Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2 review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Co-op cracker.

Who would have thought beforehand that Space Marine 2 would receive such positive feedback from both players and the press. We took a closer look at the mixture of a third-person shooter and a hack-and-slay, and carried out extensive benchmarks.

Florian Glaser, 👁 Florian Glaser (translated by Daisy Dickson), Published 09/11/2024 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 ...

Test systems

be quiet! Silent Base 802 (RTX 4080 & RX 7900 XT)

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

From a technical standpoint, Space Marine 2 is absolutely state-of-the-art—be it its setting options or the quality of its graphics. In addition to detailed and highly textured environments and stylish effects (e.g. smoke), the video sequences also look impressive. The latter are superbly staged and create a very cinematic feel.

We also liked the content of the game during our play session. The motivating combat system—which forms the crux of the gameplay—has proven to be quite successful, striking a good balance between simple and complicated. The extremely exciting introduction to the game also helps. Moreover, the atmosphere of the Warhammer universe has generally been captured very well.

We also have nothing to complain about when it comes to the game's graphics options. At the top of the corresponding menu, there are various controls for image display—including resolution, V-Sync, an FPS limit as well as upscaling. In addition to the "in-house" TAA, DLSS and FSR are also supported. Unless specifically mentioned, however, we used the native resolution for our benchmarks.

In the lower section, there are almost 10 quality settings that can be changed in one fell swoop via presets. The game applies adjustments directly, i.e. without needing to restart it. Furthermore, the developers deserve praise for including explanatory texts and, sometimes, comparison images to go along with them.

With all that being said, not everything is (yet) perfect in Space Marine 2, as the game has to contend with CPU limiting and high VRAM requirements in places. Weaker GPUs in particular are confronted with reloading or even incorrectly loading textures at higher resolutions and settings. The Ultra preset is particularly tricky: according to the embedded warning, less than 16 GB of RAM isn't quite enough, even in Full HD.

The CPU dependency becomes noticeable, for example, in that the performance often barely increases when the resolution or settings are reduced and laptops with relatively weak CPU efficiency sometimes suffer a drop in their usual rankings (in our case, the RTX 4070 and RTX 4080 laptops couldn't fully make use of their usual potential). "Precreating shaders" when (first) starting up the game may not take all too long—at least on more powerful GPUs—but it usually takes quite a long time to return to the desktop when exiting the game.

Benchmark

As you can see in the video below, we chose a very demanding sequence with an extremely large number of characters and enemy units for our speed measurements. We used the CapFrameX tool to record a fixed route for just under 30 seconds. Our experience shows that you will likely be well-equipped for the game's brutal battles from an average value of 40fps.

Results

FHD (1,920 x 1,080)

iGPUs currently still struggle to run the game. Even more powerful models such as the Intel Arc 8 or the Radeon 780M don't have enough power to generate smooth frame rates in 1,280 x 720 and minimum settings. You would have to activate suitable upscaling for this. As soon as there is a reasonably modern dGPU inside your computer, the situation looks much more relaxed. With a GeForce RTX 4050 or better, maximum settings are no problem in Full HD.

Space Marine 2
1920x1080 Low Preset AA:T 1920x1080 Medium Preset AA:T 1920x1080 High Preset AA:T 1920x1080 Ultra Preset AA:T
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	115.6 (35.2^min, 88.8^P0.1, 99.1^P1) fps ∼100% 111 (82.9^min, 87.2^P0.1, 96.7^P1) fps ∼100% 109.9 (23.9^min, 79.9^P0.1, 95.5^P1) fps ∼100% 108.6 (64.2^min, 83.1^P0.1, 92.5^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	103.7 (49^min, 77.3^P0.1, 91.3^P1) fps ∼90% 98 (65.1^min, 70.1^P0.1, 85.3^P1) fps ∼88% 96.5 (74.6^min, 77.9^P0.1, 83.3^P1) fps ∼88% 95.9 (63.2^min, 77.8^P0.1, 83.6^P1) fps ∼88%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 16 E23	80.5 (3.78^min, 10.8^P0.1, 48.6^P1) fps ∼70% 75.9 (33.1^min, 35.8^P0.1, 53.5^P1) fps ∼68% 73.5 (20.8^min, 28.6^P0.1, 45.1^P1) fps ∼67% 71.8 (27.5^min, 34.3^P0.1, 56.4^P1) fps ∼66%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	62.5 (24.2^min, 28.3^P0.1, 43.4^P1) fps ∼54% 56.9 (16.4^min, 25.9^P0.1, 36.6^P1) fps ∼51% 55.5 (26.6^min, 27.9^P0.1, 36.5^P1) fps ∼51% 54.9 (19.5^min, 26.7^P0.1, 39.6^P1) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	64.5 (29.1^min, 33.5^P0.1, 47.6^P1) fps ∼56% 58.5 (33.9^min, 37.2^P0.1, 46.5^P1) fps ∼53% 57.6 (32.4^min, 34.9^P0.1, 44.6^P1) fps ∼52% 52.2 (26.4^min, 27.1^P0.1, 39.2^P1) fps ∼48%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	78.5 (30.3^min, 34.8^P0.1, 63.3^P1) fps ∼68% 72.6 (36.3^min, 40.4^P0.1, 59.7^P1) fps ∼65% 68 (31^min, 42.6^P0.1, 58.6^P1) fps ∼62% 64.6 (32.9^min, 37.9^P0.1, 56.1^P1) fps ∼59%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	70.6 (24.9^min, 35.7^P0.1, 50.1^P1) fps ∼61% 60.3 (40^min, 40.9^P0.1, 50.5^P1) fps ∼54% 58.9 (34.3^min, 37.5^P0.1, 49.6^P1) fps ∼54% 54.4 (40.2^min, 42.1^P0.1, 47.5^P1) fps ∼50%
AMD Radeon 780M, Z1 Extreme Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme	21.1 (16^min, 16^P0.1, 17.6^P1) fps ∼18% 18 (14.1^min, 14.5^P0.1, 15.6^P1) fps ∼16% 16.6 (7.44^min, 7.46^P0.1, 10.4^P1) fps ∼15% 15.1 (12.8^min, 13^P0.1, 13.3^P1) fps ∼14%
Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU, Ultra 7 155H Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14	19.3 (15.4^min, 15.8^P0.1, 16.8^P1) fps ∼17% 16.5 (8.23^min, 9.14^P0.1, 13.3^P1) fps ∼15% 16 (3.14^min, 4.43^P0.1, 9.38^P1) fps ∼15% 14.7 (12.7^min, 12.8^P0.1, 13.3^P1) fps ∼14%

QHD (2,560 x 1,440)

Owners of QHD displays (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) can also enjoy the game in all its glory from a GeForce RTX 4050 onwards (apart from the VRAM issue), which is still reasonably moderate in terms of system requirements.

Space Marine 2
2560x1440 Ultra Preset AA:T 2560x1440 Ultra Preset + Quality DLSS 2560x1440 Ultra Preset + Quality FSR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	105.8 (41.4^min, 84^P0.1, 92.2^P1) fps ∼100% 108.3 (73.6^min, 83.2^P0.1, 95.5^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	93.8 (71.5^min, 76.9^P0.1, 81^P1) fps ∼89% 96.3 (71.2^min, 75.7^P0.1, 81.7^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 16 E23	69.7 (24.1^min, 26^P0.1, 38.3^P1) fps ∼66% 70.5 (18.9^min, 27.8^P0.1, 41.5^P1) fps ∼65%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	54.3 (26.8^min, 29.1^P0.1, 35.6^P1) fps ∼51% 55.5 (25.5^min, 28.5^P0.1, 35.7^P1) fps ∼51%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	49.1 (28.4^min, 29.2^P0.1, 39.1^P1) fps ∼46% 53.2 (17.7^min, 28.1^P0.1, 37.4^P1) fps ∼49%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	45.4 (36.8^min, 37.6^P0.1, 39.6^P1) fps ∼43% 68.9 (19.8^min, 28.4^P0.1, 54.7^P1) fps ∼64%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	41.3 (35.3^min, 35.4^P0.1, 36.5^P1) fps ∼39% 58.9 (37.3^min, 41.2^P0.1, 50.1^P1) fps ∼54%

UHD (3,840 x 2,160)

Things really get down to business in the 4K range. Without upscaling, only Nvidia's top model, the GeForce RTX 4090, currently masters the Ultra preset adequately on laptops. However, if you activate DLSS or FSR Quality, you are already on the safe side with a GeForce RTX 4070 or higher.

Space Marine 2
3840x2160 Ultra Preset AA:T 3840x2160 Ultra Preset + Quality DLSS 3840x2160 Ultra Preset + Quality FSR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	68.4 (61^min, 61.3^P0.1, 62.5^P1) fps ∼100% 104.3 (83.1^min, 86.9^P0.1, 93^P1) fps ∼100%
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	57.5 (50.5^min, 50.7^P0.1, 51.6^P1) fps ∼84% 85.4 (70.6^min, 73.2^P0.1, 75.4^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 16 E23	51.6 (23.4^min, 29.5^P0.1, 41.5^P1) fps ∼75% 67.7 (25.3^min, 31.8^P0.1, 52.6^P1) fps ∼65%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13950HX Razer Blade 16 Mid 23	35.3 (24.6^min, 25.5^P0.1, 31.2^P1) fps ∼52% 51.9 (21.2^min, 23.6^P0.1, 33.8^P1) fps ∼50%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	29.7 (23.2^min, 25^P0.1, 26.2^P1) fps ∼43% 46.5 (27.3^min, 29.6^P0.1, 38.5^P1) fps ∼45%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, R9 7940HS Razer Blade 14 Mid 23	22.8 (20^min, 20.1^P0.1, 20.6^P1) fps ∼33% 38.9 (26.9^min, 27.1^P0.1, 35.2^P1) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i7-13700H Medion Erazer Scout E20	20.4 (18.6^min, 18.8^P0.1, 19^P1) fps ∼30% 34.9 (19.3^min, 25.1^P0.1, 31.5^P1) fps ∼33%

Overview

Test system details

Mobile	Graphics card	Processor	RAM
XMG Neo 16 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @175 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	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
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14	Intel Arc 8	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H	2 x 16 GB LPDDR5-7467
Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme	AMD Radeon 780M	AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme	16 GB LPDDR5-6400

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	Intel driver
Philips Evnia 329M1RV	Windows 11	560.94	24.8.1	101.5989

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 683 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: Daisy Dickson - Translator - 463 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2023

Originally from Scotland, I grew up and lived in Germany until I completed my high school qualifications before moving back to Scotland to complete my university studies. Growing up bilingual led me to form a close relationship with the English and German languages, often working in the fields of teaching and translation. Most of my childhood was shaped by playing around on new consoles, computers and gadgets and getting to grips with the new craze of the internet and smartphones. This interest has stayed with me well into adulthood. Nowadays, I live in Glasgow and work as a freelance translator and digital media coordinator. I have been translating for Notebookcheck since early 2023.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2 review: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2024-09-11 (Update: 2024-09-11)

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Space Marine 2 (2024)
Pos	Model	low 1920x1080 Low Preset TAA	med. 1920x1080 Medium Preset TAA	high 1920x1080 High Preset TAA	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra Preset TAA	QHD 2560x1440 Ultra Preset TAA	4K 3840x2160 Ultra Preset TAA
1	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090				141.3ⁿ²	137.4	130.6
2	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	127.3	121.6	120.2	119.8	119.6	95.2
5	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti	145.8	138.4	136.7	135.2	107.4	58.9
6	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	113.8	114.6	110.6	110.8	110.1	74.2
8	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080	115.6	111	109.9	108.6	105.8	68.4
9	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop		103.45ⁿ²	103.1ⁿ³	101.4ⁿ³	98.6ⁿ³	69.6
14	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT	103.7	98	96.5	95.9	93.8	57.5
15	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070	151.6	142	139.7	139	109.6	58.4
16	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop		90	89.7	88.7	86.2
19*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti	142.6	135.5	133.3	121.5	83.1	42.1
22	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU	80.5	75.9	73.5	71.8	69.7	51.6
24	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	123	119.7	117.4	114.9	92	50.9
31	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU	62.5	56.9	55.5	54.9	54.3	35.3
32*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060	146.05ⁿ²	125.3ⁿ²	120.7ⁿ²
36	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop		90.9	88.8	87.7	73.1
39	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	166	148	141.4	128.5	87.6	45.4
40*	AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB	136	114.5	110.7	99.7	70.5	37.7
48	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	134.45ⁿ²	117.55ⁿ²	113.55ⁿ²	102.35ⁿ²	73.55ⁿ²	34.85ⁿ²
52	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop		73.1ⁿ³	70.5ⁿ³	68.1ⁿ³	62.75ⁿ²
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Space Marine 2
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
54	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU	77.35ⁿ²	74.8ⁿ⁴	73.5ⁿ⁴	73.1ⁿ⁵	54.9ⁿ⁴	29.7ⁿ³
60	AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	95.8	90	87.5	77.2	55.2	28.5
61	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU	81	76.6	77.7	68.05ⁿ²	50.3ⁿ³	26.1
62*	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop		72.35ⁿ²	71.55ⁿ²	70.95ⁿ²	54.8ⁿ²
63	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	123.6	101.4	95.3	85.4	61.2	31.5
64	Intel Arc B580	85.7	78.4	76.8	70.3	52.4	31.8
65	Intel Arc A770	59.2	49.6	48.9	45.9	36.1	22.6
66	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060	111.7ⁿ²	93ⁿ²	88.5ⁿ²	78.15ⁿ²	51.8ⁿ²	26.05ⁿ²
72	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU	78.5	74.75ⁿ²	72ⁿ²	66.2ⁿ²	45.4	22.8
78	AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT				55.8	40.3
81	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU	77.3	71	68	62	46.4	24.2
82	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop		67ⁿ²	64.95ⁿ²	61.8ⁿ²	49.5
83	AMD Radeon 8060S	82.4ⁿ³	74.25ⁿ⁴	67.5ⁿ⁴	58.9ⁿ⁴	43.35ⁿ⁴	26.1ⁿ³
87*	AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT	67.8	67.2	65.6	63.3	45.2
89	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	95.95ⁿ²	78.25ⁿ²	74.9ⁿ²	67.3ⁿ²	46.1ⁿ²	23.55ⁿ²
107	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop)				58
121	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (Desktop)	78.1	65.4	62	56.7	39.5	21.1
122	Intel Arc A770M				37.8	30.5
123	AMD Radeon RX 6600	75.1	62.5	59.5	52.4	35.2
136*	AMD Radeon 8050S	58.2	51.7	50.5	49
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Space Marine 2
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
147	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU	70.6	60.3	58.9	54.4	41.3	20.4
170	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop)	62	52.1	49.8	43.3	13.4
193	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super (Desktop)	25	10.4
202*	AMD Radeon 890M	34	28.7	26.9	22.6
233*	Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU	19.3	16.5	16	14.7
236	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile	36.8	31.3	30.6	22.7
239	Intel Arc Graphics 140V	25.5ⁿ³	21.6ⁿ²	20.2ⁿ²	18.75ⁿ²	12
241	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Desktop)	43.7	36.6
243	NVIDIA GeForce MX570	22.1
255*	Intel Arc Graphics 130V	16.4	15	14.7	13.2
289*	AMD Radeon 780M	17.55ⁿ²	15.25ⁿ²	13.55ⁿ²	15.1
327*	AMD Radeon 860M	24.9	20.5	18.9
334*	AMD Radeon 760M	14.3	10.6	10.1
392*	AMD Radeon 840M	15.9	13.8	12.2
393*	AMD Radeon 740M	13.7	10.4	9.71	8.78
394*	Intel Graphics 4-Core iGPU (Arrow Lake)	10.2	8.12	7.41
479*	Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs	7.88	6.62	6.43
482	Intel UHD Graphics 770	7.85
654*	AMD Radeon 610M	7.41

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.