Need for Speed 2016 Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

Highly polished. With "Need for Speed", publisher EA relaunches their successful racing series. The arcade-style racing game might lack substance, but the technology behind it is top notch. Our review takes a look at how different noteboook GPUs cope with the title. Update: we've added additional notebook and desktop benchmarks for the 940MX, Fury Pro, R7 370, ...

Florian Glaser, ✓ Stefanie Voigt (translated by Bernie Pechlaner), Published 03/27/2016 🇩🇪

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

After Hitman, which we've reviewed just recently, Need for Speed now also follows the current "reboot" trend. Stylistically, the new game bears a striking resemblance to the underground series from 10 years ago, which was released during the hype around the first installment of "The Fast and the Furious".

Graphics have improved by leaps and bounds since then. The new offshoot is based on the Frostbite 3 Engine, which is also used in such games as Star Wars Battlefront, Dragon Age Inquisition and Battlefield 4 / Hardline. As before, the Engine impresses with well-defined textures and nice effects. In addition to particles (sparks etc.), the reflections are pretty impressive, albeit sometimes excessive. Especially when it's raining, the cars and the track seem to sparkle and twinkle more than an amusement park. The lighting effects also doesn't have to fear the competition. Despite - or maybe because - it is the middle of the night most of the time, the lights really stand out. Thanks to physics simulation, there's also a plethora of destroyable level objects.

For a game released in 2016, Need for Speed takes up surprisingly little space: even after the install, the title only occupies up about 13 GB of space. Lots of games require up to 30 GB or more (example: Dirt Rally). One point of criticism: an Internet connection is mandatory. Since the user is normally paired up with strangers, there's no way to log in without being online. At least Need for Speed forgoes the 30 fps limit of console games, which was a limiting factor for the PC version of the game Rivals.

Graphics have been improved as well compared to PS4 and Xbox One. PC users can take advantage of higher resolutions and tweak the settings. Even though there's only a total of 12 options, at least all of them can be applied with out restarting the game. As expected, anti-aliasing is part of the package. FXAA doesn't require a lot of power, but only has a fairly subtle smoothing effect; TAA does a much better job, but the picture isn't quite as sharp (see screenshots below). Ambient Occlusion is available via SSAO and HBAO (the latter has more of an impact on the performance). The rest of the options can either be turned on or off or switched between low, medium, high, and ultra.

With Need for Speed installed on an SSD, the load times are acceptable - except for the first start. Users who have notebooks equipped with HDDs have to be a lot more patient. The developers could also improve the controls, or more specifically the key assignment, which isn't exactly intuitive. "Enter", for example, takes the place of "Esc". "PgUp" and "PgDn" aren't commonly used, either - and neither is the vehicle control with the "W/S" and the arrow keys. Speaking of vehicles: the driving model takes a little time getting used to.

The "real life" video sequences seem very cliché and over-the-top, which makes the story more embarrassing than cool - unless the user adopts a tongue-in-cheek attitude or simply looks upon the game as a satire.

The gaming experience itself is standard fare and reminiscent of the older titles (complete with AI rubberbanding and lifeless streets). The powerful engine sound and extensive tuning options don't quite make up for this shortcoming. From a technical standpoint, Need for Speed appears to be well-engineered. During our tests we never had the game crash, lose connection or encountered longer lag times. We did have some issues with Intel GPUs, which produced massive graphics errors (we suspect the driver here).

Benchmark

Since Need for Speed doesn't come with an integrated benchmark, we've decided on one of the first races (called "In the Driver's Seat"), which we think is representative of the gameplay. Since the performance is fairly constant, this sequence is pretty indicative of the frame rates which can be expected, although the demand on the resources changes a little depending on the weather. Especially during a downpour, the fps number drops a little, since the Engine has to render more particles.

Benchmark results of above 30-35 fps should provide a decent enough margin. As outlined in the video below, we keep recording the frame rate until Checkpoint 10, which on average takes about 70 seconds.

▶ load Youtube video

Results

The hardware requirements depend on the graphics quality. Users who want to enjoy Need for Speed with maximum details, HBAO and TAA and 1920 x 1080 pixels, need a high-end GPU like the GeForce GTX 880M. High settingss, SSAO and FXAA are possible with either a GeForce GTX 870M or GTX 960M. The demands on the hardware further decline at medium details, so a midrange GPUs like the GTX 850M are sufficient. Weaker GPUs can't handle Full-HD without stuttering.

In order to reach at least 30 fps, a GeForce GT 750M is only usable at 1280 x 720 pixels and low details. Inexpensive allrounder-GPUs like the GeForce GT 740M and most Intel graphics cards (HD Graphics 4600, ...) are unable to cope with the demands on the hardware. Users who own a 4K display and would like to play the game at high details have to resort to the (prohibitively expensive) GeForce GTX 980 or certain SLI combinations.

Need for Speed 2016
3840x2160 High / On AA:FX 1920x1080 Ultra / On AA:T 1920x1080 High / On AA:FX 1920x1080 Medium / Off 1366x768 Medium / Off 1280x720 Low / Off
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro	40.3 (34^min) fps ∼43% 68.3 (42^min) fps ∼46% 95 (69^min) fps ∼58%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K Desktop PC	34 (27^min) fps ∼37% 74.6 (55^min) fps ∼50% 99.6 (83^min) fps ∼61% 111 (93^min) fps ∼88% 133 (100^min) fps ∼68% 136 (105^min) fps ∼83%
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC	32.5 (27^min) fps ∼35% 61 (43^min) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	26 (20^min) fps ∼28% 51.8 (36^min) fps ∼35% 70.4 (58^min) fps ∼43% 78 (63^min) fps ∼62% 86.1 (67^min) fps ∼44% 93.3 (70^min) fps ∼57%
AMD Radeon R9 280X, 4790K Asus Z97 Deluxe Desktop i7-4790K, R9 280X	26.6 (22^min) fps ∼29% 51 (39^min) fps ∼34%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	20.4 (16^min) fps ∼22% 43.4 (33^min) fps ∼29% 57.6 (49^min) fps ∼35% 62 (51^min) fps ∼49% 82.4 (58^min) fps ∼42% 92 (70^min) fps ∼56%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, 6700K Desktop PC	11.7 (9^min) fps ∼13% 34.2 (26^min) fps ∼23% 43.5 (30^min) fps ∼27% 52.9 (38^min) fps ∼42% 83 (62^min) fps ∼42% 84.2 (63^min) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	14.2 (11^min) fps ∼15% 31.7 (24^min) fps ∼21% 42.4 (33^min) fps ∼26% 46.8 (37^min) fps ∼37% 77.2 (63^min) fps ∼39% 82.2 (66^min) fps ∼50%
AMD Radeon R7 370, 4790K MSI Gaming R7 370 2GB	11.3 (9^min) fps ∼12% 37.7 (29^min) fps ∼25% 49.8 (42^min) fps ∼30%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ MSI GE72 965M Ti	31.1 (24^min) fps ∼21% 52.6 (44^min) fps ∼32% 40.1 (29^min) fps ∼32% 72.3 (58^min) fps ∼37% 82 (69^min) fps ∼50%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	11.8 (9^min) fps ∼13% 28.7 (22^min) fps ∼19% 39.1 (30^min) fps ∼24% 40.4 (32^min) fps ∼32% 70.7 (60^min) fps ∼36% 77.8 (62^min) fps ∼47%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ Schenker XMG A505	11 (8^min) fps ∼12% 27.7 (20^min) fps ∼19% 38.4 (27^min) fps ∼23% 45.2 (34^min) fps ∼36% 70.1 (59^min) fps ∼36% 77.2 (62^min) fps ∼47%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	8.4 (6^min) fps ∼9% 21.2 (16^min) fps ∼14% 26.3 (22^min) fps ∼16% 32 (23^min) fps ∼25% 54.1 (45^min) fps ∼28% 61.3 (51^min) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, 6700HQ MSI PE60 2QD	24.1 (17^min) fps ∼16% 33 (27^min) fps ∼20% 61.6 (49^min) fps ∼31% 67 (54^min) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M Schenker M504	18.3 (10^min) fps ∼12% 23.9 (19^min) fps ∼15% 31.9 (25^min) fps ∼25% 43.2 (32^min) fps ∼22% 49.8 (37^min) fps ∼30%
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ MSI CX72 6QD	15.5 (12^min) fps ∼9% 18 (14^min) fps ∼14% 30 (24^min) fps ∼15% 33.3 (26^min) fps ∼20%
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ MSI GP62 2QD	15.7 (13^min) fps ∼10% 17.7 (14^min) fps ∼14% 29.2 (24^min) fps ∼15% 34.5 (29^min) fps ∼21%
AMD Radeon R9 M280X, FX-7600P Asus N551ZU-CN007H	24.1 (15^min) fps ∼15%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	13.3 (7^min) fps ∼8% 15.5 (12^min) fps ∼12% 26.4 (22^min) fps ∼13% 30.3 (25^min) fps ∼18%
NVIDIA GeForce 920M, 2970M MSI CX61 2QC 2970M MS-16GD	21.3 (11^min) fps ∼13%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	11.1 (8^min) fps ∼9% 19.4 (16^min) fps ∼10% 22.3 (18^min) fps ∼14%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M MSI CX61-i572M	13.9 fps ∼7% 17.1 fps ∼10%
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W504	16.5 (14^min) fps ∼10%

Need for Speed 2016 - 3840x2160 High / On AA:FX
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K, XFX Radeon R9 Fury Pro	40.3 (34^min - 48^max) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K, Desktop PC	34 (27^min) fps
AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K, Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC	32.5 (27^min - 40^max) fps
AMD Radeon R9 280X, 4790K, Asus Z97 Deluxe Desktop i7-4790K, R9 280X	26.6 (22^min - 32^max) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ, Schenker W504	26 (20^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ, Schenker W504	20.4 (16^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ, Schenker W504	14.2 (11^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ, Schenker W504	11.8 (9^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, 6700K, Desktop PC	11.7 (9^min) fps
AMD Radeon R7 370, 4790K, MSI Gaming R7 370 2GB	11.3 (9^min - 15^max) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ, Schenker XMG A505	11 (8^min) fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ, Schenker W504	8.4 (6^min) fps

Overview

Test Systems

Desktop PCs	Custom Nvidia	Custom AMD
Motherboard	Asus Z170-A	Asus Z97-Deluxe
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (4 GB GDDR5) PNY GeForce GTX 950 (2 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)
RAM	2 x 8 GB DDR4-2133	2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600
HDD	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)
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

Schenker Notebooks	Schenker W504	Schenker XMG A505	Schenker M504	Schenker M503	Schenker S413
Mainboard	Intel HM87	Intel HM87	Intel HM86	Intel HM86	Intel HM87
Processor	Intel Core i7-4700MQ (Haswell)	Intel Core i7-4720HQ (Haswell)	Intel Core i5-4340M (Haswell)	Intel Core i7-4702MQ (Haswell)	Intel Core i7-4750HQ (Haswell)
GPU	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)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M (2 GB DDR3)	Nvidia GeForce GT 750M (2 GB DDR3)	Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
RAM	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 8 GB DDR3-1600
HDD1	Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB) Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD (500 GB)	Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1.000 GB)	Intel SSD 520 (240 GB)	Intel SSD 520 (240 GB)	Intel SSD
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

MSI Notebooks	MSI GE72	MSI PE60	MSI GP62	MSI CX61	MSI CX61
Mainboard	Intel HM170	Intel HM170	Intel HM86	Intel HM86	Intel HM86
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-5700HQ (Broadwell)	Intel Celeron 2970M (Haswell)	Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell)
GPU	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)
RAM	1 x 8 GB DDR4-2133	2 x 4 GB DDR4-2133	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600
HDD1	Toshiba THNSNJ128G8NU SSD (128 GB) WDC WD10JPVX HDD (1.000 GB) OCZ Trion 100 SSD (480 GB)			Toshiba MQ01ABF050 HDD (500 GB)	WDC Scorpio Blue HDD (1.000 GB)
Operating system	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

other Notebooks	HP Envy 15	Asus N551ZU
Mainboard	Intel HM87	AMD K15.1
Processor	Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell)	AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GT 740M (2 GB DDR3)	AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5)
RAM	1 x 8 GB DDR3-1600	2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600
HDD	Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB)	Samsung SSD 830 256 GB
Operating system	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit

4K Monitor	Nvidia driver	AMD driver	Intel driver
2 x Asus PB287Q	ForceWare 364.51	Crimson 16.3.1	15.40.10.64.4300

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 635 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: Bernie Pechlaner - Senior Tech Writer - 276 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2012

Ended up in the IT sector in the 90s more or less accidentally and have remained in the industry (as a sysadmin) ever since. Always been interested in laptops - first purchase was - if memory serves correctly - a Toshiba Satellite T2115CS with DX4-75 processor, 4 MB of RAM and 350 MB hard disk drive (and Windows 3.1). To this day, laptops appeal to me - much to the chagrin of my wife, who doesn’t seem understand why we need 5-10 of them at any given time ;-).

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Need for Speed 2016 Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2016-03-27 (Update: 2024-08-15)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Need for Speed 2016 (2016)
Pos	Model	low 1280x720 Low / Off	med. 1366x768 Medium / Off	high 1920x1080 High / On FXAA	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra / On TAA	4K 3840x2160 High / On FXAA
77	NVIDIA Titan X Pascal	120.7	111.1	98.9	79.2	75.6
78	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)			106.5ⁿ²	94.35ⁿ²	90.3ⁿ²
80	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 SLI (Laptop)			99.3	85.7	84
95	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)	129	141	126	104	61
117	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile			96.3	76.7	59.4
130	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)	133.4	122.4	121.4	93.1	75.1
136	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)				97.5ⁿ²	50.95ⁿ²
141	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile	142.9	128.9	96.15ⁿ²	84.75ⁿ²	47.8
162	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti				90	48
170	AMD Radeon R9 Fury			95	68.3	40.3
171	AMD Radeon R9 Nano				76	34.7
172	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	136	133	99.6	74.6	34
184	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)	136.1	130.3	104.4	77.3	40.5
187	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI	107.6	102.5	90.7	68.1	37.1
188	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)	130	128	100	77.4	33.9
192	AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)			91	68.4	31.6
193	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile			83.9ⁿ²	64.05ⁿ²	31.4
218	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970				70	31
242	AMD Radeon R9 290X				61	32.5
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Need for Speed 2016
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
249	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M	96.8ⁿ³	92.6ⁿ³	72.2ⁿ³	51.8ⁿ³	25.85ⁿ²
258	AMD Radeon R9 280X				51	26.6
260	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	118.2	104.6	68.8	51.6	21.4
262	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile			60.4	46.4	21.3
268	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M	96.3ⁿ⁴	88.5ⁿ⁴	57.75ⁿ⁴	43.9ⁿ⁴	20.4
285	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile	105	99.3	63.4	47.2
288	AMD Radeon R7 370			49.8	37.7	11.3
290	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M	82.2	77.2	42.4	31.7	14.2
294	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950	84.2	83	43.5	34.2	11.7
306	AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop)			51.7	38.2	15.3
309	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M	83.9ⁿ⁴	75.5ⁿ⁴	45.2ⁿ⁴	33.85ⁿ⁴	14.8
313	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M	77.8	70.7	39.1	28.7	11.8
334	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	77.2ⁿ³	70.1ⁿ³	39.3ⁿ³	28.4ⁿ³	11
352	NVIDIA GeForce MX150	95.8	61.7	31.4	22.7
365	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M	61.3	54.1	26.3	21.2	8.4
373	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	67	61.6	33	24.1
381	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M	49.8	43.2	23.9	18.3
385	AMD Radeon R9 M280X	24.1
473	NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M	30.3	26.4	13.3
476	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	34.4ⁿ³	30.1ⁿ³	19.35ⁿ²	18
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Need for Speed 2016
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
481	NVIDIA GeForce 940M	34.55ⁿ²	28.95ⁿ²	15.7
528	NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M	22.3	19.4
530	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	35.2	28.1
540	NVIDIA GeForce 920MX	28.1	24.7
541	Intel Iris Graphics 540	17.3
580	AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)	18.8
582*	AMD Radeon R7 M460	26.6	23	14.1
585	AMD Radeon R7 M360	28.1	21.8	11.3	8.9
587	NVIDIA GeForce 920M	21.3
590	AMD Radeon R8 M445DX	25.6	22.6	11.7	9.5
617	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	18.6	15
620	AMD Radeon R6 (Carrizo)	11.1	10.4
685	NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M	12.7
689	AMD Radeon R5 M330	22.55ⁿ²	17ⁿ²
690	AMD Radeon R5 M430	20.8	18.1
691	AMD Radeon R5 M255	24.1	22.1	11.3
696	Intel HD Graphics 520	15.2	13.5
699	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	17.1	13.9
720	Intel HD Graphics 4600	15.4ⁿ²	10.1
797	Intel HD Graphics 515	7.25ⁿ²	5.9
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Need for Speed 2016
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
835	Intel HD Graphics 5300	9.1	7.7

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.