Metro Exodus Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks

Demanding even without Raytracing. Metro Exodus is the next game to support Raytracing after Battlefield V. Read on to find out why this first-person shooter needs a powerful GPU even at moderate settings.

Florian Glaser, 👁 Florian Glaser (translated by Alex Alderson), Published 03/06/2019 🇩🇪 🇷🇺 ...

Technology

While Metro Exodus has been well received by the press and has scored highly in reviews, the gaming community has been more divided. In addition to its release on the Epic Games Launcher rather than on Steam as was originally planned, the engine underpinning the game has drawn criticism for its high system requirements. Our test and benchmark tables below confirm the latter, and Metro Exodus is currently only truly playable on gaming or high-end GPUs. By contrast, games such as Far Cry New Dawn have more frugal system requirements despite having large open areas in which to explore.

In general, Metro Exodus struggles with fluctuating framerates, which is especially noticeable with GPUs that have less than 6 GB of VRAM. Moreover, the game crashed on several of our test systems, for some reason. This only happened occasionally, but it is still a frustrating experience, nonetheless. 4A Games, which also developed Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, could do with improving loading times too as they are comparatively slow currently.

Metro Exodus looks great though. While there are a few muddy textures now and then, the graphics are impressive overall. The developers have done a great job of not only including a tremendous amount of detail in indoor and outdoor environments but also for the lighting, which adds an eerie atmosphere to the game. The first-person point of view is impersive too thanks to Artyom’s animated arms and legs along with your impaired view through his gas mask.

Unfortunately, Metro Exodus has only a few graphics settings, which take a while to scroll through, because of the game’s huge font. We also did not like the lack of explanatory notes for each setting, as it is not necessarily obvious what each setting does.

The game has five graphics presets instead of detailed options as we have seen with Far Cry New Dawn. We would advise against setting the game to the Extreme preset though as the performance loss is much greater than the graphical improvements. There are also options for DirectX, gamma, motion blur, tessellation, texture filtering, and V-Sync among others. Altering the DirectX mode hardly had any influence on framerates in our experience.

It is also worth noting that we set the shading rate to the base value of 1.0 for our tests. The NVIDIA Hairworks and advanced PhysX are designed to work with NVIDIA GPUs but enabling them should provide some benefits to AMD GPUs too. However, DLSS and Raytracing will currently only work on GeForce RTX 20 series cards.

Frustratingly, Metro Exodus must be restarted to apply some settings changes. Incidentally, the game needs just under 50 GB of storage.

Benchmarks

The developers deserve praise for the built-in benchmark though, although we are not fans of it having a dedicated launcher that is only accessible within the game folder. The benchmark lasts around 1:45 minutes and shows a tracking shot through indoor and outdoor areas. The sequence is more demanding than real gameplay, so your system should achieve higher framerates in-game than it does during the benchmark. The developers have included a detailed breakdown too that contains minimum, average and maximum framerates, which appears after the benchmark is finished.

Our customised Medium benchmark settings

If your system averages 45 FPS during the benchmark, then the game should generally run smoothly. You can also follow our customised presets too, which differ slightly from the default presets, to achieve more stable framerates.

Results

HD (1,280x720)

Metro Exodus is power hungry even at minimum graphics in 720p. The game is playable on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, but older cards such as the GeForce GTX 960M will only average around 35.1 FPS, which is not a pleasant gaming experience in our opinion.

Metro Exodus
1280x720 Low Quality AF:4x
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition	137 (76^min) fps ∼19%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce GTX 1080	161 (89^min) fps ∼22%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce GTX 1070	148 (79^min) fps ∼21%
AMD Radeon VII, R7 2700X AMD Radeon VII	146.1 (82^min) fps ∼20%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK Alienware 17 R4	118 (66^min) fps ∼16%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK Asus G752VS	115 (62^min) fps ∼16%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, i7-7700HQ Acer Predator Triton 700	111 (60^min) fps ∼15%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060	110 (59^min) fps ∼15%
NVIDIA Titan RTX, TR 2920X Nvidia Titan RTX 24 GB	97.1 (57^min) fps ∼13%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK MSI GT62VR	96.8 (50^min) fps ∼13%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X i7-7740X Asus X299 Prime	115 (65^min) fps ∼16%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 6700HQ Asus G752VY	77.9 (40^min) fps ∼11%
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), 4790K XFX RX-460P4DFG5 Double Dissipation 4 GB	57.5 (35^min) fps ∼8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 6700HQ MSI GS60 6QE	64.1 (33^min) fps ∼9%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ Asus GL753VD	48.4 (25^min) fps ∼7%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GE72 7RE	38 (17^min) fps ∼5%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GL62M 7RD-077	45.1 (25.01^min) fps ∼6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	48.74 (26.69^min) fps ∼7%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, i7-7700HQ MSI GL72 7QF	35.1 (20^min) fps ∼5%
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ MSI GP62 2QD	15.25 (27.63^min) fps ∼2%
NVIDIA GeForce 920M, 2970M MSI CX61 2QC 2970M MS-16GD	9.66 (4.97^min) fps ∼1%

FHD (1,920x1,080)

Likewise, you will need at least a GeForce GTX 1060 to play the game in 1080p. We would recommend stepping up to GeForce GTX 1070 if you want to play the game at high settings on a laptop and its desktop counterpart for the ultra-high preset. Likewise, you will need a GeForce GTX 1080 to play the game at the latter preset on a laptop.

Metro Exodus
1920x1080 Medium Quality AF:4x 1920x1080 High Quality AF:16x 1920x1080 Ultra Quality AF:16x
NVIDIA Titan RTX, TR 2920X Nvidia Titan RTX 24 GB	90.4 (53^min) fps ∼16% 80.9 (46^min) fps ∼17% 73 (40^min) fps ∼18%
AMD Radeon VII, R7 2700X AMD Radeon VII	113.7 (57^min) fps ∼20% 82.8 (43^min) fps ∼17% 67.2 (36^min) fps ∼17%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition	115 (54^min) fps ∼20% 86 (41^min) fps ∼18% 70 (36^min) fps ∼17%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce GTX 1080	94.9 (47^min) fps ∼17% 69.9 (37^min) fps ∼14% 57.8 (32^min) fps ∼14%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK Alienware 17 R4	91.3 (43^min) fps ∼16% 69.8 (34^min) fps ∼14% 57.7 (30^min) fps ∼14%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, i7-7700HQ Acer Predator Triton 700	81.1 (39^min) fps ∼14% 60.2 (30^min) fps ∼12% 49.2 (26^min) fps ∼12%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce GTX 1070	77.9 (40^min) fps ∼14% 58.1 (32^min) fps ∼12% 48.5 (28^min) fps ∼12%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK Asus G752VS	74.3 (36^min) fps ∼13% 55.8 (28^min) fps ∼11% 46.5 (24^min) fps ∼12%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060	54.1 (29^min) fps ∼9% 40.2 (22^min) fps ∼8% 33.3 (19^min) fps ∼8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK MSI GT62VR	51.3 (25^min) fps ∼9% 37.9 (19^min) fps ∼8% 31 (17^min) fps ∼8%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X i7-7740X Asus X299 Prime	58.6 (33^min) fps ∼10% 33.8 (21^min) fps ∼7% 31.8 (19^min) fps ∼8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 6700HQ Asus G752VY	39.6 (20^min) fps ∼7% 29.7 (16^min) fps ∼6% 24.9 (13^min) fps ∼6%
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), 4790K XFX RX-460P4DFG5 Double Dissipation 4 GB	29.1 (17^min) fps ∼5% 18.9 (10^min) fps ∼4% 15.8 (9^min) fps ∼4%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 6700HQ MSI GS60 6QE	30.7 (14^min) fps ∼5% 22.1 (12^min) fps ∼5% 19.7 (10^min) fps ∼5%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GE72 7RE	23.7 (11^min) fps ∼4% 18.5 (9^min) fps ∼4% 15.3 (7^min) fps ∼4%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ Asus GL753VD	23.9 (12^min) fps ∼4% 17.9 (9^min) fps ∼4% 14.7 (8^min) fps ∼4%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GL62M 7RD-077	18.8 (8.94^min) fps ∼3% 14.5 (6.63^min) fps ∼3% 12 (5.99^min) fps ∼3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	17.63 (8.69^min) fps ∼3% 14.27 (7.05^min) fps ∼3% 11.87 (5.97^min) fps ∼3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, i7-7700HQ MSI GL72 7QF	13.9 (7^min) fps ∼2% 12.1 (6^min) fps ∼2% 9.3 (5^min) fps ∼2%
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ MSI GP62 2QD	5.82 (2.78^min) fps ∼1%
NVIDIA GeForce 920M, 2970M MSI CX61 2QC 2970M MS-16GD	6.67 (2.88^min) fps ∼1%

QHD (2,560x1,440) & UHD (3,840x2,160)

Playing Metro Exodus in QHD or UHD at the ultra-high preset is a struggle for even the most powerful of consumer GPUs. We would recommend using at least a GeForce GTX 1080 for playing in UHD, while QHD will push even the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 to its limits. Even the Titan RTX is unable to average 60 FPS.

Metro Exodus
2560x1440 Ultra Quality AF:16x 3840x2160 Ultra Quality AF:16x
NVIDIA Titan RTX, TR 2920X Nvidia Titan RTX 24 GB	69 (39^min) fps ∼20% 51.3 (33^min) fps ∼19%
AMD Radeon VII, R7 2700X AMD Radeon VII	55.8 (33^min) fps ∼16% 37.4 (25^min) fps ∼14%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition	55.7 (31^min) fps ∼16% 34.7 (22.5^min) fps ∼13%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce GTX 1080	45.2 (26^min) fps ∼13% 28.3 (18^min) fps ∼11%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK Alienware 17 R4	43.8 (25^min) fps ∼12% 26.8 (17^min) fps ∼10%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K MSI GeForce GTX 1070	37.6 (23^min) fps ∼11% 23.4 (15^min) fps ∼9%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, i7-7700HQ Acer Predator Triton 700	37.3 (22^min) fps ∼11% 22.5 (15^min) fps ∼8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK Asus G752VS	34.9 (20^min) fps ∼10% 21.3 (14^min) fps ∼8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060	25.5 (16^min) fps ∼7% 15.7 (10^min) fps ∼6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK MSI GT62VR	23 (14^min) fps ∼7% 14 (9^min) fps ∼5%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X i7-7740X Asus X299 Prime	15.1 (9^min) fps ∼6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 6700HQ Asus G752VY	19.2 (11^min) fps ∼5% 11.7 (7^min) fps ∼4%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GE72 7RE	11.9 (6^min) fps ∼3% 7.4 (3^min) fps ∼3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 6700HQ MSI GS60 6QE	14.2 (7^min) fps ∼4% 7.3 (2^min) fps ∼3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ Asus GL753VD	11.3 (6^min) fps ∼3% 7 (4^min) fps ∼3%

Raytracing (1,920x1,080)

Unfortunately, we were unable to test Raytracing in Metro Exodus, but it will put your system under even more strain than it did in our benchmark results. We shall include a corresponding RTX table when we have tested Metro Exodus on our RTX 20 series test systems.

Metro Exodus
1920x1080 Metro Exodus DXR AF:16x

Please Note

Gaming tests are often time-consuming and are hampered by activation or installation limits. Hence, we can currently only provide some of the benchmarks for Metro Exodus. We shall update this article with more GPUs in the coming days and weeks.

Overview

Test Systems

Device	Graphics Card	Processor	RAM	OS
Desktop-PC I	MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i9-9900K	4 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
Desktop-PC II	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11 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)	Intel Core i7-7740X	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
Alienware 17 R4	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X)	Intel Core i7-7820HK	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
Acer Triton 700	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q (8 GB GDDR5X)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
ASUS G752VS	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6820HK	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GT62VR	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6820HK	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GE72	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	2 x 4 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
ASUS GL753VD	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	1 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GL62	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	2 x 4 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
ASUS G752VY	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M (4 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ	2 x 16 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GS60	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (3 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ	2 x 4 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GE72	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ	1 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GL72	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ	1 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI PE60	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M (2 GB GDDR5)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ	2 x 4 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI CX72	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX (2 GB DDR3)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ	2 x 8 GB DDR4	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI GP62	NVIDIA GeForce 940M (2 GB DDR3)	Intel Core i7-5700HQ	1 x 8 GB DDR3	Windows 10 64-bit
MSI CX61	NVIDIA GeForce 920M (2 GB DDR3)	Intel Celeron 2970M	1 x 8 GB DDR3	Windows 10 64-bit
ASUS N551ZU	AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5)	AMD FX-7600P	2 x 4 GB DDR3	Windows 10 64-bit

4K Monitor	NVIDIA driver	AMD driver
2 x ASUS PB287Q, Philips 328P6VJEB	ForceWare 419.17	Adrenalin 19.2.3

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 729 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: Alex Alderson - Senior Tech Writer - 15091 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2018

Prior to writing and translating for Notebookcheck, I worked for various companies including Apple and Neowin. I have a BA in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds, which I have since converted to a Law Degree. Happy to chat on Twitter or Notebookchat.

contact me via: @aldersonaj, Bluesky

> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Metro Exodus Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2019-03- 6 (Update: 2024-11- 4)

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.