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Just Cause 3 Notebook Benchmarks

Adrenaline junkie. Just Cause returns to the PC after five years. The third part follows the tradition of the series and offers an extremely crazy and casual gameplay. However, it looks like the developers forgot the technical optimization with all this fun. Here are our first impressions of the retail version.

Florian Glaser, ✓ Tanja Hinum (translated by Andreas Osthoff), Published 12/19/2015 🇩🇪 🇷🇺

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

2015 was not only the year of action-adventures, but also of sloppy PC ports. Besides Call of Duty Black Ops 3, Batman Arkham Knight in particular upset the community. The list includes graphics errors, crashes and framerate drops: Many titles cannot even remotely utilize the potential of the PC platform.

Even though the technology of Just Cause 3 is not the feared catastrophe, there is some criticism for this title as well. It starts with the size of the game: At almost 50 GB, the action title is one of the biggest games in general. Yes, other open-world games occupy even more storage space (GTA V, Shadow of Mordor, ...), but there are also other examples like Fallout 4 and Metal Gear Solid V that stay below 30 GB.

Another problem are the long loading times. It takes forever befor the main menu opens after the launch – even if Just Cause 3 is installed on an SSD. We also experienced regular crashes during the launch ("JustCause3.exe has stopped working") on some devices. Once you reached the main menu, the loading times are reasonable.

The third-person title does not cause a lot of criticism for the graphics settings. The tilte does lack presets to adjust the overall graphics quality, but the graphics menu is very simple to use and – except for the scrolling sensitivity – well-structured. Starting with the gamma value, you can either turn the options on and off or adjust them in four steps. The anisotropic filtering ranges from 2-16x, while the anti-aliasing modes include the post-processing versions FXAA and SMAA. The resolution and the picture mode can obviously changed as well. The options are completed by V-Sync.

You won't be impressed by the graphics, even when you crank up all the settings. You can, for instance, notice the lack of high-quality anti-aliasing (e. g. MSAA), but the textures still appear blurry on the highest setting. No comparison to GTA V, which is often razor-sharp. Just Cause 3 at least offers an opulent amount of effects. Hardly any game can show explosions that look this good. The viewing distance and the details of the main figures can also keep up with the rivals, and setting changes do not require a restart.

We were still slightly disappointed by the technology. The situation is similar for the hardware requirements, which are significantly higher than our subjective expectation. The developers should also improve the button mapping in the menus (Ctrl instead of Esc for back). The control of the main character itself is a bit "fluffy", which creates positive memories of Saints Row 4. The combination of the parachute and the Grapple-hook creates completely new ways of fast movement.

Just Cause 3 is a part of Nvidia's gaming program TWIMTBP, so it is not surprising that AMD GPUs are sometimes performing significantly worse. The desktop model Radeon R9 Fury, for example, was even slower than the otherwise less powerful GeForce GTX 980 in the tests. We can also notice that the title is – depending on the system – limited by the CPU at moderate settings. From our mid-range notebooks, the 15-inch model Asus N551ZU with Kaveri FX-7600P and Radeon R9 M280X was affected the most, because it could not manage smooth gameplay at all. Entry-level devices cannot handle low details anyway, but there can also be performance fluctuations on fast systems depending on the game situation. This means our results are just an indicator.

Benchmark

Because of the identical sequence, we actually use the start of the game for our performance tests. After the first two intro sequences, the main character Rico jumps on a plane to protect it with a rocket launcher. We record the gameplay (around 30 seconds, until the first ground base – see video – is just 200 meters away) and note the minimum as well as average frame rate.

▶ load Youtube video

Results

We already mentioned that Just Cause 3 requires a mainstream GPU. Low-end chips from Intel's HD Graphics lineup (HD 4600, HD 5500, …) and older all-round models like the GeForce GT 740M do not manage more than 30 fps in any setting. Only a GeForce GT 750M can more or less handle 1024 x 768 pixels at the lowest details. We would recommend a GeForce GTX 850M or better for 1366 x 768 pixels and normal settings.

If you want to play in 1920 x 1080 pixels and high details, you will definitely need a high-end chip like a GeForce GTX 960M or GTX 870M, and we would recommend a top model (GTX 880M+) for the maximum details. 3840 x 2160 pixels are not a good idea for single-GPU notebooks. Even very fast desktop chips like the GeForce GTX 980 or Radeon R9 Fury are struggling in this case (~36 fps @High).

Just Cause 3
3840x2160 High / On AA:FX AF:8x 1920x1080 Very High / On AA:SM AF:16x 1920x1080 High / On AA:FX AF:8x 1366x768 Medium / Off AF:4x 1024x768 Low / Off AF:2x
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K Desktop PC	36.6 (33^min) fps ∼30% 84.2 (75^min) fps ∼47% 94.9 (84^min) fps ∼56% 135.9 (110^min) fps ∼62% 147.1 (108^min) fps ∼63%
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro	36.3 (33^min) fps ∼30% 59 (47^min) fps ∼33% 63 (50^min) fps ∼37% 77 (58^min) fps ∼35% 88.6 (66^min) fps ∼38%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	23.6 (20^min) fps ∼19% 59.7 (50^min) fps ∼34% 65.3 (49^min) fps ∼39% 79.3 (58^min) fps ∼36% 82.9 (54^min) fps ∼36%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	19.9 (16^min) fps ∼16% 50.7 (46^min) fps ∼28% 56.5 (46^min) fps ∼33% 82.6 (63^min) fps ∼38% 86.1 (58^min) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	17.6 (14^min) fps ∼14% 40.1 (36^min) fps ∼23% 44.8 (40^min) fps ∼27% 69.5 (59^min) fps ∼32% 78.4 (56^min) fps ∼34%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, 6700K Desktop PC	16.5 (12^min) fps ∼13% 47.7 (44^min) fps ∼27% 53.2 (46^min) fps ∼31% 97.1 (85^min) fps ∼45% 119.4 (102^min) fps ∼51%
AMD Radeon R7 370, 4790K MSI Gaming R7 370 2GB	14.7 (12^min) fps ∼12% 41.3 (36^min) fps ∼23% 45.2 (40^min) fps ∼27% 69 (59^min) fps ∼32%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	14.6 (11^min) fps ∼12% 34.7 (30^min) fps ∼19% 41.2 (37^min) fps ∼24% 63.8 (53^min) fps ∼29% 70.2 (57^min) fps ∼30%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ Schenker XMG A505	11.7 (8^min) fps ∼10% 30.9 (29^min) fps ∼17% 35.9 (31^min) fps ∼21% 63.4 (55^min) fps ∼29% 71.8 (51^min) fps ∼31%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	10.7 (5^min) fps ∼9% 27.5 (24^min) fps ∼15% 31.7 (26^min) fps ∼19% 51.9 (44^min) fps ∼24% 61.7 (52^min) fps ∼26%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M Schenker M504	9 (6^min) fps ∼7% 24.4 (20^min) fps ∼14% 28.7 (24^min) fps ∼17% 45.7 (33^min) fps ∼21% 47.1 (31^min) fps ∼20%
AMD Radeon R9 M280X, FX-7600P Asus N551ZU-CN007H	18.7 (14^min) fps ∼11% 21.9 (15^min) fps ∼9%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	13 (9^min) fps ∼7% 14.8 (11^min) fps ∼9% 27 (23^min) fps ∼12% 34.5 (30^min) fps ∼15%
AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS	14.1 (11^min) fps ∼8% 24.4 (19^min) fps ∼11% 26.6 (18^min) fps ∼11%
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ SCHENKER S413	11.9 (10^min) fps ∼7% 12.8 (11^min) fps ∼8% 21.6 (15^min) fps ∼10% 26.6 (23^min) fps ∼11%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	10 (7^min) fps ∼6% 11.4 (9^min) fps ∼7% 22.3 (19^min) fps ∼10% 27 (23^min) fps ∼12%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M MSI CX61-i572M	7.9 (0^min) fps ∼5% 15.5 (0^min) fps ∼7% 19.2 (0^min) fps ∼8%
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W504	6.8 (3^min) fps ∼4% 15.1 (12^min) fps ∼7% 19.3 (16^min) fps ∼8%

Test Systems

Four of our test models are provided by Schenker Technologies (mysn.de):

W504 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 860M, GTX 870M, GTX 880M, GTX 970M, GTX 980M)
A505 (Core i7-4720HQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 960M)
M504 (Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M)
M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M)

Three notebooks are provided by Nvidia:

HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)
MSI CX61-i572M281BW7 (Core i5-4200M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 720M)
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG (Core i7-2637M, 4 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 640M)

In addition, Intel provided one notebook:

Schenker S413 (Core i7-4750HQ, 8 GB DDR3, Iris Pro Graphics 5200)

The desktop PCs are equipped with CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, OCZ, Intel and Samsung, motherboards from Intel and Asus as well as graphics cards from Nvidia, PNY and AMD. We use the monitor Asus PB287Q for our 4K tests.

We used the following GPU drivers: Nvidia 359.06, AMD 15.11.1 Beta, Intel 20.19.15.4300 (Win 10) and Intel 10.18.14.4294 (Win 7), respectively.

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 651 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.

Translator: Andreas Osthoff - Managing Editor Business Laptops - 1795 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2013

I grew up with modern consumer electronics and my first computer was a Commodore C64, which encouraged my interest in building my own systems. I started working as a review editor for Notebookcheck during my dual studies at Siemens. Currently, I am mainly responsible for dealing with business laptops and mobile workstations. It’s a great experience to be able to review the latest devices and technologies and then compare them with each other.

contact me via: LinkedIn

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Just Cause 3 Notebook Benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2015-12-19 (Update: 2024-08-15)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Just Cause 3 (2015)
Pos	Model	low 1024x768 Low / Off 2xAF	med. 1366x768 Medium / Off 4xAF	high 1920x1080 High / On 8xAF FXAA	ultra 1920x1080 Very High / On 16xAF SMAA	4K 3840x2160 High / On 8xAF FXAA
96	NVIDIA Titan X Pascal	176.3	145.3	126.3	131.9	81.6
97	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)			125	115	57.6
99	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 SLI (Laptop)			129	115
114	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)	159	165	134	122	62
137	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile			105	113.35ⁿ²	58.6
150	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)	158	147.7	92.7	79.3
158	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)			133	114ⁿ²	51.45ⁿ²
163	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile			100	96
186	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti	166	153	116	103	48
195	AMD Radeon R9 Fury	88.6	77	63	59	36.3
196	AMD Radeon R9 Nano				81	37.1
197	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	147.1	135.9	94.9	84.2	36.6
210	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)	168.1	157.4	100.6	87	38.2
212	AMD Radeon R9 390X	72.1	65.9	54.1	48.6	31.2
213	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI	127.6	104.5	60.1	51.7	21.3
214	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)	164	153	99.4	85.6	36.1
218	AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)			88	82	32.6
219	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile	94.6	83	79ⁿ³	70.4ⁿ³	30.3
225	NVIDIA Quadro P4000 Max-Q	140	133	89	77	35
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Just Cause 3
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
243	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970		101.1	86.4	78.7ⁿ²	33.5
253	AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop)				79	31.7
275	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M	106ⁿ³	100.4ⁿ³	68.7ⁿ³	59.7ⁿ³	23.6
286	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	98	94.1	60.3	52.6	21.6
288	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile			58.9	52.7	22.1
294	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M	85.7ⁿ²	92.45ⁿ⁴	57.9ⁿ⁴	50.75ⁿ⁴	19.9
298	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680	111	91.9	63.5	49	15.9
310	NVIDIA Quadro M3000M		85.6	50.4	43.7	17.8
312	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile	89.8ⁿ²	76.6ⁿ²	48.15ⁿ²	38.65ⁿ²
315	AMD Radeon R7 370		69	45.2	41.3	14.7
317	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M	78.4	69.5	44.8	40.1	17.6
322	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950	119.4	97.1	53.2	47.7	16.5
337	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M	93.6ⁿ³	87.1ⁿ³	48.4ⁿ³	42.8ⁿ³	14.4
341	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M	70.2	63.8	41.2	34.7	14.6
343	AMD Radeon HD 8970M	82.1	67.5	40.9	37
362	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	71.8	63.5ⁿ³	35.9ⁿ³	30.9ⁿ³	12.2ⁿ²
380	NVIDIA GeForce MX150	52.7ⁿ²	45.55ⁿ²	24.2ⁿ²	20.8ⁿ²
387	NVIDIA Quadro M2000M	70.9	59.05ⁿ²	34.05ⁿ²	29.6ⁿ²	12.2
396	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M	61.7	51.9	31.7	27.5	10.7
405	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	63.1ⁿ³	51.6ⁿ³	26.6ⁿ³	23ⁿ³
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Just Cause 3
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
411	AMD Radeon R9 M385X	21.4	22.1	18.8	17.5
413	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M	47.1	45.7	28.7	24.4	9
417	AMD Radeon R9 M280X	21.9		18.7
504	NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M	34.5	27	14.8	13
507	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	41.15ⁿ⁴	32.6ⁿ⁴	15.95ⁿ⁴	16.1ⁿ³
512	NVIDIA GeForce 940M	40.7ⁿ²	33.05ⁿ²	16.5	16
514	NVIDIA GeForce 930MX	38.3	29.5	15.9
545	NVIDIA Quadro M500M	35.6	29.6	16.2	14.5
551	AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)	26.6	24.4	14.1
552	Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200	26.6	21.6	12.8	11.9
562	NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M	27	22.3	11.4	10
564	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	34.3	28	13.9	12.6
574	NVIDIA GeForce 920MX	31.5	24.7
575	Intel Iris Graphics 540	35.9	28.6	15.5	14.2
611*	AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)	16	13.2
613	AMD Radeon R7 (Carrizo)	15	13.1	8.5	8.2
614	AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)	18.4		11.3
616*	AMD Radeon R7 M460	32.1	25.2	11.9	10.1
619	AMD Radeon R7 M360	31.2	25.6	12.7	10.4
621	NVIDIA GeForce 920M	25.55ⁿ²	21ⁿ²	10.3	9.1
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Just Cause 3
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
624	AMD Radeon R8 M445DX	18	17.4	11.5
626	AMD Radeon R7 M440	22.4	18	12.1
638	AMD Radeon R6 M340DX	18.5	16	8.9	6.1
645	Intel HD Graphics 630	24.7	21.7
651	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	13.3	12.4	8.3
653	Intel HD Graphics 620	29	22.2	10.8
654	AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)	15.5	13.4	8.3
714	AMD Radeon HD 8650G	12.2
722	AMD Radeon R5 M335	23.1	19	9.2	6.3
723	AMD Radeon R5 M330	23	18.9	9.4	6.1
724	AMD Radeon R5 M430	25.1	19.5
725	AMD Radeon R5 M255	31.1	24.6	12.4
728	NVIDIA GeForce 910M	16.6	14.8	8.1	5.7
730	Intel HD Graphics 520	21.6	16.7	6.2	3.8
731	Intel Iris Graphics 6100	21	17.5
733	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	19.2	15.5	7.9
747	Intel HD Graphics 6000	18.6	14
754	Intel HD Graphics 4600	17.75ⁿ²	13.7ⁿ²	6.8
756	Intel HD Graphics 5500	16.3	14.4
833	Intel HD Graphics 515	13.1	8.7
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Just Cause 3
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
835	Intel HD Graphics 610	15.4	12.5
836	Intel HD Graphics 4400	17.6	14.5
870	Intel HD Graphics 505	6.6	4.1
871	Intel HD Graphics 5300	9.9	7.7
886	AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)	10.8	8.7
892	Intel HD Graphics 4200	12	11.3
962	Intel HD Graphics (Haswell)	11.7

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.