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Performance Analysis of Mass Effect Legendary Edition

100 GB for 100 hours of joy. Over the past few years, video game publishers have released a whole slew of remastered versions of classic games. Not that long ago a complete remake of Mafia was released, and now the Mass Effect trilogy is also getting some love. Read this article to find out the system requirements for Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Technology

Even though the remastered Mass Effect games do not look particularly impressive in this day and age, they still thoroughly beat the original titles. For our performance analysis, we decided to focus on the remaster of Mass Effect 1, because it received the most significant visual upgrade (its textures have been completely reworked). The remaster feels very atmospheric, which is a good thing for a role-playing game like Mass Effect. However, the animations are still not good, just like in all other Mass Effect titles.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition

We were quite disappointed by the graphics menu because it only contains 6 settings (Dynamic Shadows, Motion Blur, Vsync, Film Grain, Antialiasing & Ambient Occlusion). There are also no presets. In the graphics menu, gamers can change the resolution and the window mode. There is also a frame rate limiter with a range of 30 to 240 FPS.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition

We carried out our benchmarks with all the graphics effects enabled, at least at resolutions above 1080p. However, we did not use vertical synchronisation. Positive: A restart is not required for graphics changes to take effect.


Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition

The system requirements of Mass Effect Legendary Edition are very low, which is why it can run even on systems with weak hardware. This is good news for people who own cheap PCs or laptops. Mass Effect LE often runs into CPU bottlenecks even with mid-range graphics cards, which is not uncommon for this type of game. You will need a high-end GPU if you want to game at 4K, though.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Benchmark

We conducted our benchmarks at the space station known as Citadel. It features beautiful architecture and a lot of NPCs. We used CapFrameX to record the frame rates.

Results

FHD (1920x1080)

As we already mentioned, even cheap PCs and laptops can easily handle Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Low-end GPUs can run the game at 1080p with all the visual effects enabled without any issues. At 1080p, the GeForce MX350 was able to achieve over 40 FPS, which is enough for an RPG.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition
    1920x1080 On
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim X
128 (27.1min, 49.8P0.1, 69.8P1) fps ∼26%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
126 (26.7min, 45.8P0.1, 69.9P1) fps ∼26%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 2080
123 (25.3min, 53.5P0.1, 68.9P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ventus 3X
123 (24.6min, 49.7P0.1, 68.1P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio
122 (25.2min, 51.7P0.1, 65.6P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GP65 Leopard 9SF
112 (25.3min, 37.7P0.1, 60.6P1) fps ∼23%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K
MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG
111 (15min, 15.4P0.1, 19.1P1) fps ∼23%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GP65 Leopard 9SD
110 (15.8min, 35.6P0.1, 62.3P1) fps ∼23%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile, i7-10750H
MSI GP75
103 (26.8min, 52.6P0.1, 61.6P1) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GE65 Raider 9SE
99.9 (21.4min, 23.7P0.1, 30.3P1) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-10750H
MSI GL75
90.3 (22.7min, 43.5P0.1, 51.1P1) fps ∼19%
AMD Radeon RX 5600M, R7 4800H
Dell G5 15 SE
71 (20.4min, 26.2P0.1, 42.1P1) fps ∼15%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK
MSI GT62VR
70.2 (19.7min, 25.1P0.1, 41.9P1) fps ∼14%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ
MSI GL62M 7RD
64.3 (20.9min, 26.1P0.1, 42.9P1) fps ∼13%
AMD Radeon RX 5500M, R7 3750H
MSI Alpha 15
48.6 (12.1min, 16.1P0.1, 22.6P1) fps ∼10%
NVIDIA GeForce MX350, i5-10210U
Honor Magicbook Pro
44 (21.3min, 24.1P0.1, 31.5P1) fps ∼9%

QHD (2560x1440)

To run the game at 1440p, you will need a mid-range graphics card such as the GeForce GTX 1650. All in all, the remastered version is not particularly demanding at 1440p.


Mass Effect Legendary Edition
    2560x1440 On
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim X
128 (26.2min, 55.6P0.1, 68.7P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
125 (20.6min, 48P0.1, 68.8P1) fps ∼25%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ventus 3X
123 (24.8min, 43.3P0.1, 67.1P1) fps ∼24%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 2080
120 (25.4min, 51.9P0.1, 66.9P1) fps ∼24%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio
120 (26.8min, 50.6P0.1, 66.1P1) fps ∼24%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K
MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG
109 (15.3min, 15.8P0.1, 23.1P1) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GP65 Leopard 9SF
106 (18.7min, 35.4P0.1, 60.3P1) fps ∼21%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GP65 Leopard 9SD
96.2 (23.1min, 30.8P0.1, 60.3P1) fps ∼19%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GE65 Raider 9SE
90.3 (19.6min, 21P0.1, 25.8P1) fps ∼18%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile, i7-10750H
MSI GP75
75.9 (28.3min, 38P0.1, 58.4P1) fps ∼15%
AMD Radeon RX 5600M, R7 4800H
Dell G5 15 SE
67.6 (21.5min, 26.8P0.1, 41.4P1) fps ∼13%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-10750H
MSI GL75
67.5 (22.3min, 27.7P0.1, 49.5P1) fps ∼13%
AMD Radeon RX 5500M, R7 3750H
MSI Alpha 15
42.4 (12.8min, 15.1P0.1, 19.6P1) fps ∼8%
NVIDIA GeForce MX350, i5-10210U
Honor Magicbook Pro
28.3 (10.9min, 11.9P0.1, 18.1P1) fps ∼6%

UHD (3840x2160)

Even at 4K, you can get away with a mid-range GPU such as the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti or the Radeon RX 5600M.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition
    3840x2160 On
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim X
121 (27.4min, 46.8P0.1, 68.2P1) fps ∼32%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio
117 (25.4min, 41.2P0.1, 65.5P1) fps ∼31%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
115 (23.9min, 42.9P0.1, 67.6P1) fps ∼30%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ventus 3X
105 (24.4min, 33.3P0.1, 64.5P1) fps ∼28%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K
MSI GeForce RTX 2080
97.8 (25.7min, 30.1P0.1, 63.9P1) fps ∼26%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K
MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG
81.7 (13.4min, 13.8P0.1, 16.9P1) fps ∼22%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GP65 Leopard 9SF
74 (16.1min, 28.2P0.1, 53.9P1) fps ∼20%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GE65 Raider 9SE
56.9 (16.6min, 17.7P0.1, 22.3P1) fps ∼15%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H
MSI GP65 Leopard 9SD
53.6 (31.8min, 35.3P0.1, 44P1) fps ∼14%
AMD Radeon RX 5600M, R7 4800H
Dell G5 15 SE
45.7 (23.6min, 25.2P0.1, 35.6P1) fps ∼12%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile, i7-10750H
MSI GP75
38.1 (29.7min, 31.6P0.1, 32.8P1) fps ∼10%
AMD Radeon RX 5500M, R7 3750H
MSI Alpha 15
35.4 (12.2min, 15.2P0.1, 20.1P1) fps ∼9%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-10750H
MSI GL75
33.7 (27.4min, 27.5P0.1, 28.7P1) fps ∼9%
NVIDIA GeForce MX350, i5-10210U
Honor Magicbook Pro
13.3 (7.51min, 7.57P0.1, 7.87P1) fps ∼4%

Note

Because benchmarking video games is very time consuming and is often constrained by installation/activation limits, at the time of publishing, we were able to provide only a part of our performance analysis of Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Other graphics cards will be added in the coming days and weeks.

Overview

Show Restrictions
PosModel< PrevNext >Mass Effect Legendary Edition
 Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)
low
1280x720
Off
ultra
1920x1080
On
QHD
2560x1440
On
4K
3840x2160
On
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
126n2
120n2
117.5n2
115n2
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
129
122
120
117
AMD Radeon RX 6800
117
110
106
101
NVIDIA Titan RTX
106
113
107
106
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU
152
149
115
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
129
123
123
105
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop)
132
126
125
115
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
81.2
98.5
99.3
88.9
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU
129.5n2
115n3
111
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU
134.7n2
123.7n2
80.5
AMD Radeon RX 6800M
107
96.6
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
108
101
99.7
72.7
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop)
127
123
120
97.8
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU
106n2
100n3
94.3
AMD Radeon RX 6800S
99.3
98.2
70.1
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
117
112
114
78.8
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile
125
111
109
81.7
AMD Radeon RX 6700M
99.6
NVIDIA Titan X Pascal
106
113
112
PosModel< PrevNext >Mass Effect Legendary Edition
low ultra QHD 4K
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (Desktop)
116
113
113
92.6
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (Desktop)
109
105
104
78.7
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
109
100n3
91.9
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (Desktop)
104
101
99.6
76.7
AMD Radeon RX 6600
96.2
91.6
89.3
57.9
AMD Radeon RX 5700 (Desktop)
112
108
103
68.7
AMD Radeon RX 6700S
98.4
95.3
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile
116
112
106
74
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
95.8
107
105
70.9
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile
102
99.9
90.3
56.9
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
114
110
94.2
51.7
AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (Desktop)
118
109
103
64.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop)
116
112
105
58.5
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
110
105
78.1
37.5
AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (Desktop)
108
99.6
80.9
41
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
150.1
135.1
Intel Arc A730M
88.5
81.9
AMD Radeon RX 5600M
73.1
71
67.6
45.7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile
115
110
96.2
53.6
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU
113n2
PosModel< PrevNext >Mass Effect Legendary Edition
low ultra QHD 4K
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (Desktop)
114
112
94.6
47.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super (Desktop)
111
109
89.3
45.4
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Laptop GPU
96.8
78.2
43.5
AMD Radeon RX 6500M
82.2
75.6
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile
80.3
70.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile
123
103
75.9
38.1
AMD Radeon RX 5500M
50.3
48.6
42.4
35.4
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile
69.8
67.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Desktop)
116
101
69
33.9
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile
106
90.3
67.5
33.7
AMD Radeon 680M
91.1
57.8
NVIDIA GeForce MX450
89.35n2
56.75n2
41.2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile
80.3
64.3
AMD Radeon 660M
70
38.9
AMD Radeon RX 560X (Laptop)
62
48.3
Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs
63.8n3
42.25n2
29.6
NVIDIA GeForce MX350
83.8
44
28.3
13.3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (Desktop)
79.6
36.5
Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs
49
32.4
NVIDIA GeForce GT 710
19.1
9.1
PosModel< PrevNext >Mass Effect Legendary Edition
low ultra QHD 4K
AMD Radeon 540X
39.5
19.2
AMD Radeon RX Vega 10
29.4
18
Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs
33.3
21.6
Intel UHD Graphics Xe 32EUs (Tiger Lake-H)
57.2
26.6
Intel UHD Graphics 770
70.9
33.6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
49.4n3
33.5n3
21.9
AMD Radeon RX Vega 7
48
25.3
NVIDIA GeForce 930MX
35
16.3
AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
40.4
20
AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
23.7
15.3
Intel UHD Graphics G1 (Ice Lake 32 EU)
25.8
17
Intel UHD Graphics 630
38.5
16.1
9.59
Intel UHD Graphics 620
22.6
11.8
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3
22.2
13.7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
21
8.91
Intel HD Graphics 4600
14.3
8.65
Intel UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 32 EU)
4.39
(-) * 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.

Test Systems

Device GPU CPU RAM OS
Desktop PC I MSI GeForce RTX 3090 (24 GB GDDR6X)
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 (10 GB GDDR6X)
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB GDDR6)
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (11 GB GDDR6)
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6)
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)
Intel Core i7-8086K, Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2 x 8 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
Desktop PC III Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 FE(24 GB GDDR6X)
Nvidia Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super (8 GB GDDR6)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8 GB GDDR6)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6)
KFA2 GeForce GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6)
PNY GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB GDDR5)
KFA2 GeForce GTX 1650 Super (4 GB GDDR6)
KFA2 GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5)
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB GDDR6)
AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB GDDR6)
AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB GDDR6)
AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (8 GB GDDR6)
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (8 GB HBM2)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 2 x 16 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GT76 Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i9-9900K 2 x 16 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GP65 Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i7-9750H 2 x 16 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GE65 Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i7-9750H 2 x 8 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GP65 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i7-9750H 2 x 16 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GP75 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (4 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i7-10750H 2 x 8 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI GL75 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i7-10750H 2 x 8 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
MSI GL62 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5) Intel Core i7-7700HQ 2 x 4 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
Honor MagicBook Pro Nvidia GeForce MX350 (2 GB GDDR5) Intel Core i7-10210U 1 x 16 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
Dell G5 15 SE AMD Radeon RX5600M (6 GB GDDR6) AMD Ryzen 7 4800H 2 x 8 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI Alpha 15 AMD Radeon RX5500M (4 GB GDDR6) AMD Ryzen 7 3750H 2 x 8 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
MSI Prestige 14 Evo Intel Iris Xe (96 CUs) Intel Core i7-1185G7 1 x 16 GB DDR4 Windows 10 64 Bit
4K monitors Nvidia drivers AMD drivers
Asus PB287Q, Philips Brilliance 329P9H, Acer Predator XB321HK ForceWare 466.27 Adrenalin 21.5.1
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Performance Analysis of Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Florian Glaser, 2021-05-19 (Update: 2021-05-19)