We run the game using both the built in benchmark and a manual run through the games GeoThermal Valley level.
One of our favorite benchmarks is rise of the tomb raider, and this set of testing is no different. If you’d like more results for games across different resolutions, lower core counts and testing with a GTX 1080 as well as the 1080 Ti, and with different games (including FF15), you can checkout our CPU and Resolution scaling video, which is embedded below too.
For software we’ll be using Windows 10 with all software patched to the latest retail versions via Steam.īefore we continue – we’d like to thank MSI for providing the motherboard and processor used in this review and if you’d like to check out the motherboard review please find it embedded in the article too. Oh – and we’ll be using a combination of manual runs along with the built in benchmarks, and this is alongside Crucial Ballistix RAM and an MSI B360 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard. For graphics, we’ll be using Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, and test across the 3 most popular resolutions – 1080P, 1440P and finally 4K. We’ll be using an Intel I7-8700 processor for the CPU, testing with different CPU core count configurations and disabling Hyper Threading to see how the different APIs scale. Now ID software’s Doom (and Doom Eternal), Wolfenstein games, Microsoft’s own titles and Square Enix titles are particularly easy to point to when it comes to pushing the new APIs.Īll of this is all well and good – but of course, ultimately gamer’s want to know what type of performance benefits you can see from using the API and what type of hardware best takes advantage of it. Microsoft’s adoption of DX12 to both the Xbox platform and PC, and the dizzying array of platforms you can target with Vulkan have seen the release rates for games using these APIs speed up.
Reasons of the slower adoption are numerous – it’s harder to develop games using DX12 or Vulkan (if you’re really pushing optimization boat out), older hardware typically performed better with DX11 (although this is starting to change, as people are upgrading their machines naturally) and drivers and SDK’s were immature (and this is another area that’s rapidly evolving). But this hasn’t been the case, and games such Resident Evil 7, Final Fantasy 15 and even Black Ops 4 are all firmly stuck on DX11.
It was easy to assume that the vast majority of PC games would be DX12 or Vulkan by now, and DX11 would be relegated to smaller indie studios or games which didn’t push the visual envelope. The titles such as Metro Exodus look incredible, and Nvidia are currently perfecting Adaptive Temporal Antialiasing, a sure sign of the future of graphics. DirectX 12 and Vulkan allowed much gave games the ability to run over more threads, allowing the GPU to be better fed with data, and furthermore gave developers much better control over GPU resources.Īnd as I’m writing this, Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft (and about everyone else in the industry) are waxing lyrically about the benefits of RayTracing – and DXR (DirectX RayTracing) is yet another extension of how the industry will evolve, pushing the graphical envelope of future games even more. It was very easy to see the very impressive Witch Demo and have open mouths, drooling at what was to come. We here at RedGamingTech, extensively covered Vulkan, DX12 and Mantle during their initial announcements (we actually have a few exclusive interviews with AMD’s Robert Hallock regarding Vulkan, linked in the description if you’d like to check them out).