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Metal Gear Solid V Notebook Benchmarks

Box of Curiosities. After a longer hiatus, Metal Gear Series 2014 with Revengeance and Ground Zeroes once again returns to the PC platform. The newest offshoot, called "The Phantom Pain" is - in line with the previous installment - a rather unusual title. We check out the new stealth game and look at how it performs on notebooks.
Metal Gear Solid V

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

Those who aren't familiar with the Metal Gear series are going to be stumped at first, as it is extremely difficult to make sense of the characters, the background story and the universe without knowing the previous installment. Despite that - or maybe just because of it - The Phantom Pain captures the imagination right from the start. Although the intro is a bit slow-moving in our opinion, the tension builds up nicely in similar fashion to highly choreographed ego shooters like Call of Duty.

The developers were particularly successful with how they staged the game. Thanks to continuously changing perspectives and thrilling camera movement, Metal Gear Solid V reminds us of a Hollywood production in some ways. That doesn't mean that this is a casual game, however - from a player's point of view, The Phantom Pain is comparable to stealth adventures like Splinter CellThief or Dishonored. Controlling the game using the mouse and the keyboard is - for the most part - a very decent experience (exceptions: the menus don't support mouse control and there are controller overlays in the tutorial).

From a technical standpoint, the game impresses as well, although there are some areas where the title doesn't quite compare to other games released in 2015 like The Witcher 3 or GTA V, among others. In addition to very sharp textures, there are also object surfaces which are much less defined - quite a contrast compared to the carefully designed and credibly animated characters. Another negative aspect is the lack of higher-end anti-aliasing. FXAA, which is activated at higher post-processing levels, doesn't smooth the edges nearly as well as MSAA, for example. For that reason, many of the objects flicker (hair, bushes,...).

Aside from these flaws, we can't really criticize the Fox Engine, which is also used for Pro Evolution Soccer 2014-2016, among others. A plus point is the very good scalability, which helps out less powerful notebooks. We really liked the effects as well: in some action-heavy scenes, gamers get to experience a true explosion of dust, smoke and other particles. Lights and shadows are executed on a very high level as well. The cutscenes are compelling as well and round out the nice experience.

To run Metal Gear Solid V, DirectX 11 is required. The rest of the requirements are, as our benchmarks show, quite modest. The title remains playable even with a dual-core CPU. The fact that The Phantom Pain is part of Nvidia's "the way it's meant to be played"-series isn't noticeable - at least not in the graphics menu (no TXAA or similar). All settings are available for AMD GPUs as well, although the performance isn't quite up to par. With ForceWare 355.82, Nvidia already offers an optimized driver.

Something to consider: the retail DVD-package does not contain the actual game, but just the Steam Installer, which in turn means that a download of more than 20 GB is required. The start of the game is accompanied by a lot of messages and The Phantom Pain also needs to connect to a server, which many users won't appreciate much - especially considering that it does waste quite a bit of time.

Settings

The adjustment options are pretty extensive with the graphics menu offering 16 options, all of which don't require a restart. Some of the features can only be turned on or off, while others have a low, medium, high and extra high setting.  The system is not uniform in that some settings are missing (it's impossible to play Metal Gear Solid V. completely on medium settings, for example).

Much more annoying, in our opinion, is the 60 fps limitation, which forces displays with 120 or 144 Hz to a lower refresh rate. Even with the vertical synchronization disabled, The Phantom Pain remains restricted to 60 fps. There's an option to restrict the frame rate down further to 30 fps, which doesn't make much sense in our opinion. At least we didn't encounter any crashes or major bugs. The PC platform desperately needed a reasonably well-engineered game after the disastrous launch of Batman: Arkham Knight.

The differences in performance of some of the systems had us scratching our heads. During the first run, the GeForce GTX 950 posted 42 fps with maxed-out details. After a short interlude with the settings on high, we recorded 57 fps with identical settings as before. Even a restart of the game didn't change the result. When we encountered fluctuations like that, we used the average of the two values. We suspect that the settings are not applied correctly at times.

Low
Low
Medium
Medium
High
High
Ultra
Ultra
4K
4K
Low
Low
Medium
Medium
High
High
Ultra
Ultra
4K
4K

Benchmark

The prologue in the hospital is not suited all that well for benchmarking, since there are too many cutscenes and the level-architecture is limited as well. That's why we use the first chapter entitled "Phantom Limbs", which takes place in a desert (Afghanistan). Because of the constant base frame rate - easily recognizable because of the low fps count - even a short sequence is sufficient. As the video below shows, we ride - after the intro - along a path for about 30 seconds until the horse approaches a crossing. Our colleagues from PC Games Hardware use the same exact sequence.

Results

Unlike a lot of current titles, Metal Gear Solid V doesn't need top-level hardware. Those who are happy with minimum details and a resolution of 1024 x 768 can successfully play The Phantom Pain with an HD Graphics 4600 or the HD Graphics 5500 (result for both above 30 fps).

For medium settings and 1366 x 768 pixels, a lower-middle class GeForce GT 740M is sufficient. More powerful midrange CPUS can sometimes handle high details and 1920 x 1080 pixels. An example is the GeForce GTX 850M which we clocked at 40 fps. Even the maximum settings don't have really high requirements as far as the hardware is concerned. From a GeForce GTX 960M on up, all settings can be maxed out. Metal Gear Solid V starts to get really demanding at 4K resolution, however. Only Nvidia'ss top-of-the-line GPU, the GeForce GTX 980M, can handle the settings on high and a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels without stutters.

All things considered, The Phantom Pain leaves us with a positive to very decent impression. The unique style and the atmosphere make up for the few weaknesses.

Note: we'll add the results for AMD GPUs in a few days.

Metal Gear Solid V
    3840x2160 High / On     1920x1080 Extra High / On     1920x1080 High / On     1366x768 Medium / Off     1024x768 Low / Off
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 3770K
Desktop-PC
52 (48min) fps ∼85%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
60 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K
Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC
46.8 (44min) fps ∼77%
59.5 (48min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
60 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
37.4 (36min) fps ∼61%
60 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
60 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
28.5 (26min) fps ∼47%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
26.2 (25min) fps ∼43%
59.1 (56min) fps ∼97%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, 3770K
Desktop-PC
23.6 (22min) fps ∼39%
49.7 (47min) fps ∼81%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
20.7 (18min) fps ∼34%
45.4 (43min) fps ∼74%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ
Schenker XMG A505
15.5 (13min) fps ∼25%
36.4 (34min) fps ∼60%
54.2 (53min) fps ∼87%
60 (59min) fps ∼98%
60 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
12.6 (10min) fps ∼21%
28.3 (26min) fps ∼46%
42.2 (40min) fps ∼68%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M
Schenker M504
10.7 (8min) fps ∼18%
27 (26min) fps ∼44%
39.2 (37min) fps ∼63%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ
Schenker M503
15.4 (14min) fps ∼25%
23.8 (23min) fps ∼38%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼98%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K
A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS
18.1 (16min) fps ∼29%
46.4 (42min) fps ∼76%
58.7 (56min) fps ∼95%
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ
SCHENKER S413
9.8 (9min) fps ∼16%
16.1 (14min) fps ∼26%
49.6 (43min) fps ∼81%
59.9 (58min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M, 2637M
Acer Aspire M3-581TG
20.1 (19min) fps ∼32%
57.6 (54min) fps ∼94%
60 (0min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M, 4200M
HP Envy 15-j011sg
10.1 (7min) fps ∼17%
15.3 (14min) fps ∼25%
43.4 (41min) fps ∼71%
59.9 (59min) fps ∼97%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M
MSI CX61-i572M
7.9 (0min) fps ∼13%
12.2 (0min) fps ∼20%
36 (0min) fps ∼59%
57.8 (0min) fps ∼93%
AMD Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M
Pumori Test Platform (A10-5750M)
12 (10min) fps ∼19%
31 (29min) fps ∼51%
48.6 (46min) fps ∼78%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM
Asus N56VM
14.7 (12min) fps ∼24%
39.4 (37min) fps ∼65%
59.2 (40min) fps ∼95%
Intel Iris Graphics 5100, 4258U
Apple MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch 2013-10
9 (8min) fps ∼15%
24.9 (23min) fps ∼41%
37.2 (35min) fps ∼60%
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ
Schenker W504
9.9 (8min) fps ∼16%
28.2 (25min) fps ∼46%
45.1 (40min) fps ∼73%
Intel HD Graphics 5500, 5010U
Intel NUC Kit NUC5i3RYH
9.4 (8min) fps ∼15%
25.4 (23min) fps ∼42%
37.1 (33min) fps ∼60%

Test systems

Four of our test systems are from 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 courtesy of Nvidia:

Intel also sent us a notebook:

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

The desktop PCs have CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, Intel and Samsung, Mainboards from Intel and Asus, as well as graphic cards from Nvidia, PNY and AMD. Our 4K monitor is an Asus PB287Q.

GPU drivers we used: Nvidia 355.82, AMD 15.8 Beta, Intel 10.18.14.4264 (Win 7) and 10.18.15.4256 (Win 10)

Overview

Show Restrictions
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
 Metal Gear Solid V (2015)
low
1024x768
Low / Off
med.
1366x768
Medium / Off
high
1920x1080
High / On
ultra
1920x1080
Extra High / On
4K
3840x2160
High / On
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)
60
60
60
60
60
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop)
60
60
60
60
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)
60n2
60
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
60n3
60n4
NVIDIA Quadro P5200
60
60
60
60
60
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)
60n2
60n2
60n2
60n2
59.95n2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
59.9
60n6
60
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q
60
60
60
59.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q
60
60n3
59
AMD Radeon R9 Fury
60
60
60
60
57
AMD Radeon R9 Nano
60
60
60
60
56.4
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
60
60
59.9
59.95n2
52
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q
60
60
60
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)
59.95n2
59.95n2
59.9n3
60n5
50.8n3
AMD Radeon R9 390X
60
60
60
60
48.8
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)
59.9
43.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile
60n2
60n11
40.8
NVIDIA Quadro P4000 Max-Q
60
60
60
60
50
NVIDIA Quadro P3000
60
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
low med. high ultra 4K
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
60
60
60
59.9
46
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q
60
60n2
42
AMD Radeon R9 290X
60
60
59.9
59.5
46.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
59.9n3
59.9n3
60n8
60n9
36n5
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH
60
60
60
59
AMD Radeon R9 280X
60
60
60
60
35.3
AMD Radeon R9 380
60
60
60
59.9
31.8
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
59.9
59.9
59.9
59.9
28.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile
60
60
60
60
NVIDIA Quadro P2000
60
60
60
60
25
NVIDIA Quadro P2000 Max-Q
60
60
60
60
28
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
59.9n3
59.95n4
59.9n9
59.9n9
28.5
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL / 870
60
60
60
54
AMD Radeon Pro WX Vega M GL
60
60
60
50
25.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile
60n2
60n2
60n4
53.3n4
24.8
AMD Radeon R7 370
60
59.9
59.7
39.88
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M
60
59.9
59.9
59.1
26.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
59.9
59.9
59.9
49.7
23.6
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop)
60
60
59.9
44.8
20.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
60
60n2
59.95n2
48.35n2
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
low med. high ultra 4K
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
60
59.9
59.9
45.4
20.7
AMD Radeon R9 M390
60
60
60
39.6
21.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
60n4
59.95n8
56.2n14
37.9n15
14.5n3
NVIDIA GeForce MX150
60n3
60n3
37.2n3
24n3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
59.9
59.9
42.2
28.3
12.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
59.9
59.9n3
37.5n3
26.7n3
10.4
AMD Radeon R9 M385X
57.3
56
41.4
25.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M
59.9
59.9
39.2
27
10.7
AMD Radeon R9 M280X
56.8
51.7
36
21.4
NVIDIA GeForce 945M
60
60
35.2
23.7
Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU)
60
60
31.1
18.1
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580
59.9
58.6
23
14.9
NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book
42
35.9
19.7
13.3
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
60
40.4
29.7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
59.9
59.9
23.8
15.4
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
60n2
51.65n2
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
59.9n2
25.8n2
18n2
NVIDIA GeForce 940M
60
41.5
16.3
11.9
AMD FirePro W4190M
59.9
42.3
18.9
13
AMD Radeon R7 M370
57.1
43.3
20.2
12.7
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
low med. high ultra 4K
NVIDIA GeForce 840M
58
39.9
16.1
11.9
AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop)
58.7
46.4
18.1
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
59.9
49.6
16.1
9.8
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
59.9
43.4
15.3
10.1
NVIDIA GeForce 930M
60
40.5
16.4
11.7
Intel Iris Graphics 550
55.7
18.9
12.3
NVIDIA GeForce 830M
60
48.2
16.9
11.5
NVIDIA GeForce 920MX
60
43.6
15.4
Intel Iris Graphics 540
53.3n2
36.1n2
15.3n2
AMD Radeon R7 M265
60
48.7
18.3
11.4
AMD Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge)
45.5
36.4
14.3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
60
57.6
20.1
AMD Radeon R7 (Carrizo)
40.1
29.9
12
8.6
AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)
50.2
34.6
14.5
AMD Radeon R8 M365DX
42.4
28.9
11.5
7.6
AMD Radeon R7 M460
43.9
30.2
12.4
AMD Radeon R7 M360
39.8
27.4
11.2
6.8
AMD Radeon R8 M445DX
60
37.5
13.3
AMD Radeon R7 M340
50.5n2
33.1n2
13.35n2
6
AMD Radeon R6 M340DX
47
28.5
10
7.2
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
low med. high ultra 4K
Intel UHD Graphics 630
60
40.7
13.4
Intel HD Graphics 630
57
37
14.4
Intel HD Graphics 530
46.9n2
30.95n2
12n2
8.3
AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)
46.1
30
Intel UHD Graphics 620
48.2
31.3
12.1
8.2
Intel HD Graphics 620
43.6
29.7
10.9
AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)
49.8
32
12.5
8
Intel HD Graphics 5600
31.2
20.7
7.2
AMD Radeon HD 8650G
48.6
31
12
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M
59.2
39.4
14.7
AMD Radeon R5 M335
40.2
26.4
9.9
7.1
AMD Radeon R5 M330
40.5
26.5
9.8
AMD Radeon R5 M430
33.5
22.8
AMD Radeon R5 M255
41.1
28.4
11.7
7.2
NVIDIA GeForce 910M
40.9
29.3
13.2
8.7
Intel HD Graphics 520
43.5n6
28.2n7
11.3n5
9.3
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
35.55n2
25.35n2
9.9n2
7.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
57.8
36
12.2
7.9
AMD Radeon R5 M240
52.6
30
AMD Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge)
34.1
24.9
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
low med. high ultra 4K
Intel HD Graphics 6000
35
24.8
9.5
Intel Iris Graphics 5100
37.2
24.9
9
Intel HD Graphics 4600
37.5n2
23.7n2
8.15n2
Intel HD Graphics 5500
33.5n3
21.1n3
9.05n2
Intel HD Graphics 615
23.4
20.8
7.6
AMD Radeon HD 7660G
46.5
32.2
11.9
Intel HD Graphics 515
25.7
15.3
Intel HD Graphics 610
38.5
25.2
Intel HD Graphics 4400
35.2
23.5
Intel HD Graphics 510
38.9
25.2
Intel UHD Graphics 605
21.6
15.8
Intel HD Graphics 505
20.7
13.8
Intel HD Graphics 5300
20.6
12.4
Intel HD Graphics 4000
41
25.2
9.6
AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)
26
17.9
AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)
28.1
18.5
AMD Radeon R4 (Beema)
26.2
17.3
AMD Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge)
23.6
18.5
Intel HD Graphics 4200
30.7
20.5
AMD Radeon HD 8350G
27.7
22.8
PosModel< PrevNext >Metal Gear Solid V
low med. high ultra 4K
Intel HD Graphics 500
16.4
9.7
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
18.8
13
Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)
13.7
9.5
Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell)
13.3
AMD Radeon HD 7420G
23.3
18.3
Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)
15.1
9.8
Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)
10.8
(-) * Smaller values are better. / n123 Number of benchmarks for this median value / * Approximate position

 

Legend
5Stutters – 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.
30Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60Fluent – 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.
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Florian Glaser, 2015-09- 8 (Update: 2015-09- 9)