Watch Dogs Legion Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks
Technology
Four years after the release of the previous entry in the Watch Dogs series comes Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs Legion, which takes place in a dystopian, futuristic London as opposed to a US city. Watch Dogs Legion comes off darker and more insane than previous titles in the series.
Ubisoft still relies on its proprietary Disrupt Engine, to which many changes have been made when compared to Watch Dogs 2. For instance, Watch Dogs Legion supports Nvidia’s DLSS (deep learning super sampling) and ray tracing (more on this later).
PC gamers will be happy to learn that Watch Dogs Legion offers a great many graphical settings, which are split into three sections for the ease of use (keyword: scrolling). In the leftmost section (display), users can adjust the resolution, refresh rate and the field of view. Here, you can also select the screen mode, enable/display vertical synchronisation and set an FPS cap. The rightmost section (image) provides settings for brightness, gamma, contrast, sharpness and HDR.
The middle section (quality) offers five presets and more than 10 graphics settings. Here, users can enable/disable ray tracing and DLSS. Players can choose between two graphics APIs: DirectX 11 and DirectX 12.
Positive: As long as you are not actively gaming, almost all settings can be applied without a restart. Moreover, the game provides relatively clear descriptions of what each setting does. The title requires 50 GB of storage space (HD texture pack included), which is not a lot in 2020.
If you ignore mediocre animations, stutters and occasional crashes, then Watch Dogs Legion will look like a modern and well-made title. The open-world game scores some major points not only with its impressive view distance but also with its high-quality textures and slick effects (lighting, reflections, etc.), which afford the game world a very distinct atmosphere. All environments are highly detailed and the game appears cinematic.
It is worth mentioning that the game requires a lot of VRAM. You will need at least 2 GB of video memory to run the game at 720p on the low preset. On the ultra preset, the title will gobble up 8 GB of VRAM. If your GPU has less than 4 GB of VRAM, then you should forgo getting Watch Dogs Legion.
Benchmark
As per usual, Ubisoft offers an in-game benchmark, which can be found in the settings menu. In the 1.5-minute benchmark pass, the camera sweeps through a lit alleyway at night, in which a gunfight eventually erupts (watch the video below). While during the benchmark pass you can only see the frame rates and the frame times, at the end of the benchmark you will be presented with detailed performance graphs and utilisation bars. Thanks to this, you can get a pretty good idea of the impact each setting has on the CPU, GPU and VRAM.
On the highest settings, Watch Dogs Legion is GPU-limited. However, at low resolutions and on low settings, the CPU can become the bottleneck.
Results
FHD (1920x1080)
Entry-level GPUs cannot handle Watch Dogs Legion. The GeForce MX330 and the MX350 cannot deliver playable frame rates even on low settings at 720p. For a smooth gameplay experience, you will need a lower mid-range GPU such as the GeForce GTX 1050. If you want to achieve playable frame rates at 1080p on the medium/high preset you will need an upper mid-range GPU (GeForce GTX 1650/Radeon RX 5500M or better). The high-end GeForce RTX 2060 can handle the game on the highest settings.
Watch Dogs Legion | |
1920x1080 Medium Preset (DX12) 1920x1080 High Preset (DX12) 1920x1080 Ultra Preset (DX12) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile | |
AMD Radeon RX 5500M | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile | |
NVIDIA GeForce MX350 | |
NVIDIA GeForce MX330 |
QHD (2560x1440)
The GeForce RTX 2070 can achieve playable frame rates in Watch Dogs Legion at 1440p on the ultra preset.
Watch Dogs Legion | |
2560x1440 Ultra Preset (DX12) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
AMD Radeon RX 5500M, R7 3750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-9750H |
UHD (3840x2160)
Currently, there are no laptop GPUs that can handle Watch Dogs Legion at 4K on ultra settings. Only a desktop graphics card such as the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti can run Watch Dogs Legion smoothly on these settings.
Watch Dogs Legion | |
3840x2160 Ultra Preset (DX12) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H |
Ray Tracing
Those who want to game with ray tracing on will have to deal with a heavy performance penalty. On the highest DirectX ray-tracing setting, the frame rate is halved, at least in the case of Nvidia’s RTX 2000 GPUs (non-RTX graphics cards fare even worse). The new RTX 3000 GPUs, which feature a number of improvements, should do somewhat better here. For gaming at 1080p on ultra settings, we recommend an RTX 2080 or better.
Watch Dogs Legion | |
1920x1080 Ultra Preset + Ultra Ray Tracing (DX12) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK |
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 only to provide a part of our performance analysis of Watch Dogs Legion. Other graphics cards will be added in the coming days and weeks.
Overview
Benchmark Systems
Device | Graphics Card | Processor | Memory | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Desktop-PC I | MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (11 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2060 (6 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) 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) |
Intel Core i7-8086K, Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Desktop-PC III | 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 RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6)Nvidia Titan X (Pascal) (12 GB GDDR5X) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6) PNY GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB GDDR5) Gainward GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5) Zotac GeForce GT 1030 (2 GB GDDR5) AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (8 GB GDDR6)) AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (8 GB HBM2) XFX AMD Radeon RX 590 (8 GB GDDR5) |
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X | 2 x 8 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 (4 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-9750H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Alienware 17 R4 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) | Intel Core i7-7820HK | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Asus G752VS | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 2 x 16 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 |
MSI Prestige 14 | Nvidia GeForce MX350 (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-10710U | 1 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI Prestige 14 | Nvidia GeForce MX330 (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-10510U | 1 x 16 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 |
4K monitors | Nvidia drivers | AMD drivers |
---|---|---|
Asus PB287Q, Philips Brilliance 329P9H | ForceWare 457.09 | Adrenalin 20.10.1 |