Alan Wake - GPU Performance

[RussianSensation]

One of the most anticipated games for PC a while back. A "console" port but still a pretty good looking game considering how long it has been in development.

PC vs. Xbox360 Graphics Video Comparison
^ The PC benefits significantly from higher resolution, although because there are ~ 7,000 textures in the game, only some of them were upgraded for the PC from the console version as it would have taken too much time and resources to redo the entire game from scratch.

GPU Benchmarks: AMD cards do really well (HD5830 ~ GTX470, HD6870 ~ GTX480)

Although this game was supposed to support quad-core CPUs, it is actually extremely GPU limited. A core i3 is easily enough to not bottleneck an HD6990.

*** Source: GameGPU.ru ***

 

[Qbah]

Pretty much in line with what I'm getting on my OC'ed HD5850 at 1920x1080... 40-50FPS.

 

[RussianSensation]

AW scales really well with GPU speed.

HD5870 ~ 2x faster than HD5770
GTX580 ~ 2x faster than GTX460

I don't recall a lot of games with such linear GPU performance scaling.

Even though many of us were disappointed that MS launched it on the 360 first, it looks like the development team did an outstanding job on the game engine in this game. Most console ports could learn a thing or 2 from such exemplary GPU scaling (GTAIV...)

 

[toyota]

I wish they would have tested the cpus on highest settings as many of the settings have a large impact on cpu performance.

 

[RussianSensation]

I wish they would have tested the cpus on highest settings as many of the settings have a large impact on cpu performance.

True. Although based on the fact that GTX560 Ti is only getting 34 fps average at just 1080P, I doubt a CPU bottleneck would arise with any modern CPU.

It would have been interesting to see how well HD7900 series performs in this game. Perhaps someone can run 2560x1600 benches with an HD7970 and then repeat with it overclocked. I'd imagine this game would scale almost linearly with increased GPU speed.

 

[Grooveriding]

I have been dying to play this. Bought and downloaded from day one, but there is still no SLI profile available

Does not look like a console port to me graphically, they are quite impressive. It is really demanding on its highest settings though.

 

[toyota]

True. Although based on the fact that GTX560 Ti is only getting 34 fps average at just 1080P, I doubt a CPU bottleneck would arise with any modern CPU.

It would have been interesting to see how well HD7900 series performs in this game.

yeah but something GTA 4 is perfectly playable on lowest settings with an older dual core cpu but would eat my E8500 up on higher settings. I am not saying Alan Wake is that cpu intensive but many of the settings rely quite a bit on cpu power.

 

[railven]

Watching that video, this is definitely not just a simple port job.

Kudos to developers who still care about the PC platform.

 

[RussianSensation]

I have been dying to play this. Bought and downloaded from day one, but there is still no SLI profile available

Does not look like a console port to me graphically, they are quite impressive. It is really demanding on its highest settings though.

It seems for now you may be able to increase the performance through the game's profile in the NVIDIA Inspector by using FEAR 2: Project Origin in its place. That's what they have used to achieve GTX590 scaling.

AW is killer on GPUs @ 2560x1600. You can see from their benches, GTX480 has no chance whatsoever. Given how much faster HD6970 is, I can actually imagine HD7970 @ 1200mhz doubling the performance of a GTX480.

Imagine if this game was a DX11 game with Tessellation and other features such as Bokeh depth of field, etc. and actually came out on the PC in 2009. It would have been the "next" Crysis, easily.

 

[Qbah]

Watching that video, this is definitely not just a simple port job.

Kudos to developers who still care about the PC platform.

It's not even a contest vs the Xbox. I own both versions and the difference is rather drastic. It's like a new game for me. Looks pretty awesome on the PC!

EDIT: However, tessellation would improve many out-of-woods parts tremendously. The flat walls, steps and pathways really stick out.

 

[RussianSensation]

EDIT: However, tessellation would improve many out-of-woods parts tremendously. The flat walls, steps and pathways really stick out.

Definitely.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Damn

HD6970s performing better than GTX580s? I never thought I'd see the day come when a game was AMD biased.

 

[rgallant]

great game
-the amount of detail is amazing some times. like books in a book store , wooden mountain railings\shelters that look structural sound.
-getting 45-50 fps and plays well below 60fps.
-only issue are the controls for the cars, way too responsive ,I end up doing donuts instead of a minor course correction

 

[Grooveriding]

It seems for now you may be able to increase the performance through the game's profile in the NVIDIA Inspector by using FEAR 2: Project Origin in its place. That's what they have used to achieve GTX590 scaling.

AW is killer on GPUs @ 2560x1600. You can see from their benches, GTX480 has no chance whatsoever. Given how much faster HD6970 is, I can actually imagine HD7970 @ 1200mhz doubling the performance of a GTX480.

Imagine if this game was a DX11 game with Tessellation and other features such as Bokeh depth of field, etc. and actually came out on the PC in 2009. It would have been the "next" Crysis, easily.

I found that fix on the nvidia forums and it gives scaling, but whenever an enemy appears the screen gets garbled.

I am surprised at the results. I wonder if it is drivers or architecture. I have only seen the very start of the game and it looks really nice. They did a good job of porting it, it took a few years I think!

 

[blackened23]

I don't have much to add except I love this game. It is definitely a PC port done right, has adjustable FOV and video options. I'm so sick of PC ports that don't have native AA or adjustable FOV, its sickening (I'm looking at YOU 2k games......grr...darkness 2)

 

[notty22]

Have you tried ranaming the .exe to this
AFR-FriendlyD3D.exe
Works on many NFS games that did not support sli early.

 

[ZimZum]

5870 still chugging along nicely.

 

[p_monks33]

Played through this game on the xbox and I gotta say its one of the more compelling games ive played. I rarely sit through a game on pins and needles trying to figure out whats going on. Is it worth it to grab on PC. I wouldnt mind another playthrough before I play the new AW game.

 

[tviceman]

5870 performing very nicely, and Nvidia cards are overall performing very poorly. I bought it on release day, not sure why since I have a dozen other games to play through, but hopefully the performance will improve on my gpu before I get to it.

 

[lavaheadache]

My oc'ed 7970 does very well with this game @ 2560x1600 maxed out but definately get some dips into the low 40's.

 

[Smartazz]

Wow, the 6870 beats the 570 at 1080p.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Runs perfectly fine with a 7970 Oced and core i7 2600k at 4.1 at 19x10 max 4x aa with minimum fps like 50-60+

 

[amenx]

Wow, the 6870 beats the 570 at 1080p.

A few games can heavily favor one GPU maker over another. Being a new game though, it is likely drivers will correct the imbalance. Though not expecting much action from NV on that front, their driver team seems solely focused on kepler atm. Been quite a while since their last driver.

 

[BD231]

If a game runs like dog crap on nVidia hardware upon release its because its an AMD evolved title, you should all be used to this by now.

 

[MrK6]

Bought it but haven't had time to play yet. Quite an AMD-favored game though .