Anthem Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks
Technology
BioWare is proving that even flagship studios can fall from grace and lose their reputation. After role-playing pearls like Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age, the Canadian developer is now just a shadow of its former self. In 2017, Mass Effect Andromeda drew criticism for its weak story and lack of character development. Now in 2019, Anthem is facing criticism for its similar narrative structure and often repetitive missions.
The bad press that Anthem is currently receiving is a shame because it is one of the most beautiful games we have ever played. The game has been built on EA’s Frostbite 3 engine, which comes from Battlefield developer DICE. In short, the effects, degree of detail, lighting, shadows and texture sharpness are all exceptional.
Moreover, the intuitive and fluid controls along with the ease with which it is to use the jetpack make Anthem not only enjoyable to look at but also to play. The Hollywood-style combat system is also convincing, but it lacks variety and moves are repeated quickly. Speaking of Hollywood, the transitions between video sequences and in-game action are often seamless, which adds to the immersive atmosphere of the game.
The developers could improve the loading and login times though. The game takes too long to boot, change scenes or return to the main menu for our liking. The long loading times are especially noticeable with the game running from an HDD. BioWare and EA have already significantly reduced loading times with a recent patch update, so there is hope that loading times could further shorten in time. Additionally, the opening videos cannot be skipped, which is even more annoying considering that the game must be restarted to apply some graphics changes.
The video menu is arranged well just as other Frostbite games are. BioWare has divided the graphics options into three tabs, the first of which being display settings, which are responsible for the picture mode, resolution, V-sync and optional HDR. The second tab is titled “Graphics Settings” and contains options for brightness, motion blur, depth of field, chromatic aberrations and the degree to which the camera appears to wobble. Most graphics settings are hidden within the “Advanced Graphics” tab, which contains several presets and 10 individual options for you to tweak the look of the game to your preferences.
However, there are hardly any differences between the graphics presets, unlike other games that we have recently benchmarked like Dirt Rally 2.0. The benefit of this is that Anthem looks great even at the lowest preset, but the flipside is that the game has hefty system requirements.
In general, we would say that Anthem lacks the final touches of other Frostbite 3 games like those in the Battlefield series. The game often lurches for a few seconds after loading regardless of the GPU on which it is being played, which is not the case with Battlefield V.
There are also frequent frame-rate drops for weaker systems with limited amounts of VRAM, which prevent the game from running smoothly at high resolutions and quality levels. Occasionally, objects take an age to appear if they do at all. Moreover, we experienced a few crashes and error messages for some inexplicable reason despite having the most recent graphics drivers installed.
Benchmarks
Since Anthem does not include a benchmark, our tests are based on an in-game sequence that we could repeat multiple times. As you can see in the video below, our benchmark consists of us walking around Fort Tarsis for almost 25 seconds. We walked the same route each time and encountered many NPCs, which pushes most systems hard, although it is not a worst-case scenario. Anthem should be playable for most people if a test system averages at least 40 FPS in our benchmark, although 60 FPS and upwards will look noticeably smoother.
Results
HD (1280x720)
Anthem overwhelms integrated GPUs like the Intel HD Graphics 630 even at the game’s lowest settings. We would recommend playing the game on at least an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M or a GeForce GTX 970M for a smoother experience.
Anthem | |
1280x720 Low Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ | |
Intel HD Graphics 630, i7-7700HQ |
FHD (1920x1080)
The latter should also be suitable for playing Anthem in 1080p on the medium preset, but a GeForce GTX 980M or GeForce GTX 1060 would offer a more consistent experience. Likewise, while the GeForce GTX 980M is powerful enough to average over 40 FPS on the high or ultra presets, the GeForce GTX 1060 dropped below just that threshold in our tests.
Anthem | |
1920x1080 Medium Preset 1920x1080 High Preset 1920x1080 Ultra Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 6700HQ | |
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, i7-7700HQ | |
Intel HD Graphics 630, i7-7700HQ | |
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X |
QHD (2560x1440) & UHD (3840x2160)
Predictably, Anthem pushes even high-end modern GPUs hard at QHD and UHD on the ultra preset. The GeForce GTX 1070 is powerful enough to play the game smoothly at these settings in QHD, but you would need to step up to a GeForce GTX 1080 to experience the game in 60 FPS. Playing the game in UHD on the ultra preset is out of the question for all but the GeForce RTX 2080, with the GeForce GTX 1080 only able to average around 35 FPS.
Anthem | |
2560x1440 Ultra Preset 3840x2160 Ultra Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, i7-7700HQ |
Note
Gaming tests are often time-consuming and are hampered by activation or installation limits. Hence, we can currently only provide some of the benchmarks for Anthem. We shall update this article with more GPUs in the coming days and weeks.
Overview
Test Systems
Device | Graphics Card | Processor | RAM | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Desktop-PC I | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) |
Intel Core i9-9900K | 4 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
Desktop-PC II | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB GDDR5X) ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti (6 GB GDDR5) XFX Radeon R9 Fury (4 GB HBM) Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (4 GB GDDR5) Sapphire Radeon R9 280X (3 GB GDDR5) MSI Radeon R7 370 (2 GB GDDR5) |
Intel Core i7-7740X | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
Desktop-PC III | AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (8 GB HBM2) XFX AMD Radeon RX 590 (8 GB GDDR5) Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB GDDR5) NVIDIA Titan X (Pascal) (12 GB GDDR5X) Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (2 GB GDDR5) |
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
Desktop-PC IV | NVIDIA Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6) | AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2920X | 4 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
Alienware 17 R4 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) | Intel Core i7-7820HK | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
Acer Triton 700 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q (8 GB GDDR5X) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
ASUS G752VS | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GT62VR | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GE72 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
ASUS GL753VD | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 1 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GL62 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
ASUS G752VY | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M (4 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GS60 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (3 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GE72 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 1 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GL72 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 1 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI PE60 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI CX72 | NVIDIA GeForce 940MX (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI GP62 | NVIDIA GeForce 940M (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Core i7-5700HQ | 1 x 8 GB DDR3 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
MSI CX61 | NVIDIA GeForce 920M (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Celeron 2970M | 1 x 8 GB DDR3 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
ASUS N551ZU | AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5) | AMD FX-7600P | 2 x 4 GB DDR3 | Windows 10 64-Bit |
4K Monitore | Nvidia Treiber | AMD Treiber |
---|---|---|
2 x Asus PB287Q, Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB | ForceWare 419.17 | Adrenalin 19.2.3 |