Best and worst optimized PC games?

[Albatross]

Best
-Solitaire

Worst
-Miasmata

 

[frowertr]

Arkham city optimized? Lol. I'm guessing the people that said that didn't play the DX11 version when it was released.

 

[halodude23]

Best:
Crysis 3
Left 4 Dead 2
Hitman Absolution
Max Payne 3
Battlefield 3


Worst:
War-z

 

[Possessed Freak]

Best...

Worst
World of Tanks
Neverwinter Nights 2
Civ IV (still can make a computer crawl in late game...)

 

[futurefields]

Arkham city optimized? Lol. I'm guessing the people that said that didn't play the DX11 version when it was released.

Now that I do some more testing, I have to agree.

There is some weird kind of framerate cap in place whree the game wont go above 62-63 fps regardless of the detail settings.

 

[thejunglegod]

I think Hitman Absolution is easily the best optimised game out there at the moment. Looks gorgeous and have had no framerate drops anywhere/anytime.


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[Aikouka]

Hmm, I didn't know that. I always assumed the RAM doubled. Though UE3 does have known stuttering issues which seem to be unrelated to system capabilities.

Yeah... it's unfortunate. I'm guessing that they provide each GPU with the same data because the latency of accessing data from another GPU's memory pool would be too high to perform alternate-frame rendering (especially with triple or quad GPU). That's one of the reasons why SLI is pretty much off my plate. I bought my GTX 680 when they first came out, and 2GB is fine for one, but there's not much of a point getting a SLI 680 system when you're stuck with 2GB. SLI 680s would be potent for higher resolutions, which would more than likely desire more video memory.

That probably means a new GPU for my next PC.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Now that I do some more testing, I have to agree.

There is some weird kind of framerate cap in place whree the game wont go above 62-63 fps regardless of the detail settings.

That's remove able in the .INI files I think.

 

[SPBHM]

the last game which impressed me by how well it performed probably was Dishonored, the worst port I played on the last 5 years was certainly "Saints Row 2"

 

[Zeze]

I'm very surprised to see how absolutely gorgeous Crysis 3 was and how amazingly smooth it ran on my aging $600 budget rig:

i3-2120
HD-6870

Runs the game at 1920x1080p all high. Very smooth (50-60fps)

 

[JoetheLion]

I wonder if it was the significant increase in particle effects? I remember that my 8800GTX had some bad problems with some effects. For example, if I stood in Hellfire Peninsula when the fire erupted from the ground, I would watch my framerate drop 30-50%. However, I'm not sure if that was the video card (I don't think it ever worked right), poor drivers (I used Vista... that says a lot), or poor tweaking on Blizzard's part.

I'd probably be more willing to blame the video card over Blizzard for that.

I don't know, but the graphic boost wasn't enough to be worth the performance drop. I also remember that being in Dalaran in WotLK was a guaranteed lagfest, unless you played at the time of dawn. Too little space, for too many players.

 

[McWatt]

Most of the opinions people espouse on the internet about quality of "optimization" are based on differences in art direction. Some designs look very attractive despite geometrical simplicity, so they're able to pair high speed with high visual satisfaction.

I think that Binding of Isaac is a great example of a poorly optimized game. Apparently it's being recreated outside of Flash, though, which should make it literally 2-3 orders of magnitude more efficient.

 

[KMFJD]

Syndicate

 

[Phynaz]

Worst - Prototype. Completely unplayable.

 

[Dankk]

Worst - Prototype. Completely unplayable.

Prototype was definitely hanky-janky, but it was still playable IMO.

If you thought Prototype was bad, try the sequel (Prototype 2). The performance issues are 10x as awful. Activision shut down the studio immediately after release so they couldn't release any patches, either. It's a permanently broke game.

 

[Midwayman]

World of Tank is the only game I've really installed any time recently and thought "WTF? Why is this so slow?"

 

[blastingcap]

Syndicate

As best or worst? I was looking into buying that game.

 

[Dankk]

As best or worst? I was looking into buying that game.

I assume he's talking about the new (2012) version? It's a mildly entertaining cyberpunk-themed FPS. I was actually just playing it this morning. It runs as smooth as can be.

It's pretty much a direct console port; doesn't feel like they upgraded the textures or polycounts or anything. On the bright side, my modest 7870 runs it on max settings in 1080p at roughly 120fps. (V-sync introduces some pretty bad input latency, but turn it off and it's fine). No dips, slowdowns, or stuttering whatsoever.

If I had to guess, he probably meant "best-optimized". If he meant "worst-optimized", then either he has a crummy PC or something's wrong with his setup.

 

[TheVrolok]

Anyone remember Cryostasis?

/thread

 

[Bateluer]

Ultima IX.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Judged by overall graphical quality and framerate/smoothness with a 2500K + 5850 and individual hardware requirements...

Best:
Sleeping Dogs. No contest. IMO the gold standard of optimization.

Good:
Source engine games (but terrible loading times)
Assassin's Creed II/Brotherhood/Revelations
CoD series
Starcraft II
Payday
Batman: Arkham Asylum
DX:HR
Just Cause 2
Mass Effect Series
Skyrim
C&C3
Guild Wars 2
Far Cry 3/Blood Dragon DX9

So-so:
Witcher 2
WoW pre-Cata
Killing Floor
Planetside 2
Hitman: Absolution
Saints Row 3
Max Payne 3

Bad:
Far Cry 3/Blood Dragon DX11
Diablo III
WoW-Cata
Borderlands 1/2
GTA 4
Stalker

Terrible:
Brink

 

[Rezident]

Worst: GTA IV

It wasn't optimised for PC at all, is was a performance disaster, even on a quad-core with 2Gb VRAM. What a disaster.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

World of Tank is the only game I've really installed any time recently and thought "WTF? Why is this so slow?"

you might want to take a look at your machine then, because my 4 year old gtx 275 keeps over 30 fps at high settings

 

[Borealis7]

another bad port was The Last Remnant. awesome game but Square left the X/triangle/square/shit on the screen as indicators for actions.

and don't forget Oblivion

 

[StrangerGuy]

another bad port was The Last Remnant. awesome game but Square left the X/triangle/square/shit on the screen as indicators for actions.

and don't forget Oblivion

Oblivion ran like crap on pre-unified shader GPUs but that doesn't mean it is badly optimized; graphics wise there is really nothing like it back in 2006. Badly optimized games are things that are as demanding as Crysis but looks nowhere near the same quality.