Dota 2 Reborn: Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

MOBA Heavyweight. With up to one million players online at any given time, Dota 2 is far and away the most popular game on Valve's Steam platform. This highly competitive game and eSport has come a long way since its origins as a mod for Blizzard's Warcraft III, and now runs as a stand-alone, free-to-play game on Valve's Source 2 Engine. The Source 2 Engine is well-optimized and very scalable, but has a reputation for being more CPU than GPU dependent. Do the resolutions and graphics options have a large impact on performance? What CPU and GPU you need for your notebook to keep framerates steady during even the most hectic late-game battles is the subject of this article.

Douglas Black, Published 03/01/2017 🇹🇷 🇸🇪 ...

Graphics

Dota 2 has come a long way since its initial 2003 release as a mod for Blizzard's Warcraft III. The low-poly models, simple textures, and basic effects of Defense of the Ancients have understandably transformed over the years, most markedly in the move to a Valve-backed Source engine game—and then again as it was ported to Valve's Source 2 engine a few years later. The once sparse and simple battlefield of the Dire and Radiant has become a fully flushed-out world complete with weather effects, day and night cycles, and lushly detailed terrain and wildlife unique to each side of the battlefield.

Dota 2 officially moved to the Source 2 engine in the latter half of 2015 after an extensive period of beta testing. The Source 2 engine is not only only prettier than the original Source, adding better textures, particle effects, and a unified lighting system, but it is better optimized as well: Valve added support for DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, and improved multithreading. The changes are meant to make the already extremely scalable engine even more so, improving performance both on low-end notebooks with the settings down and high-end enthusiast desktop systems with all the bells and whistles. Because of the improved multithreading support, Dota 2 should make full use of all available CPU cores and threads, meaning we should expect to see the CPU have a greater impact on performance than more GPU-intensive games.

The benchmarks collected are from a variety of CPU and GPU combinations which cover high, middle, and low-end systems. To account for the full measure of scalability possible with the Source 2 engine, the range of systems include a desktop with an i7 4790K and Geforce GTX 1080 on the high end while the low end extends all the way down to a Cherry Trail Atom Z8300 with integrated graphics. A variety of resolutions and detail presets were used, ranging from 720p and minimum detail to 2160p on ultra.

The i7 4790K desktop was tested with multiple cards, including both Nvidia (GTX 1080, 980 Ti, 1050 Ti, and 1050) and AMD (Radeon R9 Fury, RX 480, R9 290X, and R9 280X). Although Dota 2 and the Source 2 engine have a reputation for being CPU-bound, that did not seem to be the case for our tower with the 4790K. The difference was most pronounced at 2160p (4k) resolution and ultra details, where the Nvidia GTX 1080 soundly trounced the last generation (but still high-end) R9 Fury with 26% higher FPS on average. Switching to a GTX 1050 (2GB) yielded a 63% decrease in average FPS. At 1080p/ultra, however, even the 2GB GTX 1050 performed on par with the GTX 1080. For the desktop, it seems that a cutting-edge graphics card like the GTX 1080 is only able to prove its worth and differentiate itself from low-end cards at the highest possible resolutions and detail levels.

This is not to say at all that the CPU is more important than the GPU for Dota 2. On the contrary, the array of notebook benchmarks ranging from the 6820HQ and 7700HQ down to Core M and Atom processors reveal the extent to which a dedicated GPU is necessary to play Dota 2 at smooth framerates at 1080p. Even the beefy 7700HQ fails to delivery playable framerates above 768p and medium settings with the HD630 integrated graphics. Thus, if you want to play at 1080p and high detail, at least a GTX 965M or 1050 are recommended for the best performance.

If you are stuck on a laptop with integrated graphics, your best bet will be to lower the resolution and effects as much as possible to stop the GPU from bottlenecking your system. However, you will need a system with a relatively powerful (quad-core) CPU in order to high framerates even then.

As mentioned earlier, Valve gives the user a lot of control over most aspects of the visuals, offering options regarding screen ratio, exclusive/bordered/windowed mode, and rendering options for additional effects such as ambient occlusion, fog, normal mapping, VSync, anti-aliasing, and texture/shadow quality. Aside from sheer resolution, the rendering options will provide the most flexibility for performance and appearance tweaking. Each setting can be tweaked on its own, but Valve offers four presets on a slider from "Fastest" to "Best Looking":

The first preset, "Fastest", turns off every effect in the game. Texture, particle, and shadow quality are all set to low, and the render quality is set to 56%, causing everything in the game to appear pixelated and blurry. It isn't pretty, but if you are playing on integrated graphics you will probably need to use either this setting or the next.

The second preset enabled animated portraits, additive light passes, world lighting, fog, and tree wind, making the environments much less sparse and lifeless. Texture and effects quality are bumped up to medium, and shadow quality to high. The render quality is set to 74%, resulting in a significantly clearer (though still not sharp) image of the battlefield.

The third preset adds ambient occlusion, normal maps, cloth simulation, grass, anti-aliasing, specular, specular and light blooms, and a higher quality HUD. Textures, effects, and shadows are all set to high now, while the game render quality is finally set to maximum fidelity at 100%.

The fourth and best looking preset enables high quality water, ground parallax, and ambient creatures. The only settings which remain off by default are "Ultra" quality shadows and VSync (which may be up to the taste of the player).

Dota 2 is a game with deep level of configurability that matches its hero pool and skill ceiling. The game takes days to get familiar with, months to learn the strategies, and a lifetime (if ever) to master. Its focus on ranked competitive play and tournaments (such as the multi-million dollar The International) mean that it is highly configurable to account for player preferences. Nearly everything from hotkeys, camera style, default behaviors, and mouse interactions are configurable. While the loading times used to be the biggest issue when starting matches, the optimization of the Source 2 engine has greatly ameliorated this problem.

Few games offer the excitement, depth, and graphical fidelity that Dota 2 offers with its 5 v 5 competitive online multiplayer.

Benchmark

A timedemo from a competitive match was used to benchmark the game and measure average and minimum FPS with different graphical presets. Firstly, if you don't have Dota, then you can download it over Steam for free with a Steam account (which is also free). While Dota 2 is technically "free-to-play" as opposed to plain old free, it is probably the best example of a game where the mechanics and balance are completely untouched by the monetary system.

The timedemo is downloaded and then copied to the SteamApps\common\dota 2 beta\game\dota directory. Using the command line, navigate to your SteamApps\common\dota 2 beta\game\win\win64 directory using the cd <dir> command. Ensure Steam is running in the background, then run dota2.exe with the argument -steam +timedemo 1971360796 +timedemo_start 50000 +timedemo_end 51000 +fps_max 0 -novconsole -autoconfig_level 3 -high -w 3840 -h 2160 -fullscreen (for example, if your Steam library is in your D: drive, the full command would be:

"D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\game\bin\win64\dota2.exe" -steam +timedemo 1971360796 +timedemo_start 50000 +timedemo_end 51000 +fps_max 0 -novconsole -autoconfig_level 3 -high -w 3840 -h 2160 -fullscreen

The "level 3" in the argument refers to the highest detail setting, whereas the -w and -h arguments set the desired resolution. To run the benchmark with a different preset, change the level to 0 and the resolution to your preference. The benchmark will run for roughly a minute, then stop. The results will be saved to your game\dota directory.

To see your results, navigate to your dota 2 beta\game\dota directory and locate the Source2Bench.csv file. Open the file (see second screenshot below) and note the average FPS (in the third column) and FPS variability in the 4th column. Note the Engine as well if DirectX 11 is not used (e.g. OpenGL or Vulkan).

Results

If you have a laptop that has either only integrated graphics (HD 520) or a weak, older graphics card (Nvidia 630M), you don't have to give up on your dream of becoming the next champion of The International tournament just yet. Even without a strong CPU or GPU, Dota 2 can run at fair speeds as long as the resolution is turned down and the details are reduced. Even an Intel Core M-powered tablet with HD 515 graphics can run Dota 2 at an average of 50 FPS once the resolution and effects are reduced. The first and most effective step is dropping to 720 or 768p resolution to avoid being bottlenecked by the poor fill-rate of old and integrated GPUs. If this isn't enough, turn off all of the graphical options or set them to "low". Then, toggle each one on and off and see if you find the performance hit worth the graphical fidelity. "Game Screen Render Quality" is the first thing to increase, as it makes the game much clearer visually and the heroes more distinctive. After that, turn on animated portraits and basic lighting effects. These changes alone make the game world look much better than on the lowest settings while still minimizing the load on your CPU and GPU.

An expensive, bleeding-edge system is not at all needed to run Dota 2. As long as you have a quad-core CPU (such as the i7-6700HQ), a last-gen and low-end card such as the 940MX will allow you to run the game at 1080p and medium details while maintaining a fluid 60 FPS or above. If you want to run Dota 2 at 4k resolution with the highest settings and not drop below the all-important 60 FPS in the heat of battle, though, a strong CPU and at least a GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB VRAM) are a must: the GTX 1050 Ti with i7-4790K in our desktop just squeaked by with an average of 63 FPS (58 FPS minimum) at 4k resolution and max settings.

Verdict: Dota 2 runs on almost every system, but it is difficult to maintain a smooth framerate on a dual-core system with integrated GPU—even with more powerful Intel Iris Graphics, such as those on the 2016 MacBook Pro. For the best combination of smoothness and visual fidelity, you will want preferably a quad-core CPU and at least a 940MX to enjoy smooth, detailed gameplay at 1080p with medium settings. A quad-core CPU with more powerful GPU, such as a GTX 965M or better, will be needed if you want to turn on all the graphical effects. Finally, if you want to push the resolution all the way up to 4k, at least a GTX 1050 Ti or GTX 1060 are recommended.

Other systems (Intel, AMD, etc.) will be added in the near future.

Dota 2 Reborn
3840x2160 ultra (3/3) best looking 1920x1080 ultra (3/3) best looking 1920x1080 high (2/3) 1920x1080 med (1/3) 1366x768 med (1/3) 1280x720 min (0/3) fastest
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 4790K Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti Desktop PC	132 (114^min) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), 4790K MSI Gaming X GeForce GTX 1080 Desktop PC	129 (110^min) fps ∼50% 141 (123^min) fps ∼53% 142 (121^min) fps ∼49% 147 (126^min) fps ∼100% 149 (128^min) fps ∼50% 177 (154^min) fps ∼55%
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro	102 (90^min) fps ∼40% 130 (111^min) fps ∼49%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), 4790K AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB Reference	88 (82^min) fps ∼34%
AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop), 4790K MSI RX 470 Gaming X 4GB	86 (81^min) fps ∼33%
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC	84 (80^min) fps ∼33% 136 (119^min) fps ∼51%
AMD Radeon R9 280X, 4790K Asus Z97 Deluxe Desktop i7-4790K, R9 280X	68 (64^min) fps ∼26% 137 (121^min) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop), 4790K MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti	63 (58^min) fps ∼24%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop), 4790K Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB	47.4 (44^min) fps ∼18% 139 (123^min) fps ∼52% 112 (95.3^min) fps ∼42% 156 (144^min) fps ∼54% 124 (108.7^min) fps ∼43% 136 (118.4^min) fps ∼45% 148 (129.9^min) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	44.1 (36^min) fps ∼17% 77.3 (65^min) fps ∼29% 84 (71^min) fps ∼29% 93 (79^min) fps ∼31% 99 (84^min) fps ∼31%
AMD Radeon Pro 455, 6820HQ Apple MacBook Pro 15 2016 (2.7 GHz, 455)	22.8 (21^min) fps ∼9% 61.5 (58^min) fps ∼23% 67.2 (63^min) fps ∼23%
Intel HD Graphics 530, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	7.2 (1.8^min) fps ∼3% 19.9 (18^min) fps ∼7% 23.2 (21^min) fps ∼8% 42.9 (38^min) fps ∼29% 50.8 (45.1^min) fps ∼17% 75.6 (65^min) fps ∼23%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ Asus Strix GL753VD-GC045T	117 (97^min) fps ∼44% 126 (106^min) fps ∼44% 143 (123^min) fps ∼48% 154 (121^min) fps ∼48%
AMD Radeon Pro 450, 6700HQ Apple MacBook Pro 15 2016 (2.6 GHz, 450)	67.2 (60^min) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ MSI GP62 2QD	45.1 (42^min) fps ∼17% 48.9 (45^min) fps ∼17% 60 (58^min) fps ∼20%
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ MSI CX72 6QD	45 (42^min) fps ∼17% 48.4 (45^min) fps ∼17% 92 (78^min) fps ∼63% 95 (78^min) fps ∼32% 101 (85^min) fps ∼31%
Intel Iris Graphics 540, 6360U Apple MacBook Pro 13 2016	34.6 (31^min) fps ∼13% 39.5 (33^min) fps ∼14% 29.2 (26^min) fps ∼10% 68.5 (57^min) fps ∼23% 46.9 (40^min) fps ∼16% 85 (71^min) fps ∼26% 59.8 (49^min) fps ∼19%
Intel Iris Graphics 550, 6267U Apple MacBook Pro 13 2016 (2.9 GHz)	33.6 (30^min) fps ∼13% 40.3 (36^min) fps ∼14%
AMD Radeon R9 M280X, FX-7600P Asus N551ZU-CN007H	31.3 (27^min) fps ∼12% 36.4 (31^min) fps ∼13% 40.3 (34^min) fps ∼13% 51.3 (42^min) fps ∼16%
AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS	26.2 (24^min) fps ∼10% 29.1 (27^min) fps ∼10% 63.5 (53^min) fps ∼21% 86.3 (71^min) fps ∼27%
Intel HD Graphics 615, i5-7Y54 Acer Swift 7 SF713-51	25.1 fps ∼9% 27.4 fps ∼9% 52.7 fps ∼18% 59.1 fps ∼18%
Intel HD Graphics 620, i7-7500U Dell XPS 13 9360 QHD+ i7	24.2 (21^min) fps ∼9% 27 (24^min) fps ∼9% 50.7 (44^min) fps ∼17% 59.6 (55^min) fps ∼18%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M, 2637M Acer Aspire M3-581TG	24.1 (23^min) fps ∼9% 25.4 (23^min) fps ∼9% 49.7 (43^min) fps ∼17% 57 (50^min) fps ∼18%
Intel HD Graphics 520, 6500U Asus Zenbook UX330UA-FC059T	22.4 fps ∼8% 25.8 fps ∼9% 48.3 fps ∼16%
Intel HD Graphics 630, i7-7700HQ Asus Strix GL753VD-GC045T	22.2 (20^min) fps ∼8% 26.1 (24^min) fps ∼9% 69 (58^min) fps ∼23% 120 (96^min) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM Asus N56VM	21.5 (20^min) fps ∼8% 23.3 (21^min) fps ∼8% 73 (61^min) fps ∼24% 116 (96^min) fps ∼36%
AMD Radeon R7 M440, A12-9700P Acer Aspire E15 E5-553G-15FM	21 (18^min) fps ∼8% 22.5 (20^min) fps ∼8% 49.5 (38^min) fps ∼15%
AMD Radeon R8 M445DX, A12-9700P Acer Aspire E15 E5-553G-15FM	20.6 (17^min) fps ∼8% 23 (20^min) fps ∼8% 51 (40^min) fps ∼16%
AMD Radeon R5 M430, i5-7200U Lenovo Yoga 510-14IKB	19.1 fps ∼7% 20.6 fps ∼7% 50.6 fps ∼17% 74 fps ∼23%
AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge), A12-9700P Acer Aspire E15 E5-553G-15FM	13.9 (11^min) fps ∼5% 16 (14^min) fps ∼6% 47.9 (38^min) fps ∼15%
Intel HD Graphics 515, 6Y30 Cube i9	8.1 (7.1^min) fps ∼3% 9.4 (8.7^min) fps ∼3% 27.2 (22^min) fps ∼19% 30 fps ∼10% 25.4 (21.5^min) fps ∼8% 48 (42.2^min) fps ∼15%
Intel HD Graphics 4000, 3720QM Asus N56VM	16.9 (14^min) fps ∼6% 40.2 (36^min) fps ∼13% 96 (81^min) fps ∼30%
Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail), Z8300 Chuwi Hi12	7.2 (6^min) fps ∼2% 15.2 (13^min) fps ∼5% 20 (18^min) fps ∼6%
AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri), FX-7600P Asus N551ZU-CN007H	28.6 (25^min) fps ∼10% 39 (33^min) fps ∼12%
Intel HD Graphics 3000, 2637M Acer Aspire M3-581TG	19.4 (17^min) fps ∼6% 50.9 (42^min) fps ∼16%

Dota 2 Reborn
1920x1080 ultra (3/3) best looking
AMD Radeon R9 280X Asus Z97 Deluxe Desktop i7-4790K, R9 280X, 4790K	137 (121^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 290X Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC, 4790K	136 (119^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 Fury XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro, 4790K	130 (111^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M MSI GE72 965M Ti, 6700HQ	77.3 (65^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M MSI PE60 2QD, 6700HQ	66.7 (59.5^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce 940M MSI GP62 2QD, 5700HQ	45.1 (42^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX MSI CX72 6QD, 6700HQ	45 (42^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 M280X Asus N551ZU-CN007H, FX-7600P	31.3 (27^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce 920M MSI CX61 2QC 2970M MS-16GD, 2970M	25.3 (23^min) fps
3840x2160 ultra (3/3) best looking
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti Desktop PC, 4790K	132 (114^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 Fury XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro, 4790K	102 (90^min) fps
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop) AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB Reference, 4790K	88 (82^min) fps
AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop) MSI RX 470 Gaming X 4GB, 4790K	86 (81^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 290X Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC, 4790K	84 (80^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 280X Asus Z97 Deluxe Desktop i7-4790K, R9 280X, 4790K	68 (64^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M MSI GE72 965M Ti, 6700HQ	44.1 (36^min) fps

Overview

Test Systems

Desktop-PCs	Platform I	Platform II
Mainboard	Asus Z170-A	Asus Z97-Deluxe
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell)
Graphics Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (4 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
Memory	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)
OS	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)
Graphics Card	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 Device	Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB)	Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1.000 GB)	Intel SSD
OS	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

MSI Notebooks	MSI GT62VR	MSI GE72	MSI PE60	MSI GP62	MSI CX61	MSI CX61
Mainboard	Intel HM170	Intel HM170	Intel HM170	Intel HM86	Intel HM86	Intel HM86
Processor	Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-5700HQ (Broadwell)	Intel Celeron 2970M (Haswell)	Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell)
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5)	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	4 x 8 GB DDR4-2133	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 Device	Samsung NVMe MZVPV128 SSD (128 GB)	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)
OS	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Asus Notebooks	Asus G752VS	Asus N551ZU
Mainboard	Intel CM236	AMD K15.1
Processor	Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake)	AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri)
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5)	AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5)
RAM	4 x 16 GB DDR4-2400	2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600
Storage Device	Toshiba NVMe THNSN5512GPU7 SSD (512 GB)	Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB)
OS	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit

4K Monitor	Nvidia Driver	AMD Driver	Intel Driver
2 x Asus PB287Q	ForceWare 376.33	Crimson 16.12.2	15.40.28.4501

Read all 4 comments / answer

Loading Comments

Comment on this article

Douglas Black - Tech Writer - 351 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016

Douglas Black is a Technical Writer at Pole Star Defense, executive editor at UltrabookReview, and former Senior Editor at Notebookcheck.net.

contact me via: LinkedIn

Please share our article, every link counts!

> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Dota 2 Reborn: Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

Douglas Black, 2017-03- 1 (Update: 2022-01-21)

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.

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Dota 2 Reborn (2015)
Pos	Model	low 1280x720 min (0/3) fastest	med. 1366x768 med (1/3)	high 1920x1080 high (2/3)	ultra 1920x1080 ultra (3/3) best looking	4K 3840x2160 ultra (3/3) best looking
12	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU	229ⁿ³⁵	206ⁿ³⁵	194.95ⁿ³⁶	182.4ⁿ³⁶	176.68ⁿ²²
20	AMD Radeon RX 7900M			162.8	146.2	122.5
22	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU	214ⁿ¹⁶	191.6ⁿ¹⁷	177.35ⁿ¹⁸	164.95ⁿ¹⁸	144.6ⁿ¹¹
36	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU	177.8ⁿ⁴³	165.5ⁿ⁴³	157.2ⁿ⁴⁵	150.8ⁿ⁴⁵	130.4ⁿ¹⁹
37	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU	189.5ⁿ³⁹	168.3ⁿ⁴⁰	161.1ⁿ⁴³	149.9ⁿ⁴³	131.5ⁿ²⁰
44	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU	159.5ⁿ⁴⁴	143.5ⁿ⁴⁴	134.5ⁿ⁴⁴	128ⁿ⁴⁴	110.5ⁿ¹⁶
49	AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT	141ⁿ²	113.7ⁿ²	113.1ⁿ²	94.6ⁿ²	77.5
50	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU	168.4ⁿ³⁷	153.6ⁿ³⁷	146.05ⁿ³⁸	138ⁿ³⁸	127.8ⁿ⁵
53	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU	180.45ⁿ³⁰	165.2ⁿ³⁰	156.25ⁿ³²	144.55ⁿ³²	125.3ⁿ¹¹
57	AMD Radeon RX 6800M	146.1	126.2	125.5	114.8	95.2
61	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Mobile	173.5ⁿ⁴	158.5ⁿ⁴	153ⁿ⁴	141ⁿ⁴	140.5ⁿ²
62	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU	153.5ⁿ⁵⁸	139.7ⁿ⁵⁸	131ⁿ⁵⁹	120ⁿ⁵⁸	108.05ⁿ¹²
63*	NVIDIA RTX A4000 Laptop GPU
64	AMD Radeon RX 6800S	149ⁿ³	128.4	128ⁿ³	107ⁿ³
65*	AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT	175.6ⁿ⁵	152.8ⁿ⁵	137.8ⁿ⁵	119.5ⁿ⁵	91.4ⁿ⁵
68*	AMD Radeon RX 7700S	174	159.8	156.5	136.8	85.3
69*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q
71*	Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU
72*	Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dota 2 Reborn
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
73	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile	145.2ⁿ³	135.5ⁿ³	130.5ⁿ³	124.6ⁿ³	119
74	AMD Radeon RX 6700M		130	123	112
81*	Apple M3 Max 30-Core GPU
86*	AMD Radeon RX 7600M
87*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Max-Q
88*	Apple M2 Max 30-Core GPU
89	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU	152ⁿ⁴⁹	142ⁿ⁴⁹	131ⁿ⁴⁹	124ⁿ⁴⁹	94.9ⁿ¹¹
90*	Apple M1 Max 32-Core GPU
91	AMD Radeon RX 7600S	157.5	137.25ⁿ²	122.35ⁿ²	115.8ⁿ²
92	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Mobile	155.5ⁿ⁴	139ⁿ⁴	130ⁿ⁴	124ⁿ⁴
94	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q	146.8ⁿ⁶	134.9ⁿ⁶	123.6ⁿ⁶	117.85ⁿ⁶	102
96*	Apple M1 Max 24-Core GPU
99*	Intel Arc A770M
101*	AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT
102*	Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU
103*	Apple M2 Pro 19-Core GPU
105	AMD Radeon RX 6650M	141	130.7	118	100