Star Wars Jedi: Survival releases tomorrow. It’s a game I began playing over a week before. Opens in a new tab), it ran like crap on both PCs I tried it on. Wes said earlier this year that we are living in an age of bad PC port (opens a new window). Jedi: Survivor has been the latest in an alarmingly long line of releases that are unable to reach a minimum 60 frame per second and slow down.
After reading other reviews, I realize that I was not alone. Several people reported generally poor performance with machines that would kick the PC’s behind, including broken audio in cutscenes, and slowdowns to single-digit frames while using the Galaxy Map or loading a new game level.
Tom’s Hardware has spotted the following: (opens a new window)GameStar, a german PC publication, recorded some disappointing statistics in an 11 minute demonstration (opens a new window) Jed: Survivor on a 4090 with a top-of-the-line CPU is able to deliver 30-40 frames per second at 1440p, and can even reach 80-90 frames per second in enclosed spaces. It’s even worse that the game consumes up to 21,GB of VRAM, and uses only around half of 4090’s power. It’s similar to how Star Wars performed for me on a 2080 Super CPU and an i9-9900KS. I was playing at a paltry 1080p.
It’s clear that there’s something wrong with the PC version of Jedi Survivor in the lead-up to its release. But, interestingly, it’s not the same version you’ll experience tomorrow.
The pre-launch patch
EA released a patch the day before Jedi: Survivor was reviewed. The patch claimed to improve performance and fix issues with cutscenes “across all platforms.” It wasn’t until last night that I had a chance myself to test out the patch. It works! Just a little. Koboh’s semi-open world is now running at 40-50 frames per second instead of 25-30. I no longer stutter when entering new areas. I also enjoy the game much more now that I am not constantly looking at a counter.
It’s not the most exciting improvement for 1080p PC rendering, but it does feel smoother. The slowdowns are still happening, but less frequently and they don’t last as long. After successfully jumping to a new world at a good framerate, I thought that the annoying galaxy map delays were gone. However, my return to Koboh dropped to an incredibly low 6 frames per second for about 10 seconds.
The good news is that I did not experience any audio overlapping or slowdowns in the opening scenes during my second playthrough. This was an area where I had a lot more issues before the patch.
The patch is still as bad as it was a week before. When set to Balanced or Quality, the game is a passable looking experience. However, when it’s on Performance it turns into a blurry mess. No matter what preset I chose, none of them improved my framerate. It’s a pity that there’s not DLSS support here. AMD may be EA’s official hardware partner but the majority of people will play Jedi: Survivor using an Nvidia graphics card, and FSR isn’t going to cut it.
Cal’s newest journey in a galaxy far, far away has begun and we’re excited for you to experience it!Our first patch will arrive on launch day across all platforms. In the weeks ahead, we’ll deploy patches that will:- Fix bugs- Improve performance- Add more accessibility… pic.twitter.com/pUtyoGopP5April 26, 2023
EA’s April 25 pre-release patch did not solve all the performance issues in Jedi: Survivor. Respawn may be giving it one more shot tomorrow, with another patch. launch day patch (opens a new window). EA did not specify what this patch aims to fix. However, it said that in the “weeks ahead”, updates will focus on bugs, performance and accessibility features.
I don’t think tomorrow’s update will be any more significant than the one released just a few weeks ago. Respawn appears to be putting more emphasis on future updates. This is not good news for PC gamers who want the best possible experience at launch. It’s a fact: Jedi: Survivor runs poorly, even on the best hardware available.
If you plan to play Jedi Survivor on launch day, I can offer a few tips that might help reduce your frustrations.
- You can play at 1080p. Your average FPS may thank you.
- Update your drivers: You can download the Game Ready driver now for Jedi: Survivor.
- Limit the number of frames per second: The framerate limitation option in Jedi: Survival is not native, but it can be set up using the AMD settings or Nvidia controls.
- FSR 2.0 is not worth the trouble: It didn’t seem to be doing anything.
- Turn off your GPS tracker. PC Gamer’s words are blasphemous. But I actually enjoy playing games more when there is no number at the bottom corner.
