Nioh 3 just got a Steam demo, and given Team Ninja's history I'm surprised how well it runs on my aging rig
Team Ninja's games tend to run poorly on PC at launch. Rise of the Ronin, which arrived on PC last March after a period of PS5 exclusivity, was a mess: it stuttered, it sputtered all over the framerate gamut, it crashed a lot, and it didn't even look very good.
That was the case even after Team Ninja apologized for their previous game, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, running like crap on PC. If you cast your mind back five years ago, Nioh 2 also had a less-than-ideal launch. Ninja Gaiden 4 ran decently by all reports, but the settings options left a lot to be desired.
I'm not here to give a full performance run down of Nioh 3, but I've just spent a couple of hours running around in its newly released demo and I can confirm that I'm pretty satisfied with the way it works on my aging game laptop. It's far from a disaster!
Here are the system requirements for the demo (and the full game):
Minimum (1080p / 30fps using 'very low' settings) | Recommended (1080p / 60fps using 'standard' settings) | |
|---|---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i5-10400, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 6 cores / 12 threads or higher | Intel Core i5-10600K, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6 cores / 12 threads or higher |
Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 VRAM 6GB, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (Rev. 2.0) VRAM 6GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VRAM 8GB, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT VRAM 12GB |
DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
Storage | 125 GB available space | 125 GB available space |
Sound card | 48000Hz 16bit Stereo | 48000Hz 16bit Stereo |
I'm running an RTX 3060 with 6GB of VRAM, with a Ryzen 5 5600H and 16GB RAM. Without frame generation it gives me a mostly smooth 60 fps at 1080p, with most settings toggled to "very low". I understand running a game at "very low" must be nightmare fuel for some, but it's playable for me, though once I passed the long tutorial and entered Nioh 3's open world, the pretty much solid 60 fps would occasionally drop to around 44 fps.
Thankfully Nioh 3's frame generation support is working wonders. Things improved considerably for my frame rate when I toggled FSR 3 on: I could switch to "low" rather than "very low" graphics presets while maintaining a framerate of at least 60 fps in the open world. On "standard" preset I'd hover between 55 and 60 fps in the open world and, well, that was largely the case with "high" as well.
Of course, Nioh games prize precision to an unusual degree, and it's possible some will find any resulting latency untenable. I didn't notice any dramatic input latency while playing the demo with frame generation on, but it's early days.
I'm pretty happy with these results, knowing that I need to upgrade and am probably lucky that Nioh 3 is playable at all. This is the first time we've had a pre-release demo for a big Team Ninja release, and given the studio's history I implore you to download it and try it. Just make sure to play all the way to the open world.
As a laugh more than anything, I booted Nioh 3 up on my Steam Deck OLED and can confirm you'll definitely not want to be playing it on there, in case that wasn't already obvious.