Best Black Myth: Wukong Settings on the Steam Machine

Black Myth: Wukong is one of the most demanding games you can throw at the Steam Machine. It is a heavy Unreal Engine 5 title built around Lumen global illumination and Nanite geometry, and the Steam Machine's 8 GB VRAM ceiling and RX 7600 / RTX 4060-class GPU sit right at the edge of what this game wants. The short version: target 1080p, run the Low or Medium preset, and treat FSR as mandatory, not optional. Native 4K and full ray tracing are off the table here.

Here is the honest playability picture, all figures estimated at 1080p:

• Low preset + FSR Quality — roughly 60 fps. This is your stable-60 target.
• Medium preset + FSR Balanced — roughly 48 fps. Playable, prettier, but not a locked 60.
• High preset + FSR Performance — roughly 28 fps. Looks great in screenshots, plays poorly. Avoid.

Wukong is a single-player action game, so a smooth, consistent 45-60 fps matters more than chasing maxed-out visuals you will not notice mid-combat.

Recommended preset: Low or Medium at 1080p

Start at the Low preset, 1080p output, then turn on FSR Quality. From there you have headroom to selectively bump a few settings that cost little. The Medium preset is viable if you accept FSR Balanced and a 45-50 fps range rather than a hard 60.

Do not start at High and try to claw back performance — UE5's heaviest costs (Lumen GI, high-res shadows, hair) scale badly on 8 GB, and you will spend more time fighting stutter than playing.

FSR is mandatory here

There is no realistic native-resolution path to 60 fps in this game on the Steam Machine. Upscaling is the price of entry.

• FSR Quality at 1080p — best image, pairs with the Low preset for your stable 60.
• FSR Balanced — use it with Medium if you want sharper textures and can live with ~48 fps.
• FSR Performance — only if you are pushing High and accept a sub-30 result. Image quality at 1080p output gets soft here.

Wukong ships with its own upscaler menu; pick FSR (or the equivalent in-game label) rather than the engine's TSR, which is heavier. Avoid frame generation unless you have already hit a stable base framerate above 40 — generated frames on top of a 28 fps base feel laggy and smeary.

What to disable

These are the settings that wreck performance for little visual payoff on an 8 GB card:

1. Ray tracing / full RT — off. This is the single most important toggle. The game's full ray-traced lighting is built for 12 GB+ cards with much more headroom. On the Steam Machine it tanks framerate and can exhaust VRAM. Leave it fully disabled.
2. Hair strands / advanced hair — low or off. Wukong's strand-based hair (on Wukong himself and many enemies) is brutally expensive. Drop it to the lowest setting. You will barely notice in motion.
3. Global illumination — Low. Lumen GI is the backbone of UE5 lighting; you cannot remove it, but keep it at the lowest preset. The visual difference between Low and High GI in combat is minimal; the performance difference is large.
4. Shadows — Low/Medium. High shadows are a major cost. Medium is a fair compromise if you have headroom; Low if you are protecting the 60.
5. Volumetric fog / effects — Medium at most. These add cost in busy scenes exactly when you can least afford a dip.

The VRAM caveat

The Steam Machine has an 8 GB VRAM ceiling, and Wukong will use every byte you give it. When VRAM fills, you do not get a clean lower framerate — you get traversal stutter, texture pop-in, and sudden hitches as the game swaps assets in and out. This is worse than a slightly lower average fps because it is unpredictable and breaks immersion.

To stay under the ceiling:

• Keep texture quality at Medium, not High. High textures are the fastest way to blow past 8 GB at 1080p.
• Render at 1080p, not 1440p. Higher render resolutions inflate the framebuffer and VRAM cost sharply.
• Watch for stutter in the opening forest/wolf areas — they are a good early stress test. If it is hitching there, drop textures or GI another notch.

A stable-60 recipe

If you want one configuration that holds close to 60 fps, set this and stop tweaking:

1. Output resolution: 1080p
2. Preset: Low
3. Upscaling: FSR Quality
4. Ray tracing: Off
5. Global illumination: Low
6. Shadows: Low
7. Textures: Medium (drop to Low if you see pop-in)
8. Hair: Low/off
9. Volumetric effects: Low
10. Frame generation: Off
11. V-sync: Off in-game; cap to your display via SteamOS if you see tearing

This gives you a consistent, combat-stable framerate that respects the 8 GB ceiling. If you would rather trade some smoothness for sharpness, switch to Medium + FSR Balanced and accept the high-40s.

For how we arrive at these numbers, see our methodology. For more per-game guides, browse /games and the best Steam Machine games list. Not sure this is the right device for you? Start with which device.