Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II PC Performance Review

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II — out on Xbox Series X/S and PC is a strikingly beautiful game built on Unreal Engine 5. Released on May 21, 2024, Hellblade II is the sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice from 2017. The game continues with Senua as the protagonist, traversing and surviving through Midgard. It aims to give gamers a cinematic experience, so the focus is more on the intricate details of the environment. Ninja Theory manages this well with stunning animations, movie-like cutscenes, and more. It’s easily one of the best-looking games out there. So, how does it perform? I’ve tested Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II on three different systems — two PC builds, and an entry-level gaming laptop. Let’s have a deeper look at the game.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II System Requirements

The official listing from Ninja Theory offers four different system requirements, ranging from ‘Medium’ to ‘Very High’. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II can run at 1080p with the presets set to Low, using either an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600. This can be paired with an Nvidia GTX 1070, an AMD Radeon RX 5700, or the Intel Arc A580.

With pre-orders now available for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, today we’d like to share our PC system requirements to help you get the best experience come May 21st.

Pre-order or pre-install on Xbox https://t.co/DsMZsuY5VW Wishlist or pre-purchase on Steam https://t.co/3D2IpXZOHf pic.twitter.com/4JJzrl9m5W

— Ninja Theory (@NinjaTheory) May 3, 2024

For 4K output at high presets, you’ll need atleast an Intel Core i5-12600K or an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X paired with an Nvidia RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The highest graphic preset will also require a considerable amount of VRAM. The game requires at least 16GB of RAM across all its presets for it to run smoothly. You also get wizardries like FSR 3, DLSS 3, or XESS 1.3, along with TSR to help you get more FPS.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II PC Minimum Requirements for ‘Low’ Graphics (1080p)

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II PC Minimum Requirements for ‘Medium’ Graphics (1080p)

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II PC Minimum Requirements for ‘High’ Graphics (1440p)

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II PC Minimum Requirements for ‘High’ Graphics (4K)

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II on Infinix GTBOOK

The Infinix GT Book is an entry-level gaming laptop which is available in different variants. For this performance review, I have the model with an Intel Core i5-12450H with 8 cores and 12 threads. This is paired with an Nvidia RTX 3050 (6GB), 16GB DDR5-5200 RAM and 512GB SSD. The 16-inch Full HD display runs at 120Hz with a native resolution of 1920 x 1200. As of writing this piece, the laptop is priced at Rs 64,990. This game should give you an idea as to what kind of expectations you can have from the listed components.

All the presets are tested with Nvidia DLSS enabled, with the upscaling quality set to ‘Balanced’. Since the GT Book runs on a 30-series card, we could not test Hellblade II’s performance with Frame Generation enabled.

The Infinix GT Book can achieve smooth gameplay at the lowest quality with the resolution set to native. It still looks stunning, but the richness in the details is lost. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II easily hit the upper limit of the RTX 3050’s 80W TGP. With the highest graphics preset, the game demanded 5.2GB of VRAM, which is on par with its requirements.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II on AMD Ryzen 5 8600G

The AMD Ryzen 5 8600G is an affordable desktop processor from the Red Team that comes with six cores and 12 threads. It’s based on the Zen 4 architecture and comes with an 8-core Radeon 760M graphics that promises 1080p gaming.

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Considering the graphics-intensive nature of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, I wasn’t really bullish on a stable performance. The processor demands a healthy set of memory, so I used Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000MHz duo. Storage duties were handled by the WD Black SN850X 2TB NVMe SSD, which is one of the most powerful and quickest drives available for gaming duties. For the motherboard, I used an Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus.

The 8600G managed about 25 fps with the preset set to ‘Low’ and an uptick of about 30 fps. All the presets were tested with FSR 3 enabled and the mode set to ‘Balanced’.

It was certainly playable and almost matched the frames that you can achieve on the Xbox version. That said, the performance is not consistent with a few stutters when more chaotic environments are involved. While playing a graphic-intensive game (like this one) on an APU build may not be ideal, it can still meet your gaming needs on a tight budget until you can invest in a dedicated GPU.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II on AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Radeon RX 7800XT

The Ryzen 7 7700X is a gaming-focused desktop processor that comes with 8-cores and 16-threads. This was paired with a Radeon RX 7800XT with 16GB VRAM, which is still more than what the game demands at 4K at ‘High’. Instead of the previous memory sticks, I switched this build with a pair of 24GB non-binary RAM sticks from Kingston that can go all the way up to 7200MHz. However, I had to tone it down to 6000MHz for the CPU to be aligned with it.

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Cooling duties were handled by Antec’s Symphony 360, placed on the upper side of the cabinet for optimal airflow. The rest of the components remain the same here as well. For the monitor, I went with the MSI G274F 27-inch Full HD monitor which can go all the way up to 180 Hz refresh rate. This is a proper gaming build that can easily churn out impressive numbers, and that’s exactly what we got.

Since we are using an AMD graphics card here, DLSS is not supported. So, we switched to FSR 3 for upscaling, while still keeping the mode at ‘Balanced’.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II vacuumed about 15GB of the system memory across all the presets. It also took the GPU to 73 degrees Celsius with the speeds reaching 2595MHz. The Ryzen 7 7700X comes into play at the lowest presets with the game utilising 69 per cent of its max capacity — nice. This was lowered to 50 per cent at the highest settings. The game looks stunning at the highest quality, and it ran smoothly without a single hint of stuttering. There’s a big gap between the performance of ‘Medium’ and ‘High’ settings, so it really comes down to your preference — more frames or better visual quality.

Verdict

Senua’s Saga Hellblade II is available on the Game Pass if you are part of the subscription, if not you can grab it at Rs 3,519 from the Xbox store. The game is on the pricier side on Steam with a price tag of Rs 4,399. It’s a fitting sequel, with stunning graphics that are well-optimised — but it’s surely a demanding one.

The game demands at least 6GB of VRAM, which is what the Infinix GT Book had in store. It managed to churn out about 52 fps with the graphics set to ‘Medium’. So, if you plan on playing the game at higher graphics settings, you are going to need a better GPU for a more stable performance.s

What I particularly like about Senua’s Saga Hellblade II is how it displays information about the amount of video memory being used at different presets, expected frames, and more. It also gives you a preview of the graphics before entering into the game, which is very useful. These are quality-of-life touches that make figuring out optimal graphics settings for your rig easier.