Far Cry Primal Notebook Benchmarks
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Graphics
As with the predecessor, “Far Cry Primal” is based on Ubisoft Montreal's own Dunia 2 engine. Therefore, the graphics quality is very similar to the previous title. Not only does “Far Cry Primal” convinces with sharp textures, nice illumination and rich vegetation but the details of the figures and animals are also pretty good. However, there is still room for improvements in terms of effects. Besides the water presentation, the flames are rather second-rate.
However overall, the technology leaves a good impression. “Far Cry Primal” certainly does not have to hide behind other first-person shooters or action blockbusters like “Call of Duty Black Ops 3”, “Rise of the Tomb Raider” or “Just Cause 3”. The title cannot quite match the graphics quality of “Star Wars Battlefront” (Frostbite 3 engine).
The graphics menu is a positive aspect. Changes to the settings are accepted without a restart and “Far Cry Primal” also offers several presets that adjust the overall quality with just one click. If you want to have control over all settings, you will find around 10 individual options in the sub-menu "Quality Settings". Unfortunate: Unlike many competitors, the title only supports the anti-aliasing modes FXAA and SMAA. High-quality versions like MSAA and TXAA are missing completely and have to be enforced via drivers.
Speaking of drivers: We did not have any problems with Nvidia devices with the brand-new ForceWare 362.00. Currently, many players are having problems with launch issues, errors and crashes.
We only had a problem with the activation limit of the gaming platform Uplay (is required for the installation), which – similar to Origin – allows only a certain number of new systems per day. This means that we have to add benchmarks for AMD devices over the next few days.
Otherwise, the technology leaves a sophisticated impression and we did not encounter any serious graphics errors or bugs during the tests. Compared to “Far Cry 4”, we even noticed some small improvements. For instance, you can now skip the annoying intro videos. Subjectively, the loading times are slightly shorter. Another surprise is the moderate file size. While other titles from 2015 and 2016 occupy more than 30 GB, “Far Cry Primal” needs only 16 GB.
The title does not seem to have very high requirements in terms of processor. As long as the CPU is somewhat up to date, the limiting factor will usually be the graphics card. The processor only had a certain influence with minimum settings on our Intel test systems. As far as we can say, graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia are pretty much on par.
Benchmark
We really have to praise the integrated benchmark that runs for almost one minute and shows a camera flight through a heavily vegetated valley. Based on our experience, the frame rate of the benchmark represents actual gameplay very well, so the results are very meaningful. You can enjoy “Far Cry” with anything above 35 fps if occasional stutters are not an issue for you.
Note: The VRAM indicator at the end of the benchmark (see video) should not be trusted. For starters, the value varies from one benchmark run to another, and there are also strange outliers in both directions on some systems. We still checked all presets in FHD with a GeForce GTX 960M (2 GB VRAM). Here are the average results of two runs:
- Low @70% VRAM load
- Medium @80% VRAM load
- High @82% VRAM load
- Very High @84% VRAM load
- Ultra @94% VRAM load
Results
As with most first-person shooters, the hardware requirements are quite high. The minimum requirements are already pretty steep. You need at least a mid-range GPU to play “Far Cry Primal” with a notebook. Only a GeForce GT 750M or 940M, manages somewhat smooth game play at 1280x720 pixels and Low preset. Users with older or less powerful entry-level GPUs or mainstream chips like the GeForce GT 740M or HD Graphics 4600 will probably regret the purchase.
You will need a serious gaming notebook if you want to play the title at 1920x1080 pixels. Low details require at least a GeForce GTX 860M and medium settings at least a GTX 960M. You should use a GeForce GTX 870M or better for high graphics settings, while the preset Ultra requires a modern high-end chip (GTX 970M or better).
Currently, 3840x2160 is not smoothly playable on any mobile chip with good graphics settings. Even desktop chips like the GeForce GTX 980 are not powerful enough for a combination of 4K and High. We will have to wait and see if the performance can be improved via updates. All our benchmarks were performed with the official retail version, including day 1 patch (1.1.0).
Far Cry Primal | |
3840x2160 High Preset AA:SM 1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:SM 1920x1080 High Preset AA:SM 1920x1080 Medium Preset AA:SM 1920x1080 Low Preset 1280x720 Low Preset | |
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ | |
AMD Radeon R7 370, 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ | |
AMD Radeon R9 M280X, FX-7600P | |
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce 920M, 2970M | |
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M, 4200M | |
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M | |
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ |
Overview
Test Systems
Desktop PCs |
Custom Nvidia | Custom AMD |
---|---|---|
Mainboard |
Asus Z170-A | Asus Z97-Deluxe |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell) |
Graphics Card |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (4 GB GDDR5), PNY GeForce GTX 950 (2 GB GDDR5) | XFX Radeon R9 Fury (4 GB HBM), Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (4 GB GDDR5), Sapphire Radeon R9 280X (3 GB GDDR5), MSI Radeon R7 370 (2 GB GDDR5) |
Memory |
2x 8 GB DDR4-2133 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage 1 |
Crucial MX100 SSD (256 GB) | Intel SSD 530 (240 GB) |
Storage 2 |
Crucial M500 SSD (480 GB) | OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) |
Storage 3 |
OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) | - |
Storage 4 |
OCZ Trion 150 SSD (960 GB) | - |
Operating System |
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Windows 10 Home 64-bit |
Schenker Notebooks |
Schenker W504 | Schenker XMG A505 | Schenker M504 | Schenker M503 | Schenker S413 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mainboard |
Intel HM87 | Intel HM87 | Intel HM86 | Intel HM86 | Intel HM87 |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-4700MQ (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-4720HQ (Haswell) | Intel Core i5-4340M (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-4702MQ (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-4750HQ (Haswell) |
Graphics Card |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M (8 GB GDDR5), GTX 970M (6 GB GDDR5), GTX 880M (8 GB GDDR5), GTX 870M (6 GB GDDR5), GTX 860M (4 GB GDDR5) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M (2 GB GDDR5) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M (2 GB DDR3) | Nvidia GeForce GT 750M (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 |
Memory |
2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 8 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage 1 |
Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB) | Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) | Intel SSD 520 (240 GB) | Intel SSD 520 (240 GB) | Crucial M4 SSD (256 GB) |
Storage 2 |
Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD (500 GB) | HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1000 GB) | - | - | - |
Operating System |
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Windows 10 Home 64-bit | Windows 7 Pro 64-bit | Windows 7 Pro 64-bit | Windows 8 Pro 64-bit |
MSI Notebooks |
MSI GE72 | MSI PE60 | MSI GP62 | MSI CX61 | MSI CX61 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mainboard |
Intel HM170 | Intel HM170 | Intel HM86 | Intel HM86 | Intel HM86 |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-5700HQ (Broadwell) | Intel Celeron 2970M (Haswell) | Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell) |
Graphics Card |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M 2016 (2 GB GDDR5) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M (2 GB GDDR5) | Nvidia GeForce 940M (2 GB DDR3) | Nvidia GeForce 920M (2 GB DDR3) | Nvidia GeForce GT 720M (2 GB DDR3) |
Memory |
1x 8 GB DDR4-2133 | 2x 4 GB DDR4-2133 | 1x 8 GB DDR3-1600 | 1x 8 GB DDR3-1600 | 1x 8 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage 1 |
Toshiba THNSNJ128G8NU SSD (128 GB) | Toshiba MQ01ABF050 HDD (500 GB) | WDC Scorpio Blue HDD (1000 GB) | ||
Storage 2 |
WDC WD10JPVX HDD (1.000 GB) / OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) | - | - | - | - |
Operating System |
Windows 10 Home 64-bit | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
other Notebooks |
HP Envy 15 | Asus N551ZU |
---|---|---|
Mainboard |
Intel HM87 | AMD K15.1 |
Processor |
Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell) | AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri) |
Graphics Card |
Nvidia GeForce GT 740M (2 GB DDR3) | AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5) |
Memory |
1x 8 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage 1 |
Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB) | HGST Travelstar 5K1000 (1000 GB) |
Storage 2 |
- | - |
Operating System |
Windows 10 Home 64-bit | Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit |
4K Monitors |
Nvidia driver | AMD driver | Intel driver |
---|---|---|---|
2x Asus PB287Q |
ForceWare 362.00 | Crimson 16.2.1 | 15.40.10.64.4300 |