Even the RTX 5090 can’t save it: ARK: Survival Ascended on UE5.5 performs worse than the base version

The developers of ARK: Survival Ascended recently suggested that upgrading to Unreal Engine 5.5 would deliver “superior performance,” yet the actual results tell a much different story.

The ARK: Lost Colony expansion, which launched on December 19, 2025, exhibits even more sluggish performance than the core game. When running at native 4K resolution on “Epic” settings, even the most powerful graphics cards on the market fail to maintain a stable 30 frames per second. Testing conducted by zWORMz Gaming showed frame rates dipping as low as 24–25 fps in this configuration, using standard maximum settings without any mods.

Even with DLSS set to Quality mode, an RTX 5090 only manages to reach approximately 40 fps at 4K. More surprisingly, switching to DLSS Performance mode still isn’t enough to achieve a consistent 60 fps.

The technical state of ARK: Lost Colony points to a broader optimization crisis within Unreal Engine 5. Even with the version 5.5 update, the engine continues to face significant hurdles when implementing Lumen and Nanite. While some well-optimized UE5 titles like ARC Raiders exist, these projects generally succeed by avoiding the engine’s most resource-heavy native features.

Source: iXBT.games