Naraka Bladepoint is among the top ten most-played games on Steam. Picture PUBG or Counter-Strike, but purely with melee weapons. Like its shooter counterparts, it doesn’t quite have a notable rival either. With a free-to-play model and paid cosmetics, Bladepoint has amassed a 300K+ player base on Steam alone. The developers have kept the game in tip-top shape, regularly updating the visuals and graphics API. Let’s see how Naraka Bladepoint performs on a high-end PC, and which of its graphics settings are the most expensive.
Windows/System Settings to Optimize
- Enable Resizable BAR.
- Turn on Game Mode.
- Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) and Windowed Optimizations.
- Use the Windows “High Performance” power profile and set your GPU power management mode to the same.
- Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
- Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
- Here’s a guide with more detailed instructions.
Naraka Bladepoint: PC System Requirements
Naraka Bladepoint’s base requirements meet a 10-year-old PC, featuring Intel’s 4th Gen Haswell (or AMD’s Bulldozer) and a GeForce GTX 750 Ti or a Radeon HD 6950. This specification is sufficient for running the game at 720p 60 FPS using the low-quality preset.
For the same experience at 1080p, you’ll need an Intel Skylake-based Core i7 or a more recent Core i5 alongside the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or a Radeon RX 480. About 50 GB of SSD storage space is recommended with 16 GB of main memory.
Test Bench
- CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF.
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero.
- Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360.
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.
- Memory: 16GB x2 DDR5-6000 CL30.
- Power Supply: Corsair RM1000e.
Resolution Scaling & Graphics Quality Presets
Naraka Bladepoint scales well with resolution. On our GeForce RTX 4090/Core i9-13900K system, we observed an average of 88 FPS at 4K, 149 FPS at 1440p, and 201 FPS at 1080p, using the highest graphics quality preset. We’re primarily GPU-bound in all three cases.
The graphics presets show similar scalability, granting an average performance boost of 2.55x upon switching from the highest to the lowest quality preset. The medium and low presets perform relatively similarly, averaging 160 to 180 FPS.
Naraka Bladepoint: DirectX 11 vs DirectX 12?
DirectX 12 is still in beta state in Naraka Bladepoint, and it shows. At 1080p, DirectX 11 is 30% faster, although the deficit reduces to less than 10% at 4K (where you are completely GPU-bound).
Lighting/Global Illumination
Naraka Bladepoint features an efficient global illumination lighting system at the higher settings, while low and medium combine pre-baked and real-time techniques. The highest quality setting considerably impacts performance, cutting framerates by nearly 50%. High is more prolific, averaging 15% less than low.
Click here for lighting quality image comparisons
Screen Space Reflections & Ambient Occlusion
Naraka Bladepoint features traditional screen space reflections that cover on-screen reflections with a moderate to high impact on performance. Completely turning off reflections improves framerates by up to 10% at 4K.
Click here for SSR image comparisons
Ambient occlusion (screen space) is a must in most cases. Without it, the game looks flat, lifeless, and without depth. Going from high to “off” grants a 7% bump in framerates.
Click here for ambient occlusion image comparisons
Post Processing & Anti-aliasing
Postprocessing is one of those settings that should be further broken down into constituent effects. It usually consists of motion blur, depth of field, lens flare, bloom, etc. The performance impact tends to be minimal, but so is the visual aspect.
The anti-aliasing quality sets the sampling rate or coverage of the anti-aliasing technique, depending on whether you’re using TAA or SMAA. Neither is sufficient, and we recommend sticking to DLSS or FSR 2.
Volumetric Lighting & Clouds
Naraka Bladepoint uses simple volumetric lighting that minimally impacts performance. In most cases, the high-quality setting will provide the best result, while keeping performance in mind.
Click here for volumetric lighting quality image comparisons
Volumetric clouds render high-definition 3D clouds, providing more depth and fluffiness at the cost of 8% performance. For most people, this will be a non-issue.
Click here for volumetric cloud-quality image comparisons
Shadow & Effects Quality
Shadow quality sets the resolution and sharpness of pre-baked shadows (shadow maps). Barring the lowest quality, you should be good with any of the options. Rendering shadows has a modest impact on performance, reducing FPS by 4-5% on average.
Click here for shadow-quality image comparisons
Effects quality adjusts the quality of various fire/explosion effects, hero powers, and other flashy animations. All but the highest quality settings have a negligible impact on performance.
Model Quality & Tesselation
Model quality sets the geometric complexity of characters and 3D-rendered objects by adjusting the polygon count of each element. Higher counts result in smooth surfaces while the opposite can cause blocky/pointy objects. It has a moderate impact on performance, with the lowest setting delivering 8% higher framerates than the highest.
Click here for model-quality image comparisons
Tesselation is similar to model quality, except it achieves the same result by subdividing the given meshes over and over into finer ones. This produces superior results without any additional assets or resources. Its performance impact is negligible.
Click here for tesselation image comparisons
Anti-aliasing & Upscaling: DLSS & FSR 2
Naraka Bladepoint includes NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR 2, and NVIDIA NIS (spatial) upscaling technologies. Although not required, the use of either one of these is recommended for superior visuals as the existing anti-aliasing options are subpar.
DLSS tends to produce superior results at the “Balanced” and “Performance” quality presets, so NVIDIA RTX users are better off with it. FSR 2 produces sharper images but loses some detail when subjected to complex geometry and thin meshes.
Click here for DLSS vs FSR 2 image quality comparisons
Texture Quality & VRAM Usage
Naraka Bladepoint uses up to 6.5 GB of graphics memory at 4K “Very High,” gradually dropping to 5.2 GB at the “Lowest” quality settings. QHD or 1440p demands a bit over 5 GB at the highest quality, while 1080p uses a bit less than 5 GB.
Click here for texture-quality image comparisons
Naraka Bladepoint: CPU Bottlenecks
Naraka Bladepoint is predominantly GPU-bound, exhibiting a GPU busy deviation of 8% at 1080p, 6% at 1440p, and a mere 2% at 4K when using the “Highest” quality graphics preset. Reducing the graphics quality doesn’t have a notable impact on the CPU overhead.
Best Settings for Naraka Bladepoint
| Optimized Settings | High-end PC | Mid-Range PC | Low-end PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K (3840 × 2160) | 1440p (2560 x 1440) | 1080p (1920 x 1080) |
| Target FPS | 120 FPS/144 FPS | 144 FPS | 120 FPS/144 FPS |
| Texture Quality | Highest | Highest | Highest |
| Anti-aliasing | Highest | Highest | High |
| Shadow Quality | Highest | Highest | High |
| Lighting Quality | Highest | High | High |
| Model Quality | Highest | Highest | Highest |
| Ambient Occlusion | Highest | Highest | High |
| Screen Space Reflections | Highest | Highest | Low |
| Post Processing | Highest | Highest | Medium |
| Effects Quality | Highest | Highest | High |
| Tesselation Quality | Highest | Highest | Highest |
| Upscaling (Enhancement) | DLSS or FSR 2 Quality/Balanced | DLSS or FSR 2 Quality | DLSS or FSR 2 Quality |
| High-end (4K) | Mid-range (1440p) | Low-end (1080p) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Core i7-13700K/Ryzen 7 7700X | Core i5-12600K/Ryzen 5 5600 | Less than: Core i5-12400/Ryzen 7 3700X |
| GPU | RTX 4070 Ti Super/RX 7900 XT | RTX 4070/RX 7800 XT | RTX 3060/RTX 3060 Ti/RX 6600 |
| Memory | 32GB (dual-channel) | 16GB (dual-channel) | Less than: 16GB (dual-channel) |
