Atomic Heart review: Notebook and desktop benchmarks

Real eye candy. Atomic Heart isn't just stylish in gameplay - it is also a top-tier game from a technical standpoint. The first-person shooter is definitely one of the best looking PC games released in the past few years. You can read about what that means in terms of hardware requirements in our benchmark check.

Florian Glaser, 👁 Florian Glaser (translated by Daisy Dickson), Published 03/13/2023 🇩🇪 🇸🇪 ...

Technical aspects

Atomic Heart isn't your run-of-the-mill shooter and this becomes clear within the first few minutes of gameplay. The game has a really dense atmosphere, which is fuelled by its extreme eye for detail as well as its unique style - a mix of Sci-Fi and Steampunk. Fans of games such as Dishonored, Deathloop and the BioShock series will be in for a real treat playing Atomic Heart.

At high to maximum detail levels, Atomic Heart looks stunning thanks to its sharp textures, great reflections and well-executed effects.

The graphics menu left us with some mixed feelings. While the display menu is a little frugal with only a few options (resolution, FPS limit, VSync etc.), the quality menu really steals the show with not only multiple presets (the maximum level is very fittingly called "Atomic") but also over 20 detail settings, which can be applied without having to restart the game.

With that being said, it can take a moment for Atomic Heart to regain its bearings, as a change in settings usually prompts the game to optimize its shaders - a thing which always happens when booting up the game (also seen with Hogwarts Legacy) and which can take a good few minutes.

Generally, the game supports a variety of modern features, such as DLSS or Fidelity FX. The originally announced ray tracing is still missing, however, this can be forgiven due to the game's already stunning optics (at least we didn't miss ray tracing). But back to the graphics menu: The individual settings are only accompanied with short descriptions. More comprehensive explanations and comparison images, which can be seen in Returnal, are nowhere to be found.

From a technical standpoint, we find Atomic Heart to be surprisingly sophisticated - with the exception of a few graphics problems at lower levels of detail (removed objects have a tendency to judder and passers-by's hair sometimes flutters strangely). In our test, we didn't experience any crashes or slumps in performance. Speaking of performance: Lower frame rates (i.e. when lowering the quality level) don't really seem to affect the game much, which means you don't necessarily need an atomic PC to run Atomic Heart.

Benchmark

The boat journey at the beginning of the game is perfect for measuring speeds, as it is graphically quite demanding and it always runs the exact same. As you can see in the following video, we measured the frame rate for around 1 minute (using CapFrameX), until a flying robot offered the main character some lemonade.

Since the game is a fast-paced first-person shooter - at least later on - ideally, you would want to see results of over 60 FPS. Our GPU recommendations are kept accordingly.

Results

FHD (1,920 x 1,080)

While iGPUs are generally only able to display moderate resolutions and details smoothly (see Radeon 680M & Iris Xe Graphics G7), a midrange GPU such as the Radeon RX 6600M was fast enough to run Atomic Heart at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels on the preset "High". For maximum details, you would be better off running the game on an upper midrange device - for example, on a GeForce RTX 3060, you can run it in Full HD and using the preset "Atomic".

Atomic Heart
1920x1080 Low Preset 1920x1080 Medium Preset 1920x1080 High Preset 1920x1080 Atomic Preset
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	338 (164.8^min, 228^P0.1, 276^P1) fps ∼77% 273 (126.7^min, 184.2^P0.1, 216^P1) fps ∼80% 188.2 (96.3^min, 124.2^P0.1, 160.3^P1) fps ∼62% 155.6 (91.2^min, 105.9^P0.1, 129.3^P1) fps ∼54%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	328 (26.2^min, 209^P0.1, 275^P1) fps ∼75% 262 (94.5^min, 182.2^P0.1, 221^P1) fps ∼76% 169.8 (85^min, 105.2^P0.1, 142.4^P1) fps ∼56% 137.9 (48.8^min, 87.9^P0.1, 108.6^P1) fps ∼48%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	307 (161.6^min, 210^P0.1, 250^P1) fps ∼70% 239 (135.8^min, 163.4^P0.1, 192.3^P1) fps ∼70% 147.4 (92.8^min, 115^P0.1, 124.8^P1) fps ∼48% 121.4 (86.9^min, 97.7^P0.1, 102.8^P1) fps ∼42%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	263 (95.3^min, 185.8^P0.1, 211^P1) fps ∼60% 195.9 (113.3^min, 145.6^P0.1, 161.5^P1) fps ∼57% 112.9 (69.7^min, 92.3^P0.1, 97.4^P1) fps ∼37% 91.7 (69.3^min, 73.4^P0.1, 78.7^P1) fps ∼32%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900HX MSI Titan GT77 12UHS	221 (33.3^min, 143.7^P0.1, 171.7^P1) fps ∼50% 169.2 (37.4^min, 111.2^P0.1, 132.8^P1) fps ∼49% 99.8 (42.2^min, 73^P0.1, 84.3^P1) fps ∼33% 84.1 (35.7^min, 59.7^P0.1, 71.8^P1) fps ∼29%
AMD Radeon RX 6800M, R9 5900HX Asus ROG Strix G15	153.8 (79.3^min, 111.3^P0.1, 125.9^P1) fps ∼35% 121.4 (67.8^min, 82.5^P0.1, 96.1^P1) fps ∼35% 84.6 (43.5^min, 60.6^P0.1, 73.6^P1) fps ∼28% 68.6 (30.7^min, 54.3^P0.1, 60.2^P1) fps ∼24%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-12700H Lenovo Legion 5 Pro	174.2 (67.2^min, 111.4^P0.1, 141.7^P1) fps ∼40% 130.5 (79.6^min, 103.2^P0.1, 109.6^P1) fps ∼38% 75.3 (30.3^min, 61.3^P0.1, 65.1^P1) fps ∼25% 60.2 (27.5^min, 49.8^P0.1, 51.8^P1) fps ∼21%
AMD Radeon RX 6600M, R7 5800H Lenovo Legion 5	154.5 (24.9^min, 109.1^P0.1, 132.8^P1) fps ∼35% 107.7 (64.9^min, 85.1^P0.1, 96.4^P1) fps ∼31% 64 (37.4^min, 48^P0.1, 58^P1) fps ∼21% 50.8 (32.7^min, 44.9^P0.1, 45.6^P1) fps ∼18%
AMD Radeon 680M, R9 6900HS Asus ROG Zephyrus G14	47.2 (20.2^min, 25.5^P0.1, 30.6^P1) fps ∼11% 36.8 (20.7^min, 21.1^P0.1, 25.7^P1) fps ∼11% 20.3 (10.7^min, 11.8^P0.1, 14.1^P1) fps ∼7% 16.9 (10.2^min, 11.7^P0.1, 12.4^P1) fps ∼6%
Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs, i7-1165G7 Zotac ZBOX CI665 Nano	25.8 (15.8^min, 16.5^P0.1, 22.5^P1) fps ∼6% 17.7 (10.6^min, 10.7^P0.1, 14.8^P1) fps ∼5% 12.2 (6.99^min, 8.96^P0.1, 10.7^P1) fps ∼4% 8.66 (5.55^min, 6.16^P0.1, 7.81^P1) fps ∼3%

QHD (2,560 x 1,440)

To run the game on a QHD or UHD display and with high-quality graphics, you will most likely need a high-end GPU. 2,560 x 1,440 pixels call for a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or better.

Atomic Heart
2560x1440 Atomic Preset
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	129.8 (81.3^min, 94.7^P0.1, 108.4^P1) fps ∼55%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	112.9 (49.1^min, 77.1^P0.1, 87.3^P1) fps ∼48%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	95.7 (71.3^min, 79.2^P0.1, 83.3^P1) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	71.6 (58.8^min, 60.3^P0.1, 62.5^P1) fps ∼30%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900HX MSI Titan GT77 12UHS	67.1 (19.7^min, 53^P0.1, 57.9^P1) fps ∼28%
AMD Radeon RX 6800M, R9 5900HX Asus ROG Strix G15	55.2 (29.1^min, 46.6^P0.1, 49^P1) fps ∼23%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-12700H Lenovo Legion 5 Pro	47.7 (33.3^min, 39.7^P0.1, 41^P1) fps ∼20%
AMD Radeon RX 6600M, R7 5800H Lenovo Legion 5	38.4 (32.2^min, 34.6^P0.1, 35.2^P1) fps ∼16%

UHD (3,840 x 2,160)

In 4K, so at 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, almost all notebook chips reach their limits. Even the previously mentioned RTX 3080 Ti only just manages over 40 FPS when the preset "Atomic" is selected. Desktop devices are much better-suited thanks to their higher TDPs. A GeForce RTX 3080 is able to hit the 60-FPS mark.

Atomic Heart
3840x2160 Atomic Preset
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	86 (51.1^min, 70.4^P0.1, 74^P1) fps ∼42%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	71.4 (48.4^min, 58.9^P0.1, 61.2^P1) fps ∼34%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	60 (47.3^min, 51.6^P0.1, 53.7^P1) fps ∼29%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-12900K Desktop-PC	43.8 (37.5^min, 38.2^P0.1, 39.8^P1) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900HX MSI Titan GT77 12UHS	42.6 (35.9^min, 36.5^P0.1, 37.8^P1) fps ∼21%
AMD Radeon RX 6800M, R9 5900HX Asus ROG Strix G15	34.2 (22^min, 28.9^P0.1, 30.2^P1) fps ∼17%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, i7-12700H Lenovo Legion 5 Pro	28.9 (23.2^min, 23.7^P0.1, 24.7^P1) fps ∼14%
AMD Radeon RX 6600M, R7 5800H Lenovo Legion 5	22.7 (20.8^min, 20.8^P0.1, 21.1^P1) fps ∼11%

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

Test systems

Device	Graphics card	Processor	RAM	Operating system
Notebooks
MSI Titan GT77 12UHS	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti @175 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-12900	2 x 16 GB DDR5	Windows 11
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 @140 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-12700H	2 x 8 GB DDR5	Windows 11
Asus ROG Strix G15	AMD Radeon RX 6800M (12 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 11
Lenovo Legion 5	AMD Radeon RX 6600M (8 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 7 5800H	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 11
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14	AMD Radeon 680M	AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS	2 x 16 GB DDR5	Windows 11
Tower-PCs
Custom I	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 3080 (10 GB GDDR6X) MSI GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-12900K	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 11
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) lNvidia 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	Windows 11
Custom III	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super FE	Intel Core i9-11900K	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 11
Mini-PCs
Zotac ZBOX CI665 Nano	Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96 CUs)	Intel Core i7-1165G7	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 11
Morefine S500+	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8	AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 11
Minisforum NUCXi7	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 @125 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-11800H	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 11
Minisforum HX99G	AMD Radeon RX 6600M @100 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5	Windows 11

4K monitors	Nvidia driver	AMD driver
Philips Brilliance 329P9H, Gigabyte M32U	ForceWare 531.18	Adrenalin 23.3.1

Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 568 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.

Translator: Daisy Dickson - Translator - 38 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2023

Originally from Scotland, I grew up and lived in Germany until I completed my high school qualifications before moving back to Scotland to complete my university studies. Growing up bilingual led me to form a close relationship with the English and German languages, often working in the fields of teaching and translation. Most of my childhood was shaped by playing around on new consoles, computers and gadgets and getting to grips with the new craze of the internet and smartphones. This interest has stayed with me well into adulthood. Nowadays, I live in Glasgow and work as a freelance translator and digital media coordinator. I have been translating for Notebookcheck since early 2023.

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> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > Reviews > Atomic Heart review: Notebook and desktop benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2023-03-13 (Update: 2023-03-13)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Atomic Heart (2023)
Pos	Model	low 1920x1080 Low Preset	med. 1920x1080 Medium Preset	high 1920x1080 High Preset	ultra 1920x1080 Atomic Preset	QHD 2560x1440 Atomic Preset	4K 3840x2160 Atomic Preset
1	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
2	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	338	273	188.2	155.6	129.8	86
3	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080		227	205	179.6	142.7	83.6
5	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT	328	262	169.8	137.9	112.9	71.4
6	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti	316	253	180.1	148	112.3	63.4
7	AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT	347	257	158.9	130.7	104.2	65.3
8	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	62.7
9	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	325	262	156.3	129.3	101.7	63.3
14	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU	170.8	142.3	121.1	100.3	79.2
16	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080	307	239	147.4	121.4	95.7	60
17	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	320	250	148.3	144.8	109.4	62.4
20	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU	199.8	158.3	96.4	79	58.9
21	AMD Radeon RX 6800	262	197.7	120	96.3	77.5	47.7
22	NVIDIA Titan RTX	264	197.6	117.7	96.9	74.9	45
24	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU	221	169.2	99.8	84.1	67.1	42.6
26	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	263	195.9	112.9	91.7	71.6	43.8
29	AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	232	169.4	101.2	79.4	61.9	36.3
31	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	236	179.7	103.1	82.4	63.6	38.4
36	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Atomic Heart
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
39	AMD Radeon RX 6800M	153.8	121.4	84.6	68.6	55.2	34.2
40	AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT	212	152.9	89.4	69.5	51.4	29.3
44	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU	186.7	143.9	88.5	69.8	53.8	32.5
58	NVIDIA Titan X Pascal	172.5	126.6	78.4	62.2	48.4	28.6
62	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (Desktop)	195.4	147.3	85.8	68.3	52	30.4
66	AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (Desktop)	174.6	133.2	78	61.7	47.2	27.7
71	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU	174.2	130.5	75.3	60.2	47.7	28.9
77	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (Desktop)	168.3	124.3	72.7	58.1	43.6	25.6
78	AMD Radeon RX 6600	168.5	120.4	69.5	53.8	39.7	22.8
81	AMD Radeon RX 5700 (Desktop)	159	120.8	69.8	55.3	41.8	24.7
83	AMD Radeon RX 6600M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
109	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050	127.3	98.6	56.9	44.7	33.9	19.6
111	AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (Desktop)	146.5	114.6	66.3	53.4	40.2	23.5
119	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop)	124.2	90.7	52	41.5	30.7	17
120	AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT	110.9	84.2	47.9	37.4	27.2	13.8
121	AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (Desktop)	97.5	75.4	43.4	34.7	26.2	15.1
122	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU	95	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	24.6
128	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU	94.3	71.4	41.6	32.3	24.5
132	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (Desktop)	111.4	83.4	48.5	38.4	28.1	14.8
135	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super (Desktop)	98.9	73.4	42.4	33.2	24	10.1
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Atomic Heart
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
215*	AMD Radeon 780M	40.4	32.6	19.1	15.6
216	AMD Radeon 680M	47.2	36.8	20.3	16.9
280	Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs	25.8	17.7	12.2	8.66
301	Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs	22.6	16.4	11.7	8.42
343	Intel UHD Graphics 64EUs (Alder Lake 12th Gen)	24.4	17.5	12.5
383	Intel UHD Graphics 770	15.2	10.9
420	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)	13.9	10.3

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.