Need for Speed 2016 Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

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.