FIFA 15 Benchmarked
For the original German article, see here.
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Compared to its predecessor, Fifa 15 has significantly higher demands on the hardware. Of course that shouldn't be a surprise, since the new version uses the powerful Ignite Engine (Playstation 4, Xbox One) and not the older Impact Engine (Playstation 3, Xbox 360), which was already behind the times last year. Fifa 15 finally has spectators in the stands worth taking a look at, as the characters are a lot more life-like than they used to be. The players look better, too - not only as far as the sharpness of the textures is concerned, but also because of their realistic appearance: some of the virtual players now look strikingly similar to the human counterparts they are modeled after. We also can't find many faults with the lighting, the grass, the number of polygons in use, and the general atmosphere.
From a technical standpoint, the performance is quite decent, although there's still room for improvement. We especially liked the animations. Although the main competitor PES offers a slightly more realistic gaming experience, Fifa 15 is definitely stepping up to the first division this time around. The commentators are also convincing and describe the game play on the field nicely.
Unfortunately, the graphics menu only contains a handful of options. Aside from the resolution and the rendering quality (medium details are missing), the user can only adjust anti-aliasing. At least EA doesn't use FXAA, but the higher-quality MSAA for this purpose. The framerate can be reduced as well, which might decrease the notebook noise level in some cases. Should micro-stutters become an issue, Windows Aero can be turned off as well (see screenshots down below).
We didn't experience the ominous bug that has all players, including the goalkeepers, charge towards the ball (supposedly, this issue can be remedied by choosing a longer name for the PC). We did notice, however, that load times are significantly longer with Intel GPUs. If Fifa 15 runs suspiciously slow, graphics switching can be the culprit. In this, case, changing the preset in the Nvida driver to "high-performance processor" (the default is "auto-select") solves the issue and the game then starts with the GeForce GPU every single time.
Benchmark
We use the same benchmark process we followed when evaluating the predecessor: we use a kick-off game between FC Bayerna and Borussia Dortmund in the Allianz Arena. To be as fair as possible, we use identical options (6 min half time length, semi-professional difficulty, Fall, 3 PM, fair weather...). We start recording using the tool Fraps as soon as the referee blows the starting whistle. After exactly seven minutes of game time (that's not equivalent to "real" time), we stop the test.
The performance can drop by half or even 2/3 during replays (Fifa 14 had the same issue), so it's best if the frame rate is at least 50 or even better 60 fps from the start. We try to avoid replay situations altogether or at least shorten them with a mouse click should they occur. Because of the mediocre replay performance, the minimum fps can fluctuate as well. This is why some weaker graphics cards can at times seemingly outperform their more powerful siblings. The average frame rates vary slightly from pass to pass as well, but at least they are more consistent (+/-10 %).
Results
Unlike Fifa 14, which was very playable even with low-end GPUs at medium to high settings, Fifa 15 can push bargain notebooks to their limits. Case in point: the HD Graphics 4600 graphics card integrated into the current Intel processor generation. With a frame rate of about 52 fps at 1280 x 720 pixels and details on low, there is not much headroom for higher-end settings. Those who'd like to run Fifa 15 with the details set to high, a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, and 2x anti-aliasing, will have to make sure that they have a dedicated GPU from AMD or Nvidia (~62 fps @ GeForce GT 740M) at their disposal. Middle-class graphics cards like the GeForce GT 750M can handle a resolution of 1920 x 1080 Pixel and 4x MSAA. High-end GPUs are not going to be tasked much: a Geforce GTX 860M allowed us to play at frame rates of above 100 fps. Hopefully EA will continue to improve the engine for the next version.
Fifa 15 | |
3840x2160 High Preset 1920x1080 High Preset AA:4x MS 1366x768 High Preset AA:2x MS 1280x720 Low Preset | |
GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 3770K | |
Radeon R9 290X, 2600K, Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB MZ7PD256HAFV-0Z000 | |
GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ | |
GeForce GTX 760, 3770K | |
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ | |
GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ | |
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K | |
GeForce GTX 750 Ti, 3770K | |
GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ | |
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ | |
Radeon R9 M290X, 4700MQ | |
GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M | |
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ | |
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ | |
Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ, Intel SSD 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B3 | |
GeForce GT 640M, 2637M, Lite-On LMT-256M3M | |
Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU | |
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M | |
GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 | |
Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU | |
GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM, Seagate Momentus 7200.5 ST9750420AS | |
Iris Graphics 5100, 4258U, Apple SSD SM0256F | |
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ | |
HD Graphics 4000, 3720QM |
Review Systems
Four of our review notebooks are courtesy of Schenker Technologies:
- 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 feature 64-bit Windows 7. Thanks to Micron for supplying a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD.
One additional review notebook is from Nvidia:
- HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)
We used the following drivers for our tests: Nvidia 344.11, AMD 14.7 RC3, Intel 10.18.10.3907
We've also included benchmark results from other notebooks, which potentially could have different drivers installed.