Company of Heroes 2 – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

 

release year: 2013 
Genre:RTS
developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: SEGA

 

Company of Heroes 2 is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Relic Entertainment. It was announced on May 7, 2012, and the release is tentatively scheduled for early 2013. The game is already available for pre-order on the digital services Steam and Origin. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6F6Vut8Gn4

 The game will take place during the Great Patriotic War, better known in the West as the Eastern Front, starting from the Battle of Moscow and covering the most brutal battles of this period. The game releases June 25, 2013.

THE GRAFICAL PART

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

Supported OS and graphics API

Company of Heroes 2 is supported by major Windows operating systems, which include Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Other operating systems are not currently supported by the developers. 

 

The priority and main graphics API for the multiplayer game Company of Heroes 2 is DirectX 11. The game is distributed through the Steam digital store.

Game engine

The game is based on the Essence Engine 3 game engine, which supports many modern graphic effects, including High Dynamic Range (HDR lighting), dynamic lighting & shadows, advanced shader effects and normal mapping. Essence Engine is the first engine designed for RTS games that supports facial animation. In the game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, the engine began to use early weather effects and DirectX 10/11.

The sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Dawn of War II, uses a redesigned version of the Essence Engine, which allows games to use even more detailed models and textures, realistic lighting, and modern shader effects. Essence Engine 2.0 is optimized for multi-core processors and modern video cards.

 

 An innovative technology called ColdTech is responsible for displaying the harsh winter. Now your troops will freeze when in open space, snow storms will occur during battle, and ice and snow will dynamically change under the influence of weather, fire, vehicle movement and destructive explosions.

Advanced Game Settings

Company of Heroes 2 has a rather modest arsenal of graphic settings, and considering that this is a PC exclusive, it would be possible to make a much more expanded graphic menu. We can flexibly manipulate advanced graphics settings, setting them to low, medium, high and maximum quality levels. 

 

Below we have provided 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

The maximum quality settings

As we can see, the difference in picture quality between different graphic quality settings is quite significant and at minimum settings all the charm of this game is lost.

Antialiasing on/off

Using high anti-aliasing quality settings gives a softer image.

Video comparison of different texture detail modes

Increasing the quality of texture detail gives a good visual effect. The detailing when using maximum quality textures is simply amazing!

General visual design and game physics

Company of Heroes 2 turned out to be a very entertaining game, which is an excellent RTS with numerous modes and very spectacular graphic effects. We can say that this project has raised the bar for RTS graphics to almost a new level.

 

The graphics in the game are simply magnificent – the effects are implemented at a very high level, the detail of the surrounding world is simply magnificent, and the physics raises the perception of the gameplay to a higher level.

But again, it’s worth noting that all these beauties will have a very significant impact on users’ wallets, and then we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware.

TEST PART

GPU test

 All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average and minimum FPS were taken as performance indicators. Below is a video of the test segment: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0MTWIed98I

 Our video cards were tested at separate screen sizes of 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 at the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by Company of Heroes 2. Tests were carried out in various anti-aliasing modes. Multi-chip configurations from NVIDIA and AMD showed very poor optimization. So SLI practically does not scale, and AMD CrossFireX shows a jerky picture.

It is worth noting right away that to play Company of Heroes 2 you simply need a sufficient amount of video memory. Video cards with a gigabyte of video memory can play the game only with medium texture detail, low anti-aliasing and only at a resolution of 1920×1080.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 Texture Medium AA Low

 

At a resolution of 1920×1080 at maximum settings with medium textures and low anti-aliasing, an acceptable FPS was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 level or GeForce GTX 560 Ti. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7870 or GeForce GTX 680 and higher.

But the most interesting thing will come next: higher settings lead to a lack of video memory on gigabyte video cards, but the FPS on other video cards does not change, but the consumption of graphics memory only increases…

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080  AA Low

 

At a resolution of 1920×1080 at maximum settings with a low anti-aliasing level an acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 6950 level or GEFORCE GTX 480. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7870 or GEFORCE GTX 680 and above.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600  AA Low

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600 at maximum settings low level of antialiasingan acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7870 level or GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7970GE or GEFORCE GTX 780 and above.

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080  AA Medium

 

At a resolution of 1920×1080 at maximum settings c high level of smoothingAn acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7950 or GEFORCE GTX 680 level. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600  AA Medium 

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600 at maximum settings, there are currently no suitable solutions. And although AMD’s dual-chip processors showed good performance, it’s hard to call the game comfortable on them with such wild distortions…

VRAM test

Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 with different anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory GPU quality settings 

 

The recommended amount of video memory for this game is about 2 GB for basic graphics quality settings. For ultra resolutions and maximum settings, you will need about three gigabytes of video memory.

Micro-Stuttering Test

Introducing our testing of FPS output latency on a Micro-Stuttering monitor. The indicator was based on the results on video cards from AMD ARES II and NVIDIA GTX 780 at a resolution of 1920×1080 with maximum image quality settings.

Testing at maximum quality settings Micro-Stuttering GPU 

 

Micro-Stuttering latency indicators are at a more or less acceptable level, but single-chip AMDs have slightly lower FPS output latencies. The only problem is the delays with CrossFireX, so a jerky picture combined with low delays is not a recommended mode for this game.

CPU test

 

We tested processor dependence on 17 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920×1080 with maximum graphics quality settings. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

 

Company of Heroes 2 places very high demands on CPU resources. Intel processors look best in the game.

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 Intel%

 

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 AMD%

 

Multi-core efficiency is designed mainly for 4 processor cores. Increasing processor cores gives a tiny increase in performance.

RAM test

Testing of the RAM consumed by the game was carried out by monitoring directly through the Windows task manager. The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 [email protected] GHz with 16GB 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 Company of Heroes 2 is at the level of 2000 megabytes. It is also worth noting that if there is insufficient video memory, it is swapped from RAM. Thus, for a comfortable game you need to have at least 4 GB of RAM installed in your PC. 

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