Ashes of the Singularity Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

DirectX 12 warfare. Ashes of the Singularity is a resource-intensive DirectX 12 strategy game with large-scale battle sequences, which jumps on the same bandwagon as Supreme Commander. What type of notebook and desktop hardware is necessary to allow stutter-free gameplay?

Klaus Hinum (translated by Bernie Pechlaner), Published 08/09/2016 🇩🇪

For the original German article, see here.

Ashes of the Singularity is an RTS game with massive battles and the option to zoom way out of the battlefield. At the time of writing, Metacritic awards the game with a Metascore of 70 (mixed or average reviews). The first mission in the Single Player Campaign is pretty solid, but not really outstanding. The graphics are very convincing, however. Especially when viewed from a distance, the maps and the battle units look pretty spectacular.

Benchmark

For our test, we rely on the integrated GPU benchmark, which happens to be - when compared to the campaign itself - fairly demanding. Although we recorded 30 fps for the benchmark sequence, we were able to play the first campaign mission without major stutters at an average of 40 fps (determined during a spot-check). The performance is likely going to take a hit during extensive multi-player battles, so for those scenarios we recommend higher frame rates. Above 40 fps during the benchmark should be enough of a cushion, however.

We use the pre-defined settings from 1280 x 768 (not all notebooks can handle 1280 x 800) "Low" up to 3840 x 2160 (4K) "Crazy". For the benchmark tests we used the retail version of the game, since the beta-version still had quite a few issues on notebooks.

Results

Ashes of the Singularity is without a doubt one of the most hardware-intensive titles we've had on our test bench. The RTS title requires at least a dedicated GeForce GTX 950M or similarly fast graphics card to be playable. With the resolution increased to Full-HD, the GTX 950M lost 4.6 fps and dropped to 27.6 fps (-14%). In single-player mode, the game ran basically stutter-free, although it didn't look particularly great. The GeForce 940MX-equipped notebook produced an interesting result, as the integrated HD Graphics 530 (same system!) actually managed to outperform it. Since the GeForce 940M - which is based on the same chip and features similar clock speeds as the 940MX - didn't have any issues, the likely reason is the fact that we are using a pre-production sample.

Medium details ("standard" setting) in Full-HD required a GTX 965M (refresh) respectively a Radeon R9 370 (desktop) for satisfying performance. The "high: setting didn't impact performance much during our test, so less demanding users can certainly select it if they so desire. For enough performance headroom, we suggest powerful GPUs like the desktop graphics card GeForce GTX 970 (and therefore also the GTX 980M).

4k at maximum details requires top-of-the-line graphic cards like a Radeon R9 Fury or a Geforce GTX 980 Ti.

Our overview below lists all of the notebooks and desktops we used to conduct our test. We continually maintain and expand this table. Please also take a look at our benchmark list of graphic cards (notebook and desktop).

Ashes of the Singularity
1280x768 low 1920x1080 Standard 1920x1080 high 3840x2160 extreme 3840x2160 crazy
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), 4790K Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition	51.1 fps ∼63% 41.6 fps ∼50%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), 4790K MSI Gaming Z GeForce GTX 1070 OC Bios Desktop PC	76.5 fps ∼76% 36.5 fps ∼44%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 4790K Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti Desktop PC	76 fps ∼72% 74 fps ∼74% 38.5 fps ∼48% 31.2 fps ∼37%
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro	76.8 fps ∼73% 71 fps ∼71% 37.9 fps ∼47% 32.6 fps ∼39%
AMD Radeon R9 Nano, 4790K AMD Radeon R9 Nano Reference Desktop PC	81.8 fps ∼72% 75.6 fps ∼71% 69.3 fps ∼69% 32.4 fps ∼39%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), 4790K AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB Reference	65.5 fps ∼62% 57 fps ∼57% 31.4 fps ∼39% 25 fps ∼30%
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC	67.8 fps ∼64% 62.2 fps ∼62% 26.5 fps ∼32%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, 4790K MSI Gaming Z GeForce GTX 970 Desktop PC	80.8 fps ∼72% 60.8 fps ∼57% 54.8 fps ∼54% 27.9 fps ∼34% 20.6 fps ∼25%
AMD Radeon R9 280X, 4790K Asus Z97 Deluxe Desktop i7-4790K, R9 280X	44.4 fps ∼42% 40.9 fps ∼41% 10.1 fps ∼12%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	39.8 fps ∼35% 30.4 fps ∼29% 26.5 fps ∼26% 3.4 fps ∼4%
AMD Radeon R7 370, 4790K MSI Gaming R7 370 2GB	29.8 fps ∼28% 26.9 fps ∼27% 4.8 fps ∼6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, 6700HQ MSI PE60 2QD	33.2 fps ∼29% 17.3 fps ∼16% 15.6 fps ∼16%
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ MSI GP62 2QD	19.2 fps ∼17% 9.6 fps ∼9% 8.6 fps ∼9%
AMD Radeon R9 M280X, FX-7600P Asus N551ZU-CN007H	17.9 fps ∼17%
NVIDIA GeForce 920M, 2970M MSI CX61 2QC 2970M MS-16GD	12.7 fps ∼11% 6.9 fps ∼7% 6 fps ∼6%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M MSI CX61-i572M	10.2 fps ∼9%
Intel HD Graphics 530, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	5.2 fps ∼5%
Intel HD Graphics 530, 6700HQ MSI CX72 6QD	6.5 fps ∼6%
Intel HD Graphics 5600, 5700HQ MSI GP62 2QD	5.8 fps ∼5%
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ MSI CX72 6QD	4.2 fps ∼4% 3.7 fps ∼3%

Overview

Test Systems

Desktop PCs	Custom Nvidia	Custom AMD
Mainboard	Asus Z170-A	Asus Z97-Deluxe
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (4 GB GDDR5) PNY GeForce GTX 950 (2 GB GDDR5)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8 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)
RAM	2 x 8 GB DDR4-2133	2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600
Storage	Crucial MX100 SSD (256 GB) Crucial M500 SSD (480 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) OCZ Trion 150 SSD (960 GB)	Intel SSD 530 (240 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB)
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

Schenker Notebooks	Schenker W504	Schenker XMG A505	Schenker S413
Mainboard	Intel HM87	Intel HM87	Intel HM87
Processor	Intel Core i7-4700MQ (Haswell)	Intel Core i7-4720HQ (Haswell)	Intel Core i7-4750HQ (Haswell)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M (8 GB GDDR5) GTX 970M (6 GB GDDR5) GTX 880M (8 GB GDDR5) GTX 870M (6 GB GDDR5) GTX 860M Kepler (4 GB GDDR5)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
RAM	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 8 GB DDR3-1600
Storage	Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB) Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD (500 GB)	Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1.000 GB)	Intel SSD
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

MSI Notebooks	MSI GE72	MSI PE60	MSI GP62	MSI CX61	MSI CX61
Mainboard	Intel HM170	Intel HM170	Intel HM86	Intel HM86	Intel HM86
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-5700HQ (Broadwell)	Intel Celeron 2970M (Haswell)	Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M 2016 (2 GB GDDR5)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M (2 GB GDDR5)	Nvidia GeForce 940M (2 GB DDR3)	Nvidia GeForce 920M (2 GB DDR3)	Nvidia GeForce GT 720M (2 GB DDR3)
RAM	1 x 8 GB DDR4-2133	2 x 4 GB DDR4-2133	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600
Storage	Toshiba THNSNJ128G8NU SSD (128 GB) WDC WD10JPVX HDD (1.000 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB)			Toshiba MQ01ABF050 HDD (500 GB)	WDC Scorpio Blue HDD (1.000 GB)
Operating System	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Other Notebooks	HP Envy 15	Asus N551ZU
Mainboard	Intel HM87	AMD K15.1
Processor	Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell)	AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GT 740M (2 GB DDR3)	AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5)
RAM	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600	2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600
Storage	Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB)	Samsung SSD 830 256 GB
Operating System	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit

4K Monitor	Nvidia driver	AMD driver	Intel driver
2 x Asus PB287Q	ForceWare	Crimson

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Translator: Bernie Pechlaner - Senior Tech Writer - 276 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2012

Ended up in the IT sector in the 90s more or less accidentally and have remained in the industry (as a sysadmin) ever since. Always been interested in laptops - first purchase was - if memory serves correctly - a Toshiba Satellite T2115CS with DX4-75 processor, 4 MB of RAM and 350 MB hard disk drive (and Windows 3.1). To this day, laptops appeal to me - much to the chagrin of my wife, who doesn’t seem understand why we need 5-10 of them at any given time ;-).

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Ashes of the Singularity Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

Klaus Hinum, 2016-08- 9 (Update: 2022-01-21)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Ashes of the Singularity (2016)
Pos	Model	low 1280x768 low	med. 1920x1080 Standard	high 1920x1080 high	4K 3840x2160 crazy
58	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop)			89.4	83.4
95	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)			87.5	58.4
96	NVIDIA Titan X Pascal	91.3	81	82.5	58.3
105	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop)	64.9	53	52.4
114	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)		69.5	71.65ⁿ²	41.6
129	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile	112.4	102	98.6
131	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q	82.5	80.7	81.3
137	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile		52.6	64.95ⁿ⁴	44.2
148*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q	60.2	53.1	52.6
156	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile	71.1	65.4	64.4
158	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)			77.05ⁿ²	34.75ⁿ²
163	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile	69.1ⁿ²	59.1ⁿ³	65.5ⁿ⁵
164*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q	100.4	72.8	66.8
186	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti		76	74	31.2
188	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q		67.5ⁿ³	65.2ⁿ³
195	AMD Radeon R9 Fury		76.8	71	32.6
196	AMD Radeon R9 Nano	81.8	75.6	69.3	32.4
203	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q		42.4	40.7
218	AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)		65.5	57	25
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Ashes of the Singularity
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	4K
219	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile	67.9ⁿ³	58.6ⁿ⁵	52.6ⁿ¹³	24
228	AMD Radeon RX 580 (Laptop)	35.3	30	29.2
237	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile	46.4	40.3ⁿ²	36.25ⁿ²
243	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	80.8	60.8	54.8	20.6
244	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q	75.8	61ⁿ²	53.05ⁿ²	20.9ⁿ²
258*	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q	60.3	42.5	36.9
268	AMD Radeon R9 290X		67.8	62.2	26.5
276	AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH	80.2	50.8	45.1
284	AMD Radeon R9 280X		44.4	40.9	10.1
288	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile	52.3ⁿ³	41.5ⁿ³	36.95ⁿ⁴
289	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop)		42.9ⁿ³	38.5ⁿ²	12.8
302*	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q	63	41.3	35.8	15.7
305	AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL / 870	54.9ⁿ³	37ⁿ³	32.5ⁿ³
306	AMD Radeon Pro WX Vega M GL	50.3	34.8	16
311	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop)		37.4	33.2	3.5
312	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile	52.4ⁿ⁶	34.25ⁿ¹⁰	29.5ⁿ¹²
315	AMD Radeon R7 370		29.8	26.9	4.8
318*	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q	53.8	33.5	29.1	18.9
334	AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop)	54.5	32.8	28.7
337	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M	39.8	30.4	26.5	3.4
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Ashes of the Singularity
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	4K
338	AMD Radeon RX 560X (Laptop)	44.5	31.7	24.2
348	AMD Radeon RX 460 (Laptop)		24.2	21
362	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	31.2	23.1	20.5
370	AMD Radeon RX 550 (Laptop)	41.9	25.4	22
374	AMD Radeon Pro 555	38.1	22.8
375	AMD Radeon Pro 455	33.8	21.3	19.3
378	NVIDIA GeForce MX250	34.6	16.1	5.7
380	NVIDIA GeForce MX150	28.9ⁿ⁵	17.8ⁿ⁵	15.2ⁿ⁴
393*	AMD Radeon RX 540	36	16.25ⁿ²	14.7ⁿ²
405	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	33.2	17.3	15.6
409*	AMD Radeon 540X	26.7	15
417	AMD Radeon R9 M280X		17.9
431*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 10	20.5	11.7	10.2
477	NVIDIA GeForce MX230	18.4	10.6	9
480*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)		19.5	16.8
489	AMD Radeon RX Vega 7	30.2	15.4	13.7
506	NVIDIA GeForce MX130	20.1	12.4	10.5
507	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	19.4ⁿ⁵	14	12.1
511	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)		14.6ⁿ²
512	NVIDIA GeForce 940M	19.2	9.6	8.6
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Ashes of the Singularity
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	4K
528	Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655	19.4	11.3	10.5
564	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	17.5
566	AMD Radeon 530	16.5	8.9
572*	NVIDIA GeForce MX110	17.7	10.5	9.2
574	NVIDIA GeForce 920MX	13.7	7.3
575	Intel Iris Graphics 540	13.3
611*	AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)	8
616*	AMD Radeon R7 M460	14.7	5.1
619	AMD Radeon R7 M360	14.8	6.9	6.1
621	NVIDIA GeForce 920M	12.7	6.9	6
634	AMD Radeon 520	11.6	5.9
639*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 2000/3000)	11	5.7	4.1
645	Intel HD Graphics 630	10.95ⁿ²	6.7
648	Intel HD Graphics 530	6.5	5.2
651	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	8	5
652	Intel UHD Graphics 620	11.05ⁿ²
653	Intel HD Graphics 620	10.1ⁿ²	6.55ⁿ²	6
654	AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)	11.4
688	Intel HD Graphics 5600	5.8
724	AMD Radeon R5 M430	9.9
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Ashes of the Singularity
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	4K
725	AMD Radeon R5 M255	14.1	6.7	5.8
733	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	10.2
741	AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)	7
754	Intel HD Graphics 4600	10.3
791	Intel HD Graphics 615	8.2
884	AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)	7.3

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.