Alien: Isolation - Video Card Performance Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Alien: Isolation - Video Card Performance Review - We look at performance in Alien: Isolation on several video cards, and compare specific features such as AA, SSAO, GPU-Accelerated Particles, and Contact Hardening Shadows. We will compare between NVIDIA and AMD and SLI and CrossFire and show you some screenshot comparisons to you know what to expect out of this game.
 
Amazing game. Playing it right now on my Tempest at a solid Vsync'd 110FPS maxxed out @1440p. Vsync off has me in the 180-200fps range. The dual 290's are killing it using a custom AFR friendly profile in CCC. Although I will say the visuals are impressive, the shader aliasing is just horrific. It seems there's no way around it. If I was at 1080p I'd imagine it would be a game breaker.
 
Amazing Article. I enjoyed reading every section of this.

This game is on my To-Buy list for sure.
 
played it maxed out on my GTX 580 so it's definitely no hardware killer
 
Also playing it and loving it. The atmosphere and attention to detail is great. There are so many things that build upon the "universe" that was setup in Alien and make it seem so much more than just what you see.

That said, two things would make it better for me. One is that the Alien is shown far too often... the more you see it the less scary and tense it gets. It would be better if it were stalking around less often but much more deadly when it was. The second one is a result of the first. They've built a wonderful universe with great stories told through the terminals that you want to read and awesome visuals that you want to stare at. But it's kind of hard to enjoy those aspects when the alien is constantly sneaking up on you for surprise butsecks. :eek: It would be better if they used the System Shock 2 style where you could take the logs with you and read them at a more convenient time, like when cowering inside a locker or under a desk.

Neither of these items have made me regret buying or playing the game, and odds are the modding community will fix them soon.
 
Nice to see those DirectCompute effects being used. I hope that more developers utilize DirectCompute to do effects in games. Time to move this game to the top of my Steam most wanted list!
 
kudos to AMD for pushing these features and making a very beautiful DX11 game that doesn't require 6GB VRAM or other obscene requirements
 
I really want to play it, but with OR due out in a few months, this game will be a monster on it! :p
Cant wait

ps nice performance review
I wonder if the stereo video on OR will require us to look for performance tweaks??
Atm I can max it.
 
Very atmospheric and challenging and at times beautiful game. The review is also great in showing technological details at how efficient they could be implemented. Just dreaming about [H] adding a couple of really rig-heavy titles to the benchmarking pool. Imo Ryse would be perfect for that, being an utmostly beatiful and gpu-melting game piece.
 
NukeDukem said:
Although I will say the visuals are impressive, the shader aliasing is just horrific. It seems there's no way around it.
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The old adage "there's no replacement for displacement" holds true here: supersampling is going to be your best friend on this one.
 
Can you force Nvidia TRSSAA in this title with Nvidia Inspector? That would make things look MUCH nicer I'm sure.
 
Any thoughts on how MSI Geforce 780 will handle this game at Max detail @1920
 
Really good review.

Actually I'd say this review is actually MORE informational than what AMD has said about this game. It's really sad cause it looks like they put a lot of effort into it!

I'm impressed at the efficiency they were able to achieve, especially with all the new techniques involved. Nice to see developers making leaner code instead of all the bloated code we usually see needing more hardware for no reason other than the code being inefficient.

Last time I saw AMD use Directcompute for physics was for interactive water in DDO and it was also was very efficient hardware wise, having dozens of people in an MMO at a time with hardly any slowdown.

This game is now on my want list.
 
personally... i think this line was most important in the whole review.. particularly, the last 5 words...

"The great thing about all of this again is that it is done under DirectCompute, allowing NVIDIA and AMD users to benefit from next-generation gaming. No vendor lock outs here. We need more of this."
 
Great review.

This is why people despise Nvidia:

AMD had a heavy hand in the development of this game in order to push DX11 graphics features and introduce some of AMD's own technology into the game. While some of these 3D graphical effects are AMD created, these are done under DirectCompute so that these work on both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. There are no proprietary graphics effects in this game, everything can be rendered equally on NVIDIA or AMD GPUs given the proper DirectX feature level support. Please take note of this NVIDIA! This is how you move gaming forward which betters the entire industry, not just the Green stock price!
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I like seeing you give credit where credit is due, and criticism where it is not.
 
Nice that a game is efficiently coded for once instead of relying on legacy bloat, or console portware.

I'm a bit confused as to why, and this is just my impression; there seems to be a "kudos to Nvidia for being faster" at 1440 and while the AMD/ATI is faster at 4k, the takeaway is "they are both fast enough not to matter"; which is said for both resolutions for both cards, but IMO again differently shaded to benefit Nvida. The new NVidia cards are dam nice don't get me wrong, but it seems the media(not just this site) falls in love with team green products and tends to "tolerate" AMD products. I can only imagine the $hitstorm that would insue if AMD tried to pull the proprietary crap Nvidia does, but green only gets a minor hand slap if that in the press. Thanks for at least calling Nvidia out on that, and giving kudos to AMD for helping with the optimizing for both camps.
 
JNavy89GT said:
I can only imagine the $hitstorm that would insue if AMD tried to pull the proprietary crap Nvidia does, but green only gets a minor hand slap if that in the press.
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Well, there's Mantle. That hasn't really triggered any major dookiestorms that I've seen.
 
It is nice to have a pretty decent looking game that's not an unoptimized hog. This game may not have top notch graphics but it performs great for how it does look. Also even a dinky old dual core cpu will handle the game fine so no cpu worries either.

This game does have some horrible aliasing though and the AA options due little to help. Even running DSR at 4k made no real difference to the shimmering and crawling.
 
Nenu said:
I really want to play it, but with OR due out in a few months, this game will be a monster on it! :p
Cant wait

ps nice performance review
I wonder if the stereo video on OR will require us to look for performance tweaks??
Atm I can max it.
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Been playing it on a DK2, apart from the lack of a jump function in the game, which really makes it feel old, it's not too bad. Does look a bit flyscreenie too😢😢..
 
5E7EN said:
Been playing it on a DK2, apart from the lack of a jump function in the game, which really makes it feel old, it's not too bad. Does look a bit flyscreenie too😢😢..
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If you are jumping around in this game, then you are ballys, because the alien would murder you 5 secs later.
 
chibe said:
If you are jumping around in this game, then you are ballys, because the alien would murder you 5 secs later.
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yup, you can't even run in this game...your footprints are like mini-nukes going off to the Alien
 
would really like to play this but the sensitivity deadzone when moving the mouse slowly makes it unplayable for me. so annoying. i was also only getting 75% gpu usage at max settings 1080p with the computer in my signature, stuck at 100-110 fps, which looks awful on a 120 Hz monitor, and also made vsync unusable because the implementation in the game sucks. oh well.
 
One of the things that I absolutely like about [H]ardOCP reviews is the use of commonly found 1600Mhz CAS 9 RAM. While I run 2133Mhz RAM myself, the majority of people out there don't. This review shows that for this game a person doesn't need the extra bandwidth higher Mhz RAM provides to run smoothly.

As far as the review is concerned, this is the best, most detailed review I have ever read from [H]ardOCP. You all continue to impress me with the [H]ard work it takes to provide the best, most unbiased reviews on the net. Thank you! Your work is greatly appreciated. :)
 
AceGoober said:
One of the things that I absolutely like about [H]ardOCP reviews is the use of commonly found 1600Mhz CAS 9 RAM. While I run 2133Mhz RAM myself, the majority of people out there don't. This review shows that for this game a person doesn't need the extra bandwidth higher Mhz RAM provides to run smoothly.

As far as the review is concerned, this is the best, most detailed review I have ever read from [H]ardOCP. You all continue to impress me with the [H]ard work it takes to provide the best, most unbiased reviews on the net. Thank you! Your work is greatly appreciated. :)
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You say that as if higher mhz system memory makes any real difference at all. There has never been and never will be a game where someone will have to upgrade to faster system ram.
 
AceGoober said:
One of the things that I absolutely like about [H]ardOCP reviews is the use of commonly found 1600Mhz CAS 9 RAM. While I run 2133Mhz RAM myself, the majority of people out there don't. This review shows that for this game a person doesn't need the extra bandwidth higher Mhz RAM provides to run smoothly.

As far as the review is concerned, this is the best, most detailed review I have ever read from [H]ardOCP. You all continue to impress me with the [H]ard work it takes to provide the best, most unbiased reviews on the net. Thank you! Your work is greatly appreciated. :)
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probably because higher clockspeed ram does absolutely nothing for anything.
 
Odellus said:
probably because higher clockspeed ram does absolutely nothing for anything.
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It will give a couple more fps in a few cases in the right scenarios with Haswell but yeah with a 3770k it is useless to go above 1600.
 
I wonder what the 780's and 7990's and a few other older cards would compare. it would be nice to see, even once on any site, an inclusion of older cards in testing. Not everyone can always stay current.
 
Great game though I have some issues with the AI. Mainly the AI hunts you when there are other humans moving around the same floor as you but aren't hunted as intently.

As for the graphics, they look so good that I take them for granted.
 
JNavy89GT said:
Nice that a game is efficiently coded for once instead of relying on legacy bloat, or console portware.

I'm a bit confused as to why, and this is just my impression; there seems to be a "kudos to Nvidia for being faster" at 1440 and while the AMD/ATI is faster at 4k, the takeaway is "they are both fast enough not to matter"; which is said for both resolutions for both cards, but IMO again differently shaded to benefit Nvida. The new NVidia cards are dam nice don't get me wrong, but it seems the media(not just this site) falls in love with team green products and tends to "tolerate" AMD products. I can only imagine the $hitstorm that would insue if AMD tried to pull the proprietary crap Nvidia does, but green only gets a minor hand slap if that in the press. Thanks for at least calling Nvidia out on that, and giving kudos to AMD for helping with the optimizing for both camps.
Click to expand...

One could ask why the minimum frame rates are not mentioned in SLi/Xfire, when AMD simply destroys Nvidia? Never seen such a discrepancy not deserve a mention. Bet your ass it would have been a focal point if it was the other way around.
[H] doesn't miss much (they can't proof read for a shit, but that's another matter) so when they just magically omit startling benchmarks, I just shake my head. Too obvious [H], too obvious!
 
PhaseNoise said:
Well, there's Mantle. That hasn't really triggered any major dookiestorms that I've seen.
Click to expand...

I can't wait until Mantle is out of beta and people will stop using it as an excuse for all the BS nVidia pulls. AMD is not throwing anything proprietary into their competitor's rendering path that adversely effects performance to give them an artificial advantage.

As far as the game itself, terrific performance and worthy of all the praise you give it. Would love to see HiRes textures and, at least in your screenies, the models are pretty low poly.
 
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Great article. Good to see the now $330 290x is still holding up against a $550 card, power/heat (in)efficiency notwithstanding. Agreed with your point that more devs should look at DirectCompute and OTB solutions instead of spending umpteen dollars/months to build custom solution with the hope it may be white labeled in a highly-saturated market.

Good to hear your subjective feedback on the game as well -- more of this please!
 
wabbitseason said:
Great review.

This is why people despise Nvidia:



I like seeing you give credit where credit is due, and criticism where it is not.
Click to expand...

Yup, this is why we need ATI to survive as really bad things happen to consumers without competition.
 
funkydmunky said:
One could ask why the minimum frame rates are not mentioned in SLi/Xfire, when AMD simply destroys Nvidia? Never seen such a discrepancy not deserve a mention. Bet your ass it would have been a focal point if it was the other way around.
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I agree, the first graph on the Multi-GPU Comparison page has the comment "However, with framerates so high there is no gameplay difference.". Surely where the GTX 980 dips under 60 fps, in the worst case down to 44 fps, there would make a noticeable gameplay difference?
 
Awesome review. I will picking this up in the next month to play after my new rig is built. Nice to see a dev team do the right thing as far as coding a game for PC for a change.
Thanks again for the review. [H]
 
Odellus said:
would really like to play this but the sensitivity deadzone when moving the mouse slowly makes it unplayable for me. so annoying. i was also only getting 75% gpu usage at max settings 1080p with the computer in my signature, stuck at 100-110 fps, which looks awful on a 120 Hz monitor, and also made vsync unusable because the implementation in the game sucks. oh well.
Click to expand...

Same problem here with the mouse issues. I have horrible, bad-console-port-esque mouse lag in this game though my framerates are in the 100's (i5, GTX 970). Disabling vsync helps, as does playing with a 360 controller. Any fixes for this issue?
 
I may have to pick this game up further down the line. It appears my dual 680s will be able to handle it well at 1440p.
 
RobT said:
I agree, the first graph on the Multi-GPU Comparison page has the comment "However, with framerates so high there is no gameplay difference.". Surely where the GTX 980 dips under 60 fps, in the worst case down to 44 fps, there would make a noticeable gameplay difference?
Click to expand...

That dip is where the player is interacting with one of the computer terminals in the game. Performance seems to suffer on NV GPUs in this game when interacting with the computer terminals. If you've played the game, losing this amount of framerate when interacting with the computer terminals doesn't distract or lessen the gmeplay experience. The terminals are very simple in design and function, and a high framerate isn't needed in those scenarios. The framerate is still good enough for an enjoyable gameplay experience. Those computer terminal scenes are very static, no movement, you just move around in the menus and read logs, find codes, input codes, etc... so it is ok.
 
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