Phantom Blade Zero PC Requirements & PS5 Graphics Modes Explained

Official PC requirements

Tier	Spec	Target
Minimum	i5-8700K / Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, GTX 1660 6 GB / RX 5500 XT 8 GB, SSD	1080p / 30
Recommended	i5-10600K / Ryzen 5 5600X, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT, SSD	1440p / 60
Ray tracing	RTX 5060 class	RT 1080p / 60
Path tracing	RTX 5080 class	PT 4K / 60

The PC version supports DLSS (including DLSS 4.5 upscaling and multi-frame generation), FSR, and XeSS. It’s built on Unreal Engine 5.7.4 and carries Denuvo. Ray tracing and path tracing toggles are only changeable from the main menu.

What did benchmarks find?

• Rasterization is well optimized: high-end cards clear 60 fps at native 1080p Ultra, and RTX 4090/5090-class cards do the same at native 1440p. Native 4K Ultra is essentially RTX 5090 territory (around 60, with dips).
• Path tracing is a showcase mode: an RTX 5090 manages only 25–27 fps at native 4K — add DLSS Quality and frame generation to make it playable.
• DLAA + ray reconstruction beats native TSR — roughly 10 fps faster and better looking.
• Turn motion blur off if you use frame generation; fast camera moves otherwise smear badly.
• Expect a long first-launch shader compile, but after that it’s one of the smoother UE5 launches — no major traversal stutter in testing.

The NVIDIA driver issue

S-GAME found driver 621.01 unstable in its own testing and recommends rolling back to 617.42 with a clean installation. The 5 GB day-one patch (no public version number) significantly improves ray tracing and path tracing performance — update before judging visuals.

Which PS5 mode is best?

Both PS5 and PS5 Pro offer three modes: performance (upscaled 2K, 60 fps target), balanced (upscaled or checkerboard 4K, 40 fps for 120 Hz VRR displays), and graphics (native 4K, 30 fps), with the Pro adding ray-traced reflections, lighting, and shadows.

Digital Foundry’s verdict: the 60 fps performance mode is essentially flawless and the recommendation on both consoles. The 40 fps balanced mode has uneven frame pacing even with VRR, and the Pro’s advantages are sharper visuals and more ray tracing — not more frames. Only use graphics mode for sightseeing screenshots.