Hearthstone Laptop Benchmarks
Hearthstone is an online digital collectible card game from Blizzard, which was originally released in 2014 and has since been continually updated. As a free-to-play title, it can be downloaded without any upfront payment. However, it relies on microtransactions to make money. It is available for Windows, macOS X, iOS and Android.
The card game offers three graphics presets: low, medium and high. There is not a lot of difference between these presets in terms of the visuals. We were able to observe slight changes only when switching between the high and the medium presets. On the highest settings, the image looks somewhat more plasticky. All in all, the graphics presets, in and of themselves, have very little impact on the overall gameplay experience.
The low and medium presets offer the exact same level of performance. Interestingly enough, both these presets seem to cap the frame rate at 30 FPS. However, the frame rate on the highest preset is only limited by the refresh rate of the monitor (with VSync, it’s usually 60 FPS). Vertical synchronisation cannot be disabled in the settings menu. The Windows version of Hearthstone does not offer many graphics settings.
Benchmark
As the benchmark we decided to use the first level in the single-player campaign, which is known as "Glakrond's Awakening". Here we play as a member of the "League of E.V.I.L." against "Sir Finley". We utilise Fraps to record the frame rate. We chose to run the game at 1080p even on the lowest settings, because we were not always able to select 720p on certain laptops. We decided against 1024x768, because at this resolution the text appears quite fuzzy.
In general, one does not need a high frame rate to fully enjoy Hearthstone. However, once the frame rate drops below 25 FPS, the game starts to feel quite stuttery and the card drawing takes up a bit more time. In our testing, the Teclast Tbook 16 Power offered the worst gaming experience.
Results
Low and Medium
As was previously mentioned, the frame rate here is capped at 30 FPS. Only the least capable modern CPUs such as the Atom Z8750 and the Celeron N3350 struggle here. Any chip with the UHD Graphics 600 or better is well-equipped to handle Hearthstone on these settings.
Hearthstone | |
1920x1080 low 1920x1080 medium | |
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M | |
Intel UHD Graphics 605 | |
Qualcomm Adreno 630 | |
Intel UHD Graphics 600 | |
Intel HD Graphics 500 | |
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell) | |
Intel HD Graphics 615 |
Maximum settings at 1080p
You will need a powerful integrated GPU or an entry-level dedicated graphics card to run Hearthstone on the highest settings at 1080p. The old Intel HD Graphics 5500 is the cut-off point here. The Snapdragon 850 in the Yoga C630 is also capable of achieving playable frame rates on the maximum settings. A few months ago that was not the case, because the 32-bit emulator for ARM-based Windows devices did not work very well.
Hearthstone | |
1920x1080 high | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q | |
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 | |
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M | |
Intel HD Graphics 5500 | |
Qualcomm Adreno 630 | |
Intel HD Graphics 615 | |
Intel UHD Graphics 600 | |
Intel HD Graphics 500 | |
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell) |
Maximum settings at 2160p
To achieve playable frame rates in 4K you will need a dedicated GPU. The Radeon Pro 560X in the 15-inch MacBook Pro gets within spitting distance of an ideal 60 FPS. The Asus Zephyrus GX501 features a 120 Hz screen and therefore can achieve up to 120 FPS with the VSync enabled.
Hearthstone | |
3840x2160 high | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q | |
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M | |
AMD Radeon Pro 560X | |
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 | |
Intel HD Graphics 615 |
Overview
Benchmarked devices
4K Monitore |
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Asus PB287Q, Philips Brilliance 329P9H |