Dragon Age: Inquisition Benchmarked

Third Installment. The second game focused on action and provided gamers immense enjoyment. Now BioWare is making the move to reconsolidate its Dragon Age fans. Our article will focus on the performance of the Frostbite 3 Engine. Will every gamer be able to joy the world of Inquisition?

Florian Glaser, ✓ Stefanie Voigt (translated by Vinay Pradhan), Published 12/02/2014 🇩🇪

For the original German article, see here.

Engine

As mentioned before, BioWare uses the Frostbite 3 Engine made by DICE for Dragon Age: Inquisition. This engine has proven itself in the past in Battlefield 4 and offers a multitude of modern features, such as, tessellation and HBAO, which is nice to have. The textures, shadows and even the lighting of the game are impressive. Tessellation creates a very plastic object structure. The water, vegetation and level details are all good. Many rooms indoors are decorates extensively and the package is rounded off with well-animated, engrossing characters.

The biggest highlight of this game would be the quality of its effects. If one were to zoom in and pausing while fighting, one would notice the unusually high quality light beams, sparks and explosions. Few RPGs can claim to have such amazing effects. The well-designed story and beautiful world are sure to enrapture the gamer.

The variety of options available is impressive. Bioware has really given the gamer the freedom to tailor the game performance to meet their needs. The graphics option offers more than 10 options and four presets ("Low", "Medium", "High" and "Ultra") which automatically set all the menu options. At max, the game activates 2x MSAA which smooths the edges significantly.

Owners of AMD GPUs are happy about the Mantle support (DirectX @Nvidia). While Mantle improves performance at high settings minimally (+4 % @Radeon R9 280X, +8 % @Radeon R9 M290X), it ensures that AMD GPUs can sprint ahead of otherwise faster Nvidia GPUs at low or medium settings (see table). However, in our experience, this boost comes in exchange for longer load times.

Dragon Age refuses to start with Intel GPUs. Thankfully, there is an easy fix: right-click on the desktop and choose the "Graphics Settings". In the graphics options, pick the "3D" menu, and there change the CMAA option from "Deactivate" to "Overwrite program settings". Once finished, the game should run but the problem remains that the Intel chips are far too weak to run this game. Neither the HD Graphics 3000 nor the HD Graphics 4000 or 4600 could provide more than an average of 25 fps. Furthermore, changing the settings will require a restart and the game is known to freeze with some settings.

Benchmark

The recording software, Fraps, does not run with Mantle mode so we were forced to use the internal benchmark, which is far from optimal. The duration of the benchmark depends on the system performance and the test runs very high quality scenes, which are not part of the usual gameplay. All-in-all, a result of 25+ fps on this relatively hard internal benchmark means that the game will run well on the laptop, particularly as Inquisition will be played from the third person camera and not an Ego shooter one. Tip: the Mantle results vary by a few percent so we let the benchmark run 2-3x on our AMD chips and took the best score. The performance is very consistent in DirectX mode.

Results

Like many other engines (CryEngine 4, id Tech 5), the Frostbite 3 engine does scales little as settings are lowered. As such, even at minimum details, the game looks decent and should not overtax weaker laptops. For low settings, we recommend a middle-class graphics card: the GeForce GT 740M provides a good 35 fps with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels. A resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels and the "Medium" preset are much harder on the system and require a GeForce GT 750M and up to be on the safe side.

A powerful GPU is required for high details and the FHD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. A GeForce GTX 860M or GTX 770M can run the game with these settings at 25 fps. Max settings are only recommended for high-end GPUs, like the Radeon R9 M290X or the GeForce GTX 870M/780M. The CPU is hardly a factor in these cases as the GPU is often the deciding factor how well a game runs.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
1920x1080 Ultra Graphics Quality AA:2x MS 1920x1080 High Graphics Quality 1366x768 Medium Graphics Quality 1024x768 Low Graphics Quality
GeForce GTX 980, 3770K Desktop-PC	54.1 (43^min) fps ∼32% 72.6 (63^min) fps ∼42% 119 (98^min) fps ∼60% 126.8 (99^min) fps ∼46%
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K Desktop-PC	40.7 (37^min) fps ∼24% 64 (57^min) fps ∼37% 131.4 (105^min) fps ∼66% 141.6 (122^min) fps ∼51%
GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	31 (24^min) fps ∼18% 44.4 (38^min) fps ∼26% 99.3 (81^min) fps ∼50% 118.6 (87^min) fps ∼43%
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	28.3 (22^min) fps ∼17% 40.4 (34^min) fps ∼23% 91.1 (73^min) fps ∼46% 113 (84^min) fps ∼41%
Radeon R9 M290X, 4700MQ Schenker W504	27.6 (23^min) fps ∼16% 42.4 (39^min) fps ∼24% 94.7 (85^min) fps ∼48% 132.1 (114^min) fps ∼48%
GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	25.3 (20^min) fps ∼15% 37.2 (32^min) fps ∼21% 85.7 (68^min) fps ∼43% 110.3 (78^min) fps ∼40%
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	18.8 (14^min) fps ∼11% 27.8 (24^min) fps ∼16% 68 (55^min) fps ∼34% 93.9 (70^min) fps ∼34%
GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	18.3 (14^min) fps ∼11% 27.4 (23^min) fps ∼16% 67.3 (52^min) fps ∼34% 92.6 (70^min) fps ∼34%
GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M Schenker M504	16 (13^min) fps ∼9% 23.2 (21^min) fps ∼13% 58.1 (48^min) fps ∼29% 75.2 (56^min) fps ∼27%
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	14.3 (11^min) fps ∼8% 21.6 (18^min) fps ∼12% 54.5 (44^min) fps ∼27% 77.8 (60^min) fps ∼28%
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	8.5 (6^min) fps ∼5% 13.1 (11^min) fps ∼8% 34.6 (29^min) fps ∼17% 50.8 (40^min) fps ∼18%
Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS	8 (6^min) fps ∼5% 12 (11^min) fps ∼7% 31 (28^min) fps ∼16% 47 (41^min) fps ∼17%
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	5.5 (4^min) fps ∼3% 8.8 (7^min) fps ∼5% 23.2 (20^min) fps ∼12% 35 (29^min) fps ∼13%
GeForce GT 640M, 2637M, Lite-On LMT-256M3M Acer Aspire M3-581TG	26.5 (22.5^min) fps ∼13% 0 (0^min) fps ∼0%
GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 MSI CX61-i572M	6.8 (0^min) fps ∼4% 18.9 (0^min) fps ∼9% 29 (0^min) fps ∼11%
Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU Pumori Test Platform (A10-5750M)	16.6 (13.7^min) fps ∼8% 23.7 (18.6^min) fps ∼9%
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W503	3.8 (3^min) fps ∼2% 5.8 (5^min) fps ∼3% 14.5 (11^min) fps ∼7% 22.1 (17^min) fps ∼8%
GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM, Seagate Momentus 7200.5 ST9750420AS Asus N56VM	17 (14^min) fps ∼9% 26 (20^min) fps ∼9%
Iris Graphics 5100, 4258U, Apple SSD SM0256F Apple MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch 2013-10	3.5 (2^min) fps ∼2% 6.3 (5^min) fps ∼4% 17.3 (13^min) fps ∼9% 24.3 (19^min) fps ∼9%

Test Systems

Four of our test models come from Schenker Technologies (mysn.de):

W504 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 860M, GTX 870M, GTX 880M, Radeon R9 M290X)
W503 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 765M, GTX 770M, GTX 780M)
M504 (Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M)
M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M)

These notebooks have Windows 7 64 bit installed.

Nvidia provided a few test models as well:

HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)
MSI CX61-i572M281BW7 (Core i5-4200M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 720M)
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG (Core i7-2637M, 4GB DDR3, Geforce GT 640M)

Intel added one more:

Schenker S413 (Core i7-4750HQ, 8 GB DDR3, Iris Pro Graphics 5200)

The desktop PCs use CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, Intel and Samsung, Mainboards from Intel and Asus as well as graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD.

GPU drivers: Nvidia 344.75, AMD 14.11.2 Beta, Intel 10.18.10.3960

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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.

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> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > Reviews > Archive of our own reviews > Dragon Age: Inquisition Benchmarked

Florian Glaser, 2014-12- 2 (Update: 2021-05-18)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)
Pos	Model	low 1024x768 Low Graphics Quality	med. 1366x768 Medium Graphics Quality	high 1920x1080 High Graphics Quality	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra Graphics Quality 2x MSAA
57	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)				170
73	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)	275		161	0ⁿ²
90	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile			150	111
110	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)				0ⁿ²
115	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile			0ⁿ²	92.7
131	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti				100
138	AMD Radeon R9 Fury	158	144	91	60
139	AMD Radeon R9 Nano				68.6
140	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	126.8	119	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
150	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
152	AMD Radeon R9 390X	154.7	143.9	88.5	67.9
154	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)	212	199	96.5	66.9
158	AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)				0ⁿ²
159	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile			90	59.7
166	AMD Radeon RX 580 (Laptop)	163.5	102.6	81.3	54.1
178	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	175.3	171.4	79.5	0ⁿ²
205	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ⁷	0ⁿ⁷
209	AMD Radeon R9 280X	141.6	131.4	64	40.7
210	AMD Radeon R9 380	179.7	148.6	62.8	41.6
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
211	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	125.7	109.4	58.4	38.6
213	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile	88.6	82	54	38.5
214	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop)				39.9
220	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ⁵	0ⁿ⁶	0ⁿ⁶
224	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680	141	120	55.2	39.5
233	AMD Radeon R9 M295X	0ⁿ²	48.3	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
237	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile	136	105	44.3	29.7
240	AMD Radeon R7 370	161.9	123.7	45.3	29.1
242	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M	118.6	99.3	44.4	31
244	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950	154.4	127.5	47.6	31
251	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M	113	91.1	40.4	28.3
257	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³
259	AMD Radeon RX 560 (Laptop)	83.1	70	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
261	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M	110.3	85.7	37.2	25.3
262	AMD Radeon R9 M290X	132.1	94.7	42.4	27.6
272	AMD Radeon R9 M390	80.5	71.5	39.4	27.1
282	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ⁶	0ⁿ⁵	0ⁿ⁵
300	NVIDIA GeForce MX150	113.1	74.5	26.4	17.9
306	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M	93.9	68	27.8	18.8
311	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ⁴
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
319	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³
324	AMD Radeon R9 M385X	50.6	42	27.3	17.6
326	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
330	AMD Radeon R9 M280X	47.2	35.9	20.3	17.6
335	NVIDIA GeForce 945M	98.4	62	21.2	14
337	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M	77.8	54.5	21.6	14.3
401	NVIDIA GeForce 845M	31.5	27	19	12.7
404	AMD Radeon R9 M265X	65.9	29.8	19.9	16.8
414	NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M	50.8	34.6	13.1	8.5
416	NVIDIA GeForce MX130	64.8	51.4	16.6	11.7
417	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ²
420	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)	35.6	27.5	12.8
421	NVIDIA GeForce 940M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	14.3
423	NVIDIA GeForce 930MX	55.2	35.8	12.1	8.2
431	AMD Radeon R9 M375	36.3	34.7	21.4
438	AMD Radeon R7 M370	58.6	34.9	11.7	7.6
446	NVIDIA GeForce 840M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	11.8
451	AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)	47	31	12	8
452	Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
453	AMD Radeon R7 384 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)	45	30
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
461	NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M	35	23.2	8.8	5.5
463	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	20
465	AMD Radeon 530	48.2	31.1	9.3
470	NVIDIA GeForce 830M	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
473	NVIDIA GeForce 920MX	45.4	29.2	16.4
474	Intel Iris Graphics 540	52.3	35.2	11.6
496	AMD Radeon R7 M260X	30.4	19.8	6.8	4.5
505	AMD Radeon R7 M270	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
506	AMD Radeon R7 M265	42	28.7	10.7	7
510*	AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)	29.9	27.3	16.7
511	NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M		26.5
512	AMD Radeon R7 (Carrizo)	0ⁿ²	8.9	0ⁿ²
513	AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)	25.2	21.2	9.3	6
518	AMD Radeon R7 M360	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
520	NVIDIA GeForce 920M	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³
531	AMD Radeon R7 M260	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	7.7
532	AMD Radeon R7 M340	19.3	14.2	8.6	4.9
541	Intel UHD Graphics 630	41.8	28.7	9.8
544	Intel HD Graphics 630	40.1	25.5	8.7
547	Intel HD Graphics 530	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	4.4
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
550	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	25.7	18.2
551	Intel UHD Graphics 620	26.3	21.9
552	Intel HD Graphics 620	26.5	18.3	6.5
553	AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)	17.1	15.8
587	Intel HD Graphics 5600	32.1	20.3	7.2	4.2
613	AMD Radeon HD 8650G	23.7	16.6
618	NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M	26	17
621	AMD Radeon R5 M335	34.1	22.1	7.3	4.9
622	AMD Radeon R5 M330	27.1	15.9	13.2
623	AMD Radeon R5 M430	32.6	21.4
624	AMD Radeon R5 M255	17.8	13.3	5
625*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 3	35.7	21.9	6.7
627	NVIDIA GeForce 910M	28.2	20.1	7.2	4.4
628	NVIDIA GeForce 820M	27.4	12
629	Intel HD Graphics 520	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	4.5	2.1
630	Intel Iris Graphics 6100	28.3	19.3
632	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	29	18.9	6.8
634	AMD Radeon R5 M240	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
640	AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)	19.3	14.8
646	Intel HD Graphics 6000	20.9	16.8	6.1
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
649	Intel Iris Graphics 5100	24.3	17.3	6.3	3.5
653	Intel HD Graphics 4600	22.1	14.5	5.8	3.8
655	Intel HD Graphics 5500	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ³	0ⁿ²
681	Intel HD Graphics 615	17.6	12.2
689	Intel HD Graphics 5000	17.4	12	4.5	2.1
723	Intel HD Graphics 515	13.5	9.3
725	Intel HD Graphics 610	18.9	13
726	Intel HD Graphics 4400	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ⁴	0ⁿ²	1.4
759	Intel UHD Graphics 605	7.8	6.2
760	Intel HD Graphics 505	10.6	7.5
761	Intel HD Graphics 5300	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²	1.6
770	Intel HD Graphics 4000	18.5	11.7
774	AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)	15.1	10.9
776	AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)	15.9	12
777	AMD Radeon R4 (Beema)	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
779	AMD Radeon R3 (Mullins/Beema)	15.6	10.4
780	AMD Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge)	11.2	8.7
781	Intel HD Graphics (Broadwell)	13.9	9.4
782	Intel HD Graphics 4200	0ⁿ²	0ⁿ²
836	Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)	12.1	7.6
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
837	Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)	8.2	6.1
838	Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell)	5.4	2.9
851	Intel HD Graphics (Haswell)	10.9	7
891	Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)	9.5	5.7
962	Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)	7	4.6

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.