Crackers don’t remove the DRM, they just bypass it. So it’s still there. Also performance tends to improve over time as patches come out, so even a version that has it removed doesn’t necessarily compare to an older protected copy.
However, there have been times where the protected version and an identical non-protectd version were released, such as in Devil May Care 5. Denuvo does objectively reduce performance based on that, but the performance loss is so negligible that you would have already needed to be well below the game’s requirements to actually see any notable difference.
Lastly you have cases like Rime and Injustice 2 where Denuvo completely ruined the game’s performance.
All in all, best case it does barely anything, worst case the game is unplayable. And even when it works totally as intended, comes the actual need for online verification. Meaning that the best most convenient way to play said game is just to pirate it.
Crackers don’t remove the DRM, they just bypass it. So it’s still there. Also performance tends to improve over time as patches come out, so even a version that has it removed doesn’t necessarily compare to an older protected copy.
However, there have been times where the protected version and an identical non-protectd version were released, such as in Devil May Care 5. Denuvo does objectively reduce performance based on that, but the performance loss is so negligible that you would have already needed to be well below the game’s requirements to actually see any notable difference.
Lastly you have cases like Rime and Injustice 2 where Denuvo completely ruined the game’s performance.
All in all, best case it does barely anything, worst case the game is unplayable. And even when it works totally as intended, comes the actual need for online verification. Meaning that the best most convenient way to play said game is just to pirate it.