The 10 Worst Optimized PC Games Of 2019

System Requirements

Low vs Ultra Screenshots

GPU Performance Chart

CPU List That Meet System Requirements

GPU List That Meet System Requirements

Comments

Control

PC Demand

#100+

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User Rating
6.79 user review score. Average score out of 10, based on 297 review scores” style=”background: #dddd22″>
6.79

Ok

Not Ok

Optimisation
2.8 optimisation score. Average rating, based on 309 user ratings” style=”background: #e08833″>
2.8

For all the games which have come out this year and run like a dream, there are sadly a few which have rocked up and looked for all the world like they’ve been stitched with scotch tape, a few needles, and a prayer. These assorted disappointments have demanded unncessarily high-end PC gaming hardware for not much in return.

Finding out whether a game is poorly optimized is easy – head right on over to its game page here on GD and you’ll see its GD Optimization Score, as voted for by you. The lower the score, the worst its optimization according to the GD community. The more votes there are, the more faith you can put in the score. We’ve also got a dedicated page for all the scores in the link above, and if you ever head to a game page on your travels do remember to vote as it helps immensely with more accurate scores.

All of you have been letting us know throughout the last 12 months whether you think the biggest AAA games are well optimized, or pulling no punches and letting us know if they run like garbage. So here are the 10 most well-optimized PC games of 2019. For the purposes of this list, we have omitted games which have fewer than 25 votes.

Well, there’s some expected suspects here, along with one or two odd surprises, and a big game which managed to narrowly escape the community wrath.

We’ll start with the expected games, the ones which we certainly believe deserve to be on this list. Blair Witch is top of the pile and it’s difficult to argue with this. The horror adventure game is an enjoyable ride but it’s buggy, frame-y, and showing a sadly extreme lack of polish which can get in the way of a good time. No other game of this list comes quite as close and it’s understandable why Blair Witch has averaged an Optimization Score of just 1.4.

In terms of big titles which have notably underperformed, Borderlands 3, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Planet Zoo have all exhibited significant performance issues. Luckily, Borderlands 3 and Planet Zoo are great games, which papers over the cracks, but none of these three seem to perform as well as we’d hope.

Then there’s Control, which again, is perfectly understandable. Control is a performance hog and there are definitely some issues, particularly on console. However, I’m of the opinion it’s one of the best looking games of all time, in terms of both elements of photorealism and its brutalist aesthetic with (literally) moving scenery. Its use of raytracing is also the strongest we’ve yet seen. At times, Control can look jaw-dropping with a GeForce RTX video card. There’s no denying that achieving a high frame rate in Control is a tricky process though, so it’s understandable why some folks would give it the thumbs down.

The two curious games on the list are definitely Fortnite Chapter 2 and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. There’s an argument to me made that Fortnite Chapter 2 shouldn’t even quality as a 2019 release but, assuming it is, it’s really quite odd to see it hit with a score of just 2.5. Fortnite can run on just about anything so I’m probably going to chalk this one up as general anti-Fortnite sentiment. We’d love to hear from folks who’ve struggled to run the game though.

As for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, I’m not sure what’s up here. I’ve given it a whirl and it seemed to run just fine but there are varying reports of performance issues with low FPS and being unable to connect online, which is disappointing to see. Fingers crossed the optimization score can rise up after a few patches.

And finally, a quick shout out to Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s probably the most high-profile ‘difficult’ AAA launch this year. With an Optimization Score of 4.9 it narrowly missed this list.

What do you think of this list? Are these some of the worst-optimized games of 2018, or do you think others were just as guilty?