A few days ago, we informed you about a CPU optimization issue we encountered in the PC review code of Dead or Alive 6. Now that the game has finally been released on the PC however, and after applying its day-1 update, that bug has been fixed/resolved. As such, it’s time now to benchmark this new fighting game and see how it performs on the PC platform.

For this PC Performance Analysis, we used an Intel i7 4930K (overclocked at 4.2Ghz) with 16GB of DDR3 RAM at 2133Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX580 and RX Vega 64, NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, GTX980Ti and GTX690, Windows 10 64-bit, GeForce driver 419.17 and the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.2.2. Unfortunately, NVIDIA has currently set the game on Single GPU mode in its latest drivers, meaning that our GTX690 behaved similarly to a single GTX680.

Team Ninja has included very few graphics settings to tweak. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Shadow Resolution and Effects and that’s it. There are also options for Borderless/Window/Fullscreen modes and you can enable/disable Object Detail.

As we’ve already stated, and despite its recommended CPU requirements, Dead or Alive 6 does not require a high-end CPU in order to be enjoyed. In order to find out how the game performs on a variety of CPUs, we simulated a dual-core and a quad-core CPU, and we are happy to report that even our simulated dual-core system (without Hyper Threading) was able to offer a stable 60fps experience.

Dead or Alive 6 also does not require a high-end GPU. At 1920×1080, almost all of our GPUs were able to offer a smooth gaming experience. The only GPU that was unable to offer a 60fps experience was our GTX690. Due to the lack of an SLI profile, this dual-card performed similarly to a GTX680 and was able to push a minimum of 35fps and an average of 46fps.

At 2560×1440, all of our three most powerful tested GPUs – AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, NVIDIA GTX980Ti and NVIDIA RTX2080Ti – were able to offer a 60fps experience. At 4K, however, the only GPU that was powerful enough to offer a constant 60fps experience was the NVIDIA RTX2080Ti.

Graphics wise, Dead or Alive 6 does not offer anything you haven’t seen in other current-gen 3D fighting games. In fact, and at least in our opinion, Tekken 7 looks better than KOEI Tecmo’s latest DOA title. While most of the characters are highly detailed, the environments look a bit bland and we did spot various low-resolution textures. The lighting is also not up to what you’d expect from a 2019 game. There is limited environmental interactivity but again, there is nothing mind-blowing on display here.

Now while Dead or Alive 6 runs smooth on the PC, it does suffer from some porting issues. For instance, there isn’t any keyboard key binding option and the game only displays gamepad prompts. Obviously those that use controllers will not have an issue but we do know that some gamers prefer using the keyboard (as I “Savior” in the Tekken 7 online ranking, I can guarantee you that Tekken 7 and other fighting games are really enjoyable with a keyboard. In fact, in Street Fighter 4/5 I can perform all special moves much easier on a keyboard than on a controller).

Overall, though, Dead or Alive 6 runs like a charm on the PC. The game does not require a high-end PC system and KOEI Tecmo has fixed the 100% CPU usage bug/issue we’ve reported. Still, the game does not display mind-blowing visuals and there are some porting issues that affect keyboard gamers, however those with gamepads will not experience any of them.