Spider-Man 2's PC Debut Marred by Performance Issues

Spider-Man 2's PC port, initially touted for its impressive performance based on its system requirements, has received a mixed reception on Steam. A significant number of players are reporting various technical problems, resulting in a "mixed" user review rating.

Currently, only 55% of Steam reviews are positive. Many users, even those with high-end hardware like RTX 4090 GPUs and the latest drivers, are experiencing frequent crashes. One user reported: "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), the game frequently crashes." Another stated the game was "completely unplayable," crashing every five minutes. Several reviewers recommend waiting for performance patches before purchasing. One user commented: "Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out...To say this is 'rough' is an understatement." This user cited issues including lighting glitches, low frame rates in cutscenes, audio desynchronization, freezing, stuttering, and other performance problems.

The primary issue seems to be frequent crashes related to the game's graphics driver, even on powerful PCs. A common error message reads: “A problem has occurred with your display driver. This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game. Please try updating your graphics drivers, or lowering your in-game settings.”

Further complaints include malfunctioning DLSS and ray tracing, lengthy loading times, missing textures, and persistent audio problems. Some players report performance degradation and eventual crashes after extended play sessions, suggesting a potential memory leak.

Nixxes, the developer responsible for the port, acknowledged the issues on the Steam forums, advising users to consult their support website's troubleshooting guides and submit logs and crash dumps for faster resolution. They also addressed a bug affecting photo-op missions, suggesting lowering graphics settings or resolution as a temporary fix if frame rates drop below 20 FPS.