Was it really useful to make an interrogative title? Obviously not. Alan Wake 2 is coming to PC and consoles, but it's our Razer Blade 16 laptop that we're going to look at here. The Remedy Entertainment title is being released with great fanfare with “RTX”, “Raytracing” and other “DLSS” announcements. In short, you will have understood, NVIDIA and its technologies are highlighted in product marketing and the first images are rather flattering. And since I have everything I need at hand to check the figures, I'm happy to put both feet in the mix.
[EDIT from November 9: we talk a little about Battery Boost 2 technology at the end, since some are still skeptical about the energy efficiency of this GPU]
NVIDIA + REMEDY = Alan Wake 2 with DLSS 3.5 sauce
DLSS 3.5 has already been talked about on numerous occasions. You have obviously heard about this AI-style optimization with Cyberpunk 2077's latest patch (unless you've been hibernating deep in a cave for a decade). We are not going to represent again these benefits which require a card labeled “RTX”, and which are accompanied by image generation (frame generation for the 4000 series), and “ray reconstruction”, which improves rendering quality. images using ray tracing. I invite you to reread the various press releases from the manufacturer published during theCyberpunk “overdrive” update.
Alan Wake 2, for its part, does not need any patch, and supports Day One, DLSS 3.5. With or without, the game is already a visual slap in the face (on PC anyway, since I wasn't able to see the console versions). And, let's be honest, you have to pause the image, or take the time, to take full advantage of the visual boost provided by the AI ray tracing optimizations. However, the result is present, it is a fact.
DLSS and the FPS race
Let's come back to our Razer Blade 16 and its RTX 4090 “Mobile”, which shares its technical sheet with the 4080 “Desktop”. For the moment, on a daily basis, in 1080p or 1440p, NO game has come to undermine this supercharged configuration. It's not really a surprise. In 4K, DLSS systematically provides the missing FPS to take full advantage of my 144 Hz screen. What about Alan Wake 2?
The first benches sent by NVIDIA show a factor of up to x4 between the use or not of DLSS. Is this confirmed? Here are the measurements that I was able to take (the saves are provided by NVIDIA, which allows equivalent scenes to be compared) + the measurements provided by NVIDIA on a desktop RTX 4090. The measurements are carried out with the in-house Frameview tool. The Razer Blade 16 is in “High Performance” mode. Note that the CPU that accompanies the RTX 4090 desktop is an Intel Core i9 12900K, the one that accompanies the 4090 Mobile of the Razer Blade 16 is an Intel Core i9 13950 HX. These 2 CPUs have equivalent raw power.
| 4K resolution | DLSS Type | Performance (in FPS) |
| RTX 4090 desktop | DLSS 3.5 (performance mode) | 134.4 |
| off | 32.8 | |
| RTX 4090 Mobile | DLSS 3.5 (performance mode) | 105.8 |
| off | 24.6 |
| 1440p resolution | DLSS Type | Performance (in FPS) |
| RTX 4090 desktop | DLSS 3.5 (quality mode) | 170.1 |
| off | 62.7 | |
| RTX 4090 Mobile | DLSS 3.5 (quality mode) | 136.5 |
| off | 49.4 |
| 1080p resolution | DLSS Type | Performance (in FPS) |
| RTX 4090 desktop | DLSS 3.5 (quality mode) | 195.6 |
| off | 89.2 | |
| RTX 4090 Mobile | DLSS 3.5 (quality mode) | 188.4 |
| off | 75.6 |
What to remember from these benches? From a user point of view, we confirm the power to begin with of the RTX 4090 GPU in the mobile version, which tickles the desktop version in Full HD (1080p). Up to 1440p, the Razer Blade 16's GPU allows you to play with surprising fluidity, and takes full advantage of the frequency of my 38″ Alienware monitor. As for 4K, if it's not my "everyday" resolution, it's still possible for very comfortable gaming. We're still talking about +100 fps, something rare these days on a game release.
DLSS… and the race for Watts
Remember my Razer Blade 16 review. I was talking about consumption during the gaming phase of the laptop “the most powerful in the world”, and I was talking to you about the energy cost of an image generated by AI, or rather here, by DLSS 3 technology: Frame Generation. The test carried out at the time on Cyberpunk 2077 is still valid and it is still possible (during a train journey for example? If you are not afraid of scaring your neighbor with the Blade's fans) to play in portability almost 1 hour on a big title. So I retested on Alan Wake 2.
The graphics settings slider is positioned on “Medium” (the game still looks bad with this setting, it must be admitted), Ray Tracing disabled and all in a resolution of 1920×1080. The image limitation is created from external software, the game does not allow this. The method is a little shaky, I grant you, but the measure is nonetheless there. In 30fps + image generation, or 60 fps displayed to the player's eyes, the Razer Blade 16 and its RTX 4090 are satisfied with 160W at the socket. It will take 185 without the Frame Generation algorithm to display 60 “actually calculated” frames per second.
Edit of November 9: Following the writing of this article, NVIDIA sent me a comment. Shame on me for not using the Geforce Experience when using it on battery power. It must be said that the beast is so powerful that I am not in the habit of using this utility which allows the optimal settings to be automatically applied to supported games. And it turns out that Alan Wake 2 is supported by the latest versions of NVIDIA drivers.
A trip to the Geforce Experience settings allows you to check that the Battery Boost 2.0 option (visibly activated by default) is in place. I leave Whispermode 2.0 inactive, because the Blade 16, in battery mode, is not extremely noisy, there is no point in quieting it down further.
As a reminder, Nvidia Battery Boost is a feature that helps optimize battery life by automatically adjusting the graphics card's performance settings when running resource-intensive games or applications. This allows users to game while extending their laptop's battery life. In the case of the RTX 4090, you shouldn't expect a miracle either, but a boost is always welcome.
Well, all you had to do was ask. On battery, in the dense environment at the start of the game, namely the forest, the Blade 16 and its RTX 4090 on battery displayed a constant 30 fps in 1080p in HIGH mode (with Ray Tracing and Ray Reconstruction) with DLSS in mode performance and Frame Generation. Visually, the display quality is a (huge) slap in the face to the console versions (I was finally able to test the PS5 version).
You can easily go beyond 60 fps, including 1440p if you switch to a MEDIUM preset, which corresponds a priori to the display quality of the console version. Finally, on battery, in 4K and with visual settings at max, we barely reach 20 fps.
To get 1 hour of gameplay on battery, while remaining on a smooth 100 fps display, I opted for the Medium presets (already very beautiful), at 1080p.
