| BASIC GAME INFORMATION |
Release date: 2023
Genre: Action (Shooter) / MMO
Developer/Publisher: Nexon
The First Descendant is a free-to-play sci-fi shooter with micropayments. Nexon company from South Korea. The First Descendant takes us on a journey to a fictional universe, or rather to the continent of Ingris, over which the specter of a mortal threat in the form of alien invaders hovers. As the game progresses, we take on the role of the titular Descendants – heroes who represent humanity’s last hope in the fight against aggressors.
| NEW – GEFORCE RTX 4090 |
Now participating in our test ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition, kindly provided to us by the company ARTLINE. This video card is based on the Ada Lovelac architecture, operates at a frequency of 2600 MHz, has 16384 stream processors and 24 gigabytes of video memory.
| 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 |
The First Descendant is supported Windows 10/11.
The priority and primary graphics API for The First Descendant is DX12.
| GAME ENGINE |
The basis for The First Descendant was the game engine Unreal Engine 5
On May 13, 2020, Epic Games officially announced Unreal Engine 5 and showed a demo in QuadHD resolution with a frame rate of 30 FPS on the PlayStation 5 console. The demo showed the work of new technologies: Lumen and Nanite. Lumen is a new dynamic global illumination technology. Nanite is one of the key technologies at the heart of the engine Unreal Engine 5. It allows you to show as much geometry in the frame as the eye can see, and depends on the resolution – the higher it is, the higher the detail becomes.
Game engine preview Unreal Engine 5 became available in the early access system on May 26. The final version is expected Unreal Engine 5 will be released early next year. However, Epic Games said that the studio will start using Unreal Engine 5 when developing games earlier than everyone else.
The Matrix Awakens demonstrates the capabilities of Niagara, Nanite and Lumen technologies, as well as the micropolygon geometry system. The city is built from seven million assets, each of which consists of millions of polygons. To be more precise, these are seven thousand buildings, 45 cars (073 of them are driven), more than 38 km of highways and 146 km of sidewalks, 260 intersections, 512 lamp posts and 1248 manholes. Nanite processes it all super fast and renders the image in cinematic quality. And the powerful MetaSounds procedural sound generation system simulates the noise of a busy city, enhancing the sense of presence in the environment.
Fully dynamic global illumination system Unreal Engine 5 Lumen uses real-time ray tracing for lights, shadows and reflections. At the same time, the city is illuminated only by the sun, sky and emitting materials, and at night – by the moon, there are no additional light sources.
| SETTINGS |
There aren’t really any settings in The First Descendant:
Below we have provided screenshots of the game at various graphics settings, where our readers can see the difference between the minimum and maximum graphics quality settings.
| QUALITY MODES |
| TECHNOLOGIES |
The graphics in the game are relatively good, although on next-gen Unreal Engine 5 not particularly attractive:
Well, then we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware.
| TEST PART |
| Test configuration | |
| test stands |
MSI MPG Z490 GAMING CARBON WIFI |
| Multimedia equipment |
Water cooling system ROG RYUJIN II 360 Seasonic PRIME TX-1000 power supply 32 GB DDR4 4000 CL18 Comet Lake 32 GB DDR4 3600 CL16 Rocket Lake |
| Software configuration |
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| Operating system | Windows 10 21H2/ Windows 11(Alder Lake) |
| Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 522.25 WHQL AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 22.10.2 |
| Monitoring programs |
MSI Afterburner |
The game for each video cards, if not manually selected, takes its own upscale value, so I had to test only with DLSS and FSR. Only the RTX 4090 auto-upscale does not work and 4K FPS on it is 33/35 frames (this is for reference)… Well, on AMD cards there is a non-disabled lock of 60 FPS, but on NV it is bypassed.
The motherboard was used to test the AM5 platform ROG CROSSHAIR X670E GENE and water cooling system ROG RYUJIN II 360.
Motherboard ROG CROSSHAIR X670E GENE , made in the mATX form factor, allows you to realize the capabilities of the ROG series in compact gaming systems. With a powerful power supply and cooling heatsinks, it can unleash the full potential of AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors. DIY enthusiasts will also appreciate support for modern components and standards, including PCIe 5.0, DDR5 memory, Wi-Fi 6E and USB4 interfaces.
Sistema zhidkostnogo okhlajdeniya ROG RYUJIN II 360 with 3,5″ LCD display, in-pump fan and three 120mm Noctua iPPC 2000 radiator fans and seventh generation Asetek pump.
| GPU TEST |
In the video card test, the default resolution is 1920×1080; other resolutions are added and removed manually. You can also remove and add any positions of video cards. You can also select any of our test processors from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given video card tests (by default, the most productive solution is selected). The test is carried out on the most powerful CPU in this game and is scaled to other processors, taking into account their testing on NVIDIA and AMD video cards.
If you are interested in purchasing video cards from our testing, you can follow the link in its title in the modular chart and select the required model.
- Very high
When resolved 1920×1080 average FPS of 25 frames showed level video cards Radeon RX Vega 56 or GeForce GTX 1080. Minimum FPS of at least 25 frames can be provided by video cards of the level Radeon RX Vega 56 or GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. A comfortable average FPS of 60 frames can be provided by solutions Radeon RX 6800 or GeForce RTX 3080.
When resolved 2560×1440 average FPS of 25 frames showed level video cards Radeon RX 6600 or GeForce RTX 2070s. Minimum FPS of at least 25 frames can be provided by video cards of the level Radeon RX 6600 XT or GeForce RTX 2080s . A comfortable average FPS of 60 frames can be provided by solutions Radeon RX 6900 XT or GeForce RTX 4090.
When resolved 3840×2160 average FPS of 25 frames showed level video cards Radeon RX 6800 or GeForce RTX 3080. Minimum FPS of at least 25 frames can be provided by video cards of the level Radeon RX 6800 or GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. A comfortable average FPS of 60 frames can be provided by solutions GeForce RTX 4090.
| VIDEO MEMORY CONSUMPTION |
Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on the results on video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920×1080, 2560×1440 and 3840×2160 with various anti-aliasing settings. By default, the graph displays the most current solutions. Other video cards are added and removed from the schedule at the request of the reader.
- Very high
GameGPU
When resolved 1920×1080 video memory consumption of video cards from 8 gigabytes to 6 gigabytes, with 12 gigabytes 6 gigabyte, with 16 gigabytes 6 gigabyte.
When resolved 2560×1440 video memory consumption of video cards from 8 gigabytes to 7 gigabytes, with 12 gigabytes 7 gigabyte, with 16 gigabytes 7 gigabyte.
When resolved 3840×2160 video memory consumption of video cards from 8 gigabytes to 8 gigabytes, with 12 gigabytes 8 gigabyte, with 16 gigabytes 8 gigabyte.
| CPU TEST |
Testing was carried out at a resolution of 1920×1080. In the processor test, you can remove or add any processor positions. You can also select any tested video card from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given processor test results (by default, the most productive solution from NVIDIA is selected). Testing takes place on the most powerful NVIDIA and AMD video cards and scales to low-end models.
If you are interested in purchasing the processor from our testing, you can follow the link in its name in the modular graphics and select the required model.
- Very high
When using video cards NVIDIA processors showed an acceptable indicator of at least 25 frames per second Ryzen 5 1400 or Core i 7 4770, and an FPS of at least 60 frames per second will be able to provide solutions at the level Ryzen 5 1600 or Core i 7 5960x .
When using video cards AMD acceptable figure is not less than 25 frames per second showed processors Ryzen 5 1400 or Core i 7 4770 , and FPS not lower than 60 frames per second will be able to provide level solutions Ryzen 5 1500 or Core i 7 5790x .
- Very high
GameGPU
The game can load up to 16 streams. The game uses 8 threads as efficiently as possible.
| RAM TEST |
The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 9 12900K with 32 GB DDR5 5400 MHz pre-installed memory. All used RAM was taken as an indicator. The RAM test on the entire system was carried out on various video cards without launching third-party applications (browsers, etc.). In the graphics, you can add and remove any resolutions and video cards as desired.
- Very high
GameGPU
When resolved 1920×1080 RAM consumption for video cards from 8 gigabytes to 12 gigabytes , with 12 gigabytes 12 gigabyte , with 16 gigabytes 13 gigabyte.
When resolved 2560×1440 RAM consumption for video cards from 8 gigabytes to 13 gigabytes , with 12 gigabytes 14 gigabyte , with 16 gigabytes 13 gigabyte.
When resolved 3840×2160 RAM consumption for video cards from 8 gigabytes to 14 gigabytes , with 12 gigabytes 14 gigabyte , with 16 gigabytes 13 gigabyte.
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| Тeating 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 66% |
Graphics 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 46% |
Optimization 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 15% |