Tomb Raider: PC Performance Benchmarks for Graphics Cards and Processors

BASIC INFORMATION ON THE GAME

 

Released : 2013
Genre : Action / Adventure
Developer : Crystal Dynamics
Publisher : Square Enix

 

TOMB RAIDER is a groundbreaking reimagining of a classic action game that reveals the intense and raw story of a legendary character. In the game, Lara Croft will go from a scared girl in the first adventure to a seasoned adventurer. Armed only with bare instincts and an innate ability to overcome the limits of human vitality, Lara must fight, explore the world and use her wits to discover the dark history of a forgotten island and escape from its merciless captivity.

With high-octane cinematic staged scenes, intense third-person combat, and huge levels for Lara to complete and explore, Tomb Raider redefines the action genre and re-inspires fans of the series with the heroine of the original video game.

THE GRAFICAL PART

In this subsection of our review, the main graphical aspects of this game are revealed. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphics settings and the quality of the development of the main visual aspects.

Supported OS and graphics API

Tomb Raider is supported by major Windows operating systems, which include Windows XP,  Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Other operating systems are currently not supported by developers. 

 

The priority and main graphics API for the multiplayer game Tomb Raider is DirectX 9 and 11. The game is distributed through the digital game sale service Steam and Origin.

Game engine

The video game is based on the studio's own Crystal Engine, on which the previous four games in the series were based. The Deus Ex: Human Revolution project was also created on it, but the developers did not use any of the developments of Eidos Montreal, since the game developed in a completely different direction. The engine supports dynamic shadows from several light sources, and the lighting itself was created based on a real-time system. The original textures of the working build of the game were created at a much higher resolution than can be used on consoles. Therefore, the PC version has certain format advantages.

 

The PC version integrates support for Steamworks tools and Big Picture mode. It is characterized by increased detail in textures, shadows and clothing, and also uses an improved version of SSAO and post-filter effects, adjustable LOD, tessellation, uses Eyefinity and nVidia Surround technologies. Textures support 16x zoom. Tomb Raider was the first game in the PC industry to use TressFX technology, which greatly improves the display of hair through customizable parameters such as wind direction and strength, gravity, interaction with other objects and with each other.

 

Thanks to the updated graphics, the transition from gameplay to cutscenes is almost imperceptible. All screensavers are scripted, pre-generated video, as well as loading screens, are absent in the game. In order to better display the emotions and movements of the main character, the developers used motion capture technology, as well as motion capture videos of the actors. The frame rate of the game is 60 frames per second. Tomb Raider also supports 120Hz. The project uses the "smart" system Quick Time Events. It is determined by pressing non-random buttons on the screen, as a result of which the QTE corresponds to the actions of the heroes. The use of Quick Time Events was due to the fact that working with most system mechanisms takes a lot of time, in addition, they are limited by strict limits.

 

The virtual camera has been redesigned. Previously, the series used a fixed view, which, according to the developers, limited the display of what was happening. In Tomb Raider, on the other hand, the concept of a kind of internal operator is used, which allows the camera to change angles, trying to show the main points of the ongoing events. This circumstance gives cinematography to the project. The camera perspective will change, either moving closer to Lara when she is in narrow tunnels, or zooming out to show the dangers of the environment.

 

The close location of the camera is necessary in order for the players to feel the emotions of the main character, including claustrophobia. As Lara pulls herself onto the ledge, the camera zooms in and out at the same time as the heroine, one of the few visual markers left over from the previous installments of the series. Depending on the surfaces the protagonist comes into contact with, the camera may become covered in drops of water, blood, and dirt.

Advanced game settings

Tomb Raider for personal computers has a huge amount of visual customization. We can flexibly manipulate both basic and advanced all graphic settings, exposing them to low, medium, high and maximum quality levels.

Below we have included screenshots of the game at various graphics settings, where our readers can see the difference between the minimum, medium, and maximum graphics quality settings. 

Low quality settings

Medium quality settings

High quality settings

Maximum quality settings

As we can see, the picture difference between different graphics settings is quite significant. 

Various smoothing modes

We cannot do without anti-aliasing in Tomb Raider, sometimes there are stairs and very obvious ones. FXAA is the most economical anti-aliasing mode, but at the same time the most useless. The highest quality is the SSAA anti-aliasing mode. 

TressFX

TressFX technology greatly improves the quality of the character's hair, but its implementation is a bit weak. The effect is not bad, but the physics of hair behavior of this technology is very far from ideal.

General visual design and game physics

Tomb Raider is a multi-platform project, and the development of the PC version was carried out in parallel with the console. In fact, all versions of the game on different platforms are identical to each other and the only difference between the PC version is a more powerful graphics component, which is simply stuffed with modern technologies.

 

However, you can’t go far from the original source, and, despite all the game’s manufacturability, console traces are visible everywhere. So - the level design is rather corridor, and the color scheme is rather mediocre. Management is also very specific and the most fun from the game can be obtained only when using a console gamepad.

Но всё же, нельзя отрицать и тот факт, что разработчики Tomb Raider уделили ПК версии весьма много внимания, наделив игру поддержкой DirectX 11 и широчайшим арсеналом графических настроек. Чего стоит только одна новейшая технология TressFX, но и она нуждается в дальнейшем улучшении...

Далее мы перейдём непосредственно к игровым тестам и определим, какое влияние оказывает данная игра на современное компьютерное железо.

ТЕСТОВАЯ ЧАСТЬ

Тест GPU

 All graphics cards were tested at maximum graphics quality by the in - game performance test . The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average FPS was taken as the performance indicator. Below is a video of test segments with and without TressFX :   

Our video cards were tested at 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 resolutions at the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by Tomb Raider. The tests were carried out in various anti-aliasing modes with and without TressFX enabled. Multi-chip configurations from NVIDIA and AMD showed a good increase in performance, which indicates perfect driver preparation.

If video cards limited the resource of video memory, then they were not included in the graphics. The minimum FPS was not taken into account in the graphs, since the benchmark is quite static and the indications of the minimum FPS that it gave did not correspond to our observations...

Test results for NVIDIA 6XX series graphics cards have been updated with driver version 314.14, resulting in a performance boost, especially in SSAA mode and with  TressFX activated , as well as a slight increase in the stability of these video cards. For previous series, these drivers did not affect performance and even in some cases showed less results, so for the 4XX and 5XX series, we recommend using version 314.07.

Test with no AA

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080  no AA

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings c no AA, video cards of the Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 460  level showed an acceptable FPS . The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7770 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600 no AA 

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings c no AA,  video cards of the Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 580 level showed an acceptable FPS  . The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7870 or GEFORCE GTX 680  and higher. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080  no AA TressFX 

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings with no AA  and TressFX, video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti level showed an acceptable FPS. The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GTX 580 and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600 no AA  TressFX

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings with no AA and TressFX, video cards of the level Radeon HD 7870 and GEFORCE GTX 680 showed an acceptable FPS . The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7970GE or GEFORCE GTX 690 and higher.

Test with FXAA

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080  FXAA

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings with FXAA,  video cards of the Radeon HD 7750 or GeForce GTX 460 level showed an acceptable FPS. Radeon HD 6870 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti and higher solutions will be optimal video cards.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600 FXAA 

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings with FXAA, video cards of the Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 580  level showed an acceptable FPS . The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7870 or GEFORCE GTX 680 and higher. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 FXAA TressFX  

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings with FXAA and TressFX, video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 480 level showed an acceptable FPS. Radeon HD 7850 or GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti  and higher  solutions will be optimal video cards .

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600 FXAA  TressFX

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings with FXAA  and TressFX, video cards of the Radeon HD 7950 level showed an acceptable FPS. Radeon HD 7970GE or GEFORCE GTX 690 and higher solutions will be optimal video cards.

Test with SSAA

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080  SSAA 2X 

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings with SSAA,  video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti level showed an acceptable FPS. The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GTX 580 and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600   SSAA 2X 

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings with SSAA  , video cards of the Radeon HD 7950 level showed an acceptable FPS. Radeon HD 6990 or GEFORCE GTX 690 and higher solutions will be optimal video cards. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080  SSAA 2X TressFX   

At a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum settings with  SSAA and TressFX, video cards of the Radeon HD 7870 or GEFORCE GTX 670  level showed an acceptable FPS . The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 7970 or GEFORCE GTX 690  and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600   SSAA 2X   TressFX

At a resolution of 2560x1600 at maximum settings with SSAA  and TressFX, none of the tested 3 GB video cards could show an acceptable result...

VRAM test

Testing of the video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the  MSI Afterburner program. The results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA were taken as an indicator at resolutions of  1920x1080 and 2560x1600 with various anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory GPU quality settings 

Testing at maximum memory GPU quality settings TressFX 

 

The recommended amount of video memory for this game is about 1.5 GB for basic graphics quality settings. For ultra resolutions and maximum settings, you will need about two gigabytes of video memory. Well, for the most maximal installations without 3 gigabytes of video memory, you can’t play ...

CPU test

We tested processor dependence on 19 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of the video card for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920x1080 with maximum graphics quality settings.  

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080

 

Tomb Raider is very loyal in terms of processor dependence, although the most optimal is the use of 4 processor cores, since some friezes are observed on dual-core models. Well, as we can see, even the GEFORCE GTX 690 failed to reveal the majority of the tested processors.

Loading of processor cores  at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel %

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 AMD % 

The game can load all processor cores, with an increase in the number of cores, the load between them is distributed proportionally.

RAM test

Testing of the RAM consumed by the game was carried out by monitoring directly through the Windows Task Manager. The test was conducted on the base configuration Core i 7 3930K@4.8 GHz with 8GB DDR3 2400 MGz pre-installed memory.

Testing at various quality settings

 

As we can see, with various basic quality settings, the amount of RAM consumed in Tomb Raider is at the same level of 400 megabytes. Thus, for a comfortable game, you must have at least 2  GB of RAM installed in your PC.