No Man's Sky - Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks
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Game Engine
The launch of the new Nvidia Pascal generation took a lot of time, which means we only got around to testing No Man's Sky now. Perhaps it was better like this, as this hyped game had many technical bugs being reported in the first month. Although we did not encounter any major issues, the game itself suffers from various flaws.
The start problems are annoying, but one can deal with them. Regardless of the test model we used, the game needed to be clicked two to four times in Steam before it actually launched. The graphics-to-performance ratio is imbalanced: despite having modest visuals, which include blurry textures and weak effects (like lighting), the game is hungry for resources. The large universe and spanning worlds are not enough to make up for this resource drain.
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The game was launched for the PS4 simultaneously and it seems there are issues with the controls, as it constantly feels as if they have been customized for console controllers. In the menus, the mouse cursor is slow and to change any settings, the user must click and wait multiple seconds. This is understandably uncomfortable for PC users.
When the game starts the first time on an HDD, it takes a long, long time to load. Depending on the settings and the hardware, this problem might persist even with an SSD. Thankfully, the cut-scenes, which depict a spaceship flying through galaxies and star systems, look really good. The biggest highlight of this game is its brilliant soundtrack, which is a rare thing for games.
The graphics settings are far less impressive. The game offers 15 options, which is not bad, but it does require the user to restart to change the resolution. Other open world games, like The Witcher 3, Far Cry Primal, The Division, Mad Max or Need for Speed, simply change the resolution.
In terms of individual settings, No Man's Sky covers its bases. The developer has included options for the display mode, the pixel quality, view distance (field of view), the gamma value, anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing (AA). The only AA options available are the conservative FXAA (can be a little blurry) and the very demanding SSAA x 4. The video menu is rounded out with four quality and detail scales, a HUD option and an FPS limit range, which offers 30, 60, 90 or 110 frames per second. The lack of presets was inconvenient as this means the user cannot simply change all settings in one go.
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As mentioned in the intro, the game quickly bored us. After a few planets, the whole ordeal is repetitive, despite having a whole universe at our disposal. Soon, most things run in a set way, which dampens the explorer spirit and the joy from the crafting system (Minecraft says "hi"). When combined with the lack of storytelling, the game simply lacks content for continual entertainment.
As such, we can only recommend this game to people who enjoy simple exploration and upgrade mechanisms. A lot of potential under the hood, but the game simply cannot live up to it.
Benchmark
Space travel runs at higher FPS (frames per second) than planet travel. For our test, we took a trip on foot, as can be seen in the video. First, we get out of the spaceship via an alien facility, which shows the performance in buildings. Afterwards, we go around the landing zone and take a look at the flora and fauna of the planet we have landed on (which we named NBC). The benchmark ends after 30 seconds with us getting back on the spaceship.
Although the FPS should be affected by the dynamic day and night change, our test sequence should provide an average expected performance for this game. Due to the "Ego" perspective, we recommend a minimum of 40 FPS. At lower ranges, the game will stutter.
Results
The game may have great art style, but the system requirements are far too high for our liking. Devices running on Intel IGPs (Integrated Graphics Processors) will refuse to start the game ("not currently supported"). Low- and middle-class graphics chips from Nvidia and AMD will run it at low details and a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. At normal settings and a resolution of 1366x768 pixels, No Man's Sky needs a multimedia laptop or a slightly old high-end graphics card (like the GeForce GTX 860M or the GTX 960M).
If you want Full HD, you need a cutting-edge, gaming GPU. Medium to high details will run on the GeForce GTX 880M and the GTX 970M smoothly. If you want a mix of 1920x1080 pixels, max settings and 4x SSAA, then you need at least a GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 980. Our 4K test (3840x2160 pixels, High, FXAA) can only be run smoothly on ultra high-end models, such as the GeForce GTX 1070.
No Man's Sky | |
3840x2160 High AA:FX AF:8x 1920x1080 Ultra High AA:4x SS AF:16x 1920x1080 High AA:FX AF:8x 1920x1080 Medium AA:Off AF:4x 1366x768 Medium AA:Off AF:4x 1280x720 Low AA:Off AF:1x | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 4790K | |
AMD Radeon R9 Fury, 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), 6700K | |
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), 4790K | |
AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop), 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ | |
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), 4790K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ | |
AMD Radeon R9 M280X, FX-7600P | |
NVIDIA GeForce 920M, 2970M | |
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M | |
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ |
Overview
Test Systems
Desktop-PCs | Custom Nvidia | Custom AMD |
---|---|---|
Mainboard | Asus Z170-A | Asus Z97-Deluxe |
Processor | Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake) | Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell) |
Graphics Card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (4 GB GDDR5) |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8 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) |
RAM | 2 x 8 GB DDR4-2133 | 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage Device | 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) |
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit | Windows 10 Home 64 Bit |
Schenker Notebooks | Schenker W504 | Schenker XMG A505 | Schenker S413 |
---|---|---|---|
Mainboard | Intel HM87 | Intel HM87 | Intel HM87 |
Processor | Intel Core i7-4700MQ (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-4720HQ (Haswell) | Intel Core i7-4750HQ (Haswell) |
Graphics Card | 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) | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 |
RAM | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 | 2x 8 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage Device | Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB) | Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1.000 GB) |
Intel SSD |
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit | Windows 10 Home 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) |
Graphics Card | 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 |
Storage Device | 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) | ||
OS | Windows 10 Home 64 Bit | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit |
Asus Notebooks | Asus G752VS | Asus N551ZU |
---|---|---|
Mainboard | Intel CM236 | AMD K15.1 |
Processor | Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake) | AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri) |
Graphics Card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) | AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5) |
RAM | 4 x 16 GB DDR4-2400 | 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 |
Storage Device | Toshiba NVMe THNSN5512GPU7 SSD (512 GB) | Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB) |
OS | Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit | Windows 10 64 Bit |
4K Monitor | Nvidia Driver | AMD Driver | Intel Driver |
---|---|---|---|
2 x Asus PB287Q | ForceWare 372.70 | Crimson 16.9.1 | 15.40.28.4501 |