F1 2014 Benchmarked

Technical stagnation. You snooze, you lose: This saying goes perfectly with the Formula 1 simulation from Codemasters. Even in 2014, users crazy for motor sports have to accept second-rate graphics. Learn here what this means for performance.

Florian Glaser (translated by Martina Osztovits), Published 10/24/2014 🇩🇪

For the original German article, see here.

Technology

Instead of raising technology to the level of Dirt or GRID, the developer uses the graphics of the predecessor. You'll look for optical changes and improved performance in vain. The latter is not necessary since F1 does not have high hardware requirements, anyway. A simple update of the database (current season) for just under 50 Euros (~$63) will displease some buyers. However, we already know this approach from other sport games (e.g. FIFA).

While the cars still look nice, the environment of the route is highly disappointing in F1 2014. Despite spectators, it looks very dull and lifeless. Some parts look like a ghost town. Is there high-end "3D grass"? No. Is there busy bustle beside the pit lane? No. But, the sound is quite convincing and you can get kind of a Formula One feel. However, the atmosphere of the race simulation is not fantastic. While F1 2014 looks quite nice at a first glance, squishy textures, a low number of polygons and low detail level are striking at a closer look. Lighting and other effects are also no longer "up-to-date."

Alike previously, Codemasters scores points with a comprehensive graphics menu with five presets, several anti-aliasing modes and 10 details options. Warning: Although the settings are changed on-the-fly, a restart is required for these to take effect. This problem has already been known for several years.

Speaking about problems: The Radeon HD 8970M aka R9 M290X could not run the 2014 version. While the .exe file was executed according to the task manager, it did not bring a picture (we assume that this is caused by the Enduro graphics switch). In addition, it is incomprehensible for PC purists that the tutorials only display controller buttons, but no keyboard commands. At least, F1 2014 only requires just 5 GB of hard drive space. Other games from 2014 (The Evil Within, Shadow of Mordor, etc.) need above 30 GB or even 40 GB.

Benchmark

Users can run the integrated benchmark from the options menu. It is completely identical with the one from the 2013 version and so displays very similar results. Small performance differences of some percent between runs are caused by the varying sequence. Since it is a rather fast game, which requires fast reflexes, we recommend a frame rate of at least 40 fps.

Results

As already mentioned above, the results are very similar to the predecessor's. Even low-end GPUs with a performance like the HD Graphics 4600 do not have problems with 1366x768 pixels and normal details. A cheap multimedia notebook is sufficient for the high preset and 1920x1080 pixels. For example, the GeForce GT 740M achieved just under 50 fps in the benchmark. Ultra settings and 4x MSAA require slightly more performance, but the GeForce GT 750M is (almost) sufficient. Fortunately, only owners of very weak or extremely old notebooks have to live with low graphics settings.

Speaking of low details: The processor is the main limiting factor (becomes apparent in the GPU comparison) with low settings. We can only hope that Codemasters will widely improve the technology with the next generation in 2015.

F1 2014
1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:4x MS 1920x1080 High Preset 1366x768 Medium Preset 1024x768 Ultra Low Preset
GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 3770K Desktop-PC	118 (89^min) fps ∼98% 127 (94^min) fps ∼95% 131 (100^min) fps ∼98% 133 (128^min) fps ∼99%
GeForce GTX 760, 3770K Desktop-PC	111 (85^min) fps ∼93% 128 (95^min) fps ∼96% 131 (101^min) fps ∼98% 132 (127^min) fps ∼98%
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K Desktop-PC	105 (76^min) fps ∼88% 123 (82^min) fps ∼92% 127 (91^min) fps ∼95% 132 (125^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	102 (74^min) fps ∼85% 120 (84^min) fps ∼90% 127 (93^min) fps ∼95% 132 (128^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GTX 750 Ti, 3770K Desktop-PC	98 (81^min) fps ∼82% 125 (91^min) fps ∼94% 130 (103^min) fps ∼98% 133 (128^min) fps ∼99%
GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	98 (75^min) fps ∼82% 121 (85^min) fps ∼91% 124 (88^min) fps ∼93% 132 (129^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	96 (69^min) fps ∼80% 119 (90^min) fps ∼89% 121 (87^min) fps ∼91% 132 (129^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	86 (71^min) fps ∼72% 119 (84^min) fps ∼89% 122 (88^min) fps ∼92% 132 (127^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	83 (69^min) fps ∼69% 118 (84^min) fps ∼89% 126 (91^min) fps ∼95% 133 (127^min) fps ∼99%
GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M Schenker M504	71 (58^min) fps ∼59% 96 (71^min) fps ∼72% 114 (82^min) fps ∼86% 132 (121^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	67 (55^min) fps ∼56% 111 (82^min) fps ∼83% 126 (90^min) fps ∼95% 132 (128^min) fps ∼98%
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	39 (32^min) fps ∼33% 67 (56^min) fps ∼50% 104 (73^min) fps ∼78% 130 (112^min) fps ∼96%
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	28 (22^min) fps ∼23% 47 (36^min) fps ∼35% 81 (63^min) fps ∼61% 115 (99^min) fps ∼85%
Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ, Intel SSD 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B3 SCHENKER S413	23 (20^min) fps ∼19% 43 (27^min) fps ∼32% 55 (35^min) fps ∼41% 80 (54^min) fps ∼59%
GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 MSI CX61-i572M	20 (0^min) fps ∼17% 38 (0^min) fps ∼29% 66 (0^min) fps ∼50% 55 (0^min) fps ∼41%
GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM, Seagate Momentus 7200.5 ST9750420AS Asus N56VM	15 (13^min) fps ∼13% 30 (24^min) fps ∼23% 54 (40^min) fps ∼41% 83 (71^min) fps ∼61%
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W503	13 (12^min) fps ∼11% 28 (24^min) fps ∼21% 54 (36^min) fps ∼41% 81 (56^min) fps ∼60%
Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU Pumori Test Platform (A10-5750M)	18 (14^min) fps ∼15% 29 (21^min) fps ∼22% 40 (28^min) fps ∼30% 62 (42^min) fps ∼46%
HD Graphics 4000, 3720QM Asus N56VM	12 (12^min) fps ∼10% 18 (12^min) fps ∼14% 33 (16^min) fps ∼25% 55 (26^min) fps ∼41%

Test Systems

Four of our test devices stem 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)

All these notebooks used Windows 7 64-bit. Many thanks to Micron for the 480 GB Crucial M500.

Another test device was provided by Nvidia:

HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)

Used GPU drivers: Nvidia 344.11, AMD 14.9, Intel 10.18.10.3907

In addition, we used benchmarks from other notebooks possibly with different drivers.

Overview

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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.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Archive of our own reviews > F1 2014 Benchmarked

Florian Glaser, 2014-10-24 (Update: 2021-05-18)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > F1 2014 (2014)
Pos	Model	low 1024x768 Ultra Low Preset	med. 1366x768 Medium Preset	high 1920x1080 High Preset	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra Preset 4x MSAA
163	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M SLI	118	118	117.5ⁿ²	110ⁿ²
164	AMD Radeon R9 Fury				113
166	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	133	130	127	116
177	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)			117	104
180	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI	118	118	118ⁿ²	111.5ⁿ²
196	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	133	131	127	118
207	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	118	118	118	118
230	AMD Radeon R9 290X	117	117	118	113
232	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M SLI			115	90
237	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M	118.5ⁿ²	118ⁿ²	118ⁿ⁵	110ⁿ⁵
239	NVIDIA Quadro M5000M	121	121	122	120
243	AMD Radeon R9 280X	132	127	123	105
245	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	117	118	118	114
253	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M	114ⁿ²	116ⁿ³	111.5ⁿ⁸	95.5ⁿ⁸
266	AMD Radeon R9 M295X	119	100	86	70
268	NVIDIA Quadro M3000M	122	122	122	120
271	AMD FirePro W7170M	132	111	95	74
275	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M	132	127	120	102
286	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	132	131	128	111
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >F1 2014
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
287	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M	132	121	119	96
288	NVIDIA Quadro K5100M	120	119	119	108
293	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M	118ⁿ²	116.5ⁿ²	109ⁿ²	93ⁿ²
297	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M	132	124	121	98
318	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	118.5ⁿ²	110ⁿ⁴	108ⁿ⁷	87ⁿ⁷
319	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	133	130	125	98
342	NVIDIA Quadro K4100M	133	133	133	92
343	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M	132	122	119	86
348	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M	133	120ⁿ²	111ⁿ³	83ⁿ³
356	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	116.5ⁿ⁴	99ⁿ⁶	87ⁿ⁷	69ⁿ⁷
363	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M	132ⁿ³	113ⁿ³	96ⁿ³	67ⁿ³
364	NVIDIA Quadro M1000M	133	128	123	84
367	AMD Radeon R9 M280X	58	47	43	34
374	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M	132	126	111	67
400	NVIDIA Quadro K3100M	120	119	108	60
402	AMD Radeon R9 M370X	119	113	84	50
409	NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book	117	94	76	49
442	NVIDIA GeForce 845M			62	48
445	AMD Radeon R9 M265X			64	37
455	NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M	130	104	67	39
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >F1 2014
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
458	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	99	85	48	29
460	NVIDIA Quadro K1100M	119	101	55	35
462	NVIDIA GeForce 940M	101ⁿ²	77ⁿ²	51ⁿ²	29ⁿ²
490	NVIDIA GeForce 840M	102.5ⁿ²	78.5ⁿ²	58.5ⁿ²	33.5ⁿ²
491	AMD Radeon R7 M275DX	64	48	37	30
496	Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200	80	55	43	23
505	NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M	115	81	47	28
507	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	90	73.5ⁿ²	52ⁿ²	32ⁿ²
514	NVIDIA GeForce 830M	107ⁿ²	80ⁿ²	53.5ⁿ²	33ⁿ²
517	NVIDIA GeForce 920MX	96	79	46	25
540	AMD Radeon R7 M260X	70	49	31	23
549	AMD Radeon R7 M270	93ⁿ²	62ⁿ²	36ⁿ²	23ⁿ²
550	AMD Radeon R7 M265	33	27	23	17
554*	AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)	62	41	31
557	AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)	42ⁿ²	33.5ⁿ²	29.5ⁿ²	17ⁿ²
558	AMD Radeon R8 M365DX	39	31	26	20
559*	AMD Radeon R7 M460	100	75	44	25
562	AMD Radeon R7 M360	49	36	27	19
564	NVIDIA GeForce 920M	86ⁿ²	69ⁿ²	40ⁿ²	23.5ⁿ²
567	AMD Radeon R8 M445DX	59	42	39	24
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >F1 2014
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
575	AMD Radeon R7 M260	64ⁿ²	28ⁿ³	26.5ⁿ²	16.5ⁿ²
576	AMD Radeon R7 M340	105	72	41	24
581	AMD Radeon R6 M340DX	55	37	33	18
588	Intel HD Graphics 630	101	70	42	23
594	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	54	34
595	Intel UHD Graphics 620	65	45	34	19
596	Intel HD Graphics 620	60	39	31	16
597	AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)	43	33	25	15
631	Intel HD Graphics 5600	74	49	25	15
637	AMD Radeon HD 8670M	56	37	31	19
638	AMD Radeon R6 M255DX	37	29	22	15
657	AMD Radeon HD 8650G	62	40	29	18
662	NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M	83	54	30	15
665	AMD Radeon R5 M335	83	56	31	12.5
666	AMD Radeon R5 M330	72	40	20	16
667	AMD Radeon R5 M430	75	52
668	AMD Radeon R5 M255	64	42	30	20
671	NVIDIA GeForce 910M	41	32	24	16
672	NVIDIA GeForce 820M	92.5ⁿ²	64.5ⁿ²	38	21
673	Intel HD Graphics 520	54.5ⁿ²	41ⁿ²	24ⁿ²	14.25ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >F1 2014
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
674	Intel Iris Graphics 6100	59ⁿ²	37.5ⁿ²	25ⁿ²	16ⁿ²
676	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	55	66	38	20
678	AMD Radeon R5 M240	48ⁿ²	34ⁿ²	25
680	AMD Radeon R5 M230	77	52	29	16
684	AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)	39	30
690	Intel HD Graphics 6000	55	37	21	13
693	Intel Iris Graphics 5100	44.5ⁿ²	29.5ⁿ²	18ⁿ²	14
697	Intel HD Graphics 4600	61.5ⁿ²	42ⁿ²	23.5ⁿ²	12.5ⁿ²
699	Intel HD Graphics 5500	47ⁿ⁷	32ⁿ⁷	22ⁿ⁷	13ⁿ⁷
730	Intel HD Graphics 615	55	34
731	AMD Radeon R5 (Kaveri)	34	25
738	Intel HD Graphics 5000	51	35	20	13
772	Intel HD Graphics 515	41ⁿ²	27.5ⁿ²	16ⁿ²	12.5
774	Intel HD Graphics 610	61	42
775	Intel HD Graphics 4400	44.5ⁿ²	28.5ⁿ²	18
776*	AMD Radeon HD 8610G	33	23	16
777	Intel HD Graphics 510	72	47
808	Intel UHD Graphics 605	31	20	13
809	Intel HD Graphics 505	28	14
810	Intel HD Graphics 5300	34ⁿ³	20ⁿ³	13ⁿ³	12
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >F1 2014
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra
819	Intel HD Graphics 4000	46.5ⁿ²	28ⁿ²	17ⁿ²	12.25ⁿ²
823	AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)	30	26
825	AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)	34	25	19
826	AMD Radeon R4 (Beema)	35.5ⁿ²	26ⁿ²	19	12
828	AMD Radeon R3 (Mullins/Beema)	33	24	17
829	AMD Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge)	28	18
830	Intel HD Graphics (Broadwell)	34	24
831	Intel HD Graphics 4200	16	12	12
862	AMD Radeon HD 8350G	31	22	17	12
863	AMD Radeon HD 8330	28	20
865	Intel HD Graphics 500	22	16
885	Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)	28	17
886	Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)	13ⁿ²	12.25ⁿ²
887	Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell)	27	16
900	Intel HD Graphics (Haswell)	31	20
926	AMD Radeon R2 (Mullins/Beema/Carrizo-L)	37	26
940	Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)	16	12
1011	Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)	13ⁿ²	12

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.