cinematics viewable up to 32:9.

The system requirements are categorized into ray-traced and non-ray-traced configurations. If ray tracing isn't a priority, you can run the game at 720p and 30 FPS on a modest older system with components such as an Nvidia GTX 1650, an Intel Core i3 8100, and 16 GB of RAM.

High-end systems can fully utilize their power, with the 4K 60 FPS "Ray Tracing Ultimate" setting requiring an RTX 4090, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and 32 GB of RAM.

The question of Steam Deck compatibility arises. Given the relatively high RAM requirements and need for a modern graphics card, while it might be possible, Steam Deck verification shouldn't be expected. Unlike the previous Spider-Man titles, which had PS4 ports offering greater scalability, Spider-Man 2's PS5 origins may demand more from the hardware.

Nevertheless, the broad range of supported configurations has been met with significant online praise. One Reddit user commented: “This must be the best hardware requirements sheet I’ve seen so far.” Another added, “Honestly, great job. If performance lives up to this, it'll be very well received.”