Shadow of the Tomb Raider PC efficiency overview

Lara Croft returns with the ultimate chapter of her origin story in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. That’s an enormous second for gaming’s most iconic feminine character so PC efficiency had finest be top-notch for such an event.

To discover out simply how a lot consideration has been paid to the PC model of Shadow of the Tomb Raider we’ve put collectively this PC efficiency overview. You’ve solely received to take one have a look at the game’s screenshots and trailers to know that it is a game that requires intensive testing: with all that dense jungle, there’s no manner Lara’s newest journey will take it simple in your GPU.

Our efficiency critiques are written to give you the broadest image potential, specializing in {hardware} just like what nearly all of gamers have put in of their machines, primarily based on the findings of the Steam Hardware Survey. We take a look at the game on all graphical settings utilizing an i5 powered rig with 8GB of RAM, and attempt to hit 60fps with 4 fashionable graphics playing cards. Even in case your PC just isn’t equivalent to our take a look at setups, you need to nonetheless have the ability to estimate the efficiency ranges you possibly can anticipate from your individual machine with our outcomes.

Graphics choices

Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s graphics menu is dwelling to 15 completely different choices, protecting a good vary of settings. Starting with very important elements equivalent to texture and shadow high quality, the record goes on to include extra superior programs equivalent to display screen area reflections and get in touch with shadows, and the Pure Hair know-how that gives Lara along with her signature ponytail.

Many of those settings are solely capable of be toggled via binary choices: on or off, and regular or low. This means there’s not as a lot granularity as there first seems, nevertheless it’s not that detrimental – there are sufficient particular person settings to permit for a fantastic number of configurations.

Governing these settings is a preset for individuals who would somewhat go for the trail of minimal fuss, and there are 5 setups: lowest, low, medium, excessive, and highest. These will be switched in-game with out the necessity for a reset, though when you want to transition from DirectX 11 to 12 you’ll need to relaunch the game.

Finally, a built-in benchmark device lets you see an in depth chart analyzing the body fee of your chosen arrange. The benchmark take a look at itself is prolonged, sampling a large number of areas, which helps present an correct determine.

Graphics evaluation

For our graphics evaluation we evaluate comparable screenshots taken on the 4 commonplace presets of highest, excessive, mid, and low. Shadow of the Tomb Raider does have a ‘lowest’ preset, so it may be scaled again much more than the least intensive settings as sampled in these screenshots.

Highest

Following within the custom of the earlier two installments within the collection, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a beautiful game. The Peru setting permits for a wide range of areas, from dank underground caves to dense jungle mazes. The screenshot above is taken in considered one of Peru’s villages, which demonstrates each the luxurious flowers and tougher, rougher terrain.

At highest, there’s actually no expense spared: Lara’s character mannequin is filled with completely different textures, all layered over an intricate mannequin mesh. The floor is pleasingly tessellated, permitting for practical cracks into which shadows are authentically forged. Shading among the many foliage is on a per-leaf foundation, and the draw distance permits the ridges on the bell tower within the high proper of the picture to be clearly seen.

All these fairly components will value you, though efficiency continues to be fairly stable. Using a GTX 1060 at 1080p decision, Shadow of the Tomb Raider achieves a median of 53fps. Sure, that’s not 60fps, nevertheless it’s not an upsetting distance away. For those that don’t subscribe to the holy values of 60 frames, the best preset is an choice price contemplating.

High

A decrease depth of discipline setting makes this screenshot look barely much less pure than the best setting picture, however the precise high quality of the graphics stays robust. The discount of ambient occlusion from HBAO+ to BTAO means the detailed shadow work across the likes of the roof tiles, stone work, and the creeping vines on the wall is lowered or eliminated totally, stealing slightly of the lustre from the scene. But, these shadows apart, there’s little or no distinction between highest and excessive settings. Textures stay sharp and the world retains its element regardless of their respective settings being dialed down.

With a median of 65fps on our take a look at PC, although, that slight change in general look supplies a fantastic enhance to efficiency. By exceeding 60 by a complete 5 frames on common, excessive is our private advice if your individual Tomb Raider setup is just like ours.

Medium

Shadow high quality takes one other hit when lowering the preset to medium, leading to silhouettes with sharper edges and fewer pure colouring. Texture high quality can also be lowered, making for a barely blurrier look to most surfaces, though the impact is simply slight: the general picture continues to be enticing. Tessellation has been turned off for this preset, and whereas that’s not so apparent on this particular screenshot, you’ll discover areas with notably tough or riven surfaces don’t look their finest.

But, whereas there’s an apparent discount in graphical high quality, efficiency averages at 66fps. That’s only a single body higher than the excessive preset. Performance features will differ from system to system, nevertheless it seems there’s little or no discount in {hardware} pressure on the medium preset, calling into query what it really achieves.

Low

There’s a good soar between the medium and low presets. Textures are lowered to the purpose that enormous quantities of element are eradicated from the picture. The chipped plasterwork on the partitions now solely shows the biggest lacking sections, somewhat than the smaller ragged edges to every imperfection. Model work is much less detailed, and when mixed with poorer shadows objects just like the palm tree leaves appear to be a block of inexperienced somewhat than particular person components.

The discount in high quality comes with an equally balanced improve in efficiency, although: a median of 77fps. Naturally, anybody with a system akin to ours received’t be seeking to play at this sort of stage, however for anybody with a lower-spec machine this makes it clear that there’s an affordable quantity of scaling accessible. If you’re actually struggling, the extra ‘lowest’ preset utterly removes the shadows from the game, providing slightly additional processing bandwidth and as much as 20 additional frames per second.

Performance benchmarks

To see how Shadow of the Tomb Raider performs on varied {hardware} setups, we take a look at the game on 4 graphics playing cards – two from Nvidia, and two from AMD. We’ve sampled fashionable playing cards from the present and final era of GPUs primarily based on the findings of the Steam Hardware Survey so as to supply essentially the most helpful info.

All 4 playing cards are examined on the highest settings, with each texture choice set as excessive as they’ll go, and each graphical impact turned on. For this take a look at we have now used the in-game benchmarking device, which renders a wide range of gameplay samples to generate a median body fee depend.

In the graph under you possibly can see how all 4 playing cards carry out.

All the bells and whistles of the best preset definitely takes its toll, however all 4 playing cards present completely playable body charges. At a median of 55fps, AMD’s RX 580 is our greatest performer, though its older R9 380 sibling fares surprisingly properly at a median of 34fps, which is best than commonplace console efficiency.

The Nvidia camp fares equally, with the GTX 1060 averaging 53fps and the GTX 970 coming in at 40fps. If you’re a 4K gamer, we’ve additionally tried the game with our Titan X-powered machine, and that hits a good 39fps.

These numbers show that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a well-rounded expertise, with no clear more sensible choice in relation to {hardware} producer. Whatever system you run, you possibly can anticipate an analogous expertise to these on comparable elements.

How to run Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 60fps

Getting a stable 60fps out of Shadow of the Tomb Raider just isn’t troublesome, however – due to its densely detailed environments – these with graphics playing cards from the earlier era will discover that they need to make many visible sacrifices. If you’re working a GTX 1060, RX 580, or a GPU of comparable energy, you’ll discover that the excessive preset is completely inside your grasp. Our GTX 970 needed to be dialled right down to low settings to attain the best body fee, whereas the R9 380 needed to be dropped all the best way right down to the bottom preset.

If you’re struggling it’s price turning off essentially the most intensive graphics settings. Depth of discipline and the display screen area applied sciences provides a pleasant sheen to the picture, however are removed from very important. While I’m an enormous fan of the Pure Hair impact, it’s additionally totally pointless and is usually a useful resource hog.

Conclusion

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a phenomenal game. With its detailed texture and mannequin work, environments actually come alive and assist create considered one of gaming’s most immersive jungle areas. Significant consideration has been paid to Lara herself as she has been handled to probably the greatest facial animation programs you will discover on PC. For anybody seeking to get essentially the most out of a brand new monitor or GPU, that is definitely a game to attempt.

Best of all, although, is that each one this magnificence comes as a part of a sturdy piece of software program. Nixxes Software, the studio behind the port, has all the time been dependable, and that is no exception. While the settings menu might afford to be a contact extra granular with its choices, there’s lots to work with, and the game scales properly throughout the overwhelming majority of its settings. And with no notable bugs skilled throughout your entire game, there’s little to marr the ultimate chapter in Lara’s origin story.