A Free-To-Play MMO? Neverwinter Performance, Benchmarked

[Donald Rash]

I am running this game on an older laptop P7350m with nVidia 9600m GT and the game runs perfectly!!! So this game does not require high end equipment to have a satisfying expierience.

 

[Donald Rash]

I am running this game on an older MSI laptop with a P7350m and a 9600m Gt and the game runs perfectly.

 

[lilcinw]

It would have been nice to see more platform tests to pinpoint where the bottleneck actually is. What happened to your k-series CPUs? It would be nice to know how OC'ed i5, i7 and FXs compare to stock.

 

[brimur]

Am I seeing that right, the 650 Ti is outperforming the Gtx 680 and 7970 in High detail? http://media.bestofmicro.com/H/8/382940/original/High-1920.png

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]brimur[/nom]Am I seeing that right, the 650 Ti is outperforming the Gtx 680 and 7970 in High detail? http://media.bestofmicro.com/H/8/3 [...] h-1920.png[/citation]

I certainly wouldn't call that 'outperforming'. This bench is *clearly* bottlenecked by the CPU.

The results are virtually identical, there's a slight variance across the results but its all within the margin of error.

 

[silverblue]

[citation][nom]dirtyferret[/nom]here come the AMD fan boys screaming how unfair the CPU review of this benchmark is...[/citation]
Nah. Besides, the more cores/threads the better in Crysis 3, it appears.

http://uk.gamespot.com/forums/topic/29356784/crysis-3-is-an-example-of-how-well-amd-cpus-perform-with-well-optimized-engines

Please note that this is only with nVIDIA graphics; it's entirely possible that Intel wins out with Radeon cards, or even with AA/AF turned on.

 

[Cy-Kill]

I have to set everything to low @ 1920x1200, because anything higher makes my video card sound like a jet engine -- and it does so on tonnes of "modern" games -- currently still using a Sapphire Radeon 4870 X2. Hopefully this year, I'll finally be able to upgrade my computer from what I built in late 2008!

 

[almerac]

Toms I think you got this way wrong, Just downloaded and installed Never winter. my rig has a Phenom II 965 c3 and a GTX 660, nothing overclocked. Went and set never winter to maxed out settings at 1920x1080 and my fps never drops below 45 fps, seems to stay pegged at 60 fps to upper 50's under most circumstances. idk what you tested or how but it looks like you found the one place in the game that causes the CPU to be the bottleneck? I don't think this review was done properly because you simply shouldn't see stuff like a gtx 650 TI beating out a HD 7970 even if both have that nice Intel to push the limits. I think you should do your tests over because the initial results don't look right at all.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]almerac[/nom]Toms I think you got this way wrong, [/citation]


It is kind of silly to call out someone's results unless you've repeated the exact same test they have.

Just sayin'.

 

[Onus]

Cleeve, particularly to meet article deadlines, how long ago did you run your tests? Is it possible, that being a beta, updates have already provided improvements? For example, Almerac says he just installed it. Would re-running a single one of your own tests after a fresh install be useful to look for changes?

 

[ChrisNH]

There is additional settings in the troubleshooting panel that let you specify the use of DX11 vs DX9 (default). This has helped people. I am wondering if the CPU bounding issues is the result of soft implementation of effects that is alleviated when you switch to DX11 render.

Certainly, while I respect Tom's, their benchmarks do not reflect my actual experience playing the game. With an FX-4100 clocked to 4Ghz and 1800 memory I see better performance than they show. I will have to experiment when I get home and verify my settings are as I recall.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]Onus[/nom]Cleeve, particularly to meet article deadlines, how long ago did you run your tests? Is it possible, that being a beta, updates have already provided improvements? For example, Almerac says he just installed it. Would re-running a single one of your own tests after a fresh install be useful to look for changes?[/citation]

A fresh install would be kind of unnecessary, an MMO is updated constantly as new versions are streamed to clients.

I've played the game recently and saw the same results.

Here's where the discrepancy comes from, it's quite simple: his test is easier than our is. And we look for the worst case scenario, absolutely, because we're far more interested in benchmarking where things get tough.

You can find the easy place to benchmark in any game. But if we published those numbers, people who buy hardware based on that recommendation would be pissed when they get to the tough stuff and their frame rates fall to crap.

So we find the tough stuff. If you buy based on these results, you might get better perf, but you probably won't ever get worse perf.

 

[lilcinw]

Do you have any thoughts on DX9 vs DX11?

FWIW I will probably sign up when I get home. I am running an FX 8320 @ 4.4 and those results look fairly disappointing.

 

[logainofhades]

[citation][nom]rootheday[/nom]well... would you look at that. Intel HD 4000 soundly beats the top AMD mobile APU[/citation]

I believe that is more due to the heavily CPU dependant nature of this game as mentioned on the CPU benchmark page. Various cards offered little change in performance when used with the i5 used for the review. HD 4000 generally cannot compete with an AMD APU graphics. Looks like there is some work to be done on CPU optimization.

 

[skit75]

Been playing it for just under a week on an i7-920@ 3.8GHz + EVGA GTX 560ti on 1920x1080 Max settings. No major hiccups really and the client has a "light" feel to it. I think the twitch element is on the calmer end also(raised my mouse sensitivity just a little bit). I kept waiting to get to a part of the game where it would essentially kill my game-play fun for not dropping any cash into it but, haven't see that yet. That being said, my brother played it for a couple hours and then dropped $200.00 for the Founder status goodies. I find it casually entertaining at the moment.

 

[doogansquest]

[citation][nom]TheCapulet[/nom]I don't want a Neverwinter MMO. I want a Neverwinter Nights 3, with a proper toolset and brilliant online/modding community. That's what Neverwinter is all about. Twitch action has never been what this IP was about. Thanks again for ruining everything, WotC.[/citation]

WotC didn't ruin anything. They've gotten behind a product here, and it's up to the public to decide how they feel with their computers. They aren't forcing you to buy this, the game isn't infringing on the space of other games, and people still have the choice to play or not.

 

[christop]

Weak game IMO...

 

[Bryan Sauriol]

[citation][nom]TheCapulet[/nom]I don't want a Neverwinter MMO. I want a Neverwinter Nights 3, with a proper toolset and brilliant online/modding community. That's what Neverwinter is all about. Twitch action has never been what this IP was about. Thanks again for ruining everything, WotC.[/citation]

You know that WotC has absolutely ZERO influence over any video games related to D&D right?

 

[Bryan Sauriol]

[citation][nom]TheCapulet[/nom]Before this publisher bought it, it sounded like a worthy successor. Atari had a habit of doing DnD games right, even when WotC got pissed about it. Hence WotC finally pulling Atari's license. After that, it went straight to hell. You're right, it's not NWN, but it's an MMO shamelessly ripping off it's title. I've had dozens of old NWN friends tell me that they tried it because it was neverwinter, and tell me that the whole ordeal was a massive waste of time.[/citation]

Wow... really? You think WotC has any control over the video game licensing? That's Hasbro bud. Also, you think it was pulled from Atari expressly because someone thought they were doing things "right."? That's bizarre. Atari wasted that license, releasing mostly shovelware. I dunno why you hate WotC so much, but you need to grind that axe somewhere else because WotC has literally nothing to do with any of this.

 

[Marcus52]

[citation][nom]kamhagh[/nom]world of Warcraft foreverbut nice game:S i wish get better in next updates:S as graphics are horrible and theres only few spells and things...[/citation]

Well you are wrong about the "graphics", the engine has been upgraded significantly. If you were to complain about the ARTWORK and the continued use of 2D modeling, I certainly agree with that, but WoW is a much better looking game than when it was released, and has DX11 capabilities now (has since just before Cataclysm). Characters - with 2D robes, tunics, pants, etc they are never going to look really good, and I fervently wish they'd change that.

And, what you are saying about "spells and things" - wut?

One of the reasons I still play WoW is that it doesn't have the kind of person that wants to play for free on it. The player base has enough malcontents that want stuff for no effort already. I also think it's a bit dishonest to call these games "free to pay" if they have content that you pay for, since it has been shown the average F2P player spends more than the average subscription player (hence the real reason publishers are moving to the F2P model). You may not have to pay for a subscription, you may have a choice about what to pay for, but its not free for most people.

 

[Marcus52]

[citation][nom]maddogfargo[/nom]Ok thats better...My 1090t @ 4.0GHz on max detail and a single 7950 gives 60+ FPS in explorable areas and mid 40's in populated towns. Happy to say it performs well, much better than the APU in this test.This game, like Guild Wars 2, seems to rely heavily on a single core render pipe. 2-3 other supporting cores will get used, but at a reduced level. So the intel CPUs will do better thanks to stronger single core performance.The problem is, single-core development is 5 years old. No matter what CPU you use, modern games will bottleneck there when developed this way. Optimizing to take *FULL* advantage of 4+ cores will greatly improve performance for everyone, intel or AMD.[/citation]

While I agree that many game devs are behind the times when it comes to making good use of multi-core CPUs, it just isn't true that single-core performance hasn't changed in 5 years (overall, and for a lot of games).

 

[kyuuketsuki]

Wow, that's some pretty bad engine optimization. No way should a modern game be that CPU-dependent.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]kyuuketsuki[/nom]Wow, that's some pretty bad engine optimization. No way should a modern game be that CPU-dependent.[/citation]

It's not actually as bottlenecked as the results lead you to believe. The problem is the game has a FPS cap of 60 FPS. It acts like v-sync is always on. It won't even allow me to use 120hz either. Most the time, the game is pinned at 60 FPS and never moves. I may look to see if there is a way to remove that 60 FPS cap, but atm, that is the reason the game looks so bottlenecked. In the main city, it is bottlenecked by the CPU, and those minimums reflect that, but outside the city, you mostly are at the 60 FPS cap.

EDIT: If you type "/Maxfps 120" in game, you can raise the limit past 60, and the results may have changed a bit. And you can get 120hz by either playing in maxed windowed mode (won't use SLI/CF) or enter in 3D Vision mode and press "ctrl-t" to jump back to 2D, and even though the game options shows you as at 60hz, your monitor will run at 120hz (at least it does for me. I can confirm within monitor settings that it is actively at 120hz).

And while the FPS does increase for me up to 80, it still seems CPU bottlenecked.

 

[Samuel Takara]

I'm curious how the hexa-core CPUs (Phenom II X6, for instance) handle the game. Still, very neat to see. Odd, though: didn't Champions Online and Star Trek Online almost not care about the CPU so long as it was dual-core?

 

[punnar]

I wouldn't call i5-3550 just a decent CPU, it's on the higher tier as far as your cpu hierarchy is concerned. To me an i3-3220 is decent and having to need such an expensive CPU to enjoy the game maybe the deciding factor if I'll ever play the game. I like the Dark Elf saga and I've been waiting for this game ever since I've heard about it but this news is bad news for me.