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Diablo III Benchmarked

Welcome to Hell! After years of waiting it is finally available: Legendary developer Blizzard Entertainment has at last launched Diablo III, the long-awaited successor to one of the most popular action role-playing games of all time. We dug into the dark fantasy world and ran Diablo III on several notebook graphics cards. Can your notebook system make it through Hell alive?
Diablo III

The launch of Blizzard's latest action RPG clickfest was not optimal to say the least. Overloaded servers, error messages, connection loss, broken achievements.. those who pre-ordered or stood in line to purchase the game likely went through a Hell of their own as Blizzard scrambled to hotfix the game-breaking issues.

Still, user madness has calmed a bit now that Blizzard's servers have had a few days to settle down. Of course, this hasn't stopped us from benchmarking the game with a wide range of mobile GPUs - both discrete and integrated. Blizzard titles have historically relied more on creative artwork than beefy hardware to express their games and, in this article, we find out exactly how wide of a range of mobile GPUs Diablo III can reliably support. Let's begin!

Graphics

technologically old, but high artistic level
technologically old, but high artistic level

Assuming that you have logged in, you'll be greeted to a dark yet welcoming atmosphere reminiscent to its predecessor over 10 years ago. It's not a graphics horsepower to be sure, but its distinct feel and tone both highlight the dystopian setting perfectly.

What really makes the atmosphere pop aren't the number of polygons but rather the fine attention to details, impressive lighting and the encompassing art style. Unlike the graininess of Diablo II, Diablo III appears to be a mix of watercolor and comics with a pale but more colorful range. Blizzard could have easily made the game feel look like a WoW-clone with a top-down perspective, but have genuinely found an agreeable balance to perfectly capture the Hellish setting that is so unique to the Diablo Universe.

Benchmark

Our benchmark scene takes place in the old but familiar grounds of New Tristram as seen in the video below. The tested scene is as follows:

We directly teleport to the village market square from "The Old Ruins" where we then immediately activate FRAPS. We command our hero to follow a winding upward path and along the street. After hitting some bushes right outside of town, we turn and run back the same path to the start location of the test. The duration of the recorded scene is approximately 30 seconds long.

Settings

We utilized four different graphical settings to test each of our mobile GPUs. Our lowest settings, which should be suitable for office or entry-level notebooks, ran the game at only 1024x768 pixel resolution with everything either on Low or Off. The more standard setting of 1366x768 pixel resolution is more ideal for cheap, all-round notebooks. Multimedia or gaming notebooks will be able to play at 1080p on High or Ultra details right from the get go.

As usual, we deactivated VSync during our benchmarking tests.

Low Setting: 1024 x 768, Low / Off
Low Setting: 1024 x 768, Low / Off
Medium Setting: 1366 x 768, Medium / Low
Medium Setting: 1366 x 768, Medium / Low
High Setting: 1366 x 768, High, Anti-Aliasing on
High Setting: 1366 x 768, High, Anti-Aliasing on
Ultra Setting: 1920 x 1080, High, Anti-Aliasing on
Ultra Setting: 1920 x 1080, High, Anti-Aliasing on

It's practically a given that a Blizzard game can run on low-end hardware, but what really surprised us is the texture quality difference between the lowest and highest settings -- or should we say, the lack thereof. Unlike many other games, changing the graphics settings will actually not reduce or improve in-game textures by a significant amount. Unless if you are concentrated on looking for minute differences (which you probably shouldn't be doing considering the hordes of Evil trying to kill you), you will hardly recognize the texture quality discrepancies during the heat of battle.

Instead, altering the graphics settings will have a more profound effect on shadows and antialasing. In a game where lighting is key, the loss or reduction in shadow quality can quickly deteriorate the engaging atmosphere Diablo III has to offer. Jaggies can become apparent as well, which is especially unfortunate on characters and NPCs as they will consequently sport slanted edges and appear too polygonal for our tastes. In general though, Diablo III never looks bad regardless of the settings and has definitely surprised us in terms of visual fidelity on lower-end settings.

Low Setting
Low Setting
Medium Setting
Medium Setting
High / Ultra Setting
High / Ultra Setting
Low Setting
Low Setting
Medium Setting
Medium Setting
High / Ultra Setting
High / Ultra Setting

Results

If case if you haven't figured out the good news yet, your trip back to Hell isn't going to require luxury notebook hardware. If you have reserved settings and resolution demands, Diablo III can be played even on Intel's last generation HD Graphics 3000 in low details.

However, we still recommend using a discrete GPU to experience the Blizzard title at its fullest. A graphics card on par with the entry-mainstream GeForce GT 630M will be able to play on medium to high details without a problem. A typical upper mid-range mobile GPU like the GeForce GT 640M can run the game at maximum settings.

Note: Regardless of the computer you might experiences stuttering. The frame rate depends on game mode and number of opponents and our test scenario is not very demanding.

Benchmark table Diablo III
Benchmark table Diablo III

Test Systems

Many thanks to Schenker notebooks, who kindly provided us with the following laptops:

  • XMG P501 (Core i7-2630QM, GeForce GTX 560M, GTX 580M, Radeon HD 6970M & HD 6990M, 8 GB RAM)
  • XMG A501 (Core i7-2630QM, HD Graphics 3000 & GeForce GT 555M, 8 GB RAM)
  • Xesia M501 (Core i7-2630QM, GeForce GT 630M, 4 GB RAM)
Von links nach rechts: Schenker XMG A501, Xesia M501 & XMG P501
Von links nach rechts: Schenker XMG A501, Xesia M501 & XMG P501

Please find a list with further Diablo III benchmarks below.

Show Restrictions
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
 Diablo III (2012)
low
1024x768
Low / off
med.
1366x768
Medium / low
high
1366x768
High
on AA
ultra
1920x1080
High
on AA
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
258.9
228.5
225.9
229.4
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile
222.5
197.5
200.8
173
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile
139.5
123.7
122.9
103.3
AMD Radeon R9 290X
260
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
184
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile
228
196
190.5
165.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
316.9
284.7
269.2
225
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
216
200
200
188
AMD Radeon HD 7970
213
190.8
188.9
191.4
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q
228.2
202.6
202.1
170.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M
193
125
117
84
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
312.8
250.8
246.1
217.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M
232.1
199.8
206.3
186.1n2
AMD Radeon HD 7870
277.6
228.9
226.2
163.4
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
281.6
245.4
154.2
AMD Radeon RX 560X (Laptop)
150.2
133.5
130.8
105.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
178
116
103
75
AMD Radeon HD 8970M
244.8
206.5
182.7
115.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M
186.5
168.5
184.75n2
157.25n4
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
AMD Radeon HD 7970M
243.1
210.6
128.2
94.1n3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
292.8
224
201.9
121.3
NVIDIA GeForce MX150
159.75n2
141.45n2
130.25n2
85n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M
224.2
200.1
196
141.3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
307.9n2
221.65n2
189.1n2
105.25n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX
194.6
176
109.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
278.2
205.7
165.6
102.9
AMD Radeon 540X
122.4
107.4
95.9
61.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M
149
103
91
61
AMD Radeon HD 6870
280
227
201
127
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
241
174
110
80
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M
216.4
204.8n2
180.6n2
111.7n3
Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU)
127.6
101.5
81.9
50.5
AMD Radeon RX Vega 10
94.1
76.2
72.3
52.5
ATI Radeon HD 5850
248.3
181.6
121.2
91.4
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M
212.2
161.4
102.3
73.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
191.2
156.9
99.7
70.9
AMD Radeon HD 6990M
210.2
145
97.1
73
AMD Radeon HD 7770
212.9
155.1
129.6
86.3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M SLI
241.4
197
178.4
106.7
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
AMD Radeon R9 M370X
190.3
106.6
98.4
69.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX
236.3
165.4
144
89.5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M
168
152
94
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M
185
133
83n3
59n3
AMD Radeon HD 6970M
193.4
132.1
89.4
64.6
AMD Radeon HD 8870M
132.9
96.2
85.4
54.2
Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs
79.7
69.1
64.1
52.1
NVIDIA GeForce MX230
142.6
114.2
96.1
52.6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 7
126.9
111.3
100.4
72.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
179.7
99.9
109.7n3
67n3
AMD Radeon HD 8850M
111.6
77.15n2
67.4n2
43.75n2
AMD Radeon R9 M265X
95.1
81.4n2
50.9n2
AMD Radeon HD 8790M
97
70
61
37
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
145.4n2
113.2n2
102.6n2
66.6n2
NVIDIA GeForce MX130
148.3
101
95
59.8
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
125.6
86.6n2
75.1n2
46.15n2
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
104.9
87
77.7
47.2
NVIDIA GeForce 940M
155.4
106.2
89.1
53.8
Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4 (Ice Lake 48 EU)
118.3
89
78.3
44
NVIDIA GeForce 930MX
139.2
94.6
80
47.1
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
AMD Radeon R9 M375
108.9
74.5
58.3
37.9
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
164.3n7
105n7
86n9
58.1n9
NVIDIA GeForce 840M
62.05n2
36.05n2
31.45n2
17.7n2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M
156.25n2
111.45n2
94.95n2
58.95n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M
172.3
99.9
61.3
44.2
AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)
40.5
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
133.8
86.2
75
46
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
94.7n3
72n3
67.4n3
46.2n2
NVIDIA GeForce 930M
138.4
93.1
73.3
44.9
Intel Iris Graphics 550
132.7
106.7
96.1
61.5
AMD Radeon 530
85.7
61.7
53.4
AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
67.9
NVIDIA GeForce 830M
115.1n2
72.95n2
58.8n2
37.8n2
NVIDIA GeForce MX110
111.5
73.5
67.5
40.4
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
35.2
NVIDIA GeForce 920MX
122.8
79.3
64.7
39.1
Intel Iris Graphics 540
57
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
192
125
112
66
NVIDIA GeForce GT 735M
104.5
71.65n2
62.95n2
38.2
AMD Radeon R7 M260X
101.9
68
57.5
37.5
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M
132.2n3
91.4n3
83.45n4
49.41n3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M
139.7
91.8n2
81.25n2
49.8
AMD Radeon HD 8750M
83.2n4
57.7n4
49.4n4
30.8n3
AMD Radeon R7 M270
94.5
62.1
51
31.4
AMD Radeon R7 M265
84.75n2
55.15n2
46.75n2
29.53n2
AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)
70
54.6
45.5
41.3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
119n3
75.5n4
67.1n4
42.7n2
AMD Radeon R7 (Carrizo)
51.1
38.8
32.3
20.2
AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)
59.8
42.2
36.6
AMD Radeon R7 M460
92.2
60.5
50.7
29.9
AMD Radeon HD 7730M
51
44
27
AMD Radeon R7 M360
70
52.5
41.4
29.8
NVIDIA GeForce 920M
110.75n2
70.95n2
57.5n2
36.65n2
AMD Radeon HD 8690M
70.3
50.6
40.1
29.1
AMD Radeon R7 M440
58.7
52
45.7
27.8
AMD Radeon R7 M260
86.7
61.2
48.9
29.2
AMD Radeon R7 M340
92
67.4
54.4
33.5
AMD Radeon 520
65.9
41.5
33.7
21.6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
92.9
74.5
61.8
38.1
AMD Radeon RX Vega 5
125.3
108.4
92.3
58.3
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
Intel UHD Graphics G1 (Ice Lake 32 EU)
98.6
65.3
58
34.3
Intel UHD Graphics 630
93.3
59.9
56.6
31.5
Intel HD Graphics 630
77.3
54.6
46.3
27.7
Intel HD Graphics 530
106.7
71.7
60
35.3
AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)
50.7
36.6
32.9
23.6
Intel UHD Graphics 620
40
27.4
Intel HD Graphics 620
105.9
72.2
47.05n2
33.2n2
AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)
49.8
35.1
32.2
23.5
AMD Radeon HD 8670D
115
76
62
41
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE
98.6
65.3
57.7
42.5
AMD Radeon R6 (Kaveri)
54.8
37.1
31.4
20.7
AMD Radeon HD 8730M
78
56
51
NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M
98.9
65.5
57.6
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M
119.4
61.2
39.1
27.7
AMD Radeon HD 8670M
52
36
29
17
AMD Radeon HD 7660D
53
35
AMD Radeon HD 8650G
72.45n2
49.05n2
42.2n2
26.1
AMD Radeon HD 7670M
61.1
44.6
38.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M
92.5n14
66.25n16
46n17
23n12
AMD Radeon R5 M335
66.7
41.8
32.4
20.4
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
AMD Radeon R5 M330
70.3
44.4
35.1
AMD Radeon R5 M430
66.1
42.3
34.2
21.4
AMD Radeon R5 M255
64.3
51.6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3
97.1
51.6
45.2
26.8
NVIDIA GeForce 910M
52.8
48.6
45.5
30.6
NVIDIA GeForce 820M
95
66.7n2
55.9n2
33.9n2
Intel HD Graphics 520
81.2n2
52.85n2
43.3n2
25.75n2
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
73.8
54.6
44.8
29.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
99.1
69.7
56.7
31.8
AMD Radeon R5 M240
52
41
33
AMD Radeon R5 M230
64.55n2
40.05n2
29n2
16.85n2
AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)
59.6
41.8
33.6
Intel HD Graphics 6000
68
39
31
24
AMD Radeon HD 8550M
59.5
44.9
34.4
Intel Iris Graphics 5100
67.6
44.9
36.4
25.6
Intel HD Graphics 4600
72.9n5
46n5
38.8n5
24n5
Intel HD Graphics 5500
53.4n4
35.2n4
28.2n4
17.1n4
Qualcomm Adreno 630
10.3
Intel UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 32 EU)
44.6
32.6
21.4
14.9
Intel UHD Graphics 615
54.7
37.5
33.9
19.4
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
Intel HD Graphics 615
55.8
36.3
30.1
17.8
AMD Radeon R5 (Kaveri)
41.8
27.3
21.8
NVIDIA GeForce 710M
84.8
60.7
52.9
AMD Radeon HD 7660G
66.5n2
43n2
33.75n2
20
Intel HD Graphics 5000
58n3
40n2
31.5n2
19n3
AMD Radeon HD 7650M
76.3
51.1
43.2
AMD Radeon HD 7570M
56.45n6
34n4
28n3
23n3
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
79.7
52.9
44.5
27.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M
84.15n6
50.65n6
39.55n6
21.12
AMD Radeon HD 7610M
64
44
38
24
AMD Radeon HD 8470D
79
50
42
27
AMD Radeon HD 7640G
42.7
9.5
Intel HD Graphics 515
61.9
41.8
35.1
20.5
Intel UHD Graphics 610
38.9
26.2
Intel HD Graphics 610
39.4
25.8
22.4
Intel HD Graphics 4400
48n21
36.1n20
29.6n19
14n12
AMD Radeon HD 8610G
40.3
25.2
19.6
12.2
AMD Radeon HD 7550M
58.1
38.1
30.6
AMD Radeon HD 7600G
32.85n2
22n2
18.95n2
Intel UHD Graphics 605
28.8
21.1
18.6
12.5
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
Intel HD Graphics 505
30.1
19.6
17
Intel HD Graphics 5300
28.5n3
21.3n3
18n3
15.3n2
AMD Radeon HD 7480D
58
37
32
20
Intel HD Graphics 4000
46.35n44
26n42
21n41
13.6n14
AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)
44.8
31.9
27.7
AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)
44.7
30.1
23.1
14.2
AMD Radeon R4 (Beema)
39.9
26.2
21
13.6
AMD Radeon R4 (Kaveri)
29.1
19.6
15.8
10.8
AMD Radeon R3 (Mullins/Beema)
38.25n2
25.4n2
20.3n2
AMD Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge)
28.5
17.8
15.9
Intel HD Graphics (Broadwell)
38.4
24.9
19.7
Intel HD Graphics 4200
35.6n2
22.55n2
17.95n2
9.8
AMD Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5
70
45
37
23
AMD Radeon HD 7500G
40
27
21
AMD Radeon HD 8450G
38.9
30.6
24.7
AMD Radeon HD 8400
37.55n2
24.8n2
20.6n2
13.4
AMD Radeon HD 7520G
55.5
38.5
33.4
AMD Radeon HD 8330
33.2n3
22.4n3
19.2n3
12
Intel UHD Graphics 600
24.6
15.8
Intel HD Graphics 500
17.35n2
13.6
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
32
19.1
14.4
Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)
25.5
16.7
13.2
Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell)
18.3
AMD Radeon HD 7420G
40.85n2
25.2n2
17.2n2
Intel HD Graphics (Haswell)
36.9
23
19.5
AMD Radeon HD 7400G
34
23
19
Qualcomm Adreno 618
20.7
20
17.2
12
AMD Radeon R2 (Mullins/Beema/Carrizo-L)
22.5
AMD Radeon HD 8280
31.1
19.8
16
AMD Radeon HD 8240
28
18.6
AMD Radeon HD 8250
26.1
16.4
13.8
Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)
28.1n2
17.5n2
Intel HD Graphics 3000
31.3n9
17n8
10.7n8
11.65n2
NVIDIA GeForce G210M
38
25
21
13
AMD Radeon HD 8210
21.1n3
14n3
11.05n2
Intel HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge)
29.2
17.5
14.6
Intel HD Graphics 2000
24.1
Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge)
23.05n2
12.95n2
9.4n2
7.95n2
Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)
15.6n7
10.3n5
8.75n2
5.45n2
AMD Radeon HD 7340
29.2
19.8
PosModel< PrevNext >Diablo III
low med. high ultra
AMD Radeon HD 6320
22.8
AMD Radeon HD 8180
16.5n3
11.2
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) HD Graphics
20
12
10
PowerVR SGX545
3.25n2
(-) * Smaller values are better. / n123 Number of benchmarks for this median value / * Approximate position

 

Legend
5Stutters – 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.
30Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60Fluent – 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.
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Florian Glaser, 2012-05-19 (Update: 2021-05-18)