Ghost Recon Wildlands Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks
For the original German article, see here.
Graphics
It does not matter if you like the gameplay of Ghost Recon Wildlands or not, but the graphics of the ambitious action title are very good most of the time and impress with enormous viewing distance in particular. You can see a landscape full of trees and grass for miles when the main character is standing at a cliff or the edge of a mountain. There is no criticism for the lighting, either: Besides lights and shadows, we are also impressed by the reflections. The latter is connected to the nice water presentation. The combination with the smooth day/night transitions and the high number of details (like decorative elements) creates a great atmosphere in Wildlands, which is further supported by mostly sharp textures, nice effects (especially smoke) and smooth animations.
Ubisoft could improve the controls. While the handling is very smooth, intuitive, and simple on foot, car controls are – similar to Watch Dogs 2 – pretty spongy and hyper sensitive. The excellent damage model can hardly compensate for that. We also would have liked to see an even finer anti-aliasing; the available modes in Wildlands (FXAA & TAA) do not always work perfectly.
Speaking of settings: Similar to the previous Ubisoft titles (For Honor, The Division, Rainbow Six Siege, etc.), you get very comprehensive graphics settings. The settings were divided into two sub menus, so you do not have to scroll so much. The video tab is – as expected – focused on the display and the basic picture settings like the resolution, frequency, depth of field, brightness, contrast, gamma, and sharpness. You will also find V-Sync and a frame limit, which can be deactivated. The option Resolution Scaling, which can be used for downsampling or upscaling, was always set to the default value of 1.00 for our tests.
The Graphics menu is more comprehensive; we count 18 individual settings and 5 presets, which will adjust the overall quality with a simple click. Ubisoft not only deserves praise for the fact that all changes are applied without a restart, but also for the explanations. Even cooler: Wildlands shows the effects of the setting on a picture, so you will immediately see how the changes look. Similar to the previously tested For Honor, there is a big difference between low and medium settings (also in terms of performance), whereas the change from medium to high is hardly noticeable except for the drawing distance. The picture gets nicer with very high details, and the ultra preset creates a visibly nicer overall impression.
Wildlands is a part of Nvidia's gaming program "the way it's meant to be played", so there are numerous GameWorks effects in cooperation with the GPU manufacturer. This includes HBAO+, volumetric illumination, and so-called turf effects (snapping grass by heavy objects).
All the technology comes at a price though: The download version of Wildlands is almost 45 GB, and the system requirements are not conservative, either. The integrated VRAM display shows that the highest settings require a lot of video memory. 1920x1080 pixels requires more than 4 GB and 3840x2160 pixels more than 5 GB (ultra preset). We recommend (very) high details when you have a high-end GPU with less than 4 GB VRAM.
We hardly noticed any bugs, graphics errors or crashes during our tests; only resolution changes occasionally caused some issues (double picture, wrong scaling).
We are not completely convinced by Wildlands' gameplay. Yes, the atmospheric intro video and the powerful character editor increase our interest. Yes, it is fun to drive through the open world with vehicles and cause mayhem. However, the generic and rather uninspired missions, which follow the typical Ubisoft formula from the last couple of years, will probably not be very entertaining for a long time – weapon upgrades and skill menu or not. We were quickly bored by the generic story.
Benchmark
The developers also deserve respect for the integrated benchmark. Press "B" in the graphics settings and you launch a one-minute camera ride that shows close-ups and environmental shots of the open world as well as several explosions (particularly demanding). Contrary to many other titles, Wildlands not only records the frames per second, but it also shows CPU & GPU load, VRAM load as well as the GPU temperature. It is even possible to pause the benchmark in order to analyze details or – in our case – create comparison pictures (see further below).
The final analysis is also excellent. Besides the minimum, average, and maximum fps and loads, the benchmark also shows the basic system requirements and the current driver version. Nvidia launched the brand-new ForceWare 378.78 right in time for Wildlands, but we got identical results with the previous version 378.66. The game should run smoothly when the benchmark indicates between 35-40 fps based on our experiences, but the performance is often lower during car drives and other demanding scenes, so you should consider some headroom.
Results
We already mentioned that Ghost Recon Wildlands needs a powerful system. Entry-level GPUs like the slightly outdated HD Graphics 4600 are not powerful enough, even at the lowest settings and 1280x720 pixels. Smooth fps numbers require mainstream chips or older gaming GPUs. 1366x768 pixels and the medium preset require at least a GeForce GTX 960M.
You need a high-end GPU for 1920x1080 pixels, and we recommend at least a GeForce GTX 970M (High), GTX 980 or GTX 1060 (Ultra), respectively, depending on the settings. The 4K resolution is a big challenge even for very powerful laptops. Only Nvidia's current top model GeForce GTX 1080 manages smooth frame rates for the combination 4K and high details.
Note: We will add benchmarks for AMD chips and other Intel and Nvidia GPUs over the next couple of days/weeks.
Ghost Recon Wildlands | |
3840x2160 Very High Preset AA:T AF:8x 1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:T AF:16x 1920x1080 High Preset AA:T AF:4x 1920x1080 Medium Preset AA:FX 1366x768 Medium Preset AA:FX 1280x720 Low Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, 4790K | |
AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop), 4790K | |
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ | |
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ | |
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ |
Overview
Test Systems
Desktop-PCs | Plattform I | Plattform II |
---|---|---|
Mainboard | Asus Z170-A | Asus Z97-Deluxe |
Processor | Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell) |
Graphics card | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (4 GB GDDR5) |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti (6 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 | Crucial MX100 SSD (256 GB) Crucial M500 SSD (480 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) OCZ Trion 150 SSD (960 GB) |
Intel SSD 530 (240 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) |
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Windows 10 Home 64-bit |
Schenker Notebooks | Schenker W504 | Schenker XMG A505 | Schenker S413 |
---|---|---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i7-4700MQ (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-4720HQ (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 Kepler (4 GB GDDR5) |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 |
Memory | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 8 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage | Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB) | Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1000 GB) |
Intel SSD |
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Windows 10 Home 64-bit | Windows 10 Home 64-bit |
MSI Notebooks | MSI GT62VR | MSI GE72 | MSI PE60 | MSI GP62 | MSI CX61 | MSI CX61 | MSI GE 72 7RE-046 | MSI GL62 7RD |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-5700HQ (Broadwell) | Intel Celeron 2970M (Haswell) | Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ (Kaby Lake) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ (Kaby Lake) |
Graphics card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) | 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) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 |
Memory | 4x 8 GB DDR4-2133 | 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 | 2x 4 GB DDR4 | 2x 4 GB DDR4 |
Storage | Samsung NVMe MZVPV128 SSD (128 GB) | Toshiba THNSNJ128G8NU SSD (128 GB) WDC WD10JPVX HDD (1000 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB) |
Toshiba MQ01ABF050 HDD (500 GB) | WDC Scorpio Blue HDD (1000 GB) | Samsung SSD, Toshiba Trion 150 SSD | Samsung SSD, Toshiba Trion 150 SSD | ||
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Windows 10 Home 64-bit | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit |
Asus Notebooks | Asus G752VS | Asus N551ZU | Asus ROG Strix GL753VD |
---|---|---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake) | AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
Graphics card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) | AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 |
Memory | 4x 16 GB DDR4-2400 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 8 GB DDR4 |
Storage | Toshiba NVMe THNSN5512GPU7 SSD (512 GB) | Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB) | Micron SSD 1100 (256 GB) |
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit |
4K Monitor | Nvidia driver | AMD driver | Intel driver |
---|---|---|---|
2x Asus PB287Q | ForceWare 378.78 | Crimson 17.3.1 | 15.40.28.4501 |