This game is eating vram like hell. That seems like on of the reasons for these results. Kepler with 2gb totally tanks.
But 960 2GB is crushing the GTX770 2GB at PCGamesHardware.
960 = 55 fps
770 = 32 fps
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Call-...cials/BO3-Beta-Benchmarks-Windows-10-1169217/
Also, I think you are on to something about VRAM but it's still not as clear cut how much VRAM is necessary. Once resolution goes up, even mid-range GM204 Maxwell suffer greatly despite more or similar VRAM! Also, if 4GB was a hard limit, 280X would bomb against 4GB cards, but it doesn't.
2560x1440
Case 1:
R9 280X
3GB =
51.5 fps (+30% vs. a 960 4GB)
R9 380 4GB = 45 fps
GTX960 4GB = 39.4 fps
Case 2:
Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 = 62 fps avg /
58 fps min
Asus Strix 980 = 61 fps avg / 51 fps min
390X shows 40% higher minimums vs. the 980 at 1440P.
In any event, I've been warning gamers for the last 9 months that anyone would be making a big mistake recommending/buying a 2GB card to keep for 2-3 years, even at 1080P. And I would say FAR away from any Kepler cards for those in the market of a used GPU and I would never buy any $160-180 GPU with 2GB of VRAM. That's why I've been steering PC gamers to strongly consider spending a bit more for a GTX970 or R9 290, or at the very least consider R9 280X and skip all the 950/960 2GB/285 cards.
I mean 2GB of VRAM becoming a major bottleneck shouldn't be news to people who didn't close a blind eye to the benchmarks that foreshadows what's coming for 2GB cards.
This is a good reminder for people who keep insisting on marketing features like HDMI 2.0 and 4K HEVC and ignoring performance-based criteria such as GPU horsepower and VRAM capacity when making GPU recommendations.
According to what I can gather from the pcgamershardware translation, the engine is based off of the same that was used with Advanced Warfare but with the Nvidia effects stripped and replaced with their own as well as a few modern effects added.
AW runs much better though on a variety of cards. Hard to conclude without comparing the graphics though. In the last game 680/770 were performing well relative to the 280X, while 780Ti beat both the 970 and 290X.
But even in the last AW game, cards like 670/680/770 start incurring big performance hit against HD7970/7970Ghz/R9 280X once you turn on SSAA.
It's amazing how at one point certain sites called
HD7970 a failure/short-lived. As of now, R9 280X (aka HD7970Ghz) is
68% faster than the GTX580 and has no problem beating a 770 4GB, a card that cost $150 more.