Mass Effect: Andromeda Video Card Performance Preview @ [H]

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Mass Effect: Andromeda Video Card Performance Preview - Let’s find out how various video cards perform in Mass Effect: Andromeda and what it takes to play this game smoothly at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. In this preview we’ll examine several video cards, compare apples to apples performance and find the highest playable game settings for each video card.
 
Good review.

Feeling very content with my GTX 1060 at the moment but it's nice to see the R480 is also holding its own.

Still think it's funny that 30fps is considered 'not playable' on PC when most console games are still locked at 30fps.
 
NeoNemesis said:
Good review.

Feeling very content with my GTX 1060 at the moment but it's nice to see the R480 is also holding its own.

Still think it's funny that 30fps is considered 'not playable' on PC when most console games are still locked at 30fps.
Click to expand...

I wonder how much that had to do with the imprecise controls of analog sticks and d-pads vs the instant precision of KB & mouse.

Havn't tested anything, just a theory I've had for a bit heh.
 
NeoNemesis said:
Still think it's funny that 30fps is considered 'not playable' on PC when most console games are still locked at 30fps.
Click to expand...

I feel terribly uncomfortable gaming on a console with a game locked at 30FPS and sub 1080P resolution, that's just unpleasant at least for me, that for itself it's one of the biggest reason I'm a PC gamer. And I know it's the same reason for a lot of people who can't stand 30FPS.

It's sad when I have to go to my brothers house just to play some console exclusive tittles.
 
Any plans on SLI testing?
Crashes at 4k on two 1080s.
No SLI crashing at 1440 or 4k on one 1080.
Visual issues abound.
Would be nice to hear of your experience, Kyle.
 
Like the review. Any chance you will check the Fury performance?
 
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Thanks for reviewing this game. I am just wrapping up a play-thru of ME1,2 & 3, so this is next on my list.

With the 1080's dropping to under $500, I just picked up a PNY 1080 with a nice factory OC. Should be a good 1440p experience.
 
Skylinestar said:
How about CPU scaling? Any improvement with more cores?
Click to expand...

I thought it didn't scale well past 4, but! It's FB3, so should. I only have an i5-6500 right now ME is installed on, will have to check later on the i7. R7 1700 coming soon!

Man, I cannot wait to get a Dell S2716DG! 1440 27" 144hz Gsync (I can't live without Gsync now, currently using Asus PG248Q and laptop has it as well) panel. That should run this pretty well with a 1070 no?

The cutscenes are seriously bad. I've seen indie titles in the 90's that were better...like shadow warrior. Or Turok. Or freaking Commander Keen. What is Bioware thinking up against people like CD?
 
One thing the test shows is that monitor manufacturers are going the wrong with high refresh models in general and ever increasing frequency.

If it takes a 1080ti to run this game at 1440p Ultra and achieve around 80fps average, it makes a mockery of 144Hz or even higher that is being pushed by some manufacturers.
Even with the next down setting one does not need 144Hz.

Some of us would prefer higher quality monitors that are 100-120Hz 1440p with less of the compromises and consistency issues for the higher refresh rates - this seems more of an issue with G-Sync as they push it as a 'premium' product but premium to them is ever higher refresh rather than premium at more ideal parameters.
But I guess marketing just like 4k, bigger numbers are better for selling especially when it is 'premium'.

Now I am not saying all monitors should be limited, but there is a market and argument to also do more monitors in the 100-120Hz range that could be premium.
Cheers
 
Jumpy-B-L said:
Any plans on SLI testing?
Crashes at 4k on two 1080s.
No SLI crashing at 1440 or 4k on one 1080.
Visual issues abound.
Would be nice to hear of your experience, Kyle.
Click to expand...

I've run it on my SLI rig and had some crashes. Still not convinced that its related to the SLI yet. Performance wise my numbers are only slightly higher than a 1080ti at 4k or 1440p. We're talking maybe 4-8fps at same settings. The most noticeable thing I've seen are temps. My cards usually hang in the 66-74c for other games but this one takes 'em to 75-82c. Very strange.
 
I'm glad they decided to play it safe and release a vision-less title that caters to the widest audience possible. I for one wouldn't be comfortable if any gender, race, or religion were not represented and made to feel accepted. It's having the courage to release a game that fails to advance the series despite a decade of development, and focusing on arbitrary narratives that we can all rally around. Releasing a product that is mired in neutrality and void of any real Industry advancement, BioWare has perpetuated the apex of AAA development today. Deliver something short of next gen, and a Bland 4k Experience that you'll rush through once and add to the dumpster of modern day PC SJW quasi benevolence.
 
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Thanks Kyle for the preview. Thank you also for explaining the frame buffer setting. I haven't gotten around to researching it and was putting it to half by default. Since my SLI rig is the only one connected to an HDR display I'll turn it back on the other rig. I can confirm that HDR does work. Pretty cool to see.

I just got my Asus Strix 1080ti OC edition yesterday. Excited to say the least. Put it in my 'older rig' for what's likely to be its last GPU.

First game tested: Mass Effect Andromeda at 1440p/144hz/G-Sync.

My numbers were virtually identical. I really can't say enough good things about these cards that Kyle, and pretty much every other tech site review has already said. They're quiet, fast, cool, and simply just awesome. My overkill monstrosity of an air-cooled case allowed the card to maintain 60-66c under load. I used GPU tweak to set it to OC mode. Monitoring with both GPU tweak and afterburner I am able to verify that it was holding 1936-1987mhz then! Played for about 2 hours like that.

I'll be connecting it a 4k TV this weekend to see how that goes. They market this cards as 4k, it kinda is but it's really more a definitive 1440p beast.
 
Original:
Film Grain is a post-process effect that simulates the texture of processed photography. Chromatic Aberration is a post-process effect that simulates a more natural diffusion of color. The default position is "on" with these effects so we left them enabled for our evaluation.
Click to expand...

Fixed that for ya:
Film Grain is a post-process effect that simulates crappy camera sensor with high ISO and introduces visible noise artifacts. Chromatic Aberration is a post-process effect that simulates low quality camera optics which hurts sharpness and introduces purple fringe.
Click to expand...
 
Tup3x said:
Original:


Fixed that for ya:
Click to expand...

Oh man, I can't thumbs up this enough. I can understand film grain since its nice for people who want to make the game look like a 90's scifi flick, but chromatic aberration is simply a camera flaw and a setting that does nothing but make the image quality worse. Neither should be on by default in any game.
 
I feel ever since Kyle got on AMD's stage, he is using softer words towards AMD:

>Reference video card to reference video card the GeForce GTX 1060 is slightly faster, about 7%. However, overclocking either video card will throw this off a bit.
>The GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 480 line up well at 1080p.

With both max overclocked, the difference will come to 10%+. That's pretty significant. Not quite lined up :)

Good review nevertheless. I plan to pick up this game on the next sale.
 
I'm running a 1080 and getting average 45fps at 4k. Yes, that's optimised via nvidia, so it's not at ultra settings for everything. What I'm saying is that I am still playing at 4k and having a very good experience. I understand that the tests were to see what the respective cards could do at ultra but it wouldn't be remiss to mention that gamers can still have very playable, pretty and enjoyable experiences at 4k with a 1080.
 
BigJay75 said:
I'm running a 1080 and getting average 45fps at 4k. Yes, that's optimised via nvidia, so it's not at ultra settings for everything. What I'm saying is that I am still playing at 4k and having a very good experience. I understand that the tests were to see what the respective cards could do at ultra but it wouldn't be remiss to mention that gamers can still have very playable, pretty and enjoyable experiences at 4k with a 1080.
Click to expand...
While I would like to see [H] return to comprehensive tests across all resolutions, I understand if they no longer have the resources to do so. Still, this was just a preview article. I'm sure a full review will be available in a few weeks. But generally, you can take the 1080 Ti framerate at given settings and subtract 30% to see what a 1080 does.
 
0x4452 said:
I feel ever since Kyle got on AMD's stage, he is using softer words towards AMD:

>Reference video card to reference video card the GeForce GTX 1060 is slightly faster, about 7%. However, overclocking either video card will throw this off a bit.
>The GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 480 line up well at 1080p.

With both max overclocked, the difference will come to 10%+. That's pretty significant. Not quite lined up :)

Good review nevertheless. I plan to pick up this game on the next sale.
Click to expand...
You do realize that Brent wrote this review, not me.
 
whats with all the nervous ticks in the animation, its like the animation system is trying to over compensate for collision detection lol.
 
razor1 said:
whats with all the nervous ticks in the animation, its like the animation system is trying to over compensate for collision detection lol.
Click to expand...

I think I would prefer to play the game without the animation patches, at least provides plenty laughs :)
Normally I would want the patches but this launch version adds way more entertainment IMO.
Cheers
 
damn man almost done with the single player game, I gotta say, they really screwed up Mass effect's legacy with this one. Did anyone think the Kett were the same as the other alien species after the first meeting of the other alien species lol. It was so obvious.
 
NeoNemesis said:
Good review.

Feeling very content with my GTX 1060 at the moment but it's nice to see the R480 is also holding its own.

Still think it's funny that 30fps is considered 'not playable' on PC when most console games are still locked at 30fps.
Click to expand...

Console games locked at 30fps can actually feel pretty smooth so long as it isn't a game that requires twitch reflexes and fast movements. That is because the frame rates are pretty much locked and you aren't seeing the spastic spikes and dips often seen on these charts. That is why back when I was still PC gaming, I did not consider frame rates around 30 to be playable on many games if there were lots of spikes and dips while having no issue with my various console games running locked at 30.
 
razor1 said:
damn man almost done with the single player game, I gotta say, they really screwed up Mass effect's legacy with this one. Did anyone think the Kett were the same as the other alien species after the first meeting of the other alien species lol. It was so obvious.
Click to expand...
Well, they certainly do now. Did Shepard showing up during the ending surprise you?
 
amdgamer said:
Console games locked at 30fps can actually feel pretty smooth so long as it isn't a game that requires twitch reflexes and fast movements. That is because the frame rates are pretty much locked and you aren't seeing the spastic spikes and dips often seen on these charts. That is why back when I was still PC gaming, I did not consider frame rates around 30 to be playable on many games if there were lots of spikes and dips while having no issue with my various console games running locked at 30.
Click to expand...

Ya, I wasn't commenting one way or another. I just found it interesting because if you were to look at reviews from a decade ago in the X800 era I guess, 30fps wasn't all that bad.

As you said, it really depends on the game.
 
oldmanbal said:
I'm glad they decided to play it safe and release a vision-less title that caters to the widest audience possible. I for one wouldn't be comfortable if any gender, race, or religion were not represented and made to feel accepted. It's having the courage to release a game that fails to advance the series despite a decade of development, and focusing on arbitrary narratives that we can all rally around. Releasing a product that is mired in neutrality and void of any real Industry advancement, BioWare has perpetuated the apex of AAA development today. Deliver something short of next gen, and a Bland 4k Experience that you'll rush through once and add to the dumpster of modern day PC SJW quasi benevolence.
Click to expand...
Hear, hear.

I loved the original trilogy to the point where I played every game through 6+ times and got every achievement. Complete fanatic.

Now Andromeda comes out and the whole thing feels like it was made by the same people who planned Hillary Clinton's campaign. Completely devoid of human emotion in the pursuit of some utopian sense of "inclusiveness" that just does not work.

I can't even bring myself to finish the campaign. To EA's credit at least the game runs well on a wide variety of hardware.
 
If I had to warrant a guess i'd say I'm about 25% through the game right now based on how many hours I've put into the main story and exploration. I haven't played it in over a week and I just can't find motivation to pick it back up. I absolutely hate that I picked the female lead, her acting is atrocious and the dialogue is so bad I try to skip most of her cut scenes. They literally couldn't have created a protagonist with less motivation or interest in interstellar travel/exploration.

I started playing Xenoblade Chronicles X via Cemu and already have over 60 hours into it these last 2 weeks. Game is amazing, and you can see some of the things that they took from it when designing Andromeda. If you liked mass effect's original series, I'd highly recommend checking out XCX for WII U, it's staggering how massive the game is. I'm a jrpg nut, and love anything xenogears, hence my name for the forums here, but clearly XCX blows andromeda away in every conceivable way.
 
oldmanbal said:
If I had to warrant a guess i'd say I'm about 25% through the game right now based on how many hours I've put into the main story and exploration. I haven't played it in over a week and I just can't find motivation to pick it back up. I absolutely hate that I picked the female lead, her acting is atrocious and the dialogue is so bad I try to skip most of her cut scenes. They literally couldn't have created a protagonist with less motivation or interest in interstellar travel/exploration.

I started playing Xenoblade Chronicles X via Cemu and already have over 60 hours into it these last 2 weeks. Game is amazing, and you can see some of the things that they took from it when designing Andromeda. If you liked mass effect's original series, I'd highly recommend checking out XCX for WII U, it's staggering how massive the game is. I'm a jrpg nut, and love anything xenogears, hence my name for the forums here, but clearly XCX blows andromeda away in every conceivable way.
Click to expand...

I put about 10 hours into XCX and had to quit as I just couldn't get into it. The quests are even more boring than Mass Effect: Andromeda. Add to that subpar graphics, grinding, lackluster combat, excessively long cutscenes.and the fact that your character moves around the world like a coked up chipmunk... I really have no idea how people can get into this game, but to each their own I suppose.

Don't get me wrong, I like the premise, the idea of the game, but I was really put off by the execution. Maybe it's just too Japanese for me.

Now BotW (Cemu), which I started on Friday night, my God, that is a good fucking game. Stellar combat, gorgeous graphics (on Cemu), fun puzzles, tolerable story, the game is incredible.
 
CSI_PC said:
One thing the test shows is that monitor manufacturers are going the wrong with high refresh models in general and ever increasing frequency.

If it takes a 1080ti to run this game at 1440p Ultra and achieve around 80fps average, it makes a mockery of 144Hz or even higher that is being pushed by some manufacturers.
Even with the next down setting one does not need 144Hz.

Some of us would prefer higher quality monitors that are 100-120Hz 1440p with less of the compromises and consistency issues for the higher refresh rates - this seems more of an issue with G-Sync as they push it as a 'premium' product but premium to them is ever higher refresh rather than premium at more ideal parameters.
But I guess marketing just like 4k, bigger numbers are better for selling especially when it is 'premium'.

Now I am not saying all monitors should be limited, but there is a market and argument to also do more monitors in the 100-120Hz range that could be premium.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Would also like to see 32inch 1440p

27 is so darn small these days!

32inch, 1440p, 120hz would be a sweet spot for me.
 
NeoNemesis said:
Now BotW (Cemu), which I started on Friday night, my God, that is a good fucking game. Stellar combat, gorgeous graphics (on Cemu), fun puzzles, tolerable story, the game is incredible.
Click to expand...

Monolith Soft and co, the team that made Xenoblade and XCX, also did BOTW as far as the world ect so you can see the similarities in the size and scope of Zelda compared to its predecessors. Nintendo essentially purchased Monolith Soft and brought them to assist in house when needed and are integral first party Nintendo devs now.
 
oldmanbal said:
Monolith Soft and co, the team that made Xenoblade and XCX, also did BOTW as far as the world ect so you can see the similarities in the size and scope of Zelda compared to its predecessors. Nintendo essentially purchased Monolith Soft and brought them to assist in house when needed and are integral first party Nintendo devs now.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, I didn't know that. Looking back you can kind of see it in the design of the world, which is one of the things I did like about XCX.
 
NeoNemesis said:
That's interesting, I didn't know that. Looking back you can kind of see it in the design of the world, which is one of the things I did like about XCX.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I didn't find out until after BotW came out that they had done so much work on it including dialogue, model content, ect. It makes me even more excited to give it a run through when my son gets one for Xmas this year :S
 
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