- Koei Tecmo’s Rise of the Ronin runs poorly on the RTX 4090 with stuttering in multiple segments
- Frame rates in-game can be high, but gameplay suggests otherwise with slow-motion NPCs
- It adds to the list of poorly optimized games on PC this generation
Koei Tecmo’s Rise of the Ronin recently launched on PC after being exclusive to Sony’s PS5 for almost a year – and yet again, it’s another story of a poorly optimized PC port reportedly struggling even on high-end configurations.
According to TweakTown, Rise of the Ronin struggles to run on an RTX 4090 at 4K with constant stutters and slow-motion bugs while using DLSS. The in-game frame rate counter supposedly indicates a range of between 40 to 60fps (frames per second), but the gameplay suggests otherwise – and Steam reviews corroborate these complaints as many users are refusing to recommend buying the title until the issues are addressed.
It’s worth noting that a patch has already been released that is supposed to offer a fix for stuttering in certain ‘stages and circumstances’ in the game – but again, feedback from players indicates this has done little to resolve the major performance concerns.
Considering the consensus regarding the game’s graphical fidelity – it’s been accused of being quite poor for AAA standards – it’s a bigger surprise to see that the game fails to run at acceptable levels. Usually, games that have advanced graphics like Cyberpunk 2077 are expected to be demanding (while still being well optimized) even for high-end hardware, but Rise of the Ronin‘s graphics don’t even come close to that level, and yet it fails to perform well.
Don’t bother looking for a GPU upgrade, not until game developers optimize games better
There’s nothing that infuriates me more about PC gaming than poor game optimization, and it’s a shame this continues to be a trend in 2025. Gamers paying for a GPU like Nvidia’s RTX 4090 and still facing major frame rate drops in games (even with upscaling), is downright unacceptable.
It’s even worse when you realize that games cost a ridiculous $70 / £70 / AU$100 while failing to run without game-breaking bugs and frequent stutters, leaving gamers having to wait for future patches. Game developers also seem to be increasingly relying on upscaling technologies like DLSS to resolve cases of poor optimization, which is concerning.
I can see why PC gamers are getting exasperated by poor PC game versions, especially if they’ve paid a lot of money for a high-end GPU, and it looks like one of the best ways to show your frustration is by voting with your wallet and not buy any game that has excessive issues on PC – and making sure you get a refund if you are unhappy with your purchase (most game stores like Steam have a way to request your money back).
It’s about time this trend of poor PC ports comes to an end, so we can all finally enjoy PC gaming without any restraints on performance.
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