Mafia: The Old Country PC Performance Hits Hard Even on Top GPUs

Mafia: The Old Country, the latest installment in the Mafia series from 2K Games, runs on Unreal Engine 5 and supports NVIDIA’s DLSS 4 technology, including Multi-Frame Generation. Testing it on a powerful gaming PC reveals the game’s surprisingly heavy demands, even on top-tier hardware.

Using a setup with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and both NVIDIA RTX 4090 and RTX 5080 GPUs, the first performance results are in—and the game struggles in its default Epic Settings mode. On an RTX 4090, a GPU considered among the best on the market, the framerate dips below 60FPS at 1080p resolution, which is unexpected given the card’s raw power. Moving up to 1440p, the framerate sits between 42 and 51 FPS, while native 4K performance drops further to between 31 and 39 FPS.

Epic Settings in Mafia: The Old Country are exceptionally demanding, more so than in many other recent titles. However, adjusting the settings down to High brings a massive performance boost. On High, the RTX 4090 easily stays above 60 FPS at native 1440p, and even at 4K with DLSS 4 Quality mode enabled, it holds steady above 60 FPS throughout.

Image credit: DSOGaming

For the RTX 5080, performance on Epic Settings is more modest. At 1080p, the minimum framerate hits 44 FPS, with an average around 55 FPS. However, raising the resolution to 1440p or 4K causes the frame rate to fall below 60 FPS consistently. At 4K on Epic Settings, even with DLSS 4 Quality active, 60 FPS is unreachable without enabling DLSS 4’s Frame Generation feature.

Image credit: DSOGaming

DLSS 4’s Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) is supposed to boost performance by generating additional frames, but in Mafia: The Old Country, the technology reveals visual flaws that are more noticeable than in some other games. Rapid camera movement causes obvious artifacts, and there are strange glitches in subtitle rendering. These visual imperfections make MFG feel unfinished and in need of improvement.

Despite these graphical quirks, MFG significantly smooths gameplay performance. On the RTX 5080 at 4K with Epic Settings, DLSS 4 Quality, and MFG set to 4X, the game runs smoothly without noticeable latency or lag. This is a rare example where MFG’s frame interpolation doesn’t introduce problematic input delays.

One would assume DLSS 4 Super Resolution (SR) would offer the best visual experience, but the opposite is true in this game. DLSS 4 SR implementation currently suffers from excessive shimmering on grass and less stable images overall. NVIDIA’s Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) looks better in comparison, featuring sharper details, less aliasing on objects such as plants and power lines, and more stable distant building visuals. It’s notable that TSR, a more traditional upscaling method, beats DLSS 4 in this case. NVIDIA has been informed, and future updates might fix these issues.

Mafia: The Old Country also supports AMD’s FSR 3.1 technology, including its Frame Generation option. However, on NVIDIA RTX 5080 hardware, FSR 3.1 Frame Gen was not available, suggesting the game restricts this feature on certain GPUs. Only DLSS 4 Frame Gen was usable on the RTX 50 series cards in these tests.

In summary, Mafia: The Old Country currently occupies a strange middle ground in performance. Epic Settings are essentially unusable for most players without DLSS 4 and Frame Gen, even with high-end GPUs like the RTX 5090. But those features still introduce visual artifacts that detract from the experience.

For a smoother and visually satisfying experience, reducing graphics settings to High is the best bet. While this comes with more pop-in and slightly reduced detail, the game runs well across a wider range of hardware. High Settings look very good and make Mafia: The Old Country playable without constant frame dips or distracting visual problems.

The official PC performance review with comprehensive benchmarks on many AMD and NVIDIA GPUs will be published later this weekend. This initial look highlights how demanding the new Mafia game is and where DLSS 4 technology currently stands.

Epic Settings on native resolutions push current GPUs to their limits. DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation are necessary to reach 60 FPS on these settings, but they are not without visual drawbacks. Until those issues are addressed, dropping to High Settings remains the practical choice for smooth gameplay.