Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon tech review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks
Notebooks featured in this review
Right now, our gaming benchmarks are performed using these laptops. Click on the images to visit the respective product page. All other test systems (tower PCs, mini-PCs, etc.) are listed at the end of this article.
Technical aspects
Opinions on Armored Core 6 are quite divided amongst gamers. For instance, whilst some people laud the game’s difficult boss fights, others express their dismay at the rather dull storytelling (cool cutscenes notwithstanding) and the drab, lifeless and graphically fairly uninspiring levels. We can understand both viewpoints and consider Fires of Rubicon a solid, albeit unexceptional game, unlike FromSoftware's other releases such as Elden Ring.
Unfortunately, there are few things to criticise in the technical department. As we hinted at earlier, the game's visuals are very mediocre for a title released in 2023. Other than textures, the level of detail, environmental variety and effects leave something to be desired every now and then. In general, Armored Core 6 looks quite blurry and not very sharp even at higher resolutions. Mechs are also somewhat oddly animated and appear quite stiff in motion, particularly when hovering.
Armored Core 6’s graphics menu is very similar to the one in Elden Ring. The main tab lets you adjust things such as screen mode, resolution and frame rate limit (maximum 120 FPS) and turn V-Sync and HDR on or off. The Quality Setting option offers four handy presets that change almost everything found in the detailed settings window. Ray tracing quality, which only applies to the mech garage, is the only thing unaffected by the quality presets.
You won’t find any comparison images for the individual settings, but at least the game provides short notes explaining what they do. By contrast, it's fantastic that you don’t need to restart the game after changing any of the settings. The game takes a while to launch because it needs to initialise the anti-cheat, but load times are fine otherwise. At roughly 60 GB, the file size is neither large nor small for a modern game.
Benchmark
For our benchmark sequence, we used the beginning of the “Destroy Artillery Installations” mission from Chapter 1, which is accessible after the first boss fight. As you can see in the video below, we flew the mech along a set path for around 30 seconds. Frame rates were recorded using CapFrameX. We deem the game decently playable from 40 FPS onwards, but you'll need at least 60 FPS for a truly smooth experience.
Results
FHD (1,920 x 1,080)
One major advantage of the game's modest graphics is the moderate GPU requirements. Though an iGPU like the Radeon 680M can probably only cut it at 720p and minimum settings, a dedicated mid-range GPU like the RX 6800S or similar should have no problem handling the game at 1080p and Ultra settings.
Armored Core 6 | |
1920x1080 Low Preset 1920x1080 Medium Preset 1920x1080 High Preset 1920x1080 Maximum Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800S, R9 6900HS | |
AMD Radeon 680M, R9 6900HS |
QHD (2,560 x 1,440)
The game’s system requirements are also manageable at QHD. A GeForce RTX 4050 is already capable enough to deliver around 60 FPS at 1440p and max settings.
Armored Core 6 | |
2560x1440 Maximum Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX |
UHD (3,840 x 2,160)
Armored Core 6 becomes a little demanding only at 4K. We recommend having at least a GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 if you want to play the game at 4K and max preset.
Armored Core 6 | |
3840x2160 Maximum Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX |
Note
Because gaming tests are very time-consuming and are often constrained by installation or activation limits, we are only able to provide you with part of the benchmark results at the time of publishing this article. We will be adding more graphics cards over the coming days and weeks.
Overview
All test systems
Notebook | Graphics card | Processor | Memory |
---|---|---|---|
XMG Neo 17 E23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @175 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X) | Intel Core i9-13900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Schenker Key 17 Pro E23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 @175 W TGP (12 GB GDDR6X) | Intel Core i9-13900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
XMG Pro 15 E23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i9-13900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
XMG Pro 15 E23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i9-13900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
XMG Focus 15 E23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 @140 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i9-13900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti @150 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i9-12900H | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Acer Predator Helios 300 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti @150 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-12700H | 2 x 8 GB DDR5 |
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 | AMD Radeon RX 6800S (8 GB GDDR6) & AMD Radeon 680M | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Tower PC | Graphics card | Processor | Memory |
---|---|---|---|
Custom I / Asus ROG Strix Z790-F / G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB GDDR6X) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB GDDR6) |
Intel Core i9-13900K | 2 x 24 GB DDR5 |
Custom II | Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC (24 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 FE (24 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8 GB GDDR6)Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6) PNY GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB GDDR5) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1650 Super (4 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (16 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6800 (16 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6600 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (8 GB GDDR6) |
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Mini-PC | Graphics card | Processor | Memory |
---|---|---|---|
Minisforum NUCXi7 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 @125 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-11800H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 |
Minisforum HX99G | AMD Radeon RX 6600M @100 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Morefine S500+ | AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 |
4K monitor | Operating system | Nvidia driver | AMD driver |
---|---|---|---|
Gigabyte M32U | Windows 11 | ForceWare 537.13 | Adrenalin 28.8.1 |