Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Русский
Türkçe
Svenska
Chinese
MagyarBatman: Arkham Origins Benchmarked
For the original German article, see here.
Graphics
Nvidia's collaboration in the development of Arkham Origins is obvious. We see it not only in the presence of TXAA (a special form of anti-aliasing that expands on FXAA and MSAA), but also in a number of other technologies. The action thriller is optimized for both 3D Vision and multi-monitor operation, but that's not all. The new ambient occlusion technology HBAO+ (also used in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, for instance), PCSS (Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows) and NVDOF (Nvidia Depth-of-Field) are three further abbreviations thrown around by marketers.
Theory is all well and good, but what matters is how it plays in practice, right? Well, when all is said and done, Arkham Origins is definitely a success. Yes, some textures could be a little sharper, and yes, some shadow edges are a little bit unclean; but all in all, there isn't much to complain about. We were especially impressed with the deep footprints the characters leave behind in the snow, which are generated by tessellation.
With the GPU PhysX activated, the engine really struts its stuff. On the normal setting, the levels are decorated with textile banners and the floors are covered with all sorts of papers, both of which physically react to their environment; but on the higher setting, dynamic particles enter the scene as well (smoke, snow, fog, etc. are influenced by environmental factors like wind and explosions). Nvidia calls this technology APEX Turbulence. The disadvantage of PhysX is, of course, that it demands more resources. Switching from normal to high settings sinks the frame rate drastically.
Only the normal setting is available on AMD systems, and they (still) do a little worse at the moment. Their frame rates are middle-of-the-road, and their minimum results are lower than those of comparable Nvidia GPUs. As is to be expected, when PhysX is activated, their drop in performance is greater as well. The difference between the three PhysX settings is clear in our videos. Starting around the second half, we see marked improvements.
As is true of any good PC game, the options menu reveals a wide variety of possible settings. Alongside resolution and picture mode, you'll also find 10 further items that can either be turned on/off or set to “Off”, “Normal” or “DX11 Enhanced”. Excellent: Except for PhysX, changes are adopted without need for a restart.
Benchmark
Arkham Origins offers a benchmark with a duration of about two minutes. It's currently only accessible via a somewhat indirect route: If you right-click on the game in Steam, open “Properties” and in “Set Launch Options” input “benchmark”, after the annoying intro videos, the system runs an automatic test that calculates and displays the minimum, maximum and average frame rates. According to Nvidia, the benchmark should eventually be directly accessible from the options menu. Such a patch would certainly make the benchmarking process more comfortable.
Results
Depending on which PhysX option you select, the game's hardware demands fall somewhere between steep and reasonably moderate. Since, as previously mentioned, the highest option is unavailable on AMD systems, we only used the standard PhysX for our Ultra setting. Even so, for 1920x1080 pixels, 4x MSAA and the DX11 Enhanced setting, gamers will need a potent high-end model. The GeForce GTX 675MX is the first card to render the game at these settings with more than 40 fps.
However, anyone who can make do with 1366x768 pixels, 2x MSAA and deactivated PhysX can play the game with just an upper-middle class card (starting with the GT 750M). For normal details and 1366x768 pixels, you'll need at least a GeForce GT 630M or higher. Intel chips, like the HD Graphics 4000 or 4600, are generally only capable of rendering the game fluidly at minimum settings. With the HD Graphics 3000, Arkham jerks no matter what.
The clean GPU ranking indicates that the game demands very little of the processor at the lowest settings.
| Batman: Arkham Origins | |
| 1920x1080 DX11 Enhanced / On (PhysX Normal) AA:4x MS 1366x768 DX11 Enhanced / On (PhysX Off) AA:2x MS 1366x768 Normal / On (PhysX Off) 1024x768 All Off | |
| HD Graphics 3000, 2630QM | |
| HD Graphics 4000, 3610QM | |
| HD Graphics 4600, 4702MQ | |
| GeForce GT 630M, 2630QM | |
| Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ, Intel SSD 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B3 | |
| GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ | |
| GeForce GTX 660M, 3610QM | |
| GeForce GTX 670MX, 3610QM | |
| GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ | |
| GeForce GTX 675MX, 3610QM | |
| Radeon HD 7970M, 3610QM | |
| GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ | |
| Radeon HD 8970M, 4700MQ | |
| GeForce GTX 680M, 3610QM | |
| GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ | |
| GeForce GTX 660 Ti, 3770K | |
| Radeon R9 280X, 3770K | |
Verdict
Whether the content of the new Batman title is appealing is more a matter of individual preference, but we can definitively say that graphics-wise, the developers have done a good job. With PhysX activated, the game's atmosphere becomes even more enchanting than it already is at normal settings. If you have the necessary hardware, Arkham Origins is definitely worth a closer look.
Test Systems
Our four main test devices are courtesy of Schenker Technologies (mysn.de):
- W503 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 765M, GTX 770M, GTX 780M, Radeon HD 8970M & HD Graphics 4600)
- M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M & HD Graphics 4600)
- XMG P502 (Core i7-3610QM, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 660M, GTX 670MX, GTX 675MX, GTX 680M, Radeon HD 7970M & HD Graphics 4000)
- Xesia M501 (Core i7-2630QM, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 630M & HD Graphics 3000)
A further thank you goes to Micron for providing the 480 GB Crucial M500, on which Windows 7 Professional 64-bit is installed.
GPU drivers used: Nvidia 331.65, AMD 13.11 Beta 7, Intel 9.18.10.3257 and 9.17.10.3223
Overview
