Summary

• Star Citizen remains challenging even for modern hardware, taxing high-end GPUs like the RTX 3070.
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed Odyssey still demand powerful hardware, even 6 years after release.
• Control and Red Dead Redemption 2 can bring many PCs to their knees, five years after their launch on PC.

PC games have a way of catching us off guard. The moment gamers finally upgrade to that coveted graphics card and are confident to play anything under the sun, a new title comes out to dash those hopes. I remember this happening with Far Cry, Crysis, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and then Cyberpunk 2077.

One can understand if the latest and greatest titles are hard to run on a modern gaming PC, but what about those that came out half a decade ago or more? Some titles were either so advanced or unoptimized that they still demand serious horsepower even years after their release. Here I will list 9 such games that you might struggle with on your gaming PC.

I've considered GPUs like the RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 3070 for reference, considering they're the most popular GPUs according to the Steam Hardware Survey.

9 Star Citizen (2013?)

The game that never will be

Star Citizen has probably had the longest development cycle ever, 13 years and counting. You could find older examples with even more protracted development times, but Star Citizen stands apart. Many fans believe the games will never be finished, staying in Alpha for eternity, while some are content with playing it in its current state.

The fact that it can still tax a high-end 30-series GPU to this extent makes it an anomaly.

Whatever the future brings for this title, it remains one of the most challenging games to run, even on modern hardware. Even on an RTX 3070 paired with an 8-core processor, you can struggle to cross 60 FPS at 1440p in many areas of the game. Granted, it has undergone quite a lot of changes over the years, and isn't technically a 2013 game, but the fact that it can still tax a high-end 30-series GPU to this extent makes it an anomaly.

8 Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)

The silver lining is strong with this one

You probably remember the troubled launch of Star Wars Battlefront II back in 2017. The infamous loot boxes and disappointing player progression in the title overshadowed every other aspect of an otherwise decent game. EA apologized and fixed a lot of things, but the game had already left a bitter taste in the mouths of devoted fans.

A 7-year-old game doing this to a mainstream 30 series card shows that it still demands a lot from your hardware.

When I first played the game a few years ago, I had to dial down a lot of the settings on my GTX 1660 Ti, but I could still appreciate how good the game looked. And this was without any ray tracing. Fast-forward to today, many gamers still struggle to run the game at max settings at 1440p and 4K resolutions. With an RTX 3060, you might easily get 80+ FPS at 1440p, but you'd frequently see it dropping below 60 FPS.

A 7-year-old game doing this to a mainstream 30 series card shows that it still demands a lot from your hardware.

7 Just Cause 4 (2018)

Blowing up everything is hard on your PC

Just Cause 4 came out six years ago, but it's still not what I'd call an "old" game, considering the performance you get on GPUs like the RTX 3060 Ti. Filled with indulgent scenarios allowing the player to go crazy with their weapons and the environment, Just Cause 4 still needs an above-average gaming PC if you want to experience it in its full glory.

In the most demanding areas of the game, your 3060 Ti would struggle to deliver more than 60-70 FPS at 1440p at max settings. This isn't terrible by any standards, but you would expect a game this old to perform much better on modern hardware.

6 Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)

Still going strong

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is still included in many benchmarking videos six years after its launch. It was a pretty heavy game to run at its time, with the GTX 1070 barely crossing 60 FPS at 1080p at the Highest preset. In 2024, you'd probably want to run this game maxed out at 1440p or even 4K on your modern gaming PC, but that's easier said than done.

What does it say when a 6-year-old game needs upscaling to deliver a decent experience, even without touching 4K settings?

With the RTX 3060 Ti, you'll probably get just over 60 FPS using 1080p Max settings (RTX Ultra), with 1440p easily dipping below 50 FPS on average. Bringing DLSS into the picture will help things, as you could get into the mid-80s, but what does it say when a 6-year-old game needs upscaling to deliver a decent experience, even without touching 4K settings?

5 Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018)

Getting 60+ FPS is an odyssey in itself

I was never a fan of the direction Ubisoft went in with the newer Assassin's Creed games, so I never bothered to play Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Being a demanding open-world title, it wasn't easy to run on the average gaming PC at the time. However, even now, if you want to experience it at 1440p Ultra settings, you'll need an above-average setup.

Do you really want to experience a game that came out in 2018 at 1080p settings?

With an RTX 3060, Odyssey delivers around 50 FPS at 1440p Ultra settings. You could lower the resolution to 1080p to get around 75 FPS, and as the RTX 3060 is more suited to 1080p rather than 1440p, it would be the humane thing to do. That said, do you really want to experience a game that came out in 2018 at 1080p settings? The RTX 3060 should be able to play older titles at 1440p with ease, but Odyssey is anything but easy to run.

4 Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)

Deliver us from poor FPS

Launched in early 2018, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a widely popular RPG set in the Holy Roman Empire. Featuring all the elements of a great RPG like a huge open world, satisfying combat, intricate character development, and a non-linear story, the game might not look too demanding at first glance. However, try to run it on your system and you might be surprised — not in a good way.

On an RTX 3060 system with a fairly capable CPU, the game struggles to cross 60 FPS at 1440p Ultra settings. For a title that looks relatively light, it's surely a lot more demanding than you'd expect.

3 Control (2019)

Control your frustration with your GPU

Control is one of Remedy's most well-received projects, and an integral part of the Remedy Connected Universe of games, including Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2. Known for its game-changing ray tracing effects when it came out 5 years ago, Control was extremely hard to run on most PCs at the time. I remember giving it a shot on my GTX 1660 Ti, and even without ray tracing, it was no party.

Enabling every single ray tracing setting and dialing the resolution up to 1440p will require more powerful hardware.

On an RTX 3060, you can expect a decent 60+ FPS experience at 1080p Ultra settings, but enabling every single ray tracing setting and dialing the resolution up to 1440p will require more powerful hardware. I've still not gotten around to playing it on my RTX 3080, so here's a good reminder for me to pick up the slack.

2 Red Dead Redemption 2 (2019)

Forever a masterpiece

Red Dead Redemption 2 is Rockstar's magnum opus set in the Old West. A prequel to the first game, RDR 2 is Arthur Morgan's epic story as he and his comrades try to survive while being on the run across America. There is nothing to say that hasn't already been said about this game, but you might not know that even 5 years after its launch, it's still not a breeze to run on modern PCs.

1440p Ultra is even worse for performance, as you'll be hovering around 30 FPS at stock Ultra settings.

On the good ol' RTX 3060, you won't be able to cross 60 FPS even at 1080p Ultra settings, with the game delivering only around 45 FPS. Optimizing your settings a bit will help you reach around 90 FPS, but you'll lose out on some of the visual flair of the game. 1440p Ultra is even worse for performance, as you'll be hovering around 30 FPS at stock Ultra settings.

1 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint (2019)

Your PC might reach its breakpoint

I've played Breakpoint a lot back in the day, getting online with the squad, and driving aimlessly in the open world, engaging anything that moved. Whatever its faults, it looked stunning, and the visual upgrade from Ghost Recon Wildlands was significant. On my trusty GTX 1660 Ti, I was happy to lower the settings to get a playable framerate, but it turns out that even today you might need to do that.

With an RTX 3060 Ti, running the game at 1440p Ultra settings will net you an average of 75 FPS, which is great, but it's also not so great for a 5-year-old game. At 4K settings, your FPS will easily dip below 60 FPS. The game is still one of the best-looking games I've ever played, and if Ubisoft had continued development for the game, I would probably be still playing it to this day.

The state of PC gaming in 2024

While we can wax lyrical about old games all we want, the state of modern PC gaming is worrisome, to say the least. Broken launches, unfinished titles, horrible optimization, and poor working conditions are just a few of the problems plaguing the industry. To add to this, Nvidia and AMD are busy focusing on AI chips, happy to put gaming GPUs on the back burner.

In a market filled with uninspired titles, overpriced and unexciting hardware, and beloved franchises being blatantly massacred, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All we can do is play our old favorites until something changes for the better.