Dune Awakening is out in advanced access on Steam, amassing nearly 100K concurrent players. Built on the Unreal Engine 5, it features Lumen GI, several upscaling techniques, and frame generation. We already posted our optimization guide analyzing each of the graphics settings in detail. Here’s how Dune performs across some of the popular RTX GPUs.
Test Setup
- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K @ 5.3 GHz.
- Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420.
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
- Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI.
- Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.
Dune Awakening 1080p Benchmarks
Dune runs into a CPU bottleneck near 100 FPS on midrange CPUs. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X produces the following frame rates at 1080p using the highest quality graphics settings:
- The GeForce RTX 4090 leads the pack with an average of 94 FPS and 63.5 FPS lows.
- The RTX 4080 Super and the 5070 Ti hover around 90 FPS with ~60 FPS lows.
- The RTX 4070 Ti yields 80 FPS with 64 FPS lows.
- The RTX 4070 nets 68 FPS with 45 FPS lows.
- The RTX 5060 Ti ends with 63 FPS and 41 FPS lows.
Dune Awakening 1440p GPU Benchmarks
Dune Awakening suffers from strange CPU-related bottlenecks, especially in trade centers. The GPU-busy deviation spikes; even the GeForce RTX 4090 fails to scale past 100 FPS without frame generation. No amount of tweaking or upscaling helps.
Using the balanced mode upscaling with maximum quality settings at 1440p, the Core i9-12900K delivers the following frame rates:
- The RTX 4090, 4080 Super, and the 5070 Ti all approach the 100 FPS.
- The RTX 4070 Ti averages 87 FPS, followed by the RTX 4070 with 75 FPS.
- The RTX 5060 Ti nets 74 FPS.
- The RTX 4060 Laptop GPU averages 43 FPS.
Disabling upscaling at 1440p makes the performance deficits between the different GPUs more apparent. We tested Dune on the Ryzen 9 7950X as it tends to run better than the 12900K:
- The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti averages 44 FPS with 33 FPS lows.
- The RTX 4070 averages 53 FPS, leading the 5060 Ti by 20% at 1440p.
- The RTX 4070 Ti produces 58.5 FPS, making it 11% faster than the 4070 and 33% faster than the 5060 Ti.
- The RTX 5070 Ti yields 69 FPS, leading the 4070 Ti by 18%.
- The RTX 4080 Super is only a few frames faster, with 72.6 FPS on average.
- The RTX 4090 is 20-25% faster than the 4080 Super and the 5070 Ti, with 84 FPS on average.
Dune Awakening 4K GPU Benchmarks
4K UHD is where Dune is completely GPU-bound. The Ryzen 9 7950X doesn’t hinder the faster RTX 40 and 50 series cards here, as they extend their lead over their peers:
- The GeForce RTX 4070 averages only 30 FPS, while the 4070 Ti manages 34 FPS at 4K.
- The RTX 5070 Ti yields 39 FPS, making it 15% faster than the 4070 Ti at 4K.
- The RTX 4080 Super is up to 5% faster than the 5070 Ti, averaging 41 FPS at 4K.
- The RTX 4090 flexes its muscles (averaging 52 FPS), leading the 4080 Super and the 5070 Ti by 26% and 33%, respectively, at 4K.
Dune Awakening: VRAM Usage
Dune: Awakening is relatively forgiving on the graphics memory for an Unreal Engine 5 title. It peaks a bit over 10 GB at 4K, dropping to 8.5 to 9 GB at lower quality presets.
QHD 1440p and 1080p using 8.5 GB and 8 GB of VRAM at the maximum quality settings (without virtual shadows).
Conclusion: Decent GPU but Poor CPU Scaling
Dune Awakening performs well enough if you’re aiming for 60 FPS to 90 FPS. However, the game runs into a CPU limitation on midrange CPUs around 100 FPS, across all resolutions. No amount of upscaling or quality drops helps. Frame generation is required for 144 FPS and higher.
