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Anno 2205 Notebook Benchmarks

Moon landing. There is currently much heated debate as to whether Anno 2205 can live up to its predecessor in the realm of game mechanics. Here at Notebookcheck, we're primarily concerned with the city-builder game's graphics. Do the visuals do justice to the future world scenario? We tested a number of notebook GPUs at various settings.
Anno-2205-Logo

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

No doubt about it: Anno 2205 is one of the most beautiful strategy/city-building games ever made. Whether from far away or several times magnified with zoom, graphically the title looks superb from almost every point of view. From the carefully designed houses to the authentic-looking vegetation, every detail is simply world-class. While older games in the series often displayed objects and people at unrealistic proportions, characters and vehicles are now properly sized in relation to buildings. The closer the player moves the camera towards the unfolding scenes, the more visible the developer's efforts become. Blue Byte has created a fanciful place where dozens of cars roam the streets and cheerful people stroll about in the park. The studio's competition rarely dreams up so much hustle and bustle.

The graphics splendor is enhanced by an optional day and night cycle, as well as distinct weather patterns and regional conditions. Over the course of the unending campaign, the player isn't just exposed to idyllic island worlds: You can also inhabit the arctic, and even colonize the moon. Because the game difficulty varies depending on the sector, the player is constantly confronted with new challenges. Thanks to the well-designed and successfully executed introduction, Anno newbies should be able to quickly figure out both the city-building aspect and the economic simulation (the combat system is just generally simple).

Anno 2205
Anno 2205
Anno 2205

But back to the graphics: If we had to critique something, it would be the look of the water. Even at maximum details, the surface, waves and breakers aren't completely convincing. Still, this doesn't do much damage to the generally exquisite visuals. The game also deserves praise for its numerous settings options. Alongside resolution and image mode, the graphics menu contains 14 further possible adjustments.

For those who don't feel like going through the lengthy process of tuning, Anno 2205 offers the option to adjust the overall quality in one go. The five presets (Low to Ultra High) take care of the "small stuff." With the exception of anti-aliasing, all of the levels are well-balanced. Because anti-aliasing is already activated on the Medium preset, the game demands more of the hardware than comparable titles do. In general, Anno 2205 requires a very powerful system; the results from our benchmark tests underscore this fact. Excellent: The game doesn't need to be restarted after settings changes. As far as we can tell, all of the options are correctly applied.

Anno 2205
Anno 2205
Anno 2205

In our experience, the engine (specially designed for Anno 2205) runs without any errors. Both during gaming and in the benchmark tests, we didn't experience any crashes or significant drops in performance. The little bugs in the realm of sound (radio messages sometimes cut out mid-sentence) are forgivable, as are the fairly unobtrusive appearances of better texture and polygon levels. The only thing that got on our nerves was the fact that the mouse often has issues when a 4K display is set to 3840x2180 pixels (only part of the screen is reachable). When this happens, usually it helps to change the window mode (Alt + Enter) or briefly select a different resolution.

Warning: Even with the brand new driver, notebooks with graphics switching (Optimus for Nvidia, Enduro for AMD) use the processor's chip. The user must assign the program-exe to the dedicated GPU to attain the expected level of performance. On the plus side, the game's file size is quite moderate (~13 GB download). The load times are also reasonable.

Anno 2205
Anno 2205
Anno 2205

Benchmark

Unlike in our review of The Sims 4, we chose not to use a manual camera tracking shot for the Anno 2205 benchmark; instead we used the "Rotate Camera" feature hidden in the bottom right corner. The "Camera Sequences" option would seem a good choice here, but during the air tour sequence the performance demands drop significantly, rendering the scene a poor representation of the real gaming experience. The same goes for the impressive "Postcard View." Our benchmark sequence takes place in the beautiful "Walbruck Basin" sector, complete with a dense forest, high mountains and tons of water.

In order to tax our test devices as much as possible, we embellished almost the entire starting island with buildings. As the video below shows, the camera zooms out before the benchmark begins and centers on the "Security Department." We start our Fraps recording as soon as the image begins to turn and Anno 2205 fades out the overlay. After a complete 360-degree rotation, which takes about 30 seconds when the computer's performance is good, the benchmark ends. Because the sequence is identical every time, the comparability between computers is excellent. However, the minimum frame rates aren't very informative, as they are very dependent on the region, city size, camera movement and zoom level.

Results

The higher the graphics quality, the higher the system requirements. Intel GPUs perform especially poorly. Neither the HD Graphics 4600 (Haswell) nor the HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell) can fluidly render Anno 2205. Even at minimum details and 1024x768 pixels, the entry-level models didn't manage more than 20 fps. It's not clear where the fault for the bad performance lies: It could be with the Intel driver, or the developer might have poorly optimized the game for Intel chips. Nvidia and AMD GPUs currently do better, though mid-range GPUs like the GeForce GT 740M or GT 750M only successfully run the game at low settings. For 1366x768 pixels and medium graphics quality, you'll need at least a GTX 850M. High details, 4x anti-aliasing and 1920x1080 pixels even require a GTX 970M.

Low Settings
Low Settings
Medium Settings
Medium Settings
High Settings
High Settings
Ultra High Settings
Ultra High Settings
4K Settings
4K Settings
Low Settings
Low Settings
Medium Settings
Medium Settings
High Settings
High Settings
Ultra High Settings
Ultra High Settings
4K Settings
4K Settings

The performance demands are extremely high on the maximum setting, which only differs from the "High" preset in shader quality, anti-aliasing and range of vision. Neither the leading notebook graphics card - the GeForce GTX 980M - nor its GTX 980 desktop counterpart can take on these settings without stuttering. You'll need a GTX 980 Ti or an SLI system composed of two GTX 980M chips to run the game at "Ultra High." Things look similar in the 4K arena. No test device managed more than 35 fps when faced with a mixture of 3840x2160 pixels, high details and 4x MSAA. Here's a tip: Nvidia's Kepler architecture is substantially weaker at maximum settings than the following generation (Maxwell). For instance, a GeForce GTX 880M performs below a GTX 960M, even though the latter usually computes much more slowly.

Anno 2205
    3840x2160 High Preset AA:4x     1920x1080 Ultra High Preset AA:8x     1920x1080 High Preset AA:4x     1366x768 Medium Preset AA:2x     1024x768 Low Preset
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 3770K
Desktop-PC
34.2 (32min) fps ∼37%
31.6 (29min) fps ∼39%
84.3 (77min) fps ∼52%
145.4 (139min) fps ∼79%
156.4 (148min) fps ∼79%
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K
Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC
26.9 (25min) fps ∼29%
26 (23min) fps ∼32%
66 (61min) fps ∼41%
126 (111min) fps ∼68%
170 (157min) fps ∼86%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
23.8 (20min) fps ∼26%
22.7 (19min) fps ∼28%
52.2 (43min) fps ∼32%
126.4 (106min) fps ∼69%
135.1 (128min) fps ∼68%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
18.6 (17min) fps ∼20%
16.8 (14min) fps ∼21%
44.2 (34min) fps ∼27%
100.4 (81min) fps ∼55%
139.9 (117min) fps ∼71%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, 3770K
Desktop-PC
14.4 (12min) fps ∼15%
13.3 (11min) fps ∼16%
40.3 (37min) fps ∼25%
88.6 (80min) fps ∼48%
144.6 (140min) fps ∼73%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
16.7 (14min) fps ∼18%
8.8 (5min) fps ∼11%
39.8 (36min) fps ∼25%
77.8 (71min) fps ∼42%
134.8 (125min) fps ∼68%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
13.5 (12min) fps ∼15%
6.8 (4min) fps ∼8%
33.6 (29min) fps ∼21%
66.1 (59min) fps ∼36%
116.3 (107min) fps ∼59%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ
Schenker XMG A505
10.4 (8min) fps ∼11%
10.1 (7min) fps ∼12%
26.1 (23min) fps ∼16%
57.6 (52min) fps ∼31%
105.2 (97min) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
7.9 (5min) fps ∼8%
4.9 (2min) fps ∼6%
20.9 (18min) fps ∼13%
47.4 (42min) fps ∼26%
78.8 (71min) fps ∼40%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M
Schenker M504
7.3 (2min) fps ∼8%
8.4 (6min) fps ∼10%
19.3 (16min) fps ∼12%
44.8 (40min) fps ∼24%
81.8 (74min) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ
Schenker M503
2.4 (1min) fps ∼3%
11.3 (7min) fps ∼7%
24.2 (22min) fps ∼13%
42.4 (40min) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M, 4200M
HP Envy 15-j011sg
3.4 (1min) fps ∼4%
8.1 (5min) fps ∼5%
18.2 (16min) fps ∼10%
31.7 (29min) fps ∼16%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M
MSI CX61-i572M
1.7 (0min) fps ∼2%
6.2 (0min) fps ∼4%
13.9 (0min) fps ∼8%
24.8 (0min) fps ∼13%
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ
SCHENKER S413
10.9 (8min) fps ∼6%
25.8 (20min) fps ∼13%
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
3.7 (1min) fps ∼2%
6.5 (4min) fps ∼4%
14.4 (12min) fps ∼7%
Intel HD Graphics 5500, 5010U
Intel NUC Kit NUC5i3RYH
2.8 (1min) fps ∼2%
5 (1min) fps ∼3%
8.3 (7min) fps ∼4%

Test Systems

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, GTX 970M, GTX 980M)
  • A505 (Core i7-4720HQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 960M)
  • M504 (Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M)
  • M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M)

Three notebooks came from Nvidia:

Intel provided us with another:

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

The desktop computers contain CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, Intel and Samsung, motherboards from Intel and Asus, as well as graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. We use the Asus PB287Q as our 4K monitor.

GPU drivers: Nvidia 358.50, AMD 15.10 Beta, Intel 20.19.15.4300 (Win 10) and Intel 10.18.14.4294 (Win 7).

Overview

Show Restrictions
PosModel< PrevNext >Anno 2205
 Anno 2205 (2015)
low
1024x768
Low Preset
med.
1366x768
Medium Preset
2xAA
high
1920x1080
High Preset
4xAA
ultra
1920x1080
Ultra High Preset
8xAA
4K
3840x2160
High Preset
4xAA
NVIDIA Titan X Pascal
112.2
114
101.1
76
88.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)
188
176
151
60n2
71n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
114
56.3
66.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)
140
47n2
57.5n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
91.2n2
44.6n3
49.2n3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
43.9
52.2
AMD Radeon R9 Fury
171
140
76
33
34.3
AMD Radeon R9 Nano
31.4
32.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
156.4
145.4
84.3
31.6
34.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)
157.95n2
145.3n2
94.6n2
32.45n2
37.55n2
AMD Radeon R9 390X
143.6
132.6
69.8
27.7
29.3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)
146
135
96.9
31.9
38.2
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)
70
28.7
26.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile
96.15n2
89.15n2
78.35n4
28.8n4
32.4
AMD Radeon RX 580 (Laptop)
98.6
95.4
65.5
25.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
126.2
92
27.25n2
34.1
AMD Radeon R9 290X
170
126
66
26
26.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
131.2n2
126.4n3
63.1n3
22.7n3
23.5n2
AMD Radeon R9 280X
129
95
52
22.7
22.8
PosModel< PrevNext >Anno 2205
low med. high ultra 4K
AMD Radeon R9 380
160.1
96.5
44.2
17.6
17.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
175.2
124.7
57
20.6
20.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile
63.7
20.6
24
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop)
61.8
20.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
127.8n4
107.05n4
54.8n4
17.2n4
19.2n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
113.8
101.6
56.3
13.8
23
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop)
54.3
17
19.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile
113
92
43.7
13.9
AMD Radeon R7 370
115
71
30
13.6
13.5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M
134.8
77.8
39.8
8.8
16.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
144.6
88.6
40.3
13.3
14.4
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop)
33.3
13.4
12
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
129.2n3
100.7n3
45.6n3
15.6n3
15.5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
116.3
66.1
33.6
6.8
13.5
AMD Radeon HD 8970M
106
64.9
32
13.1
AMD Radeon R9 M390
103
31.5
12
12
AMD Radeon Pro 460
120.9
25.9
8.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
105.2n3
60.05n2
26.1n3
10.2n3
10.15n2
AMD Radeon Pro 455
86
17.5
7.7
NVIDIA GeForce MX150
60.6
46
27.2
9.1
PosModel< PrevNext >Anno 2205
low med. high ultra 4K
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
78.8
47.4
20.9
4.9
7.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
85n3
42.6n3
19.6n3
8.85n2
AMD Radeon Pro 450
87
18.3
AMD Radeon R9 M385X
47.4
50.5
24.1
9.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M
81.8
44.8
19.3
8.4
7.3
AMD Radeon R9 M280X
45.1
37.1
17.1
NVIDIA GeForce 945M
63.3
37.8
17.2
7.3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
42.4
24.2
11.3
2.4
NVIDIA GeForce MX130
49.7
30.4
15.3
6.6
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
53.25n4
27.9n4
12.65n4
5.9n3
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
51.3
28.1
13.2
6.2
NVIDIA GeForce 940M
42.3
21.6
9.9
4.4
AMD Radeon R7 M370
35.4
19.8
8.7
4.1
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
25.8
10.9
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
31.7
18.2
8.1
3.4
NVIDIA GeForce 930M
40.6
22.3
9.7
4.8
Intel Iris Graphics 550
44.1
27.5
11.7
5.3
AMD Radeon 530
35.1
17.7
NVIDIA GeForce 920MX
38.1
19.1
Intel Iris Graphics 540
37.7n2
20.65n2
9.05n2
PosModel< PrevNext >Anno 2205
low med. high ultra 4K
AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)
26.1
14.4
6.7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
33.2
16
AMD Radeon R7 (Carrizo)
23.7n2
14.15n2
6.5
2.2
AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)
32.1
16.6
8
AMD Radeon R7 M460
31.4
16.5
7
3.7
AMD Radeon R7 M360
31.3n3
17.4n3
7.6n3
3.7n2
NVIDIA GeForce 920M
30.4
17.5
8.5
5.3
AMD Radeon R7 M440
35.3
17.1
7
AMD Radeon R7 M340
35.6
17.3
6.9
3.3
Intel UHD Graphics 630
32.4
16.9
Intel HD Graphics 630
36.6
21
8.5
Intel HD Graphics 530
9
4.6
AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)
17.4
11
Intel UHD Graphics 620
31.2
17.3
7.5
4.7
Intel HD Graphics 620
23.5
16.2
6.8
AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)
27.6
14.8
6.1
2.2
AMD Radeon R5 M335
28.9
15.8
6.8
3.1
AMD Radeon R5 M330
25.4
13.7
AMD Radeon R5 M430
27.7
14.1
AMD Radeon R5 M255
33
16.2
6.9
PosModel< PrevNext >Anno 2205
low med. high ultra 4K
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3
22.7
12.1
5.1
NVIDIA GeForce 910M
22.1
13.7
6.3
3.1
Intel HD Graphics 520
20.2n2
10.75n2
6.4
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
28.9
15.8
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
24.8
13.9
6.2
1.7
Intel HD Graphics 4600
13.6n2
5.85n2
3.35n2
Intel HD Graphics 5500
8.3
5
2.8
Intel HD Graphics 615
15.9
10.2
Intel HD Graphics 515
15.5
9.3
Intel HD Graphics 4400
21
9.2
Intel HD Graphics 510
19.9
11
Intel HD Graphics 505
11.8
6.5
Intel HD Graphics 5300
10.6
6.1
AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)
16.6
8
Intel HD Graphics 4200
18
7.7
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
10.8
6.9
Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)
8.1
3.9
(-) * 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.
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Florian Glaser, 2015-11- 9 (Update: 2018-05-15)