Civ6 DX12 v DX11 comparison 2018.

[taltamir]

I had just gotten civ6 from the humble bundle and thought to try it out. When I did it asked me if I want to run "civ 6" or "civ 6 DX12". I was curious to know what the first option actually was (it is DX11 for the curious) so I googled it, and in so doing discovered something interesting.

It turns out that DX12 for civ6 was a bit notorious, because when it was released in 2016 via an update it sucked. Being artificially limited to newest models only and even on them it was slower than DX11.

I tried to find a newer benchmark but could find none, only countless articles about how bad DX12 version sucks and how its worse than DX11 on benchmarks and nobody should run it.

Out of curiosity I went ahead and made one myself to see how it fares in 2018 after they had time to patch it.

2018-02-02 Civ 6 comparison DX11 v DX12 on GTX980.
1440p borderless window with all options set to max. Using built in benchmark option.

DX11:
average: 27.559ms
99th percentile: 50.932ms
Avg FPS = 1000 / 27.559 = 36.29 FPS

DX12:
average: 37.271ms
99th percentile: 65.246ms
Avg FPS = 1000 / 37.271 = 26.83 FPS

Note that those are times to render a frame not FPS. So lower is better. So DX12 is still much worse, nothing changed

PC details:

Win10 x64
Intel Core i5 6500
nVidia GeForce GTX980 with 4GB VRAM
64 GB DDR4
ASRock Z170 Pro4S mobo

 

[TheELF]

ms (millisecond) is the time it takes to draw a frame, 37ms are 10ms longer than 27ms...

 

[taltamir]

ms (millisecond) is the time it takes to draw a frame, 37ms are 10ms longer than 27ms...

This is what I get for posting when both sick and sleep deprived.

 

[shortylickens]

How is the gameplay? I heard they simplified a lot in Civ 6.

 

[MrSquished]

DX12 turned on in BF1 is causing big framerate drops, and I have a pretty decent rig. Rig in my sig.

 

[Elcs]

I still use DX12 for Civ 6. Mostly because I can and it's a higher number than 11. Oh, and my overclocked i5 2500k is likely more limiting than my 8Gb 390x at 1440p.

How is the gameplay? I heard they simplified a lot in Civ 6.

It's much better than 5 was with all of its DLC's including BE (sigh, still need good SMAC replacement) but not quite 4 BtS standard. Rise & Fall could make this even better than 4 BtS for me.

 

[local]

How is the gameplay? I heard they simplified a lot in Civ 6.

I am annoyed by the districts which make it so you cannot automate cities and missionary spam from the AI. After the first five or so cities I just don't care about what I build or where. Other than those two things I like it.

 

[taltamir]

How is the gameplay? I heard they simplified a lot in Civ 6.

it is a mixed bag. they added some nice stuff, removed some really annoying features, and added some new really annoying features too.

AI is still terminally stupid and the only way it can pose even the slightest challenge is by having it cheat like crazy. Also, the UI sucks and a community UI fix mod is mandatory... the community UI fix mod is actually rather nice. I just am annoyed on principle. Also very very long standing bugs that were well known for over a year don't get fixed despite being simple and easy to fix.

Oh, AI strategy was also never updated. For example, in civ1 people used a strategy called "forward settling" to cripple the AI. sid meyer was "ok, cool" and instead of changing the rules to break it just started programming the AI to forward settle the players, using human derived tactics... worked nicely in civ2... except due to rules and mechanics changes in civ6 if an AI forward settles you instead of harming you it is actually the AI just gifting you a free city that they cannot protect at a great cost to the AI.... albeit the city is placed in a poor spot.

People are pretty annoyed at the AI playing this badly based on premises that don't even apply to the current gen rules.

Between that and the bugs it feels like a very impressive game whose developers never actually bothered trying to play their own game. Adding cool sounding features that don't quite work.

It is a beautiful game and I am glad I went through it a couple of times, but I just don't feel like playing it longer term.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Ran the built in benchmark this afternoon I run higher FPS on dx 12

I’m still pissed at no cross platform multiplayer. I’d like to play with an OS X owning friend. Complete BS that it’s not possible.

 

[taltamir]

Ran the built in benchmark this afternoon I run higher FPS on dx 12

The test reports the results in "milliseconds to render frame", not in FPS. which means a lower number is better. If DX12 gives you a "higher result" then DX12 is slower for you and provides worse FPS than DX11

Actual FPS = 1000 / result reported by civ6.

for example, here are my results

DX11 average: 27.559ms
DX12 average: 37.271ms

Translating them to FPS:
FPS DX11 = 1000 / 27.559 = 36.29 FPS
FPS DX12 = 1000 / 37.271 = 26.83 FPS

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The test reports the results in "milliseconds to render frame", not in FPS. which means a lower number is better. If DX12 gives you a "higher result" then DX12 is slower for you and provides worse FPS than DX11

Actual FPS = 1000 / result reported by civ6.

for example, here are my results

Translating them to FPS:
FPS DX11 = 1000 / 27.559 = 36.29 FPS
FPS DX12 = 1000 / 37.271 = 26.83 FPS

Ah smart

 

[taltamir]

Ah smart

I initially fell to the same thing. Even though I should know better. I saw the higher numbers and was all "DX12 is giving me higher FPS!" before someone corrected me.

 

[Elcs]

Since this topic is still open and alive, Rise & Fall is actually quite a nice addition.

It's no BtS addition and there are (disappointingly) no new scenarios but the gameplay elements and enhancements have certainly put a nice spin on things. It feels like you're walking into the same but different game.

 

[Joeeye]

Been testing sli in games recently as I've just setup my new build. I decided to try civ 6 as there was the multi gpu option in dx12.

These were my results:

Single card
DX11 - 92.09 average, 64.00 99th percentile
Turn Time - 12.58
DX12 - 78.55 average, 62.36 99th percentile
Turn Time - 12.60

SLI/Multi-GPU
DX11 - 117.44 average, 92.28 99th percentile
Turn Time - 12.17
DX12 - 94.05 average, 75.17 99th percentile
Turn Time - 12.57

DX12 is clearly inferior for Nvidia 1080ti GPU's, especially when running in SLI from my testing.

System specs:
Win 10 Pro 64
I7 8700K oc'd to 5GHz
ASRock Extreme4 Z370
16GB DDR4 3200MHz CL14
2x1080Ti Gigabyte Aorus Extreme