Alien: Isolation Benchmarked

On the hunt for horror. Creative Assembly, known mostly for their time-consuming epic strategy games (the Total War series), dares to take on one of the greatest film classics ever. Alien: Isolation is intended to transport the player into the atmosphere of the original movie. Your role? The hunted. Which GPU is fast enough to "outrun" Alien?

Florian Glaser, ✓ Tanja Hinum (translated by Ariana Brodsky), Published 10/21/2014 🇩🇪 🇵🇱

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

The engine, specially programmed for the game, is not in every respect on the level we would desire of a game released in 2014, but the graphics still make a very good impression. In terms of positive aspects, the play of light and shadows is certainly worthy of mention. When the player, represented by the female main character, creeps down the dark, narrow passageways in the Sevastopol space station, the claustrophobic atmosphere is immediately palpable. Often the contrast between bright and dark environments is interrupted by colorful lights and/or walls, which makes for a great color dynamic.

In general, the makers of Alien: Isolation are very faithful to the original. When we say that, we mean more than just the story - we mean the film's unique style. Any search for modern computers or other technological gadgets we carry with us today would be fruitless. The fact that the atmosphere is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey is deserving of praise.

But back to the graphics. While the game environments are often less than fantastic, the main characters are very believable (especially the faces). Along with the polygon count, the texture sharpness is also well-done here. Only when it comes to animation do we see room for improvement.

The second highlight - as previously mentioned - is the lighting. The particle, smoke and fire effects make the game even more pleasing to the eye. The developer's choice to nix high-quality anti-aliasing, however, we count as a flaw. The FXAA and SMAA modes only smooth the edges subtly. With MSAA or the like, the image would look calmer.

The graphics menu immediately makes a good impression. True, scrolling through with a mouse and keyboard is a bit tricky, but the title offers almost 20 options, ranging from A as in "Adjust Gamma" to V as in "Vsync".

Of course, Creative Assembly also built in a few modern features, including ambient occlusion in the forms of SSAO and HDAO, for example. While some options can only be turned "on" and "off", the detail level, the shadow quality and the particles can be adjusted across 4-5 notches.

Except when it comes to shadows, however, changes to these settings are hardly noticeable in practice. This means Isolation never looks bad, but it never looks fantastic either. Those who like the "old-school" look can even modify the intensity of the grain filter. A field of view switcher and anisotropic texture filtering (1-16x) are also part of the repertoire. We are especially pleased that all changes can be adopted without a restart.

Benchmark

Alien: Isolation has a hidden benchmark function (did someone say Batman: Arkham Origins?) that can be activated by hand. Step 1: In Steam, right click to open the game's "Properties" menu. Step 2: Click on "Set Launch Options" and add the word -benchmark to the command line. Step 3: Confirm by clicking OK and start the game. A sequence lasting just under two minutes should follow.

Unfortunately, the results do not show automatically after the sequence is complete. In order to access them, the user has to rummage through the game folder (Steam\SteamApps\common\Alien Isolation) and open the newly created benchmark_xyz.csv file. The average frame rate is the third entry listed under "Summary" (highlighted in the above image).

Despite the game's rather leisurely tempo, we suggest at least 40 fps. Otherwise, the ego-shooter does not run 100% fluidly. The question remains: Why is the benchmark not directly accessible from the options menu? Did the developers create it for their own tests, or did they only implement it shortly before the release? Who knows...

▶ load Youtube video

Results

Looking over the performance results for both AMD and Nvidia cards graphics cards, there is no clear winner. The GPU experts' chips are more or less on par with each other. Thanks to the game's moderate hardware demands, an entry-level model suffices for low details and 1024x768 pixels. Both the HD Graphics 4600 and the Radeon HD 7660G managed more than 35 fps is our test. Medium settings, and 1366x768 pixels (all options except SSAO and anti-aliasing activated), on the other hand, require a midrange card. The GeForce GT 750M, for instance, averaged 51 fps.

For high details and 1920x1080 pixels, a little more graphics power is required. Only a GeForce GTX 850M, GTX 765M or above can run this mix stutter-free. To enjoy the "Ultra" level, nothing beneath a high-end model - starting at a GeForce GTX 860M or GTX 770M - will fit the bill. In contrast to other titles, the processor hardly plays a role here. All aspects considered, Alien: Isolation's graphics are well-optimized for the PC. Thumbs up!

Alien: Isolation
1920x1080 Ultra, On, Shadow Map 2048, HDAO AA:2x SM AF:16x 1920x1080 High, On, Shadow Map 1536, Standard SSAO AA:FX AF:8x 1366x768 Medium, On (AA & SSAO Off), Shadow Map 1024 AF:4x 1024x768 (Very) Low, Off, Shadow Map 512 AF:1x
GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 3770K Desktop-PC	116.3 (0^min) fps ∼50% 166.6 (0^min) fps ∼56% 234.4 (0^min) fps ∼76% 250.3 (0^min) fps ∼69%
Radeon R9 290X, 2600K, Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB MZ7PD256HAFV-0Z000 Sapphire Tri-X R9 290X Desktop	108 (0^min) fps ∼46% 131 (0^min) fps ∼44% 160 (0^min) fps ∼52% 179 (0^min) fps ∼49%
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K Desktop-PC	85.6 (0^min) fps ∼37% 111.6 (0^min) fps ∼37% 167 (0^min) fps ∼54% 197.7 (0^min) fps ∼54%
GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	68.9 (0^min) fps ∼29% 101.2 (0^min) fps ∼34% 178 (0^min) fps ∼57% 207.3 (0^min) fps ∼57%
GeForce GTX 760, 3770K Desktop-PC	67.7 (0^min) fps ∼29% 97.5 (0^min) fps ∼33% 176.8 (0^min) fps ∼57% 242.7 (0^min) fps ∼67%
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	64.5 (0^min) fps ∼28% 95.4 (0^min) fps ∼32% 167.9 (0^min) fps ∼54% 193.2 (0^min) fps ∼53%
Radeon R9 M290X, 4700MQ Schenker W504	57.1 (0^min) fps ∼24% 73.4 (0^min) fps ∼25% 120.5 (0^min) fps ∼39% 140.4 (0^min) fps ∼38%
GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	55.9 (0^min) fps ∼24% 77.9 (0^min) fps ∼26% 145.7 (0^min) fps ∼47% 205.9 (0^min) fps ∼56%
GeForce GTX 750 Ti, 3770K Desktop-PC	46.2 (0^min) fps ∼20% 65 (0^min) fps ∼22% 129 (0^min) fps ∼42% 196.3 (0^min) fps ∼54%
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	42.8 (0^min) fps ∼18% 62.4 (0^min) fps ∼21% 116.8 (0^min) fps ∼38% 167.3 (0^min) fps ∼46%
GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	39.8 (0^min) fps ∼17% 53.8 (0^min) fps ∼18% 101.2 (0^min) fps ∼33% 150.6 (0^min) fps ∼41%
GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M Schenker M504	33.7 (0^min) fps ∼14% 47 (0^min) fps ∼16% 93.8 (0^min) fps ∼30% 141.4 (0^min) fps ∼39%
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	32.1 (0^min) fps ∼14% 43.1 (0^min) fps ∼14% 81.6 (0^min) fps ∼26% 126.4 (0^min) fps ∼35%
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	19.3 (0^min) fps ∼8% 26.6 (0^min) fps ∼9% 51.2 (0^min) fps ∼17% 76.9 (0^min) fps ∼21%
Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS	16.8 (0^min) fps ∼7% 21.7 (0^min) fps ∼7% 40 (0^min) fps ∼13% 58 (0^min) fps ∼16%
Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ, Intel SSD 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B3 SCHENKER S413	16.4 (0^min) fps ∼7% 24.6 (0^min) fps ∼8% 47 (0^min) fps ∼15% 69 (0^min) fps ∼19%
GeForce GT 640M, 2637M, Lite-On LMT-256M3M Acer Aspire M3-581TG	15.5 (0^min) fps ∼7% 22.4 (0^min) fps ∼8% 43.2 (0^min) fps ∼14% 65 (0^min) fps ∼18%
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	12 (0^min) fps ∼5% 16.4 (0^min) fps ∼6% 33 (0^min) fps ∼11% 49.2 (0^min) fps ∼13%
GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 MSI CX61-i572M	9.2 (0^min) fps ∼4% 13.1 (0^min) fps ∼4% 25.6 (0^min) fps ∼8% 38.4 (0^min) fps ∼11%
GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM, Seagate Momentus 7200.5 ST9750420AS Asus N56VM	9.8 (0^min) fps ∼4% 13.8 (0^min) fps ∼5% 26.3 (0^min) fps ∼8%
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W503	8.8 (0^min) fps ∼4% 13.4 (0^min) fps ∼4% 26 (0^min) fps ∼8% 42 (0^min) fps ∼12%
Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU Pumori Test Platform (A10-5750M)	11.2 (0^min) fps ∼5% 14.2 (0^min) fps ∼5% 24.6 (0^min) fps ∼8% 37.1 (0^min) fps ∼10%
HD Graphics 4000, 3720QM Asus N56VM	18.2 (0^min) fps ∼6% 28.6 (0^min) fps ∼8%

Four of our test devices are courtesy of 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)

Windows 7 64-bit is installed on each other these notebooks. A further thank you goes to Micron for the 480 GB Crucial M500.

Another test device is courtesy of Nvidia:

HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)

GPU drivers used: Nvidia 344.11, AMD 14.9, Intel 10.18.10.3907

Additionally, there are benchmarks from other notebooks, potentially with different drivers.

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 648 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2009

I discovered my interest in computers in my childhood, growing up with MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s. I was especially fascinated with computer games, even from an early age. From Monkey Island through Lands of Lore to Doom, I tried every game I could get my hands on. I have been working for Notebookcheck since 2009 with my focus mostly being on high-performance gaming laptops.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Archive of our own reviews > Alien: Isolation Benchmarked

Florian Glaser, 2014-10-21 (Update: 2024-08-15)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Alien: Isolation (2014)
Pos	Model	low 1024x768 (Very) Low, Off, Shadow Map 512 1xAF	med. 1366x768 Medium, On (AA & SSAO Off), Shadow Map 1024 4xAF	high 1920x1080 High, On, Shadow Map 1536, Standard SSAO 8xAF FXAA	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra, On, Shadow Map 2048, HDAO 16xAF 2x SMAA
114	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)			298	221
137	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile			270	229
158	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)				190.5ⁿ²
163	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile		148	147ⁿ²	139
195	AMD Radeon R9 Fury			171	137
196	AMD Radeon R9 Nano				141
197	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	245.3	229.8	135ⁿ³	114.2ⁿ³
210	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)	272.55ⁿ²	252.8ⁿ²	188.65ⁿ²	135.55ⁿ²
214	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)	331	310	195	133
218	AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)			151	122
219	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile			163	115
231	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	250.3	234.4	166.6	116.3
243	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	291.6	272.1	160.5	112.9
268	AMD Radeon R9 290X	217ⁿ²	185.5ⁿ²	138.5ⁿ²	111.5ⁿ²
275	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M	240.1ⁿ⁴	218.5ⁿ⁴	127.25ⁿ⁴	95.3ⁿ⁴
284	AMD Radeon R9 280X	197.7	167	111.6	85.6
286	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	275	217	113.3	80.9
288	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile	238.3	215.4	122.4	80.9
289	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop)				84
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Alien: Isolation
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
294	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M	222ⁿ⁵	199ⁿ⁵	107.55ⁿ⁶	75.1ⁿ⁶
308	AMD Radeon R9 M295X	131.85ⁿ²	89.3	70.1ⁿ²	58.7ⁿ²
311	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop)				75.2
315	AMD Radeon R7 370	201.9	142.3	78.1	59.3
317	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M	207.3	178	101.2	68.9
322	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950	264.4	182.3	92.1	66
330	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	242.7	176.8	97.5	67.7
331	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M	193.2	167.9	95.4	64.5
334	AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop)				60.9
337	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M	194.6ⁿ³	149.7ⁿ³	77.1ⁿ³	58.25ⁿ⁴
341	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M	205.9	145.7	77.9	55.9
342	AMD Radeon R9 M290X	140.4	120.5	73.4	57.1
352	AMD Radeon R9 M390				56
362	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	155.3ⁿ³	116.5ⁿ⁴	62ⁿ⁵	46.5ⁿ⁷
363	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	196.3	129	65	46.2
380	NVIDIA GeForce MX150				40.4
390	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M	167.3	116.8	62.4	42.8
396	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M	127.85ⁿ²	97.55ⁿ²	54.55ⁿ²	40.1ⁿ²
405	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	116.4ⁿ²	87ⁿ³	44.8ⁿ³	32ⁿ³
413	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M	123.5ⁿ²	87.7ⁿ²	45.25ⁿ²	31.9ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Alien: Isolation
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
417	AMD Radeon R9 M280X	37.3	25.8	19.2
422	NVIDIA GeForce 945M	130.2	85.9	43.7	30.2
423	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M	126.4	81.6	43.1	32.1
431*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 10	76.1	54.6	29.8	23.1
452	AMD Radeon R9 M370X	100.3	59.7	35.6	28
491	NVIDIA GeForce 845M		68.5	33.8	27.4
494	AMD Radeon R9 M265X	80.7	53.7	22.1	17.6
504	NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M	76.9	51.2	26.6	19.3
507	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	65.6	42.8
511	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)	71.9	49.5	28.7	22.3
512	NVIDIA GeForce 940M	63.85ⁿ²	44.65ⁿ²	22.7ⁿ²	17.4
521	AMD Radeon R9 M375	53.4	38.7	21.6
545	NVIDIA GeForce 840M	64.95ⁿ²	43.1ⁿ²	21.35ⁿ²	16.25ⁿ²
550	AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)	58	40	21.7	16.8
551	Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200	69	47	24.6	16.4
552	AMD Radeon R7 384 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)	56	37	19.6	15.5
561	NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M	49.2	33	16.4	12
563	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	63.5ⁿ³	41.8ⁿ³	21.2ⁿ³	15.7
570	NVIDIA GeForce 830M	60.3	41.3	20.7	14.8
573	NVIDIA GeForce 920MX	58.9	38.8	19.9
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Alien: Isolation
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
596	AMD Radeon R7 M260X	55.8	37	20.2	15.7
605	AMD Radeon R7 M270	45.2	31	17	13.9
606	AMD Radeon R7 M265	33.6	28.3	17.6	13.8
610*	AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)	32	20
611	NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M	65	43.2	22.4	15.5
613	AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)	41.12ⁿ²	27.9ⁿ²	17.25ⁿ²	14.7
615*	AMD Radeon R7 M460	50.1	37.6	18	14.7
618	AMD Radeon R7 M360	38.7	27.3	15.2	12.7
620	NVIDIA GeForce 920M	45.5ⁿ²	29.3ⁿ²	14.7ⁿ²	9.15ⁿ²
631	AMD Radeon R7 M260	25.7ⁿ³	18.5ⁿ³	11.08ⁿ²	7.5
632	AMD Radeon R7 M340	42.3	31.3	16.9	13.8
638*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 2000/3000)	26.7	19.7	10.6
647	Intel HD Graphics 530	48.8ⁿ²	31.1ⁿ²	15.25ⁿ²	10.6
650	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	42.9	22.9	11.7	11.5
651	Intel UHD Graphics 620	51.5	35.6	17	15.6
653	AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)	35.6	21.9
687	Intel HD Graphics 5600	45.3	28.3	14.4	10.5
693	AMD Radeon HD 8670M	30.9	21.3
713	AMD Radeon HD 8650G	37.1	24.6	14.2	11.2
718	NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M		26.3	13.8	9.8
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Alien: Isolation
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
721	AMD Radeon R5 M335	31.6	22.1	12.1	8.3
722	AMD Radeon R5 M330	26.2	15.1	9.5
724	AMD Radeon R5 M255	27.5	21.5	13.5
728	NVIDIA GeForce 820M	41.15ⁿ²	27.35ⁿ²	14.4
729	Intel HD Graphics 520	39.25ⁿ²	24.1ⁿ²
730	Intel Iris Graphics 6100	36.15ⁿ²	26.55ⁿ²	15.65ⁿ²	11.3
732	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	38.4	25.6	13.1	9.2
734	AMD Radeon R5 M240	32.05ⁿ²	22.15ⁿ²	12.1
736	AMD Radeon R5 M230	27.4	18.6	9.8
740	AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)	27	17
746	Intel HD Graphics 6000	34	26.41
749	Intel Iris Graphics 5100	27.1ⁿ²	20.55ⁿ²	11.65ⁿ²
753	Intel HD Graphics 4600	35.85ⁿ²	22.75ⁿ²	11.65ⁿ²	7.8ⁿ²
755	Intel HD Graphics 5500	31.42ⁿ⁴	21.76ⁿ⁴	11.2ⁿ³	8.3ⁿ³
789	Intel HD Graphics 615	26.3	19	9.7
790	AMD Radeon R5 (Kaveri)	21.3	14.2
794	AMD Radeon HD 7660G	36	24.7	13.5	11
797	Intel HD Graphics 5000	28.9	20.9	11.4
833	Intel HD Graphics 610	30.6	18.3
834	Intel HD Graphics 4400	29.3ⁿ³	18.5ⁿ³	10.4ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Alien: Isolation
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
867	Intel UHD Graphics 605	17.5	13.1
868	Intel HD Graphics 505	18.3	14.1
869	Intel HD Graphics 5300	20.1ⁿ³	13.9ⁿ³	7.6ⁿ³	4.63
878	Intel HD Graphics 4000	28.6	18.2
884	AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)	20ⁿ²	12.75ⁿ²
885	AMD Radeon R4 (Beema)	21.9	14.5
887	AMD Radeon R3 (Mullins/Beema)	19.9	12.3
888	AMD Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge)	17.8	10.3
890	Intel HD Graphics 4200	12.9	9	5.1
922	AMD Radeon HD 8350G	24.9	15.2
923	AMD Radeon HD 8330	16.7	10.3
945	Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)	18.9	13.6
946	Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)	13.7	8.8
947	Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell)	11.7ⁿ²	7
960	Intel HD Graphics (Haswell)	21.6	12.9
1073	Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)	9.1	5.1

Legend
5	Stutters – 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.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – 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.