EA Sports WRC in review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Technically average. In association with EA, the British firm Codemasters, known for the F1, Dirt, and Grit series among others, has released a brand-new racing game. We reviewed the WRC hardware specifications in further detail.

Florian Glaser (translated by Carmen Pol), Published 11/21/2023 🇩🇪 🇸🇪 ...

Test systems

Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16 (RX 7600S & 780M)

be quiet! Silent Base 802 (RTX 4080 & RX 7900 XT)

Philips Evnia 8000 Series 41,5" UHD OLED gaming monitor

We have been running gaming benchmarks on these devices. Clicking on the images will take you to the company's website. More information about the requirements may be found at the end of the article.

Tech

EA Sports WRC is based on the Unreal Engine 4, which has always delivered decent to very good graphic results. In the case of WRC, however, the developers do not fully exploit the potential. While adjacent things are extremely clear and crisp, distant objects, even on the highest settings, are somewhat muddy, if they are presented at all, and do not "pop" into the screen, which regrettably happens quite frequently.

We would even characterize WRC as ugly at low or minimal settings. Below high details, the title appears rather small (the image also tends to flicker a lot owing to lesser edge smoothing). In addition, regardless of the hardware installed, we frequently had to deal with ugly intermediate jerks and low minimum FPS during the test, which further reduced the enjoyment of driving.

Codemasters deserve credit for their successful vehicles. Aside from the overall driving style, the engine sound, the level of realism, and the destruction model are all remarkable.
Furthermore, the title offers a lush density of vegetation (at least at close range), varied regions and tracks, and some nice effects (dust etc.). Racing wheel support is also included in WRC and for example the Thrustmaster T248 was instantly recognized and worked without changing any settings.

The graphics menu scarcely has anything to be unhappy about. The Advanced tab offers nearly 20 quality and detail options, which can be conveniently adjusted in one go via preset and do not require a restart. The Basic tab handles resolution, picture mode, anti-aliasing, VSync, anisotropic filtering, and optional upscaling (FSR and DLSS are supported). Another useful feature is that all options are described, although the creators have omitted comparative images. Apart from a solitary, non-reproducible crash, WRC ran stable. The Steam version we tested required around 85 GB on the hard disk (approximately 72 GB download).

Benchmark

Because the WRC lacks an integrated benchmark, we used a time trial in Croatia for the speed measurements, specifically on the Bliznec track in dry circumstances using the Puma Rally1 Hybrid (see video). The frame rate is captured using the CapFrameX tool from the beginning until the first time measurement, which takes around a minute. 40 FPS is sufficient for proper gaming; 60 FPS or above is optimal.

Results

FHD (1,920 x 1,080)

Despite iGPUS's moderate graphics appetite, the title often overpowers it. When using a combination of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and the Low preset, even AMD's Radeon 780M only achieves about 30 frames per second (the Ultra Low preset, on the other hand, runs at a consistently high 70 frames per second). However, you are well positioned in Full HD with a pretty modern mid-range GPU. Here, the GeForce RTX 4050 and the Radeon RX 7600S both surpass 60 frames per second at high detail.

EA Sports WRC
1920x1080 Low Preset AA:Low AF:16x 1920x1080 Medium Preset AA:Medium AF:16x 1920x1080 High Preset AA:High AF:16x 1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:Epic AF:16x
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	179.5 (53.6^min, 123.2^P0.1, 148.2^P1) fps ∼100% 170.1 (51.6^min, 106.6^P0.1, 140.5^P1) fps ∼100% 153 (53.9^min, 85.3^P0.1, 126.4^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 17 E23	124.4 (19.3^min, 21.3^P0.1, 95.7^P1) fps ∼69% 117.2 (17.7^min, 20.7^P0.1, 88.6^P1) fps ∼69% 105.4 (6.67^min, 21.8^P0.1, 81.2^P1) fps ∼69%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	115.1 (27.9^min, 36.1^P0.1, 72.4^P1) fps ∼64% 107.3 (33.3^min, 41.3^P0.1, 69.1^P1) fps ∼63% 97.8 (29.5^min, 37.1^P0.1, 68.5^P1) fps ∼64%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733ZX	107.8 (6.76^min, 34.2^P0.1, 69.8^P1) fps ∼60% 101 (22.6^min, 37.8^P0.1, 63.7^P1) fps ∼59% 91.6 (11^min, 36.3^P0.1, 60.9^P1) fps ∼60%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	104.4 (38.8^min, 71.3^P0.1, 82.7^P1) fps ∼58% 97.9 (14.3^min, 56.6^P0.1, 78.1^P1) fps ∼58% 90 (6.75^min, 42.1^P0.1, 71.8^P1) fps ∼59%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	94.9 (9.52^min, 37.4^P0.1, 70.6^P1) fps ∼53% 89.6 (25.2^min, 38.6^P0.1, 66.7^P1) fps ∼53% 81.2 (22.7^min, 42.3^P0.1, 61.1^P1) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	91.5 (24.1^min, 41.3^P0.1, 70.3^P1) fps ∼51% 85.7 (26.1^min, 39.8^P0.1, 62.5^P1) fps ∼50% 78.4 (21.9^min, 39.1^P0.1, 58.5^P1) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	79 (35.8^min, 58.7^P0.1, 65.9^P1) fps ∼44% 72.9 (20.6^min, 51.5^P0.1, 60^P1) fps ∼43% 67.3 (41.9^min, 49.4^P0.1, 55.9^P1) fps ∼44%
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16	80.4 (15.1^min, 50.5^P0.1, 63.2^P1) fps ∼45% 73.7 (32.2^min, 46.2^P0.1, 58.9^P1) fps ∼43% 66.6 (5.87^min, 37.1^P0.1, 55^P1) fps ∼44%
AMD Radeon 780M, R9 7940HS Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16	30.6 (9.13^min, 11.6^P0.1, 18.1^P1) fps ∼100% 20.8 (5.42^min, 10.8^P0.1, 17.1^P1) fps ∼12% 18.5 (7.01^min, 10^P0.1, 15.5^P1) fps ∼11% 17.3 (11.4^min, 13.2^P0.1, 14.9^P1) fps ∼11%

QHD (2,560 x 1,440)

A quick mid-range model is also enough for QHD. The aforementioned RX 7600S or RTX 4050 gets better than 40 FPS with 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and the Ultra setting.

EA Sports WRC
2560x1440 Ultra Preset AA:Epic AF:16x
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	149.4 (49.4^min, 94.9^P0.1, 121.8^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 17 E23	103 (13.4^min, 21.3^P0.1, 76.4^P1) fps ∼69%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	94.3 (9.64^min, 31.9^P0.1, 61^P1) fps ∼63%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	87.9 (38^min, 58.2^P0.1, 71.2^P1) fps ∼59%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733ZX	72.9 (4.49^min, 27.7^P0.1, 49.6^P1) fps ∼49%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	68.8 (13.6^min, 30.9^P0.1, 54.1^P1) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	59.6 (20.4^min, 30.1^P0.1, 45.8^P1) fps ∼40%
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16	48.2 (13^min, 27.4^P0.1, 40.4^P1) fps ∼32%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	42.9 (8.54^min, 20.3^P0.1, 36.4^P1) fps ∼29%

UHD (3,840 x 2,160)

It only gets demanding in the 4K range. While a GeForce RTX 4060 is sufficient for full details with quality DLSS, a genuine high-end or top model (GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or better) is required without DLSS.

EA Sports WRC
3840x2160 Ultra Preset AA:Epic AF:16x 3840x2160 Ultra Preset + Quality DLSS AA:Epic AF:16x
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	89.1 (37.7^min, 49.4^P0.1, 75.3^P1) fps ∼100% 128.9 (21.8^min, 84.4^P0.1, 107.4^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	81.6 (7.6^min, 36.1^P0.1, 63.3^P1) fps ∼92%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 17 E23	67.9 (10.1^min, 17.7^P0.1, 39.2^P1) fps ∼76% 95.8 (7.58^min, 20^P0.1, 71.3^P1) fps ∼74%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	57.3 (19.1^min, 25.4^P0.1, 43.9^P1) fps ∼64% 81.2 (25.9^min, 38.2^P0.1, 56.6^P1) fps ∼63%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733ZX	42.9 (21.9^min, 25.4^P0.1, 35.5^P1) fps ∼48% 61.5 (22.9^min, 29.1^P0.1, 49.6^P1) fps ∼48%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	37.7 (5.06^min, 19.8^P0.1, 31^P1) fps ∼42% 56.2 (19.5^min, 30^P0.1, 46.5^P1) fps ∼44%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	32.6 (3.47^min, 6.88^P0.1, 26.3^P1) fps ∼37% 49.3 (7.23^min, 25.8^P0.1, 38.6^P1) fps ∼38%
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16	26.6 (8.35^min, 10.8^P0.1, 22.8^P1) fps ∼30%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	22 (7.87^min, 17.6^P0.1, 19.1^P1) fps ∼25% 38.2 (23.7^min, 29.2^P0.1, 32.9^P1) fps ∼30%

Overview

Test system details

Notebook	Graphics card	Processor	Memory
XMG Neo 17 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @175 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	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 ROG Strix Scar 17	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti @150 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-12900H	2 x 16 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

Tower-PC	Graphics card	Processor	Memory
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
Philips Evnia 42M2N8900	Windows 11	ForceWare 546.17	Adrenalin 23.11.1

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 615 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.

Translator: Carmen Pol - Translator - 115 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2023

Having spent the greater part of my early years in Germany facilitated my upbringing as a bilingual kid. In 2007, I found myself having to reinstall my Windows weekly ... So, one day I bought a MacBook Black. It was during this period that I developed a profound appreciation for technology, which significantly improved my life.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > EA Sports WRC in review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2023-11-21 (Update: 2024-01- 6)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > EA Sports WRC (2023)
Pos	Model	low 1920x1080 Low Preset 16xAF LowAA	med. 1920x1080 Medium Preset 16xAF MediumAA	high 1920x1080 High Preset 16xAF HighAA	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra Preset 16xAF EpicAA	QHD 2560x1440 Ultra Preset 16xAF EpicAA	4K 3840x2160 Ultra Preset 16xAF EpicAA	3840x2160 Ultra Preset + Quality DLSS 16xAF EpicAA
2	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	239.5ⁿ²	158.95ⁿ²	148.05ⁿ²	143.65ⁿ²	139.55ⁿ²	120.85ⁿ²	131.4ⁿ²
3	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	322	209	195.5	188.9	179.2	106.8
4	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super	300ⁿ²	204.5ⁿ²	191.35ⁿ²	184.55ⁿ²	158.4ⁿ²	90.85ⁿ²	131.7ⁿ²
5	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080		179.5	170.1	153	149.4	89.1	128.9
8	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT		104.4	97.9	90	87.9	81.6
11	AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT	272	178.9	162.9	158.9	128.2	76.7
12	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU		124.4	126.2ⁿ²	110.25ⁿ²	100.45ⁿ²	67.9	95.8
14	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	234.5ⁿ²	169.25ⁿ²	158.2ⁿ²	147.75ⁿ²	114.8ⁿ²	67.65ⁿ²	96.9ⁿ²
22	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU		115.1	107.3	97.8	94.3	57.3	81.2
24	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		167.8	154.5	143.1	107.3	61.4
30	AMD Radeon RX 6800	240	150.9	138.4	123.4	95.6	55.7
31	AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT	240	155.8	140.4	125.5	92.8	51.8
32	NVIDIA Titan RTX	175.3	133.1	122.3	111.5	83.3	49.5	70.6
33	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	191.4	146.5	134.9	126.3	93.8	52.2	77.5
36	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU		107.8	101	91.6	72.9	42.9	61.5
37	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU		92.75ⁿ²	87.3ⁿ²	79.15ⁿ²	64.2ⁿ²	37.7	56.2
40	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070		137.4	126.8	118.3	84.5	48.6
41	AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT	209	129.4	115.8	103.4	78.1	45.4
43	AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	192.8	123	110.2	98.2	74.1	42.5
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >EA Sports WRC
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
44	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU	125.1	95	87.6	80.35ⁿ²	65.1ⁿ²	37.55ⁿ²	50
45	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	164.2	122.3	113.4	105.2	75.5	41.7	62.2
46	Intel Arc A770	107.1	77.7	70.1	65.9	52.7	33.2
48	AMD Radeon RX 7600	158.8	107.4	95.8	86.1	61.2	33.8
53	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU		91.5	85.7	78.4	59.6	32.6	49.3
58	AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT	169	109.6	96.4	89	64	35.6
62	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU	130.8	98.1	90.7	83.4	63.2	35.5	52.5
65*	AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT	140.7	95.6	85.4	76.9	54.9	30
66	Intel Arc A750	98.4	72.3	66	61	49	30.3
76	NVIDIA Titan X Pascal	118	85.4	78.6	71.7	53.7	31.8
80	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (Desktop)	134.4	100.8	93.3	85.5	62.2	34.9	50.8
84	AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (Desktop)	138	89.4	80.1	72.6	52.7	30.1
91	AMD Radeon RX 7600S		80.4	73.7	66.6	48.2	26.6
97	Intel Arc A580	91.7	65.7	60.3	55.5	42.8	26.7
98	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (Desktop)	122.3	89.6	81.4	73	53.6	29.7	44
100	AMD Radeon RX 6600	133.7	90.1	79.6	71.7	51	27.6
104	AMD Radeon RX 5700 (Desktop)	123.5	79.3	72.4	65.6	47.7	26.9
134	AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (Desktop)	113.9	71.8	64.6	58.3	43.4	22
142	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop)	82	59.6	55.4	50.6	35.7	11.1
143	AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT	80.3	58.3	17.8	15.6	8.9
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >EA Sports WRC
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
144	AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (Desktop)	79	50	44.9	40.9	29.6	16.6
145	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU		75.1ⁿ²	69.75ⁿ²	64.15ⁿ²	42.9	22	38.2
148*	Intel Arc A730M	65.9	48.8	42.9	40.2	27.8
152	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile	77.9	56.8	51.8	46.9
158	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (Desktop)	76.1	55	50.8	47.1	27.8	12.9
161	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super (Desktop)	71.3	55.3	31.4	27.4	10.7
167	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Laptop GPU	65.7	51.8	34.4	30
187	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile	51.6	42.5	31.8	26.7
198	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile	33.8	27	20.4	14.9
202	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile	50.5	40.8	26.4	17.8
203	Intel Arc A380	41.2	30.2	27.5	25.2
222*	Intel Arc A310	34.3	27.3	18.6	16.8
223*	Intel Arc 8-Cores iGPU	35.8	26.6	24.7	22.4
225*	Intel Arc 7-Cores iGPU	28.6	21	19.2	17.9
241*	AMD Radeon 780M	36.5ⁿ²	24.9ⁿ²	22ⁿ²	20.6ⁿ²	16
317	NVIDIA GeForce MX350	10.1
334	NVIDIA GeForce MX250	10.6
381*	Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU)	12.4
420*	Intel UHD Graphics Xe 32EUs (Tiger Lake-H)	11.1
431*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)	14.2
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >EA Sports WRC
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
587*	Intel UHD Graphics Xe 16EUs (Tiger Lake-H)	6.6
595	Intel UHD Graphics 620	5.46
668	AMD Radeon R5 M255	2.72
669*	AMD Radeon RX Vega 3	6.99

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.