Games of 2013 against modern video cards. Part three – 4K.

INTRODUCTION

 In our final review we will talk about the new 4K resolution standard, which has the most impressive resolution to date 3840×20160. You can find a more detailed overview of this technology on our website.

 

Many people find this format pointless and wasteful, but it is the best visual quality available at the moment. The only negative is the price, because not everyone can afford a $3500 monitor. 

TESTING PROCEDURE

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 minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator. 

Our video cards were tested at resolution 3840×2160 at the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by games, with and without full-screen anti-aliasing activated. The tests were based on the most striking games of 2013, both in terms of gaming and technology. The minimum solutions for games are those video cards that will show an average of at least 25 FPS during gameplay. A sufficient level is a minimum FPS of at least 25 frames. And we consider the optimal level to be video cards that will show a minimum FPS of at least 40 frames. The testing methodology and test location are almost everywhere identical to the original reviews. 

Crysis 3

Crysis 3 is still a very technological project today. As the developers promised, the game with the settings turned up to maximum is capable of bringing any modern gaming hardware to its knees. But apparently PC gamers were not satisfied that they wanted to feed them a “sophisticated” port from consoles. According to official information, PC version of the game Crysis 3 sold just over one hundred thousand copies, while the first part, released exclusively on PC, attracted several million buyers…

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings, without AA and with SMAA 4X anti-aliasing activated. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7990 level or GEFORCE GTX 690. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from ARES II or GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. There are no optimal solutions for this mode.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 SMAA 4X

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. There are no optimal solutions for this mode.

tomb raider

Tomb Raider is a multi-platform project, and the development of the PC version was carried out in parallel with the console versions. In fact, for us, PC owners, it turned out to be an excellent port – the version for personal computers is distinguished by a more powerful graphics component, which is simply crammed with modern technologies.

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with activated anti-aliasing SSAA 2X. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level of Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780. An acceptable level, one should expect from a Radeon HD 7990 or GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. The optimal video cards will be solutions from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI and above.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 SSAA 2X

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level Radeon HD 7990 or GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. There are no optimal solutions for this mode.

Metro Last Light

Metro Last Light is currently one of the most technological products of our time, even though the game was released not only for personal computers, but also for the current generation of game consoles. Graphically, the sequel performed just as impressively as Metro 2033 did in its time. The game has many graphical advantages and a whole bunch of visual effects, the advantages of which we have already examined in a comparison of graphic settings.

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with activated SSAA anti-aliasing. This time the gaming benchmark refused to work with AMD CrossFireX… A detailed review of the game is available at the following link. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. There are no optimal solutions for this mode.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 SSAA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti SLI. There are no optimal and acceptable solutions for this mode.

GRID 2

GRID 2 is the technological successor to GRID. DIRT, and, in general, the entire series of racing games published by Codemasters. The game is based on a modified EGO engine version 3.0 and, despite its third revision, is very similar to its previous versions. The game was developed for the current generation of game consoles, so it’s not worth talking about cinematic yet. But even so, this is the only decent racing product this year.

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with with anti-aliasing activated MSAA 4X. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7850 level or GEFORCE GTX 660. An acceptable level, one should expect from a Radeon HD 7950 or GEFORCE GTX 680. The optimal video cards will be solutions from Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti and above.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 MSAA 4X

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon R9 270 level or GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti. An acceptable level should be expected from the Radeon HD 7950 or GEFORCE GTX 680. The optimal video cards will be solutions from Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti and above.

Company of Heroes 2

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 elevates the perception of the gameplay. Although in our region the game was persecuted due to its inconsistency with historical reality, it is still very popular in the post-Soviet space.

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with activated anti-aliasing on the Middle level. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7970GE or GEFORCE GTX 780 level. There are no optimal and acceptable solutions for this mode.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 AA

 

There are no minimum, optimal or acceptable solutions for this mode.

Total War Rome II

Total War Rome II is an amazing game, even if at the time of release it had a bunch of bugs in terms of gameplay and optimization. But after some time, almost all the problems were eliminated and we have before us a simply phenomenal product with a gorgeous graphical component.

 

The test was conducted on ultra-high and maximum quality settings in the gaming benchmark. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at ultra-high quality settings 3840×2160 

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7970GE or GEFORCE GTX 780. There are no optimal and acceptable solutions for this mode.

Testing at marginal quality settings 3840×2160

 

With these gaming settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the ASUS ARES II level. There are no optimal and acceptable solutions for this mode.

Batman Arkham Origins

Batman Arkham Origins is a great gift for fans of the all-new Gotham City. And although the game is largely multi-platform, as in the case of previous parts, we have a fairly solid arsenal of graphic settings for the most sophisticated PC gamers. At the moment, a gaming benchmark was introduced into the game, so tests were carried out on it. Also, to balance the results, the game physics were not activated.

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with with anti-aliasing activated MSAA 4X. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these gaming settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon R9 270 or GEFORCE GTX 660 level. An acceptable level should be expected from the Radeon R9 280X or GEFORCE GTX 680. The optimal video cards will be solutions from Radeon HD 7990 or GEFORCE GTX 780 and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 MSAA 4X

 

With these gaming settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7970 or GEFORCE GTX 680 level. An acceptable level should be expected from the Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780. The optimal video cards will be solutions from ARES II or GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI and higher.

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 is one of the most anticipated shooters of this year. But the short release time had a somewhat negative impact on the quality of the product. A single company is beautiful, but too monotonous and short. Multiplayer, in terms of game graphics, is very similar to the previous part and no longer evokes amazed delight.

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with antialiasing activated MSAA 4X.  A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these gaming settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7970GE or GEFORCE GTX 780 level. An acceptable level should be expected from the Radeon HD 7990 or GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. The optimal video cards will be solutions from GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 MSAA 4X

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level Radeon HD 7990 or GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. There are no optimal video cards for this mode.

Call of Duty Ghosts

Call of Duty Ghosts moved to an updated engine, but other than increased system requirements, the game did not receive any visible differences from previous parts. Again, apparently the developers were again faced with the problem of tight deadlines and simply did not have time to optimize the product for a very wide range of equipment. With the latest patches and drivers, the game stopped working completely on AMD CrossFireX, which looks very strange…

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with with anti-aliasing activated MSAA 4X. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these gaming settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 7970 or GEFORCE GTX 680 level. An acceptable level should be expected from the Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780. The optimal video cards will be solutions from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the level Radeon R9 290X or GEFORCE GTX 780. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI.  The optimal video cards will be solutions from GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti and higher.

Assassin’s Creed 4

Assassin’s Creed 4 is essentially a new direction in the games of this series. The open game world, naval battles and much more distinguishes the game from its predecessors. Again, with the latest patches and drivers, support for AMD CrossFireX has disappeared, although at the time of release all was working properly…

 

The test was carried out at maximum quality game settings in the in-game benchmark, without AA and with antialiasing activated SMAA. A detailed review of the game is available at the following link.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti level. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from the GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. The optimal video cards will be solutions from GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 AA

 

With these game settings, the minimum level of performance will be shown by video cards of the GEFORCE GTX 690 level. An acceptable-sufficient level should be expected from the GEFORCE GTX 780 SLI. The optimal video cards will be solutions from GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti and higher.

Final World

Well, 4K turned out to be very difficult for modern graphics solutions. Of course, there are some games that are not the most resource-intensive, but they do not fundamentally affect the overall disposition of forces.

If we summarize the resulting picture, we can conclude that for the mode without anti-aliasing, video cards will provide the required minimum Radeon R9 290X и GEFORCE GTX 780(price range $500).

For modes with full-screen anti-aliasing enabled, a more powerful graphics solution will be needed, but at the moment there is no such option for single-chip solutions. In this case, you will have to resort to NVIDIA SLIGEFORCE GTX 780 or AMD CrossFireX Radeon R9 290X(price range of $1000), but even in this case a comfortable gaming experience is not guaranteed.