[Multiple Sites] Watch Dogs GPU benchmark roundup

[csbin]

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/watch-dogs-test-gpu.html

http://www.techspot.com/review/827-watch-dogs-benchmarks/page3.html

http://pclab.pl/art57916-8.html


gamegpu: AMD Catalyst 14.6/ Nvidia GeForce 337.88
techspot: AMD Catalyst 14.4/ Nvidia GeForce 337.50
pclab: AMD Catalyst 14.6/ Nvidia GeForce 337.88

 

[OCGuy]

Hopefully that .ru site just made it obvious to everyone that they are fake.

Nothing so far showing 2GB VRAM usage....

 

[AtenRa]

Hopefully that .ru site just made it obvious to everyone that they are fake.

Why they are fake ??

 

[Leadbox]

Hopefully that .ru site just made it obvious to everyone that they are fake.

Nothing so far showing 2GB VRAM usage....

Not necessarily, maybe they just benched a bit of the game were gameworks is in full flow :ninja:
What we all should be demanding is more detail on reviewer bench runs, they should youtube them

 

[Whitestar127]

Seems like a good candidate for g-sync this game.
Are there any SLI benchmarks out there?

Edit: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/watch_dogs_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,1.html
Does not look promising. They call it a stuttering mess.

 

[Gloomy]

Russian site tested with High textures instead of Ultra, because Ultra caused 2GB cards to stutter.

 

[Silverforce11]

Can you even enable ultra textures with 2gb vram? Gamers are saying they can't set it to ultra with their 2gb cards.

Note that Ultra setting and Ultra Textures are separate settings.

Edit: Whitestar thanks that Guru3d test really show whats going on, MSAA and ultra textures eat up heaps of vram, causing SLI 780ti to stutter terribly even at 1440p, whereas the R295 was relatively smooth.

Looks like even at 1080, enabling MSAA is a no go for cards with 2gb vram, as well as the ultra textures. So take a lot of other site benches with a massive grain of salt and read their testing conditions very carefully. Setting it on "ultra" with high textures and no MSAA isn't ultra by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[l2ez4m]

A couple with latest drivers from Europe, the trend is clear

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Watch...s/Watch-Dogs-Test-GPU-CPU-Benchmarks-1122327/
http://www.purepc.pl/karty_graficzn...e_test_kart_graficznych_i_procesorow?page=0,3

 

[Silverforce11]

A couple with latest drivers from Europe, the trend is clear

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Watch...s/Watch-Dogs-Test-GPU-CPU-Benchmarks-1122327/

From that link: "With this next-gen title but also seems the era of two-GB GPUs slowly coming to an end, as I have suggested some other titles like Battlefield 4, Thief or Titanfall."

 

[Stuka87]

A couple with latest drivers from Europe, the trend is clear

What trend would that be? That the reviewers artificially drop the texture quality down to make certain cards look better?

 

[Attic]

[H] has got an evaluation as well.

Link

Textures - There is a Textures setting in this game that has three settings, and these will directly impact your performance and smoothness in the game. The lowest setting is "Medium" and can be used on midrange or value-end video cards. The second setting "High" requires that you have 2GB of VRAM on your video card. Third, there is an "Ultra" setting that requires you to have 3GB of VRAM on your video card. This is very unique and a high requirement for the best textures in the game.

Naturally everyone will want the best textures, but you can't have these unless you have at least 3GB of VRAM. This is bad news for video cards like the GeForce GTX 770 and lower video cards, which only have 2GB. This is good news for AMD as AMD has had 3GB of VRAM on video cards since the Radeon HD 7950 and 7970 days. Oddly enough, as much as NVIDIA put into this game, something as simple as VRAM size may bite NVIDIA in the ass.

These texture requirements may also be the case that those midrange GPU options like the PNY 4GB GTX 770 we are evaluating now actually prove itself for the first time in this game. The extra money for more VRAM capacity could have a big impact on improving the gameplay experience in this game.

Regarding the VRAM debate for the game. 2gb doesn't cut it for high end, but it appears that from [H]'s look that 3gb doesn't either. Looking at graphs from the eval, 4gb or greater is needed for Ultra Textures without significant fps drops (texture loading) in gameplay.

*Note this is at 1600p. I'd wager that for 1080P or 1440P? 3gb is fine for ultra texture.

I'm still wondering the most important question, is the GPU/CPU demand worth at the end, do the graphics deliver what the game engine is demanding? I got stuck behind a late release from greenmangaming. Downloading the game now.

[H] had this to say about the difference between high and ultra settings for textures.

Is there a difference in the image quality between "High" and "Ultra" textures? There is definitely a difference in image quality, "Ultra" textures are noticeably better. We will have lots of image quality comparisons later today.

 

[Whitestar127]

I'm wondering: What about my two 4GB 670s in this game? I have enough VRAM, but will the memory bus be a bottleneck? Anyone seen any benchmarks that suggest so?

 

[Silverforce11]

Finally, a proper review that examines the different settings in actual gameplay.

3GB is not enough at 1600p res, look at that crazy stutter.

No more stutter with textures down to High. Definitely vram swapping is occuring on the 780ti with ultra textures.

 

[96Firebird]

No 1080p results from [H]?

 

[Attic]

I'm wondering: What about my two 4GB 670s in this game? I have enough VRAM, but will the memory bus be a bottleneck? Anyone seen any benchmarks that suggest so?

Haven't seen benchmarks on the 670, but let us know your findings. I think ultra on your setup is more than likely going to be fine at 1080P.

 

[BrentJ]

No 1080p results from [H]?

This was just a preview, our full evaluation will have 1080p.

 

[96Firebird]

This was just a preview, our full evaluation will have 1080p.

:thumbsup:

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Hopefully some crossfire reviews too.

 

[Whitestar127]

Particularly interested in multi-GPU benchmarks yes, and minimum fps at 1080p.

 

[Face2Face]

From [H]

Is there a difference in the image quality between "High" and "Ultra" textures? There is definitely a difference in image quality, "Ultra" textures are noticeably better. We will have lots of image quality comparisons later today.

Doesn't look very good for my GTX 780 @ 1440p with Ultra textures.... And that's with no AA. I was hoping to at least run Temporal SMAA to cut down on the crawling.

 

[SlowSpyder]

From [H]

Is there a difference in the image quality between "High" and "Ultra" textures? There is definitely a difference in image quality, "Ultra" textures are noticeably better. We will have lots of image quality comparisons later today.

Doesn't look very good for my GTX 780 @ 1440p with Ultra textures.... And that's with no AA. I was hoping to at least run Temporal SMAA to cut down on the crawling.

I was thinking the same thing, it looks like 3GB @ 25x16 resolution was a problem for the 780Ti. Hopefully we'll see some Titan comparisons, but the dips aren't there for the 290 or the 780 when using high texture settings. If that's the case, 4GB may not be enough for 4K or mulitple display resolutions, especially with AA.

 

[blastingcap]

We found out that even on the GeForce GTX 780 Ti with 3GB of VRAM performance can drop as new textures and scenery are loaded into memory. This was most notable moving the camera, or driving in the open world city. With the XFX Radeon R9 290X DD with its 4GB of VRAM we experienced smooth gameplay with no drops in performance using "Ultra" textures.
Is there a difference in the image quality between "High" and "Ultra" textures? There is definitely a difference in image quality, "Ultra" textures are noticeably better. We will have lots of image quality comparisons later today.



Keep in mind that we used the AMD 14.6 Beta driver for our Radeon video cards. We expect this driver to be dropped today and it should address performance issues you have seen written up on the previous current 14.4 WHQL driver. While there has been some Chicken Little proclamations, Team Red or Team Green not getting full looks at new release gaming code when the other team has is nothing new.

HardOCP will have a quick follow up to this article today on Watch Dogs image quality.

http://hardocp.com/article/2014/05/27/watch_dogs_amd_nvidia_gpu_performance_preview/5

 

[2is]

Seems to me, the VRAM scare was/is overstated. Not only does it appear that Ultra can be enabled with 2GB cards but looking at the techspot numbers, a 3GB 7970 is performing a mere 1fps better than a 2GB 680 and WOSE than a 2GB 770. And that trend is the same for both 1080p and 1600p

 

[Attic]

Any good CPU comparisons or any first hand experience with CPU load with this game?

I'll be tinkering on my setup and I hope there might be one or two specific CPU intense settings that can be turned down to help shift most the load to GPU.

 

[Attic]

Seems to me, the VRAM scare was/is overstated. Not only does it appear that Ultra can be enabled with 2GB cards but looking at the techspot numbers, a 3GB 7970 is performing a mere 1fps better than a 2GB 680 and WOSE than a 2GB 770.

From what i've seen on various articles, Ultra textures can not be enabled on 2gb cards. [H]s article was clear on this.

Textures - There is a Textures setting in this game that has three settings, and these will directly impact your performance and smoothness in the game. The lowest setting is "Medium" and can be used on midrange or value-end video cards. The second setting "High" requires that you have 2GB of VRAM on your video card. Third, there is an "Ultra" setting that requires you to have 3GB of VRAM on your video card. This is very unique and a high requirement for the best textures in the game.

Wondering if confusion is due to ultra settings vs ultra textures or if that's not the issue. Perhaps some sites are not clear themselves. Ultra settings in watchdogs /= ultra textures unless specifically noted as ultra textures by reviewer. ie) enabling ultra preset in WD's does not set textures to ultra.