Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

Hail to the emperor. Eight years after the last version, the real-time strategy game Dawn of War is back. Our benchmark test explores the technology behind the game, and how smoothly it performs on various desktop and notebook GPUs.

Florian Glaser, ✓ Stefanie Voigt (translated by Martin Jungowski), Published 06/13/2017 🇩🇪

Technology

Even though the popular Warhammer universe found its way into PC games quite frequently during the last few years – be it as the turn-based strategy game Total War, the first-person shooter Vermintide, or the third-person action game Space Marine – the last full-blow real-time strategy implementation dates back to 2009, the year Dawn of War 2 was published. And now, eight years later, Dawn of War 3 - developed by Relic Entertainment - is finally here.

Too bad the current version doesn’t really look that much different from its predecessor, and only differs in a few minor details. Units and buildings are nicely animated and very detailed, and explosions look much better as well, but overall the textures are not the most satisfying. Scenery and surfaces seem mushy and soft even on maximum details, and the comic-esque appearance not only reminds us of Starcraft 2, but also cleverly whitewashes the otherwise mediocre graphics. All things considered, graphics and details are okay for a strategy game.

Unfortunately, the game crashed every so often (mostly during startup) on various systems. We also had problems with resolution and display detection – connecting a 4k display did not enable us to select the proper 3840 x 2160 resolution without rebooting, or fiddling with the scaling settings or the GPU driver settings.

The graphics menu turned out to be a mixed bag as well. While hints and explanations are available only a total of 8 settings (including resolution) can be adjusted and tweaked. Two on/off settings and six more or less freely adjustable settings are available.

Automatic settings detection did not work as well as we would have liked to. Graphics details were rather low even with high-performance GPUs, and changing texture details required a restart of the game. Fortunately, the intro videos can be skipped.

Loading times highly depend on the underlying storage medium: the game starts acceptably fast from SSDs but horribly slow from HDDs. The integrated FPS counter is a plus, even though its informative value is questionable, and the size of the game is 29 GB (22 GB download).

As can be seen on the images below, the difference between maximum and high settings is rather insignificant, both in terms of details and performance. The difference between high and normal is more pronounced – besides reduced texture details, the normal setting also features less sophisticated shadows. That said, the game still looks acceptable on normal settings. Going from normal to minimum is immediately obvious – no shadows, mushy and fuzzy textures, and lack of lighting practically single-handedly destroy the entire atmosphere of the game.

Benchmark

The integrated benchmark is a huge plus. In a roughly 40-second long sequence, the game goes through a demanding mass battle. Since evaluation is rather problematic (log written to an external file, evaluation impossible from within the game, and also falsified by recordings that tend to start too early and stop too late) we’ve used Fraps to determine minimum and average frame rates.

Update 5/5/17: upon closer inspection, we found the external evaluation to be as accurate as Fraps. Consequently, from now on we will continue using these values instead of Fraps. The results can be found in your Documents folder under Games Dawn of War III LogFiles.

Across-the-board statements in regards to graphics performance and capabilities are hard to make, because performance varied greatly depending on zoom level, number of units and effects on screen, etc. An average of 30 fps in the integrated benchmark should suffice for a smooth campaign gaming experience. Unlike first-person-perspective games that only seem truly smooth at more than 40 fps, real-time strategy games are less demanding in this regard.

Results

Considering overall graphics quality, hardware requirements are surprisingly high. Intel’s integrated HD Graphics GPUs are too slow even at only 1280 x 720 and minimum details (no AA). Medium details at 1366 x 768 (medium AA) require at least a GeForce GTX 950M or better yet, a GTX 960M, and high details (no AA) at FHD (1920 x 1080) won’t be any fun with anything slower than a GeForce GTX 965M or GTX 970M. High details (AA high) at FHD and maximum details require at least a GeForce GTX 980M/GTX 980 or GeForce GTX 1060, respectively, for an enjoyable gaming experience.

4k gaming on high details with anti-aliasing enabled is all but unplayable even with high-end graphics cards like Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080. As expected, the processor is much less important overall, and it becomes the limiting factor only at low resolutions and on low settings. During the tests, we had upscaling disabled (100 % gameplay resolution).

Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War III
3840x2160 High / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) AA:High 1920x1080 Maximum / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) AA:High 1920x1080 High / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) AA:High 1920x1080 Medium / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) AA:Medium 1366x768 Medium / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) AA:Medium 1280x720 Minimum / Off (100 % Gameplay Resolution)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), 6700K Desktop PC	25.7 (20^min) fps ∼25% 73 (60^min) fps ∼45% 81.4 (64^min) fps ∼50% 110 (96^min) fps ∼51% 116 (101^min) fps ∼100% 176 (139^min) fps ∼55%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), 6700K Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070	20.7 (16^min) fps ∼20% 57 (47^min) fps ∼35% 63.6 (51^min) fps ∼39% 91.3 (73^min) fps ∼42% 114 (101^min) fps ∼98% 172 (127^min) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), 4790K Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition	56.4 (45^min) fps ∼35%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK Asus G752VS	18.7 (14^min) fps ∼19% 49.6 (40^min) fps ∼31% 55.6 (45^min) fps ∼34% 79.4 (66^min) fps ∼37% 92.3 (81^min) fps ∼80% 147 (118^min) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 6700K Desktop PC	14.5 (10^min) fps ∼14% 41 (33^min) fps ∼25% 46.6 (37^min) fps ∼28% 68.2 (56^min) fps ∼32% 95.1 (78^min) fps ∼82% 168 (125^min) fps ∼52%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), 6700K Desktop PC	14.1 (10^min) fps ∼14% 39.5 (32^min) fps ∼25% 44.8 (36^min) fps ∼27% 66.2 (54^min) fps ∼31% 95.9 (75^min) fps ∼83% 170 (135^min) fps ∼53%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK MSI GT62VR	12.3 (9^min) fps ∼12% 39 (31^min) fps ∼24% 44.4 (34^min) fps ∼27% 64 (54^min) fps ∼30% 84.3 (71^min) fps ∼73% 131 (105^min) fps ∼41%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), 4790K AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB Reference	15.4 (12^min) fps ∼15% 44.5 (36^min) fps ∼28% 50.9 (40^min) fps ∼31% 77 (63^min) fps ∼36% 157 (118^min) fps ∼49%
AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop), 4790K MSI RX 470 Gaming X 4GB	13.6 (11^min) fps ∼13% 40 (33^min) fps ∼25% 45.4 (35^min) fps ∼28% 70 (56^min) fps ∼32% 160 (116^min) fps ∼50%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	10.4 (8^min) fps ∼10% 26.1 (21^min) fps ∼16% 30 (22^min) fps ∼18% 43.9 (28^min) fps ∼20% 54.1 (46^min) fps ∼47% 117 (83^min) fps ∼36%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop), 4790K MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti	25.9 (20^min) fps ∼16% 30 (23^min) fps ∼18%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ MSI GE72 7RE-046	25.8 (20^min) fps ∼16% 29.8 (23^min) fps ∼18% 46.6 (35^min) fps ∼22% 112 (62^min) fps ∼35%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	8.1 (6^min) fps ∼8% 24.4 (18^min) fps ∼15% 27.4 (20^min) fps ∼17% 39.1 (32^min) fps ∼18% 53.4 (42^min) fps ∼46% 102 (80^min) fps ∼32%
AMD Radeon R7 370, 4790K MSI Gaming R7 370 2GB	20 (15^min) fps ∼12% 37.8 (29^min) fps ∼18% 62 (49^min) fps ∼53% 147 (120^min) fps ∼46%
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), 4790K XFX RX-460P4DFG5 Double Dissipation 4 GB	22.7 (17^min) fps ∼14% 36.5 (29^min) fps ∼17% 58.9 (48^min) fps ∼51% 133 (112^min) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ Asus Strix GL753VD-GC045T	18.8 (15^min) fps ∼12% 22.2 (17^min) fps ∼14% 33.6 (26^min) fps ∼16% 106 (81^min) fps ∼33%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop), 4790K Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB	26.5 (20^min) fps ∼16% 41.5 (32^min) fps ∼19%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ Schenker XMG A505	2.5 (2^min) fps ∼2% 14 (10^min) fps ∼9% 16.2 (12^min) fps ∼10% 25.3 (20^min) fps ∼12% 41.2 (33^min) fps ∼36% 92.8 (77^min) fps ∼29%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, 6700HQ MSI PE60 2QD	22.8 (17^min) fps ∼11% 85.4 (62^min) fps ∼27%
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, 6700HQ MSI CX72 6QD	10.9 (8^min) fps ∼5% 17.6 (6^min) fps ∼15% 42.9 (28^min) fps ∼13%
Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W504	10.8 (8^min) fps ∼9% 15.2 (12^min) fps ∼5%

Overview

Test Systems

Desktop-PCs	Plattform I	Plattform II
Motherboard	Asus Z170-A	Asus Z97-Deluxe
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-4790K (Haswell)
Graphics Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) 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	2x 8 GB DDR4-2133	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600
Storage	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 S413
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	Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB)	Micron M600 SSD (128 GB) HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HDD (1.000 GB)	Intel SSD
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

MSI Notebooks	MSI GT62VR	MSI GE72	MSI PE60	MSI GP62	MSI CX61	MSI CX61	MSI GE 72 7RE-046	MSI GL62 7RD
Processor	Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-6700HQ (Skylake)	Intel Core i7-5700HQ (Broadwell)	Intel Celeron 2970M (Haswell)	Intel Core i5-4200M (Haswell)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ (Kaby Lake)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ (Kaby Lake)
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5)	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)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
RAM	4x 8 GB DDR4-2133	1x 8 GB DDR4-2133	2x 4 GB DDR4-2133	1x 8 GB DDR3-1600	1x 8 GB DDR3-1600	1x 8 GB DDR3-1600	2x 4 GB DDR4	2x 4 GB DDR4
Storage	Samsung NVMe MZVPV128 SSD (128 GB)	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)	Samsung SSD, Toshiba Trion 150 SSD	Samsung SSD, Toshiba Trion 150 SSD
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 10	Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit

Asus Notebooks	Asus G752VS	Asus N551ZU	Asus ROG Strix GL753VD
Processor	Intel Core i7-6820HK (Skylake)	AMD FX-7600P (Kaveri)	Intel Core i7-7700HQ
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5)	AMD Radeon R9 M280X (4 GB GDDR5)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
RAM	4x 16 GB DDR4-2400	2x 4 GB DDR3-1600	2x 8 GB DDR4
Storage	Toshiba NVMe THNSN5512GPU7 SSD (512 GB)	Samsung SSD 830 (256 GB)	Micron SSD 1100 (256 GB)
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit

4K Monitor	Nvidia driver	AMD driver	Intel driver
2x Asus PB287Q	ForceWare 381.89	Crimson 17.4.4	15.40.34.4624

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 615 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: Finn D Boerne - Translator - 450 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2017

Born in the United States and raised in Germany I became acquainted with both languages from an early age and turned this into my profession later in life. Computers have always played an important role in my life, and my love for all things digital is a huge part of my daily routine. Virtual Reality has captured my imagination and interest in particular, and I cannot wait to see what the (near) future will bring.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2017-06-13 (Update: 2022-01-21)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War III (2017)
Pos	Model	low 1280x720 Minimum / Off (100 % Gameplay Resolution)	med. 1920x1080 Medium / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) MediumAA	high 1920x1080 High / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) HighAA	ultra 1920x1080 Maximum / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) HighAA	4K 3840x2160 High / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) HighAA
75	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)	192	120	98	89	33.8
76	NVIDIA Titan X Pascal	137	80	78	76	33
77	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)			100	100.2ⁿ²	75.4ⁿ²
93	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)	176	110	81.4	73	25.7
114	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile	145.7	100.5	100.5	99.8
133	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)	172	91.3	63.6	56.7ⁿ²	20.7
136	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q			88	86	41.9
138	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile	149.15ⁿ²	84.45ⁿ²	61ⁿ⁴	53.25ⁿ⁴	18.45ⁿ²
159	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q	167.3	106.4	100.9	89.9
166	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	168	68.2	46.6	41	14.5
181	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop)	170	66.2	44.8	39.5	14.1
183	NVIDIA Quadro P4000	70.3	61.6	58.8	54
185	AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop)	157	77	50.9	44.5	15.4
186	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile	131	64	58.85ⁿ²	53.65ⁿ²	12.3
194	AMD Radeon RX 580 (Laptop)	106.7	72.3	69.4	53.4
206	NVIDIA Quadro P3000	84	41.2	28.7	25.4	9.6
214	AMD Radeon RX 470 (Desktop)	160	70	45.4	40	13.6
237	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M	117	43.9	30	26.1	10.4
247	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile	102.4ⁿ²	46.2ⁿ²	29.65ⁿ²	25.65ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War III
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
248	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Desktop)			30	25.9
253	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M	102	39.1	27.4	24.4	8.1
269	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop)		41.5	26.5
270	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile	93.5ⁿ²	35.05ⁿ²	22.7ⁿ²	19.5ⁿ²
273	AMD Radeon R7 370	147	37.8	20
290	AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop)	133	36.5	22.7
294	AMD Radeon RX 560X (Laptop)	90.8	50	45	39.4
318	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M	92.8	25.3	16.2	14	2.5
330	AMD Radeon Pro 555		31.2
332	NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (Desktop)	49.9	22.1	14.4	11.7
336	NVIDIA GeForce MX150	61.25ⁿ⁴	23.7ⁿ³	18.4ⁿ²	11.9
346*	AMD Radeon RX 540	51.4	24.6	22.2	20
347*	AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100	71.8	22.41
356	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	85.4	22.8
365*	NVIDIA Quadro M620	70.3	18.7
439*	Apple M1 7-Core GPU	43.9	32.5
458	NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	42.9ⁿ³	10.9ⁿ³	11.7ⁿ²	14.4
461	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)	43ⁿ²	17.33ⁿ²	14.8	13.1
507	NVIDIA GeForce 930M	37
516	Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640	33.8
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War III
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	4K
585	Intel UHD Graphics 630	43.7
591	Intel HD Graphics 530	30.1
594	AMD Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge)	13	6
596	Intel HD Graphics 620	24.4
657	AMD Radeon HD 8650G	17.6
668	AMD Radeon R5 M255	30.4	7.5
673	Intel HD Graphics 520	18.6	6.5
676	NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M	22.2	5.5
697	Intel HD Graphics 4600	14.75ⁿ²
730	Intel HD Graphics 615	11.6	4
774	Intel HD Graphics 610	16.6
775	Intel HD Graphics 4400	13.4
825	AMD Radeon R5 (Beema/Carrizo-L)	9.6

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.