We started our playthrough in Far Cry 3 running through a tropical forest and then proceeded by stealing an abandoned dirt-splattered car. Once we were done joyriding around the island we went for a swim in the ocean and went to visit a neighboring island. We then got into an epic battle with some of the locals blowing up explosive barrels and stabbing our foes straight through the chest with our machete. Far Cry 3 lands at number seven on our list with its 41 FPS and this score is likely due to its large amount of particle effects when explosive barrels are, well, exploded, and also due to the fact that there’s tons of vegetation to be rendered as you walk around the various islands.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: #6
Game Engine: REDengine with Havok Physics
The Witcher 2 gave us a heavy helping of medieval combat throwing us into a bloody gladiator arena where we faced hordes of enemies. We found one setting enabled which caused our frame rate to be cut down to a meager 32.62 FPS, which was the game’s Übersampling option. What’s Übersampling? It’s Super Sampling Anti Aliasing meaning that The Witcher 2 made our rig render the game at 4K, and then downsize that image to fit our 1920x1080 display. When we turned off Übersampling the game ran at a buttery smooth 60+ FPS.
Crysis 3: #5
Game Engine: CryEngine 3
Like other Crysis games, Crysis 3 does much of the same as its predecessors giving users a heavy dose of particle effects, high-resolution textures, and tons of crazy physics. We ran around the game’s first level, which had us going through a rainstorm, while quietly assassinating our foes with a silenced pistol and tactical bow. Exploding barrels of gasoline killed our frame rate in Crysis 3 just like in Far Cry 3 making it dip to an abysmal 13 FPS. In the end we were only able to get 28.08 FPS out of the title, putting it at number five on our graphically-intensive list.
ARMA 3: #4 (Added: 2-10-14)
Game Engine: Real Virtuality 4
In testing ARMA 3, we first disabled motion blur and cranked up depth of field as high as it would go. We then maxed out shadows, objects, and overall visibility. Finally, we put FSAA (Full Screen Anti-Aliasing) to 8X, and Anisotropic filtering to Ultra.
We started up ARMA 3’s first mission Drawdown 2035 for our test run. Yes, we understand our frame rate would have been lower if we had jumped into a multiplayer match, but we didn’t want connection issues to impact our frame rate score. Our playthrough consisted of a helicopter ride to a dusty-brown military base. From there, we grabbed a Humvee and drove down a grass covered gorge to find one of our fallen comrades. We then got into a firefight with some of the local militia and ended up with an average frame rate of 25.77 FPS, putting ARMA 3 at number four between Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider (2013): #3
Game Engine: Modified Crystal Engine
Crystal Dynamics brought everyone a Tomb Raider game that rebooted the franchise, and gave gamers stunning hair effects with AMD’s TressFX setting. We tested Tomb Raider thinking that TressFX would be the reason behind its super low frame rate, as we barely were able to scrape together24.8 FPS. We looked at the game’s settings to find that it uses Super Sampling just like The Witcher 2 which made our GPU work extra hard to render the game at 4K to have it then downscaled to 1920x1080.
Our benchmark run consisted of killing many rabid wolves with our bow and arrow, while running through a dark, dense green forest. We tested the game with 2xSSAA and found our frame rate was increased to 45 FPS. The lesson learned from our testing is that SSAA is very demanding and by disabling it, yes, you’ll get some jagged edges, but you can receive a massive performance boost by either disabling it or scaling it back just a bit.
Metro Last Light: #2
Game Engine: 4A Engine
When the first Metro game came out it was a difficult title for PCs to play and made frame rates drop hard and fast. The second title, Metro Last Light, isn’t very different, as it takes the second spot on our Most Demanding PC Game list.
The game’s extreme PhysX effects and vast amount of tessellation are the culprits behind our low frame rate, which was an unplayable 22.3 FPS. With PhysX turned up, we saw tons of particle and water effects, which made everything sluggish, as we ran through the Russian swampland of the first level in Metro Last Light. We maxed out AA to 4XAA on top of that, which amplified how many times PhysX was rendered and ultimately this led to the demise of our rig’s precious frame rate.
Battlefield 4: #1 (Updated: 2/12/14)
Game Engine: Frostbite 3
When we first tested Battlefield 4, we set the Resolution Scale to 100% incorrectly thinking that was the highest setting. However, as one of our readers, doomsaint, pointed out, the scale actually goes up to 200%. We have retested Battlefield 4 with this new 200% scaling to find that its average FPS dropped to a mere 17.27. This difference moves DICE’s game from 10th place all the way to first!
In testing, we played through the game’s first mission and saw our cover blown up by grenades, bullets, and mortars, causing our frame rate to dip to as low as 12 FPS. The highest it would go was 24 FPS. Ouch!
Benchmark Chart:
Here's a bar chart measuring average frame rate for each title.
Conclusion:
We’ve seen some interesting results with our tests and came away surprised by how graphically intensive an old game like Crysis still is. Tomb Raider also surprised us with how taxing it was too. It's worth noting that PC gaming willl likely get a large graphical leap with the recent release of the next-gen consoles. The next few months look promising with a plethora of graphically demanding titles coming out which include Watch Dogs and Titanfall. It will be interesting to see what titles populate this list in the years to come.
