Most graphically demanding games

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chiu

Limp Gawd
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Which games are the most graphically demanding/challenging games?
What are the best frame rates the best graphic cards in today's market can achieve (at 1920x1200 resolution, everything max out)?
 
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The bf3 beta was harder on my cards than metro or avp by a decent margin. Maybe that's just preliminary drivers / under optimized engine, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhat legit.
 
BF3 (beta) since even the fastest single GPU ATM (gtx 580) can only run an average of 45 FPS @ 1920x1200 everything max out. Plus it was announced that the final version will have even better graphics, so more stress on the GPU.
 
I'm hoping it looks better, but gets optimized so it doesn't need as much power to do so
 
Scheibler1 said:
I'm hoping it looks better, but gets optimized so it doesn't need as much power to do so
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Same here- it beat the hell out of my 6950's at High and Ultra settings. At 2560x1600, I had to back down to Medium to keep things smooth, and it still kept the GPUs maxed out (though having my 2500k at 4.8GHz might have contributed).
 
Scheibler1 said:
Assassins Creed 2, AVP "aliens vs predator", dirt 3 could probly be added
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What??????

Haiku214 said:
BF3 (beta) since even the fastest single GPU ATM (gtx 580) can only run an average of 45 FPS @ 1920x1200 everything max out. Plus it was announced that the final version will have even better graphics, so more stress on the GPU.
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Average fps, the minimum is prolly around 35, which is not really playable in multiplayer.
 
I'd rather have a game that plays well enough at medium-high settings. If there's another game that purposely reduces your PC's gaming performance purposely (BRINK) just to level the game play, I'd be pissed. Like. Hell. To answer your question, currently: BF3 Beta
 
Very demanding:
GTA 4 with ENB mod and SSAO as well as SSAA active. With 580 SLI I get 10-15 fps.
 
I'd say (from experience) that Metro 2033 is much harder on a card than the BF3 Beta or Crysis. Much harder to get decent framerates in that game, plus it looks amazing.

boxleitnerb said:
Very demanding:
GTA 4 with ENB mod and SSAO as well as SSAA active. With 580 SLI I get 10-15 fps.
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Probably because GTA4 on the PC has some of the shittiest optimization of any PC game I've seen in recent years. It actually used to run pretty decent at first, then after the 5th or 6th patch the performance went to complete shit and never recovered.
 
I would be careful with such claims. I'm no programmer, so I cannot say if a game is optimized or not. What, if it's optimized but still too much at highest settings? Anyway, SSAO costs 50% performance, 2x2 SSAA another 50% and how efficient the effects of the mod itself are, I don't know.
 
On a unified score
100 - An HD4870 (baseline card I used) would get 60fps at 1920x1080. To get 60fps at 2560x1600 you would need something twice as powerful, e.g. an HD6970.
180 - An HD5870 would get 60fps at 1920x1080, 54fps at 1920x1200, 30fps at 2560x1600, 71fps at 1680x1050 and so on.

Apply respective differences between these cards to get a rough comparison. (GTX580 would be 230, GTX570 would be 195, HD6970 would be 210 at high-res, 195 at low-res)

Scores are shown as avg/min frame rate - to get a minimum of 60fps obviously requires more power than that which is required to get an average of 60fps.


Most demanding:
#1 - The Witcher 2 - 780/980
#1 - Metro 2033 - 470/830 (but only with AAA, proper MSAA may give this title the lead)
#3 - Lost Planet 2 - 490/980
#4 - Final Fantasy 14 with Depth of field enabled - 600/770 (195/245 without)
#5 - Total War: Shogun 2 - 485/650
#6 - Crysis - 355/670
#7 - Dragon Age 2 - 705/850 (nvidia hardware), 400/515 (AMD hardware) - unusually, this seems very AMD-biased
#8 - Napoleon Total War - 340/600
#9 - GTA4 EFLC - 360/415 (only 20% View distance used, however, as the benchmark did not use a config hack - real score is likely to be higher)
#10 - Rift - 375/500
#11 - Shattered Horizon - 325/550
#12 - Crysis 2 (DX11 mode) - 345/485
#13 - STALKER Call of Pripyat - 365/450
#14 - Arcania: Gothic 4 - 325/400
#15 - Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead - 250/450 (as far as I can tell this is without AA)
#16 - Battlefield 3 Beta - 290/400
#17 - Just Cause 2 - 310/400 (AMD hardware), 235/275 (nvidia hardware)
#18 - Mortal Online - 285/360
#19 - Silent Hunter 5 - 285/360
#20 - Hard Reset - 255/340
#21 - The Settlers 7 - 265/325
#22 - Split/Second - 260/330
#23 - Red Orchestra 2 - 265/310
#24 - Battlefield Bad Company 2 - 240/515
#25 - Hydrophobia Prophecy - 235/340


Obviously take these with some variance as it does assume all graphics cards are linearly comparable to each other, so in cases where one type dramatically pulls ahead that won't necessarily be shown here, but AMD vs nvidia bias has been considered, and where extreme enough, the brands are shown separately.
All of these titles have dramatic hardware requirements - a score of just 250 means you'd need two GTX460 1GB cards in SLI to run 1920x1080, three GTX570s in SLI to run 2560x1600, and an HD6990 Quad-crossfire system to run 5760x1080/3240x1920 eyefinity.
 
no way! i smoothly run witcher 2 on almost maxed settings (i don't remember exact levels of anti-aliasing and anizotropic filtering but they are there; without ubersampling) on my core 2 duo e8400 @4,1ghz + evga gtx260 core 216 sc. i tell you, witcher 2 is not demanding at all
 
uniqueID said:
no way! i smoothly run witcher 2 on almost maxed settings (i don't remember exact levels of anti-aliasing and anizotropic filtering but they are there; without ubersampling) on my core 2 duo e8400 @4,1ghz + evga gtx260 core 216 sc. i tell you, witcher 2 is not demanding at all
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You obviously don't... Ubersampling does make a tremendous difference (the game scores 230/315 without it) but even that does not allow a GTX260 to score more than an average of 31fps and a minimum of 22 at just 1680x1050.
 
metro 2033 all the way.

Jesus that thing tanks my pc. Any AA makes it unplayable, plus physx in metro is a real game changer.

I cant get the thing above "high" settings with my gtx480 overclocked + a dedicated ppu. Any card as a ppu does really help though.
 
Yeah, as long as you have a physics card fast enough to handle the effects, it basically returns your performance to what it would be with PhysX disabled. Still though, a lot of extra hardware for a couple of minor effects.
 
Agreed on Witcher 2, the game looks absolutely stunning on max. It's a heavy load on the GPU, especially with the Ubersampling.
 
samuelmorris said:
Yeah, as long as you have a physics card fast enough to handle the effects, it basically returns your performance to what it would be with PhysX disabled. Still though, a lot of extra hardware for a couple of minor effects.
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Would a GT 430 be fast enough? I'm still in the market for a single slot ppu.
 
CS:S and HL2 beat the crap out of my ATI AGP X700. I'm lucky to get about 35-40 FPS on closed area maps.
 
wgm3446 said:
CS:S and HL2 beat the crap out of my ATI AGP X700. I'm lucky to get about 35-40 FPS on closed area maps.
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Probably because the X700 was only a midrange card, and it's 7 years old?
N1GHTRA1N said:
Would a GT 430 be fast enough? I'm still in the market for a single slot ppu.
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fizica_.jpg

IIRC the GT430 sits midway between the GT220 and GT240, so it'd possibly be an improvement, but you would do much better with a bit more performance - as you see, use too weak a PhysX card and you actually make things worse.
 
i'd also add sacred 2 with physx enabled. one of the few games for which i have to significantly raise rpm on my gpu cooler, otherwise it will crash sooner than later.
 
Games should never crash if your GPU gets too hot. Unless you reach the shutdown period at which your PC will just reboot/power off, you will still have stability up until that point - if you don't, it implies an unstable overclock.
 
I'd say the most painful games for the current graphics set up that I have are Metro 2033 and ARMA 2. I should also mention GTA4 and the first Lost Planet as horribly optimized turds.
 
Yeah lost planet 1 wasn't part of that test, I'm sure it's way up there. I also want to run a more detailed test of Arma 2 at some point.
 
just got metro 2033 last nite.. my machine seems to kinda plow right through it all maxed settings, amd hardware at that, and it looks absolutely beautifull.
 
Your frame rate can't be very high though if you truly are using maxed settings, including proper MSAA.
 
I agree with ArmA2, but it's also very CPU-dependant for performance.

Honestly the best two things I did to improve performance in that game were overclocking my CPU and getting an SSD.
 
chiu said:
Which games are the most graphically demanding/challenging games?
What are the best frame rates the best graphic cards in today's market can achieve (at 1920x1200 resolution, everything max out)?
Click to expand...

Witcher 2 was pretty hard. It has a hard learning curve. It doesn't follow the Witcher 1 combat system. I died manytimes running into guards thinking like I can take them all out like I did in witcher 1 :p

The best single graphics cards is probably the EVGA GTX 580 classfied. Probably the best dual GPU is probably two EVGA GTX 580 classified.
 
DJ_007 said:
its completely maxed, very rarely dips below 60fps with v sync on, keep in mind im only at 1600x900..
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Depends how far it dips below 60 on those 'very rare' occasions :p
An HD6950 2GB at 1600x900 would be a score of 250-260 on the unified scale.
For an average of 60fps, Metro 2033 requires 145 on Low, 160 on Medium, 215 on High and 310 on Very High, if you're in DX10 mode, using adaptive AA. Turn the DX11 bells and whistles on, and that 310 jumps to 470 - indicating an average frame rate for you of just 32fps. You must be missing a couple of settings somewhere, or not be using anti-aliasing, for the game to be smooth.
 
im running in DX11 mode, all settings in game are maxed, or the ones it allows me to change with AMD hardware, there is one setting grayed out when in DX11 mode.. cant remember which one right now, ill get some screenies up tonite..
 
samuelmorris said:
Yeah, as long as you have a physics card fast enough to handle the effects, it basically returns your performance to what it would be with PhysX disabled. Still though, a lot of extra hardware for a couple of minor effects.
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its not minor in Metro. They literally use physx in everything. From the muzzel flashes and tracers, to even the ambient lighting. Hell, as you walk through rooms the dust hanging in the air moves around. Its insane.

most games, yes, it is minor, but the dev's went totally overboard with Metro.

from an art perspective, it is my favorite game. Its literally insane what they've done with it.
 
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