Dragon's Dogma 2 review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks
Test systems
We currently carry out our gaming benchmarks with these devices. Clicking on the photos will take you to the respective manufacturer's website. More details on their specifications are listed at the end of the article.
Tech
While Dragon's Dogma 2 has largely received high to very high ratings from the press, the verdict from gamers is rather inconsistent, resulting in Steam currently only giving it an average rating of "Mixed". We can understand the criticism, as there are still a few problems with the game—especially technical ones. One of the most frequently criticized points is its performance (especially in cities).
But before we take a look at the game's hardware requirements, here are a few words about its tech. Dragon's Dogma 2 is based on Capcom's own RE Engine, which was also used for the Resident Evil 4 remake that also ran sub-optimally at launch. The similarities can be seen in its graphics menu in particular, which strongly resembles Resi 4—with all its strengths and weaknesses. The controls only appear to be designed for PCs/mouse and keyboard operation to a limited extent.
A positive aspect is how many settings options you get to play about with. Although there are only two presets (High and Low), the graphics menu gives you dozens of detail settings that aren't only explained via text descriptions—they also feature comparison images at times. Adding to this are modern features such as upscaling (DLSS & FSR) and ray tracing. The package is completed by a handy VRAM display. According to this, Dragon's Dogma 2 consumes or requires around 6.6 GB in Full HD/High, around 6.8 GB in QHD/High and almost 7.4 GB in UHD/High, which is quite steep—but no longer a rarity these days. All changes are applied without needing to restart the game.
Visually, we would describe Dragon's Dogma 2 as looking solid to good. In relation to how hardware-hungry it is, however, you would come to expect better visuals by now—or rather better performance. The relatively chic and atmospheric panoramas are offset by rather clumsy animations and regular pathfinding problems or errors in collision detection. Nevertheless, the game's combat system is fun. The developers could do with working on its loading times a little. Compiling shaders when first launching the game can take quite a long time, especially on weaker systems. The game also isn't terribly stable as of yet. We were faced with several crashes during our test.
Benchmark
The settlement, which is reached shortly after the start of the game or tutorial, serves as our benchmark location. We used the CapFrameX tool to record a 20-second run along a fixed route. In contrast to cities, where there were strange drops in performance at times, our sequence remained relatively constant and didn't produce any major anomalies. However, it is also evident that Dragon's Dogma 2 can be quite CPU-heavy (at least with very powerful GPUs), meaning that the processor is limited in places.
Results
FHD (1,920 x 1,080)
Users of iGPUs will not be happy with Dragon's Dogma 2. While the Radeon 780M crashed reproducibly despite having the latest driver installed, the Intel Arc 8 was not even fast enough for 1,280 x 720 pixels and minimum settings (just under 20fps). For Full HD displays, you should pick a dedicated mid-range graphics card. Then even maximum settings run smoothly in some cases (e.g. with the GeForce RTX 4050).
Dragon's Dogma 2 | |
1920x1080 Low Preset 1920x1080 High Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS | |
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H | |
Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU, Ultra 7 155H | |
AMD Radeon 780M, R9 7940HS |
QHD (2,560 x 1,440)
On QHD monitors, you don't need a high-end model either—as long as you're not in cities. Mid-range models such as a Radeon RX 7600S or a GeForce RTX 4060 are well equipped for a combination of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and the High preset.
Dragon's Dogma 2 | |
2560x1440 High Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS | |
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H |
UHD (3,840 x 2,160)
It only gets really demanding in the 4K range. A combination of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels and the High preset requires a GeForce RTX 4080 or faster. Including upscaling, the requirements are not quite as high. With DLSS or FSR Quality activated, you can get started with a GeForce RTX 4070 with the aforementioned settings (while also using ray tracing).
Dragon's Dogma 2 | |
3840x2160 High Preset 3840x2160 High Preset + Quality DLSS + RT 3840x2160 High Preset + Quality FSR + RT | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS | |
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H |
Overview
Test system details
Laptop | Graphics card | Processor | RAM |
---|---|---|---|
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @150 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X) | Intel Core i9-13900H | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 @175 W TGP (12 GB GDDR6X) | Intel Core i9-13950HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
XMG Pro 15 E23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i9-13900HX | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 2 x 8 GB DDR5 |
Medion Erazer Scout E20 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 @100 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-13700H | 2 x 8 GB DDR5 |
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16 | AMD Radeon RX 7600S (8 GB GDDR6) & AMD Radeon 780M | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 2 x 8 GB DDR5 |
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14 | Intel Arc 8 | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | 2 x 16 GB DDR5 |
Tower PC | Graphics card | Processor | RAM |
---|---|---|---|
Asus ROG Strix Z790-F | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB GDDR6X) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB GDDR6) |
Intel Core i9-13900K | 2 x 24 GB DDR5 G.Skill |
4K monitor | Operating system | Nvidia driver | AMD driver | Intel driver |
---|---|---|---|---|
Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 | Windows 11 | 551.86 | 24.3.1 | 101.5379 |