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Skull & Bones review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Talked a big game.

When taking a look at Skull & Bones' final ratings, it's clear that Ubisoft has made a fool of itself when announcing it as a AAAA game. In our benchmark check, you can find out how graphically demanding the game is.
Skull & Bones

Test systems

Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (RTX 4090)
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (RTX 4090)
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23 (RTX 4080)
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23 (RTX 4080)
XMG Pro 15 E23 (RTX 4070)
XMG Pro 15 E23 (RTX 4070)
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23 (RTX 4060)
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23 (RTX 4060)
Medion Erazer Scout E20 (RTX 4050)
Medion Erazer Scout E20 (RTX 4050)
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16 (RX 7600S & 780M)
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16 (RX 7600S & 780M)
be quiet! Silent Base 802 (RTX 4080 & RX 7900 XT)
be quiet! Silent Base 802 (RTX 4080 & RX 7900 XT)
Philips Evnia 8000 Series 41.5" UHD OLED gaming monitor
Philips Evnia 8000 Series 41.5" UHD OLED gaming monitor

We currently carry out our gaming benchmarks with these devices. Clicking on the photos will take you to the respective manufacturer's website. More details on their specifications are listed at the end of the article.

Tech

While Skull & Bones was received somewhat decently by the press, the pirate adventure game is receiving mostly negative feedback from players. As it has since turned out, its chaotic development time of over 10 years meant that this plight was entirely foreseeable.

Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones

In our benchmark article, we will be primarily focusing on Skull & Bone's tech, which turned out much better. Although the game won't break any records for being visually stunning (lots of textures could be better, for example), its total look is fine—plus, its hardware requirements aren't all too extreme, as we will be analyzing in detail shortly. Furthermore, the game's tech seems to be quite mature (Ubisoft uses its in-house Anvil Engine). This means we didn't note a single crash or any other larger problems during the course of our test.

Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones

As is well-known from most Ubisoft games, Skull & Bones offers an extensive settings menu split into two parts—this is likely due to its sheer mass. Beginning with the Visuals tab, where you can change the picture mode, aspect ratio, resolution, VSync, field of view and the FPS limit. Even more settings can be found within the Graphics menu which houses over 10 options that can be adapted in one fell swoop using presets. From Very High onwards, global ray-tracing lighting is activated, but this doesn't come at the cost of too much performance. Less than ideal, on the other hand, is that automatic upscaling is automatically activated at every level. For our tests, we manually set the options to TAA Native (except for during the DLSS and FSR benchmarks).

Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones

In turn, we like that the numerous settings are visualized with the help of comparison images—in addition to text explanations. Ubisoft has also added a practical VRAM display to the options menu. According to this, around 8 GB is required for a mixture of 4K and Ultra settings, which is neither little nor particularly much. A positive: In contrast to Assassin's Creed Mirage, for example, changes are applied without having to restart the game. Meanwhile, the developers could still do with working on the duration of the games' loading times.

Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones

Benchmark

As is typical for Ubisoft, Skull & Bones features an integrated benchmark that shows a swish tracking shot for about 1.5 minutes and presents spectacular sea battles as well as land shots (see video). 

Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones

A frame rate graph is already displayed during the measurement. Pressing the space bar opens further options, for example the (V)RAM or GPU load. At the end of the measurement, everything is summarized again in a nice overview.

Results

As already mentioned, the game's system requirements aren't all too high. Although even speedy iGPUs such as the Radeon 780M have their hands full when running the game at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and minimum settings (1,280 x 720 pixels still run smoothly on the AMD model), mid-range contenders such as the Radeon RX 7600S or better manage Full HD and maximum settings.

FHD (1,920 x 1,080)

Skull & Bones
    1920x1080 Low Preset AA:T     1920x1080 Medium Preset AA:T     1920x1080 High Preset AA:T     1920x1080 Ultra High Preset AA:T
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K
Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F
202 (85min) fps ∼100%
183 (82min) fps ∼100%
145 (80min) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K
Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F
158 (33min) fps ∼78%
140 (27min) fps ∼77%
113 (22min) fps ∼78%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900H
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
124 (50min) fps ∼61%
122 (44min) fps ∼67%
105 (40min) fps ∼72%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23
117 (42min) fps ∼58%
115 (51min) fps ∼63%
96 (40min) fps ∼66%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX
XMG Pro 15 E23
116 (44min) fps ∼57%
97 (46min) fps ∼53%
75 (39min) fps ∼52%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23
110 (44min) fps ∼54%
85 (43min) fps ∼46%
66 (32min) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H
Medion Erazer Scout E20
93 (28min) fps ∼46%
76 (38min) fps ∼42%
57 (34min) fps ∼39%
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16
80 (21min) fps ∼100%
74 (20min) fps ∼37%
60 (15min) fps ∼33%
46 (17min) fps ∼32%
AMD Radeon 780M, R9 7940HS
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16
34 (18min) fps ∼43%
31 (20min) fps ∼15%
23 (15min) fps ∼13%
19 (12min) fps ∼13%

QHD (2,560 x 1,440)

You also don't need a high-end component to run the game on QHD monitors. At 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and using the Ultra preset, a GeForce RTX 4050 manages over 40fps.

Skull & Bones
    2560x1440 Ultra High Preset AA:T
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K
Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F
120 (67min) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K
Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F
94 (21min) fps ∼78%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900H
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
88 (40min) fps ∼73%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23
76 (32min) fps ∼63%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX
XMG Pro 15 E23
59 (35min) fps ∼49%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23
51 (33min) fps ∼43%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H
Medion Erazer Scout E20
42 (23min) fps ∼35%
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16
37 (14min) fps ∼31%

UHD (3,840 x 2,160)

You only need expensive gaming devices to play the game in 4K—if you don't use upscaling, that is. A combination of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels and the preset Ultra High requires a GeForce RTX 4080 at the least. With DLSS (Quality) activated, an RTX 4060 is enough.

Skull & Bones
    3840x2160 Ultra High Preset AA:T     3840x2160 Ultra High Preset + Quality DLSS     3840x2160 Ultra High Preset + Quality FSR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K
Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F
79 (52min) fps ∼100%
111 (67min) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K
Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F
63 (20min) fps ∼80%
83 (15min) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900H
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
59 (19min) fps ∼75%
81 (35min) fps ∼73%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23
49 (20min) fps ∼62%
70 (27min) fps ∼63%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX
XMG Pro 15 E23
36 (22min) fps ∼46%
54 (36min) fps ∼49%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23
31 (15min) fps ∼39%
47 (28min) fps ∼42%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H
Medion Erazer Scout E20
21 (11min) fps ∼27%
37 (22min) fps ∼33%
AMD Radeon RX 7600S, R9 7940HS
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16
20 (12min) fps ∼25%
32 (11min) fps ∼39%

Overview

Show Restrictions
PosModel< PrevNext >Skull & Bones
 Skull & Bones (2024)
low
1920x1080
Low Preset
TAA
med.
1920x1080
Medium Preset
TAA
high
1920x1080
High Preset
TAA
ultra
1920x1080
Ultra High Preset
TAA
QHD
2560x1440
Ultra High Preset
TAA
4K DLSS
3840x2160
Ultra High Preset + Quality DLSS
4K FSR
3840x2160
Ultra High Preset + Quality FSR
4K
3840x2160
Ultra High Preset
TAA
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
234n3
222n3
194n3
171n3
144n3
133n3
131n2
100n3
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
210
165
132
129
112
101
68
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super
205
172
137
114
105
101
78
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
202
183
145
120
111
79
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
158
140
113
94
83
63
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
180
168
137
104
85
77
46
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU
164
132n2
133n3
106n3
88n3
85.5n2
81
60n2
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
171
153
130
100
85
79
74
58
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
209
197
157
103
91
55
55
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
158n2
151n3
135n3
112n3
89n3
70
49.5n2
AMD Radeon RX 6800
149
133
107
81
64
59
34
NVIDIA Titan RTX
141
132
109
84
68
61
59
42
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
153
140
112
87
72
66
45
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU
75
63
41
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU
116.5n2
116n3
96n3
77n3
59n3
53.5n2
36n2
AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT
139
118
95
72
57
44
34
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
130
118
95
69
54
49
33
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU
98.5n2
91n3
75n3
60n3
47n3
43n3
39.5n2
31n3
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
130
122
100
72
59
55
50
37
PosModel< PrevNext >Skull & Bones
low med. high ultra QHD 4K DLSS 4K FSR 4K
Intel Arc A770
81
76
64
53
46
40
32
AMD Radeon RX 7600
119
115
89
68
52
44
26
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
131n4
111n5
97n5
69n5
53n3
47
31
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT
113
102
81
63
48
41
23
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU
112
103
84
63
50
46
43
31
AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT
139
125
96
70
52
44
28
Intel Arc A750
76
66
59
49
41
37
27
NVIDIA Titan X Pascal
99
90
73
65
50
42
27
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (Desktop)
111
102
82
62
50
46
43
29
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (Desktop)
107
96
77
67
50
44
29
AMD Radeon RX 7600M
83
66
47
37
21
AMD Radeon RX 7600S
80
74
60
46
37
32
20
Intel Arc A580
68
64
54
45
38
33
26
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (Desktop)
103
90
73
56
43
40
37
26
AMD Radeon RX 6600
97
87
70
52
35
34
22
AMD Radeon RX 5700 (Desktop)
95
84
67
60
45
39
25
AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (Desktop)
87
79
62
54
40
44
29
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop)
79
72
57
48
35
28
19
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
63
54
42
30
18
AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (Desktop)
64
59
47
41
29
25
16
PosModel< PrevNext >Skull & Bones
low med. high ultra QHD 4K DLSS 4K FSR 4K
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
93
76
57
42
37
21
Intel Arc A730M
58
53
45
36
29
24
17
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile
79
71
55
48
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (Desktop)
72
64
51
44
32
26
21
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super (Desktop)
67
59
45
39
27
22
13
AMD Radeon 890M
48
41
34
26
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Laptop GPU
60
54
42
31
AMD Radeon RX 6500M
54
50
34
Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU
36
32
27
21
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile
53
47
33
23
Intel Arc Graphics 140V
46
37
30
27
Intel Arc A380
41
36
30
23
Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU
33
31
24
18
AMD Radeon 880M
33
29
23
17
AMD Radeon 780M
36.5n2
33n2
26n2
19
NVIDIA GeForce MX450
21
21
13
AMD Radeon RX Vega 5
11
(-) * 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 system details

Laptop Graphics card Processor RAM
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @150 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X) Intel Core i9-13900H 2 x 16 GB DDR5
Razer Blade 16 Mid 23 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 @175 W TGP (12 GB GDDR6X) Intel Core i9-13950HX 2 x 16 GB DDR5
XMG Pro 15 E23 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i9-13900HX 2 x 16 GB DDR5
Razer Blade 14 Mid 23 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 2 x 8 GB DDR5
Medion Erazer Scout E20 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 @100 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6) Intel Core i7-13700H 2 x 8 GB DDR5
Asus TUF Gaming Advantage A16 AMD Radeon RX 7600S (8 GB GDDR6) & AMD Radeon 780M AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 2 x 8 GB DDR5
Tower PC Graphics card Processor RAM
Asus ROG Strix Z790-F Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB GDDR6X)
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB GDDR6)
Intel Core i9-13900K 2 x 24 GB DDR5 G.Skill
4K monitor Operating system Nvidia driver AMD driver
Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 Windows 11 ForceWare 551.52 Adrenalin 24.1.1
static version load dynamic
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Skull & Bones review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks
Florian Glaser, 2024-02-22 (Update: 2024-08-15)