The newest Tomb Raider reboot games have all the time been large technical showcases on PC, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn’t any exception. After a barely rocky pre-release construct that’s fortunately been ironed out in time for at the moment’s launch (have a learn of John’s newly up to date Shadow of the Tomb Raider review in the event you’re nonetheless not sure), that is simply one of the vital demanding games I’ve performed all yr, so I made a decision to chuck a load of at the moment’s best graphics cards at it to see how all of them maintain up.
This is on no account an entire run-down of each graphics card on the market – I apologise for the woeful lack of AMD playing cards, however they’re proving somewhat tough to pay money for in the mean time – however relaxation assured I’ll be including extra over the approaching weeks as quickly as I can get my arms on them. I’ve additionally included a few older graphics playing cards from my very own growing older assortment to see how they deal with Lara’s sunny apocalyptic journey as properly.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider graphics efficiency: The specs
As a reminder, listed here are the minimal and advisable specs for taking part in Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
Minimum specs:
OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel Core i3-3220 or AMD equal
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti / AMD Radeon HD 7770
DirectX: Version 11
Recommended specs:
OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel Core i7-4770Okay / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) / AMD Radeon RX 480 (8GB)
DirectX: Version 12
Graphics playing cards apart, my PC properly exceeds the advisable spec, as I’ve been testing every thing with an Intel Core i5-8600Okay clocked at 3.6GHz and 16GB of RAM on Windows 10 with DirectX 12, plus all the most recent drivers. To see how all of the totally different graphics playing cards fared, click on the hyperlinks beneath.
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti (coming quickly)
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070Ti
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080Ti (coming quickly)
- AMD Radeon R9 270
- AMD Radeon R9 290
Shadow of the Tomb Raider graphics efficiency: The objective
Before you try this, although, right here’s what we’re aiming for when it comes to efficiency. The principal objective right here is to search out the very best mixture of settings to attain a easy 60fps at 1920×1080 and 2560×1440. I’ll even be including in 4K efficiency testing at a later date, however proper now, the playing cards I’ve examined can nearly handle to run it easily at 1440p, not to mention something greater, so until you’ve acquired a number of graphics playing cards at your disposal, I think 4K goes to be past the attain of most single-GPU PCs.
Right now, I’ve solely had an opportunity to check the game on its preliminary opening space within the Cozumel Caves, and the village of Cozumel itself that follows instantly after. The built-in benchmark wasn’t out there at time of testing, and being a Tomb Raider game, there’ll virtually actually be extra demanding areas within the game additional down the road that will not correspond to the figures you’ll discover on the next pages. Rise of the Tomb Raider had its notorious Geothermal Valley that nuked the body charge, and judging from different RPS tomb raiding experiences, Shadow’s Trial of the Eagle problem across the 4-5 hour mark is one other large body charge killer because of its lethal, rotating puzzle room with about one million shifting objects inside it.
As such, I’ll be revisiting these figures as soon as I get a bit additional into the game, however even the opening space of the Cozumel Caves proved fairly an enormous ask for nearly each graphics card you’ll discover listed above. In some instances, there was a niche of as much as 20fps between the bottom and highest body charges I recorded, with the game typically slowing to a crawl as quickly as Lara began scaling her first, knobbly wall together with her trusty pick-axes. As such, Cozumel Square might be a greater indication of the sort of total pace you’ll see in most areas, as right here the body charge was rather more secure, various between 5-10fps on the most, regardless of there being plenty of individuals dancing about within the city sq. and setting off fireworks and the like.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider graphics efficiency: How to get the very best settings
In most instances, I’ve tried to stay as carefully to the game’s preset graphics settings as potential, however as with all nu-Tomb Raider games, it’s the anti-aliasing results that pose the most important menace to reaching a easy and secure body charge.
There are loads of choices to select from, all with their very own impenetrable acronyms. There’s the fundamental SMAA, which is the least demanding selection and really produces nigh-on an identical speeds as having it turned off altogether. Then there’s the marginally fancier TAA, which I discovered produced just about precisely the identical speeds as the following rung up, SMAAT x2. As such, I’ve just about discounted TAA as an choice, because it not solely appears worse than SMAAT x2, however you’re not gaining any additional efficiency from it both.
Then above SMAAT x2, you’ve acquired the WARNING WARNING indicators of SMAAS x2, and the large daddy SMAA x4. These actually are fairly taxing on the outdated GPU entrance – even for greater finish playing cards. Some of them can do it, however usually, I’ve discovered that the SMAAT x2 setting offers the very best compromise between acquiring all these pretty easy edges and nonetheless getting fairly nippy body charges.
I’d additionally advise in opposition to settling for Shadow’s Lowest graphics setting, as this simply appears so terrible it’s not even value taking part in. This is as a result of Lowest is the one graphics settings that turns off volumetric lighting, which (as you possibly can see from the collection of photos beneath) simply destroys any sense of depth or pure lighting and genuinely makes me need to do some vom in my mouth each time I take a look at it. So try to hold that turned on in the event you can.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider on its Lowest graphics setting…
…Lara trying a bit Low…
…a somewhat Medium trying cave…
…a High up Shadow of the Tomb Raider …
…and what the top of Shadow of the Tomb Raider ought to seem like on Highest.
Otherwise, I discovered Shadow’s myriad of different settings didn’t make an enormous quantity of distinction within the grand scheme of issues, whether or not it was Lara’s luscious Pure Hair (which solely varies between Low or Normal with no Off choice) or the ambient occlusion. Fear not, although, as I’ll be updating this part with extra ideas and evaluation subsequent week.
