The launch of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers triggered a wave of negative Steam reviews, but not for gameplay reasons. The primary concern is performance—something that has become a frequent complaint for Unreal Engine 5 titles. Reports point to fuzzy visuals, heavy upscaling, and frame rate drops, particularly at default settings. However, performance varies wildly across systems, raising questions about optimization and default configurations.
Default Settings on RTX 3060 with Ryzen 5 5600X
Testing began on a mainstream setup—RTX 3060 12GB paired with a Ryzen 5 5600X, outputting to a 1440p display. The game auto-selected “Mid” settings, using TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) upscaling at just 43% internal rendering resolution. This aggressive default caused major image breakup and ghosting, especially during character movement and sword swings. Despite averaging over 60 FPS in some scenes, visual fidelity suffered significantly.
Switching to DLSS improved motion clarity. At DLSS Balanced (around 59% render scale), the game looked cleaner but dropped to the mid-40s FPS range in demanding scenes. Testing DLSS at the same 43% scale as TSR showed marginal improvement in image quality, but frame rates hovered around 56 FPS—proving even DLSS couldn’t clean up the visual noise at such low resolution.
Can Low Settings Fix It?
Dropping all graphics settings to “Low” (except ambient occlusion, which oddly stayed at “High”) boosted performance back up to around 60–70 FPS in demanding scenes. However, pop-in became noticeable—especially with foliage and cliffside textures. Despite the higher frame rate, the game still appeared fuzzy and inconsistent in motion.
Running at native 1080p with DLSS Balanced yielded closer to 70 FPS, improving clarity slightly. Switching to “Medium” at 1080p defaulted DLSS to “Quality” mode (67% render scale), which looked cleaner while hovering near 60 FPS. This configuration presented a decent balance of visuals and frame rate, though the upscaling artifacts remained noticeable.
AMD Radeon RX 9600 XT Test Results
Swapping the RTX 3060 for a Radeon RX 9600 XT (6GB) retained the same Ryzen 5 5600X CPU. Performance improved slightly. The game defaulted to 50% TSR, and initial benchmarks hit 75+ FPS—but with similar breakup during movement. Interestingly, the game lacked support for FSR 4, which would’ve offered better upscaling and optional frame generation. Only TSR and standard FSR were available.
Switching from TSR to FSR slightly boosted frame rate to about 80 FPS in the same scene. However, visual issues persisted. Upping FSR render scale to 67% (comparable to “Quality” mode) improved stability and sharpness, pushing 65 FPS on the same high foliage viewpoint.
Native 1080p and 1440p Performance on RX 9600 XT
At native 1080p with medium settings, the game hovered around 60 FPS. Visual quality was acceptable but still showed artifacts when in motion or facing complex environments. High settings at native 1080p dipped into the 50s, occasionally hitting the upper 40s.
At 1440p with high settings, the game defaulted to a 57% internal render scale, allowing around 60 FPS but sacrificing image clarity. Increasing to 100% native resolution caused performance to drop into the mid-50s, confirming that Wuchang: Fallen Feathers remains a GPU-limited game even on modern mid-range hardware.
Verdict on Unreal Engine 5 Optimization
The evidence from testing across both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs reveals a clear pattern: the game heavily relies on upscaling to maintain performance. Defaults lean toward aggressive render scaling that significantly impacts clarity and motion smoothness. DLSS works better than TSR at low resolutions but costs FPS. Meanwhile, FSR lacks clarity and frame generation benefits due to the absence of version 3.1+ support.
In GPU-bound scenes, even powerful mid-range setups can struggle to hit 60 FPS without compromises to visual fidelity. The lack of FSR 4, odd default presets, and inconsistent resolution scaling contribute to a frustrating experience for many users. Players on older or less optimized setups may find themselves stuck choosing between blurry visuals or sub-60 frame rates—neither ideal.
