Notebookcheck Logo

Dragon Age: Inquisition Benchmarked

Third Installment. The second game focused on action and provided gamers immense enjoyment. Now BioWare is making the move to reconsolidate its Dragon Age fans. Our article will focus on the performance of the Frostbite 3 Engine. Will every gamer be able to joy the world of Inquisition?
Dragon Age: Inquisition Logo

For the original German article, see here.

Engine

As mentioned before, BioWare uses the Frostbite 3 Engine made by DICE for Dragon Age: Inquisition. This engine has proven itself in the past in Battlefield 4 and offers a multitude of modern features, such as, tessellation and HBAO, which is nice to have. The textures, shadows and even the lighting of the game are impressive. Tessellation creates a very plastic object structure. The water, vegetation and level details are all good. Many rooms indoors are decorates extensively and the package is rounded off with well-animated, engrossing characters.

The biggest highlight of this game would be the quality of its effects. If one were to zoom in and pausing while fighting, one would notice the unusually high quality light beams, sparks and explosions. Few RPGs can claim to have such amazing effects. The well-designed story and beautiful world are sure to enrapture the gamer.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition

The variety of options available is impressive. Bioware has really given the gamer the freedom to tailor the game performance to meet their needs. The graphics option offers more than 10 options and four presets ("Low", "Medium", "High" and "Ultra") which automatically set all the menu options. At max, the game activates 2x MSAA which smooths the edges significantly.

Owners of AMD GPUs are happy about the Mantle support (DirectX @Nvidia). While Mantle improves performance at high settings minimally (+4 % @Radeon R9 280X, +8 % @Radeon R9 M290X), it ensures that AMD GPUs can sprint ahead of otherwise faster Nvidia GPUs at low or medium settings (see table). However, in our experience, this boost comes in exchange for longer load times.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age refuses to start with Intel GPUs. Thankfully, there is an easy fix: right-click on the desktop and choose the "Graphics Settings". In the graphics options, pick the "3D" menu, and there change the CMAA option from "Deactivate" to "Overwrite program settings". Once finished, the game should run but the problem remains that the Intel chips are far too weak to run this game. Neither the HD Graphics 3000 nor the HD Graphics 4000 or 4600 could provide more than an average of 25 fps. Furthermore, changing the settings will require a restart and the game is known to freeze with some settings.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Benchmark

The recording software, Fraps, does not run with Mantle mode so we were forced to use the internal benchmark, which is far from optimal. The duration of the benchmark depends on the system performance and the test runs very high quality scenes, which are not part of the usual gameplay. All-in-all, a result of 25+ fps on this relatively hard internal benchmark means that the game will run well on the laptop, particularly as Inquisition will be played from the third person camera and not an Ego shooter one. Tip: the Mantle results vary by a few percent so we let the benchmark run 2-3x on our AMD chips and took the best score. The performance is very consistent in DirectX mode. 

Results

Like many other engines (CryEngine 4, id Tech 5), the Frostbite 3 engine does scales little as settings are lowered. As such, even at minimum details, the game looks decent and should not overtax weaker laptops. For low settings, we recommend a middle-class graphics card: the GeForce GT 740M provides a good 35 fps with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels. A resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels and the "Medium" preset are much harder on the system and require a GeForce GT 750M and up to be on the safe side.

Low Settings
Low Settings
Medium Settings
Medium Settings
High Settings
High Settings
Ultra Settings
Ultra Settings

A powerful GPU is required for high details and the FHD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. A GeForce GTX 860M or GTX 770M can run the game with these settings at 25 fps. Max settings are only recommended for high-end GPUs, like the Radeon R9 M290X or the GeForce GTX 870M/780M. The CPU is hardly a factor in these cases as the GPU is often the deciding factor how well a game runs.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
    1920x1080 Ultra Graphics Quality AA:2x MS     1920x1080 High Graphics Quality     1366x768 Medium Graphics Quality     1024x768 Low Graphics Quality
GeForce GTX 980, 3770K
Desktop-PC
54.1 (43min) fps ∼32%
72.6 (63min) fps ∼42%
119 (98min) fps ∼60%
126.8 (99min) fps ∼46%
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K
Desktop-PC
40.7 (37min) fps ∼24%
64 (57min) fps ∼37%
131.4 (105min) fps ∼66%
141.6 (122min) fps ∼51%
GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
31 (24min) fps ∼18%
44.4 (38min) fps ∼26%
99.3 (81min) fps ∼50%
118.6 (87min) fps ∼43%
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ
Schenker W503
28.3 (22min) fps ∼17%
40.4 (34min) fps ∼23%
91.1 (73min) fps ∼46%
113 (84min) fps ∼41%
Radeon R9 M290X, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
27.6 (23min) fps ∼16%
42.4 (39min) fps ∼24%
94.7 (85min) fps ∼48%
132.1 (114min) fps ∼48%
GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
25.3 (20min) fps ∼15%
37.2 (32min) fps ∼21%
85.7 (68min) fps ∼43%
110.3 (78min) fps ∼40%
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ
Schenker W503
18.8 (14min) fps ∼11%
27.8 (24min) fps ∼16%
68 (55min) fps ∼34%
93.9 (70min) fps ∼34%
GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
18.3 (14min) fps ∼11%
27.4 (23min) fps ∼16%
67.3 (52min) fps ∼34%
92.6 (70min) fps ∼34%
GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M
Schenker M504
16 (13min) fps ∼9%
23.2 (21min) fps ∼13%
58.1 (48min) fps ∼29%
75.2 (56min) fps ∼27%
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ
Schenker W503
14.3 (11min) fps ∼8%
21.6 (18min) fps ∼12%
54.5 (44min) fps ∼27%
77.8 (60min) fps ∼28%
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ
Schenker M503
8.5 (6min) fps ∼5%
13.1 (11min) fps ∼8%
34.6 (29min) fps ∼17%
50.8 (40min) fps ∼18%
Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU
A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS
8 (6min) fps ∼5%
12 (11min) fps ∼7%
31 (28min) fps ∼16%
47 (41min) fps ∼17%
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M
HP Envy 15-j011sg
5.5 (4min) fps ∼3%
8.8 (7min) fps ∼5%
23.2 (20min) fps ∼12%
35 (29min) fps ∼13%
GeForce GT 640M, 2637M, Lite-On LMT-256M3M
Acer Aspire M3-581TG
26.5 (22.5min) fps ∼13%
0 (0min) fps ∼0%
GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0
MSI CX61-i572M
6.8 (0min) fps ∼4%
18.9 (0min) fps ∼9%
29 (0min) fps ∼11%
Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU
Pumori Test Platform (A10-5750M)
16.6 (13.7min) fps ∼8%
23.7 (18.6min) fps ∼9%
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ
Schenker W503
3.8 (3min) fps ∼2%
5.8 (5min) fps ∼3%
14.5 (11min) fps ∼7%
22.1 (17min) fps ∼8%
GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM, Seagate Momentus 7200.5 ST9750420AS
Asus N56VM
17 (14min) fps ∼9%
26 (20min) fps ∼9%
Iris Graphics 5100, 4258U, Apple SSD SM0256F
Apple MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch 2013-10
3.5 (2min) fps ∼2%
6.3 (5min) fps ∼4%
17.3 (13min) fps ∼9%
24.3 (19min) fps ∼9%

Test Systems

Four of our test models come from Schenker Technologies (mysn.de):

  • W504 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 860M, GTX 870M, GTX 880M, Radeon R9 M290X)
  • W503 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 765M, GTX 770M, GTX 780M)
  • M504 (Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M)
  • M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M)

These notebooks have Windows 7 64 bit installed.

Nvidia provided a few test models as well:

Intel added one more:

  • Schenker S413 (Core i7-4750HQ, 8 GB DDR3, Iris Pro Graphics 5200)

The desktop PCs use CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, Intel and Samsung, Mainboards from Intel and Asus as well as graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD.

GPU drivers: Nvidia 344.75, AMD 14.11.2 Beta, Intel 10.18.10.3960

Overview

Show Restrictions
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
 Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)
low
1024x768
Low Graphics Quality
med.
1366x768
Medium Graphics Quality
high
1920x1080
High Graphics Quality
ultra
1920x1080
Ultra Graphics Quality
2x MSAA
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)
170
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)
275
161
123.5n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
150
111
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)
104.5n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
109.3n2
92.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
100
AMD Radeon R9 Fury
158
144
91
60
AMD Radeon R9 Nano
68.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
126.8
119
77.4n2
55.85n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)
189.9n2
175.05n2
97.35n2
65.4n2
AMD Radeon R9 390X
154.7
143.9
88.5
67.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)
212
199
96.5
66.9
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)
59n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile
90
59.7
AMD Radeon RX 580 (Laptop)
163.5
102.6
81.3
54.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
175.3
171.4
79.5
60.8n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
145.2n3
126.8n4
69.1n7
47.2n7
AMD Radeon R9 280X
141.6
131.4
64
40.7
AMD Radeon R9 380
179.7
148.6
62.8
41.6
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
low med. high ultra
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
125.7
109.4
58.4
38.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile
88.6
82
54
38.5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop)
39.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
138.5n4
123.1n5
52.35n6
36.25n6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
141
120
55.2
39.5
AMD Radeon R9 M295X
97.75n2
48.3
44.15n2
32.95n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile
136
105
44.3
29.7
AMD Radeon R7 370
161.9
123.7
45.3
29.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M
118.6
99.3
44.4
31
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
154.4
127.5
47.6
31
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M
113
91.1
40.4
28.3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
84.4n3
71.7n3
39.2n3
27.1n3
AMD Radeon RX 560 (Laptop)
83.1
70
37.6n2
25.15n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
110.3
85.7
37.2
25.3
AMD Radeon R9 M290X
132.1
94.7
42.4
27.6
AMD Radeon R9 M390
80.5
71.5
39.4
27.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
84.75n4
75.15n6
33.5n5
22.5n5
NVIDIA GeForce MX150
113.1
74.5
26.4
17.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M
93.9
68
27.8
18.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
69.85n2
50.65n4
28.75n4
19.5n4
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
low med. high ultra
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
46.7n2
40.9n3
23.6n3
16.4n3
AMD Radeon R9 M385X
50.6
42
27.3
17.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M
63.05n2
37.2n2
14.1n2
9.7n2
AMD Radeon R9 M280X
47.2
35.9
20.3
17.6
NVIDIA GeForce 945M
98.4
62
21.2
14
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M
77.8
54.5
21.6
14.3
NVIDIA GeForce 845M
31.5
27
19
12.7
AMD Radeon R9 M265X
65.9
29.8
19.9
16.8
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
50.8
34.6
13.1
8.5
NVIDIA GeForce MX130
64.8
51.4
16.6
11.7
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
61.8n3
42.1n3
12.8n3
10.3n2
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
35.6
27.5
12.8
NVIDIA GeForce 940M
32.2n2
27.95n2
16.1n2
14.3
NVIDIA GeForce 930MX
55.2
35.8
12.1
8.2
AMD Radeon R9 M375
36.3
34.7
21.4
AMD Radeon R7 M370
58.6
34.9
11.7
7.6
NVIDIA GeForce 840M
46.05n2
30.4n2
14.7n2
11.8
AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)
47
31
12
8
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
45.4n2
29.2n2
10.55n2
5.85n2
AMD Radeon R7 384 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)
45
30
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
low med. high ultra
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
35
23.2
8.8
5.5
NVIDIA GeForce 930M
45n2
33.85n2
20
AMD Radeon 530
48.2
31.1
9.3
NVIDIA GeForce 830M
42.05n2
25.95n2
14.55n2
9.9n2
NVIDIA GeForce 920MX
45.4
29.2
16.4
Intel Iris Graphics 540
52.3
35.2
11.6
AMD Radeon R7 M260X
30.4
19.8
6.8
4.5
AMD Radeon R7 M270
37.75n2
30.8n2
17.65n2
12.2n2
AMD Radeon R7 M265
42
28.7
10.7
7
AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)
29.9
27.3
16.7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
26.5
AMD Radeon R7 (Carrizo)
18.95n2
8.9
5.65n2
AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)
25.2
21.2
9.3
6
AMD Radeon R7 M360
32.6n2
23.9n2
11.4n2
7.6n2
NVIDIA GeForce 920M
31.7n3
26.9n3
13.5n3
8.9n3
AMD Radeon R7 M260
30.45n2
22.95n2
7.7
AMD Radeon R7 M340
19.3
14.2
8.6
4.9
Intel UHD Graphics 630
41.8
28.7
9.8
Intel HD Graphics 630
40.1
25.5
8.7
Intel HD Graphics 530
33.65n2
21.9n2
7.6n2
4.4
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
low med. high ultra
AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)
25.7
18.2
Intel UHD Graphics 620
26.3
21.9
Intel HD Graphics 620
26.5
18.3
6.5
AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)
17.1
15.8
Intel HD Graphics 5600
32.1
20.3
7.2
4.2
AMD Radeon HD 8650G
23.7
16.6
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M
26
17
AMD Radeon R5 M335
34.1
22.1
7.3
4.9
AMD Radeon R5 M330
27.1
15.9
13.2
AMD Radeon R5 M430
32.6
21.4
AMD Radeon R5 M255
17.8
13.3
5
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3
35.7
21.9
6.7
NVIDIA GeForce 910M
28.2
20.1
7.2
4.4
NVIDIA GeForce 820M
27.4
12
Intel HD Graphics 520
22.9n2
15.3n2
4.5
2.1
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
28.3
19.3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
29
18.9
6.8
AMD Radeon R5 M240
30.05n2
19.95n2
AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)
19.3
14.8
Intel HD Graphics 6000
20.9
16.8
6.1
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
low med. high ultra
Intel Iris Graphics 5100
24.3
17.3
6.3
3.5
Intel HD Graphics 4600
22.1
14.5
5.8
3.8
Intel HD Graphics 5500
23.4n3
16n3
6.6n3
4.7n2
Intel HD Graphics 615
17.6
12.2
Intel HD Graphics 5000
17.4
12
4.5
2.1
Intel HD Graphics 515
13.5
9.3
Intel HD Graphics 610
18.9
13
Intel HD Graphics 4400
15.35n4
9.5n4
3.8n2
1.4
Intel UHD Graphics 605
7.8
6.2
Intel HD Graphics 505
10.6
7.5
Intel HD Graphics 5300
11.45n2
7.9n2
3.05n2
1.6
Intel HD Graphics 4000
18.5
11.7
AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)
15.1
10.9
AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)
15.9
12
AMD Radeon R4 (Beema)
14.8n2
8.8n2
AMD Radeon R3 (Mullins/Beema)
15.6
10.4
AMD Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge)
11.2
8.7
Intel HD Graphics (Broadwell)
13.9
9.4
Intel HD Graphics 4200
13.5n2
8.75n2
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
12.1
7.6
PosModel< PrevNext >Dragon Age: Inquisition
low med. high ultra
Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)
8.2
6.1
Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell)
5.4
2.9
Intel HD Graphics (Haswell)
10.9
7
Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)
9.5
5.7
Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)
7
4.6
(-) * Smaller values are better. / n123 Number of benchmarks for this median value / * Approximate position

 

Legend
5Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.
static version load dynamic
Loading Comments
Comment on this article
Please share our article, every link counts!
Florian Glaser, 2014-12- 2 (Update: 2021-05-18)