Here are all the details:

Launch Details:

• Date: September 7th, 2023.
• Location: Taipei, Taiwan.
• Manufacturer: LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd.
• Price: $234.99 (Black) and $244.99 (White).

Key Features:

• Supports 3 x 420 radiators at the same time.
• Adjustable, fully removable motherboard tray with 3 height options.
• The front pillar is removable for an unrestricted view.
• Reversible frame design.
• Relocatable front I/O USB module with 3 different placements.
• Hinged, hot-swappable HDD cages.
• Flexible cable management with location-adjustable dual-layer cable clips.
• Upright GPU installation in both standard and reverse mode.

Cooling Performance:

• Supports 3 x 140mm fans or 420mm radiators on the top, bottom, and side brackets.
• Optional rear support for 2 x 120mm fans.

Customization and Utility:

• Fully reversible case.
• Removable front pillar and side bands for clear PC view.
• Optional upright GPU mounting kit that can hold larger GPUs (up to 358mm length and 80mm thickness).

Additional Features:

• 2 x hot-swap storage drive cages, accommodating either 2 x 3.5” HDDs or 2 x 2.5” SSDs each.
• Hinged cable cover bar.
• 3 dual-layer cable clips for effective cable management.

Specifications:

• Type: Full Tower Chassis.
• Dimensions: 522mm (D) x 304mm (W) x 531.9mm (H).
• Material: Steel, 4.0mm Tempered Glass, Aluminum.
• Motherboard Support: E-ATX (Under 280mm)/ATX/Micro-ATX/Mini-ITX.
• Expansion Slots: 8.
• Storage: 3 x 2.5” SSD behind MB tray and 4 x 3.5” HDD or 2.5” SSD in Hard Drive Cage.
• GPU Clearance: 460mm (Max).
• CPU Cooler Clearance: 167mm (Max).
• PSU Support: ATX (Under 220mm).
• I/O Ports: 1 x Power, 1 x Reset, 4 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB Type C, 1 x Audio, 1 x LED Color Button, 1 x LED Mode Button.
• Dust Filters: Bottom, Top, and 2 x Side.

Availability:

• Pre-order begins September 7th, 2023.
• The O11D EVO XL is now available at NEWEGG:
• ​Black: https://www.newegg.com/p/2AM-000Z-000B4?Item=9SIAFSTJWR0739
• ​White: https://www.newegg.com/p/2AM-000Z-000B5?Item=9SIAFSTJWR0834​
• The O11D EVO XL is now available at Scorptec:
• ​Black: https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/cases/atx/105086-pc-o11dexl-x
• ​White: https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/cases/atx/105087-pc-o11dexl-w​
• The O11D EVO XL is now available at Overclockers UK:
• ​https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lp/lian-li-o11d-evo-xl​
• The O11D EVO XL is now available at Caseking:
• ​https://www.caseking.de/o11-dynamic-evo-xl​

For detailed information, visit the LIAN LI website.

For all the pre-launch chatter and years of build-up, we can rest easy! Starfield is downright incredible. Starfield is the best thing Bethesda has ever done – even besting my favorite entry in the series, New Vegas. I loved Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and especially Oblivion so I am a huge Bethesda RPG fan. This will be a mostly spoiler-free review, but we can say with confidence this is a stellar new franchise for Bethesda and a labor of love for the studio. The RPG elements are strong, the secrets are the most I have ever seen in a Bethesda game, and there is much to uncover even in the endgame. There is so much to do and fall deeply in love with.

Starfield will be released tomorrow September 1, 2023, in Starfield Early Access for players who have purchased the Starfield Premium Edition, Premium Edition Upgrade, or the Constellation Edition of Starfield.

For players who purchase the Starfield Standard Edition or subscribe to PC Game Pass, Starfield will be released on September 6, 2023.

That’s not to say that the game is without its flaws – combat can feel awkward, planet traversal is sorely lacking vehicles, and the occasional pop-in for conversations or weird interactions will be seen throughout your journey. The “Bethesda games are always buggy on release” mantra leading up to launch is flat-out wrong, however. I encountered bugs mostly with the conversations because I launched them quickly and my companion could not keep up. There were no game crashes or major bugs after more than 100 hours of playtime.

There are, however, some performance issues. Starfield is extremely CPU-heavy, and even with our RTX 4080, Ryzen 7800x3D build we saw some performance dips. Most egregious – there is no DLSS and this is another title that will exclusively feature AMD’s FSR and FSR2 technology. We will never agree with locking out alternative features, especially since I would have loved to have utilized DLSS 3 on my RTX 4080.

I can see why the game is locked at 30FPS for consoles. Even with 10 months of extra polish time on consoles, there are still some drops in performance. I had a few really hard FPS drops walking into some major cities on the Series S that felt bad, even if they were rare. Hopefully these can be fixed. With some patches, we are sure this will be better. I cannot wait for mods, my mind is racing with the possibilities!

Portable PCs, like the ALLY and Steam Deck
Bethesda explicitly noted not to use Asus’ ROG Ally or Steam Deck in our review as they are below recommended PC spec. I could not even get the ROG ALLY to launch the game due to some weirdness with the Xbox app on our Ally but Xbox/PC streaming worked flawlessly. I had to repair the download, and spam the launch button for it to work after about an hour of messing with updates and settings.

Once loaded, the ROG Ally did run the game decently on low to medium settings with FSR2 enabled while in 15W or 30W mode and it is 100% playable for those who have these portable PCs.

How much will Starfield cost?
Gaming only ever wants to get more expensive. The trend continues here, and if you want early access, you will need to pay $100 or the upgraded difference if you are a Game Pass subscriber. Microsoft has been raising the standard game price to $70 USD, Starfield included. Luckily, Starfield has been confirmed as a day-one addition to Game Pass, so most can experience it without any extra upfront cost.

Starfield is epic in scale – Some may not like this

Let me be clear: Starfield is a near-perfect Bethesda RPG with one of the best campaigns they have ever created. I was genuinely in awe in the latter half of the game, and with respect to Bethesda and your journey, we cannot discuss much that occurs in this portion. There is so much to explore but I did find myself mostly traveling within the major cities.

– 1,000 planets, with many that are mostly resource-gathering areas, but most have their main areas to explore and have fun in with hand crafted secret areas and wildlife to discover.
– Multiple faction quests.
– A plethora of side quests that keep spilling into your lap, begging you to explore and talk to as many NPCs as possible.
– A 40 to 50 hour main story quest.
– Excellent end-game activities to keep you busy including many things we cannot spoil. New Game + is also a warm welcome and a nice twist.

I often found myself drowning in activities (do not ignore these!) that became full-fledged amazing side quests, which I had ignored at first. My advice would be to slow down, and this is where Starfield may be an issue for some who have no patience. The game really and truly does not fully show off everything it has until way after 80-plus hours. I have to really emphasize that the scale is massive, and you will get to see so much more if you take your time and enjoy each individual planet first for all it has to offer.

But that’s the beauty of this game – your journey is going to be massively different from mine. For some, however, who want to unlock all the features or systems at once, they may not like having to invest 100 hours or more to get the game “going.”

Here are a few highlights in my journey while trying to be as spoiler-free as possible:
– I stole over 10 ships and immediately went to jail when I went into orbit near a patrolled planet, not realizing those spacers had contraband onboard
– Got a DJ’s new music back from an overzealous fan.
– Saved a planet from trees’ massive vibrations.
– Spared a man’s life after I learned he only stole a certain thing because he was recently fired and had no other choice.
– Found the source of an anomaly and uncovered the mystery of an artifact.
– Stole a tea recipe so a barista could compete with a megacorp (my companion did not like that).

Missions, side quests, and exploration

There is so much to explore on those far-off planets, so much beckoning that you to hurry to them, that inner child screaming with joy to rush to the end to “power up and unlock it all.” Slow down! Starfield has many, many wild layers to uncover and explore, but I often found myself spending hours on a planet, taking it all in, hours on side quests, and talking to those in a town I just discovered. Then you lift off, steal a ship, fight some space pirates, gather resources, build your outpost, and find a new planet with another hour-long side quest. It’s epic and breathtaking.

I will try to avoid spoilers, so skip to the next paragraph if you wish to avoid a very light spoiler. A perfect example of a favorite moment of mine was running into a derelict ship in orbit – which no one can seem to hail as soon as you pull into the orbit of Paradiso (a paradise Resort planet). The wild quest that unfolds for the secrets inside once you finally board the ship were great. Another was finding a miners simple quest that became a 10+ step mission that was extremely engrossing in Cydonia.

You can easily jump from planet to planet- more on that in a bit. Each feels like its own mini Bethesda game. Want to experience the desert? Head to Akila. Want a cyberpunk planet? Head to Neon. Want to experience something akin to Mass Effects massive cities? Head to New Atlantis. Missions here and the people you run into are varied and fully scripted. It’s so hard to write this review without screaming for you to go explore (spoiler) and fight the legendary (spoiler).

Planet jumping is where I found the most dissapointment. Launching away from a planet or onto once is mostly a menu system. The landing and orbit cutscenes are great but the game loses some of its charm and it would have been amazing to be able to manually take off from a planet if I wanted to.

I am over 100 hours in and have barely scratched the surface of shipbuilding, crafting, modding, and building outposts. Companions are varied and wonderful, and there are many paths for romance or companions to bring along that each have their own conversational style to match your preferred journey. I am not bored, ever. I keep wanting to play because there’s always a different loop I can take. Do I want to finish some side quests, gather resources, or explore new planets? I can easily choose any with the best fast-travel system I have seen. Everything is easily fast-traveled to – with slight limitations during quests – but you can hop from place to place in the blink of an eye. The Series S did have some longer loading screens for me so keep that in mind.

I am very saddened at the fact that there are no land vehicles or ways to easily traverse the planet. I am exploring a planet for a quest that needs to me to survey 100% of the planet in order to complete it. I have been stuck at 98% for over 3 hours with no end in sight moving from location to location to find the missing fauna and it did become frustrating – until I realized I could simply open the world and fast travel across the globe to different physical locations…d’oh!
However, I am still stuck at 98% simply because I got sidetracked with so much to do and the lack of interest in returning to find that missing 2%.

Shipbuilding and space flying are a highlight

Shipbuilding in Starfield is a delightful adventure! It takes a little time to dive into, but once you’re there, it becomes an exhilarating activity as you refine designs, add rooms, balance engines, weight, cargo, and ship systems. I have a fondness for massive spacecraft, not for their power, but because I enjoy wandering around all the rooms and exploring the technology that makes them tick. Although I haven’t delved much into outpost building, it is efficiently designed, allowing you to create attractive bases with relative ease. There are still the same power issues from Fallout 4 but some great options to build and even transport from planet to planet. It’s just not my cup of tea, and the game doesn’t hinge on it except for mass resource collection which I have yet to need.

In the endgame, there is a much greater need to worry about this, so I would say when you first start the game, don’t worry so much about your outposts until maybe 50 hours in, when you begin to start getting overwhelmed with companions.

Space battles are simply one of the best systems Bethesda has ever built. I became quickly addicted even though I knew my ship was severely outclassed. There is nothing I have experienced quite like taking on five spacers at once and barely winning because I was able to knock out all their engines. I kept losing this battle coming into orbit on a planet that I gave up and decided to explore elsewhere – only to see a giant ship land in the distance. I quickly ran over, defeated the owners, made it my new home ship, and instantly got an upgraded ship that was more than the spacers could handle. What a rush!

Starfield is ‘near’ perfect, but there are some minor issues

Bethesda has made some curious decisions and even their refined gunplay from the preview trailer still feels a little off. Some of the game feels like the systems and tech in the Fallout series forced change in Starfield. The need to differentiate between the two “futuristic” franchises is obvious. In Starfield, you get a “watch” that severely lacks the character of the classic Pip-Boy, and some of that classic Bethesda RPG danger feels really off unless you are fighting enemies that over leveled from you. I found myself missing V.A.T.S especially since a version of it exists on your spaceship and things like the menus and radio stations in Fallout. The AI feels set on a path and not as dynamic as I would have hoped but gun fights did feel quite responsive.

No one really tries to flank you or outsmart you and they often get stuck being target practice at their default locations while your are exploring. Most quests and other activities felt better, and there is a “fight to the death” area you can find that is particularly challenging even at high levels. It’s a strange feeling of easily dispatched mobs or “difficult to even pop your head up” fights.

As mentioned earlier, often you will fast travel to a mission marker, which launches a Grav Drive into a planet’s orbit. But the planet is suddenly surrounded by 6 pirate ships that severely outclass you, so you end up in a death loop unless you load a previous autosave. Be prepared anywhere you decide to fly off to. There may be missions or ships that hail you for trades. You never know what you might be traveling to.

Still, the gun diversity, some secrets, boost packs, and looting are extremely well done here. The guns feel incredible at times, but some feel unbalanced – dealing massive damage with a shotgun for example made me quite over powered for a long period of time. I tried switching to the P90 “Grendel” model in the game and it barely scratched the enemies I would shoot. Most of this can be fixed with balance passes.

Basic skills like stealth or pickpocketing require unlocking the core ability, meaning you can’t perform these activities at all until you invest a point in the skill tree. You don’t NEED the skills to perform the actions or get sneak attacks but without the core skill unlocked it feels bad to have something like pickpocketing locked off.

I specifically unlocked the ‘stealth’ trait because, without it, stealth felt very bad, and I did not like the lack of visual feedback. While leveling up to progress is understandable, the complete denial of access to core systems like this is strange and the cost to unlock could have maybe been a part of the quest instead. Leveling takes some time as well and there are so many worthy skill trees begging to be unlocked for you to progress that it feels bad when you have to spend that precious point in what was a default unlock for Bethesda RPGs.

Additionally, with crafting, you can only track entire recipes, not individual ingredients, making encumbrance a constant issue. There are so many heavy items in this game – especially ship parts – to weigh you down and keep track of. Thankfully, your companion can hold things for you, and you can sell or craft using the inventory that is on your ship’s cargo, so no need to hold it all at once or jettison the precious cargo.

Despite these minor hiccups, everything functions smoothly and feels stable. Although there are occasional frame rate stutters and minor glitches, nothing catastrophic has occurred for me. I hovered around 60 to 70 FPS stable on 3440×1440 with an RTX 4080. Thank you, Bethesda, for providing wide-screen support at launch.- a easily added feature so many ignore!

Starfield is visually stunning, with intricately detailed cities and diverse landscapes. One memorable moment involved exploring a moon-like planet or first landing in Neon. Your jaw will be on the floor even on the Series S where the graphics are toned down. I suggest immediately opening your menu and turning off the over-tuned film grain, however.

Starfield is one of the best games of this generation

For me, Starfield is Bethesda’s masterpiece, the hit Xbox needed, and possibly the game of the generation for the Series consoles. This is a system seller that is also available on PC via Steam or the Xbox app and included in Game Pass. I suggest you try it, you will be happy you did. Tears of the Kingdom brought me joy and wonder this year, but there was nothing for me quite like exploring all the wild amount of dialogue and fun to be had in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or walking into New Vegas for the first time. That feeling is hard to capture and explain – you just have to see for yourself what Bethesda can create.

The worlds Bethesda builds feature dense, lively worlds where every direction offers something new. Walking into an Oblivion gate for the first time or traveling to a new planet – this is what makes gaming great.

I remember first beating Oblivion‘s main quest at over 120 hours and immediately starting another run. Starfield is on a whole other level, with much left to see even after completing the main story. It’s simply a joy to play, and I cannot recommend it more to every gamer.

The feeling of uncovering new things and the natural development in Starfield as you journey through it is unmatched, highlighting Bethesda’s quarter-century of experience and their authentic mastery as one of the best to ever do it. You will literally be overflowing with things to do – or not do- in a universe is teeming with new planets to explore. A definitive masterpiece.

Familiar elements and combat awkwardness exist, but Starfield is completely new, and there are months ahead for me to explore and enjoy. I cannot wait to see the mods and community reaction. Have a blast, and don’t rush!
Starfield gets a 10/10 from BTR. Thank you to Bethesda for providing a review copy.

Cologne, Germany – August 23, 2023:
At the bustling 2023 Gamescom event today, AYANEO, a recognized name in the handheld gaming sphere, revealed its state-of-the-art gaming handheld – the AYANEO Pocket S. Developed in partnership with Qualcomm, this next-gen device boasts the groundbreaking Qualcomm Snapdragon G Series platform.

Making Waves in Handheld Gaming

AYANEO has carved out a reputation as a trailblazer in the gaming sector. They’ve consistently adhered to their principle: “Real Gamers, For Gamers”. Their innovation streak started with the AYANEO 2021 – the world’s maiden mass-produced 7nm Windows handheld, followed closely by the bezel-less AYANEO 2S, and the soon-to-be-revealed AYANEO KUN.

The tech giant’s foray into the Android gaming domain was solidified in 2022 with the introduction of the Pocket series. This July, they presented gamers with the Pocket AIR, their first Android handheld device. With a myriad of high-tech features, AYANEO is reshaping the Android gaming handheld experience.

The AYANEO Pocket S: A Game Changer

The eagerly awaited AYANEO Pocket S is set to hit the market in December. Notably, it represents AYANEO’s debut collaboration with the Snapdragon platform. But more than that, it’s the first gaming handheld globally to be powered by the Snapdragon® G3x Gen2 gaming platform.

Staying true to AYANEO’s design principles, the Pocket S showcases a borderless design – a first for global Android gaming handhelds. It melds the sleekness of high-end smartphones with AYANEO’s gaming expertise, giving users a lightweight, ultra-slim device. With its advanced heat dissipation capabilities, the Pocket S embodies the definition of a top-tier gaming handheld.

Variety is the spice of gaming, and AYANEO knows this. Gamers can look forward to different configurations of the Pocket S. Whether they desire a thin, lightweight model or one with a more extended battery life, AYANEO has them covered. Plus, ergonomic design ensures the grip feels just like a game controller, enhancing the gaming experience.

Voices from the Helm

AYANEO’s CEO, Arthur, expressed his enthusiasm, “Our collaboration with Qualcomm signifies our commitment to redefining gaming. Qualcomm’s expertise in the mobile gaming sector is unparalleled. With the Snapdragon® G3x Gen2 platform, we’re crafting a handheld that challenges perceptions.”

On the other hand, Mithun Chandrasekhar, Qualcomm Technologies’ Senior Director of Product Management, remarked, “Our Snapdragon® G3x Gen2 platform epitomizes innovation in mobile gaming. Teaming up with AYANEO allows us to give gamers a device that’s nothing short of revolutionary.”

What Lies Ahead

The AYANEO Pocket S promises not just to be another device but a trendsetter. With the might of the Snapdragon® G3x Gen2 platform behind it, the global gaming community is set for a treat that surpasses expectations. We look forward to testing it and covering this further.

Vampires are a horror genre staple so it’s quite shocking we haven’t really had an amazing game release featuring them as the central villain in quite some time. So when Arkane, the makers of amazing games like Prey and Dishonored, announced Redfall in June of 2021, it captured my bloodlust. Xbox’s current weak place in the market is begging for a great release which puts a ton of extra pressure for Redfall to exceed expectations.

The excitement for Redfall’s hero-based looter-shooter gameplay centering around vampires has such a high ceiling because of this atmosphere. Microsoft needs a win. It’s Arkane, so we know they have a history of hitting it out of the park with combat, stealth, and a great story. But after delays, the announcement that consoles would be locked to 30fps at launch, and after a quiet launch week, some concern set in.

The press embargo was set right before tomorrow’s release at 8:01 PM ET today. A red flag went up instantly. This is a review-in-progress as we were provided a key close to release and have not had time to complete the entire story but have completed the majority of its major missions. In fact, a 69.4GB patch dropped this morning adding DLC.

After playing, I understand the fear of reviewers about gameplay spoiling major elements of the latter half of the game. For FPS fans, Redfall provides some great gameplay elements to sink your teeth and time into, but it also lacks direction and its vision is muddied with formulaic systems and some glaring issues. Let’s take a deeper look at Redfall in our review of the PC version for Steam. Thank you to Nvidia and to Arkane for providing a review copy for our coverage!

Characters

Redfall has you choose one of four main characters which is one of the biggest draws for me upon release. Going in with friends to experience a 4-player massacre of vampires and their minions could be a real blast. Central to Redfall is its first person and hero shooter design. The four playable characters at launch are cryptozoologist inventor, Devinder Crousley; telekinetic student, Layla Ellison; combat engineer, Remi de la Rosa; and special forces sniper, veteran Jacob Boyer. Redfall has more character releases planned later.

Each character has a trio of upgradable special powers, two are useable for limited times, and an “ultimate” that recharges more slowly over time. Each power has its own unique spin on combat and abilities to play with. Vampires invade the area known as Redfall, and after some opening events, there is no physical way to escape from the area. You and the town’s citizens are fish trapped in a bucket being saved for feeding time.

The opening sequence is pretty great and sets the tone well. The massive cascade of frozen water serves as an ominous foreshadowing of the immense power our enemies hold. Our characters had previous run-ins with the main antagonists that provided them with their abilities.

I really disliked that Bungie made us go to their website to read “grimoire” cards to understand the lore. The same thing is done here with Redfall – most of the backstory ends up by being briefly told in side conversations, and if you want more, you need to read one of the many, many notes strewn across the world or by gathering 100 items that provide more exposition from a central character. It is hard to describe how grandiose the game can be and yet so small at the same time before you actually jump in to play.

Disappointingly, Redfall at times can feel paper thin, and I believe it could have been truly great with more time in the coffin until it was ready to withstand the heat of the sun and its place in the current landscape. Gamers will notice.

We want the deep world-building and narrative that Arkane is known for, and if more time was needed for a sophisticated presentation, I would have begged for it. Without going into later story spoilers, Redfall’s premise is that a biotech corporation known as Aevum was working with a scientist seeking immortality, an experiment went wrong and the vampire hoard was unleashed. Almost immediately, many of the town’s residents became cultists who wanted this same immortality and began to worship and defend the vampires with the promise that once they die they would be reincarnated as all-powerful beings.

A once idyllic island town is now the center for survivors, and you are someone luckily granted special powers that you have right off the bat. Conceptually, its a great setting for this game and it was very interesting to explore. With vampire nests to destroy, bosses to defeat, safehouses to set free, and so much loot to gather for upgrades – the base systems are there for a great time.

But while Redfall’s premise does an amazing job of setting up some great missions, the presentation feels extremely dated. So much so I am not sure that most players will stay long enough to experience the latter half of the game which begins to feel incredible at times.

Let’s take a deeper look at the gameplay.

Gameplay

After the opening sequence, your first mission is to approach a surrounded firehouse with survivors inside. Cultists are standing outside, literally, not banging on the walls or trying to break in – they are standing there in groups just waiting to pick survivors off. This is the same immersion-breaking feeling most of the encounters have in the game. Something feels like it was missed or changed in development.

Most gamers won’t care about small details as they may just care about the overall story and the gunplay. Well, after first picking off the cultists, you meet your first set of survivors for your new home base. There is little to no backstory for the characters without reading interactable letters, and they sort of just fall into place as expert base builders with a doctor, a gun expert, a clergywoman, and more. Redfall is shockingly light on explanations and barebones in so many other similar places that lowered our expectations for the rest of the game.

This base is never attacked and is literally just a place you come back to get supplies, make occasional small talk, and interact with a missions table to get photo cutscenes between your custom character and the survivors. I believe the reason for this is because of only having four characters and it may have been easier to just replace their skin for the cutscenes. I understand that the visuals needed to be presented, but with such barebones characters it would have made me care more about them if they actually talked to you.

Between missions, they will talk to each other and then later you get in-game conversations with dynamic character movements and interactions that I really enjoyed especially near the end of the first half of the game. If this was more fleshed out, I would have cared much more about these characters and saving them.

However, none of it matters as once a major defeat occurs, in order to progress the story you have to leave the main island and can never return. I’d prefer to go back and experience those levels again when I want to and have fun in the sandbox that was created, but its completely shut off.

The second area feels more like the real main game in almost every way. Characters are more vocal, the area feels more dense and packed with hidden items and more enemies to fight. The story is finally fleshed out and its vast world is begging to be explored. Only in the second half is where Redfall shines and becomes extremely fun.

Gunplay

We suggest not playing the healer characters during single-player as they won’t offer much utility. Some of the abilities become extremely powerful with later unlocks like Jacob’s raven damaging anyone in its path. However, the AI needs some serious work and I often found myself ignoring gun perks and upgrades as a necessity to improve my experience.

None of it is truly fundamental to the experience and most hero’s abilities would help multiplayer sessions. However, story progression is not shared due to the nature of the game’s design but the loot and levels you gain are.

Flawed AI is one of the biggest issues we ran into. It’s bad. I mean really bad especially for the poor cultists who get the short straw. They funnel in the same path, get stuck on rocks, have clunky animations, and have no real cognition or ability to flank and outsmart you while at the same time having god-aim. It’s a bad combo especially when being sniped at from a distance.

I am not sure any patches can address this, but with Jacob at launch, AI is broken and basically stuck in easy mode. Even on higher difficulties and with later invisibility unlocks, I could cycle between walking directly into a large group of enemies, grabbing the quest item, and then going invisible again, and they would just go on their way. The same could be said about shooting from a specific area – the AI just funnels directly to you and poses no real challenge ala Deathloop.

Other characters have similar “cheese” but I would recommend increasing the difficulty of the game for a better challenge. The shooting experience is still fantastic – from sniper rifles to UV lasers that petrify the enemy vampires – it is a blast to play.

In some well-designed areas like the vampire nests, it reminded us of entering the Elder Scroll’s Oblivion Gates. These moments however are few and far between if you love to fully explore the world. Some missions are surprisingly good but getting there is such a slog that some may never progress to experience them. The moment-to-moment gameplay constantly clashes badly with each other. It is tiring especially when combined with performance issues.

Speaking of vampire nests, these are some of the best gameplay areas in Redfall. They pack strong vampires in large numbers that can overwhelm you quickly even with Jacob’s invisibility and it requires careful planning. Conversely, there is little punishment for dying as progress does not reset and there are typically no timers, so if you can go in gun blazing.

Vampire nests reached another level that let me see the vision for Redfall which makes it hurt to see it ignored for the rest of the gameplay. The tone, the atmosphere, and with your back against the wall fighting off vampire hoards is such an amazing concept!

In one mission, you go to investigate a boat and as soon as the quest item is picked up it triggers an angry mob that immediately surrounds your only exits with deadly red mist, a mini-boss, and a mob of bloodthirsty vampires. You can see this all unfold beneath you from the boat’s windows. Your only option is to bite back and fight your way out. The game is filled with these bursts of incredible and stunning moments with fantastic and engaging gunplay that is then mixed with poor performance, bad lip-syncing, and horrible AI.

I am really reminded of Destiny 1’s live service launch which was obviously a victim of a large form of rewrite and rebuild. Perhaps Redfall had a similar fate but we will never know. Arkane has promised gamers that this will be their most supported game yet and we really hope so. The core gameplay is incredible but it reminds us of Cyberpunk 2077’s promise of a better future when all we need now is the vampire killing fun we have been salivating for.

The loot, the loot, the loot, the loot, the loot

Let’s talk loot. Vampire bosses keep repeating “the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood” but all I care about is if they will give me fun weapons to kill them with. Loot and gameplay can keep a game alive for a long time especially if there are fun quests or some great special weapons or “exotics” to chase. A community can grow quickly when secrets are found or the best load-outs to defeat bosses are found.

Redfall’s weapons scale with your level and just pump out higher numbers of damage. Pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles, UV lasers, stake launchers, snipers, and flare guns round out a fun and worthwhile experience. Unfortunately, as the game fleshes out you see how exploration is broken by other reward types. So build-crafting with the right perks and skill point selections doesn’t make much of a difference now.

Pistols are often one-shot minions, flare guns burn and stun lock vampires, and stake launchers massively chunk any boss or special vampire. It’s all amazing fun and the combo load-outs you run can really allow for great gameplay loops. Although the cultists are really bad enemies, they serve little to no threat until much later when their level just means their incredible accuracy can health-chunk you within a second or two if you get careless. I died a lot early being overrun in confined space by the fast vampire attacks as they surrounded me. Some enemy abilities can also one-shot you. This would not be much of an issue in multiplayer but it felt bad in single-player mode.

That said, you don’t have to worry about dying in a mission because no progress is lost and you have so much junk loot currency that you will likely never spend. You do not lose any progress from dying, any damage or defeated enemies stay dead, and your mission status is retained. Most of the world’s junk loot like bleach, toilet paper, water bottles, etc. that you pick up gets converted into a currency for purchases back at the home base.

Things like med kits, better guns, and lock picks can be purchased with converted drop currency. However, most of the rewire/hack kits just lead to more junk loot or heals, which enemies drop, and are strewn literally everywhere. Most of the lock picks do the same.

There was no master sword moment or a huge loot drop that I was super excited for. This is because they aren’t necessary because vampire nests and a later world event granted me the best loot in the game. Most of your old loot is junked as you move on to the next mission anyway.

The combos are fun though as you need to either stake, petrify, or burn vampires. You can mix using a UV gun to petrify groups of vampires and then shotgun them one by one to dispatch a large group easily. If you take too long as Jacob, you can just go invisible with no real danger. I did this for the first big boss and didn’t even lose 50% health because a large power weapon pumps out such large chunks of damage the boss gets health gated and frozen before they can even react. I broke the game rather easily. Balancing needs to occur and much more AI work is needed. There was a huge patch today that hopefully addresses some of these woes.

PC Performance

I am beginning to call DLSS 3 a godsend but it should not be necessary just to enjoy a major release. The industry has lately given PC gamers the short end of the stick, but that is a topic for another day. We started our playthrough with our Ryzen 7800x3D build with an RTX 4070 Ti and 32 GB of DDR5-6000mhz RAM on our TeamGroup 2TB NVMe drive. Ours is far beyond a typical system, but from the onset we had massive crashes, stuttering, bugs, and large frame dips. Microstutters and texture problems also occurred.

The latest Nvidia driver helped and DLSS 3 almost doubled our performance. This still did not address some areas of town where we would dip into the low teens. Entering the menu could often cause the game to crash. Glitches like this ruined some major moments of our playthrough but with patches this may be resolved soon.

DLSS looks incredible and is a must-have feature. It nearly doubled performance on the RTX 4090 which was already performing great except for the 1% lows. The same could be said for our RTX 4080 and 4070 Ti. The newly released RTX 4070 also performs well but the game really needs some serious performance improvements.

There was a large 69.4GB patch today so we redid our benchmarks. Here are our numbers using maxed/Epic settings:

Testbed 1:

Intel 13900KF/RTX 4090 FE/2x16GB DDR5 6400/Win 11 – 3840 x 2160

TAA high/No DLSS – 124.3 av /  42.1 1% low

Quality DLSS 3 – 178.0 av / 72.7 1% low

DLSS 3 in particular allows for stunning gameplay and steady framerates with comparable image quality to native. Unfortunately, Redfall is sadly locked at 30FPS for the console launch with 60 FPS mode coming soon but now we can understand why: It just needs more time in development.

Testbed 2:
Post-Day 1 Patch with AMD Ryzen 7800x3D, 2x16GB DDR6 6000, TeamGroup 2TB NVMe, Win 11.
3840×2160, Epic Preset DLSS comparison:

Conclusion – try if you have Game Pass

We can not recommend Redfall at launch. I was very excited for Arcane Austin’s Redfall, despite the console war chatter, the state of Xbox, and red flags coming out from the game development cycle. I still loved my time with it, and in many moments I was having a good deal of fun, but most of the time the world proved to be empty or uninteresting.

I would not have continued as far as I progressed if I did not enjoy some of the big set pieces so much. I believe anyone with Game Pass should play it, even at 30fps on console. However, it’s a messy mix of RPG, looter shooter, and a multiplayer game that lacks a cohesive and consistent presentation. Couple this with terrible AI and a plethora of bugs and there are very high highs and very, very low lows. 

Redfall can technically be played solo, but we recommend the experience with friends as it is much better. It is also not going to be the major release to start the Xbox renaissance that we so desperately need. This review score is going to be low, but I am still rooting for it. There is something there at the core that is clawing at the surface to come out and be enjoyed. It is your choice if you want to power through the mud to get to the meat of it.

If you can withstand some glitches, read the story in text form with barebones character development, and have friends to play with then you will have a decent time. That said, the world is already so empty that traversing its many roads with no vehicles or large enemy population it can feel lonely walking large swaths of areas as a solo player. At times, I grew so frustrated with the experience I found myself begging for a story, begging for those cool moments, and I often felt unrewarded and angry.

Redfall releases later today on Xbox Series consoles, PC, Game Pass, and is Steam Deck verified.

Today, Bungie released the latest trailer leading up to the launch of Destiny 2: Lightfall for Guardians to prepare for what the Witness has planned for the Traveler, which has nowhere left to run.

In case you missed it, here are some exciting things that Bungie has released in the past few weeks leading up to Lightfall:

• Lightfall Interactive Trailer for new and returning Guardians to catch up on the story before Lightfall
• Destiny 2 ViDoc: As Light Falls with insights from Destiny 2 developers on Lightfall
• Weapons and Gear Trailer showing off new firepower coming with Lightfall
• A closer look at the new subclass, Strand, with a new trailer and blog post
• Lightfall and the Year Ahead blog from Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn
• Destiny 2: Lightfall x SteelSeries collaboration

Lastly, the final cinematic for Season of the Seraph and the year of The Witch Queen was revealed last week, setting up the next confrontation in the Destiny 2 Light and Darkness saga.

Players can look forward to grappling through the neon city of Neomuna with the new subclass, Strand, while taking on Calus and his Shadow Legion when Destiny 2: Lightfall and Season of the Defiance launch next Tuesday, February 28.

If you had a video game mixer and mashed Duke Nukem, Far Cry, and Bioshock together you would end up with Atomic Heart. This amalgamation results in a game filled with wondrous future tech and human augmentation coupled with gritty fun combat mixed with crass humor.

Beyond being Sci-Fi first-person shooters, these games depict their own versions of alternate universes or worlds in which technology meant to create a utopia goes sour. That is a tall order to fill and Atomic Heart does it very well – It’s fast-paced, fun to play and well-optimized. Atomic Heart is one of the weirdest and most fun games we have played so far this year and it wears its inspirations well.

Atomic Heart, is Mundfish’s debut title which started development 5 years ago. It places KGB agent “P-3” into an alternate future in which the Soviet Union has mastered robotics to defeat Nazi Germany and end to World War 2. Its singular focus is on the setting – a post-war Soviet retro-futuristic world where Russia has created augmentation and has made significant scientific leaps for “all mankind.”

Russian scientists have decided to share their creations for a better world where AI bots do things like bring you a soda, deliver packages, and take your group photos on a tour. They are primarily concerned with how the world views them while maintaining an aura of perfection. Their next advancement plans to combine human brain power and knowledge instantly while maintaining ones own personal experiences and memories. Their goal is to integrate all human collective intelligence into one so our advancements will skyrocket.

These Russian scientists have augmented humans’ entire life with these AI bots. However, a traitor makes the AI believe that every human is an invader and should be treated as a threat. A security hole in the software leads the AI to turn on humans and thus begins our journey.

Political concerns aside, when you play the game you quickly learn it ridicules the Soviet Union although it remains heavy on propaganda. This is barely distracting. This Bioshock-like Soviet shooter, Atomic Heart, is well worth your time and the positive hype is real. The 20+ hour campaign and 15+ hours of side quests are filled with memorable moments and great action set pieces using the backdrop of super-tech and beautiful graphics.

Gameplay -An Inspired False Utopia

A game that takes such obvious inspiration from other major franchises may have been bland and boring. Yet Mundfish hits the ball out of the park for most gamers. Atomic Heart is content to be a single-player experience filled to the brim with some of the most unique design elements of the last two decades.

The intricate detail in Atomic Heart is astounding although some environmental touches could have used more work. Gamers generally want to see fire hydrants fly violently across the room after shooting them or hitting them. Details like this are missing and environmental destruction is minimal at best. Your main weapon is an ax at the start of the game – you will want to whack everything but nothing happens most of the time.

Instead, the astounding visual and audio design was the obvious focus. A game can rest on its gameplay loop quite easily, but a game like Atomic Heart shines in its enemy and environmental design. The enemy robots that have suddenly turned on us vary from mustachioed robots to towering iron giants and giant destroyer Drioideka-like ball enemies that are terrifying to face. Combating them requires using Polymer which is the main source of Russian innovation and also P-3’s power. This substance allows you to use Doom-like future weaponry in your right hand while having Char-Les your buddy AI and augmentation on your left. Your left hand acquires additional powers that you can add like an electric shock, freezing enemies, or covering them in polymer to make them susceptible to the elements.

Mix in some stealth, great movement, and upgrade paths and the game is a blast to play. The issues come in with some of the acting and generic American leads. The game features 9 voice-overs and 13 subs with around 1.5 hours of cinematics. Contrary to recent rumors, there is no 6 hour robot sex scene. The game set in old Soviet Russia has the iconic look and feel of the time but it quickly turns into cookie-cutter territory after you hear the main character’s voice.

We needed an English voice over for obvious reasons, but the audio tracks sometimes feel like they weren’t being spoken live by our character, and an audio track was just played in our ear. Many voices feel this way but our main character, P-3 is often making Duke Nukem-like jokes while robots offer sexual innuendos or funny responses. At times the moments were great and at other times the voice acting took away from the game’s unique settings and turned it into a generic comedy.

A game that borrows from others but is a master of none describes Atomic Heart. The story often feels bigger than what the game can deliver. It had the potential to do a lot more with the environment or platforming but instead, it felt lacking the deep complexities of the greatest games preceding it. Some of the puzzles and boss fights are memorable while others are easily forgotten as mere blockades to the story’s advancement.

It’s possible to look perfect yet still need work.

2023 already delivered us a Game of the Year contender in Hogwarts Legacy, and while Atomic Heart does so many things well, its many limitations hold the game back. Atomic Heart has one of the best openings in recent memory that is as breathtaking as the descent into Rapture in Bioshock.

This backdrop is so strangely good it baffled our mind by its poor scripting at times. We will probably see review scores varying from nearly perfect to low because of the writing and poor English voice acting. The classic games we know stay in our minds forever because of their extreme attention to details demonstrating that small things matter. Doom, Halo, and Deus-Ex, all immerse you into their world and make you want to live there and feel a part of it. Unfortunately, Atomic Heart lacks that deep immersion despite its ambitious design and great ideas. Without spoilers, it is difficult to explain but its mix of great beauty combined with bad writing and poor voice acting may become cumbersome during its 20 hours campaign.

Agent P-3 is the epitome of toxic masculinity in an awesome background, much like inserting Duke Nukem into Bioshock’s Rapture. Skills, crafting, upgrades, and the combat formula work so well together that it becomes frustrating to have to deal with cumbersome looting. A sleazy kiosk that offers sexual advances will either be hilarious to you or make the game fall flat. Atomic Heart has sexy robots, visceral combat, plus unique and massive bosses, but they can feel like bullet sponge hell with endless enemies and overlong sections.

There is so much junk in every room that you require for crafting that Mundfish built in a single key press function to suck all the junk out of every drawer. If this feature did not exist and we had to check each drawer on its own, our review score would plummet. This open world can often feel like it isn’t open. Bioshock’s Rapture worked because it was one large setting filled with excitement around every corner. Facility 3826 is similar as it felt amazing to discover what was happening inside, but the issues arise when you travel outside to new locations offering little discoverability in between quest-gathering. We also had many many crashes and bugs in our playthrough, with most of them coming while interacting with the upgrade bot or during combat. Most of this may be fixed with future patches, but for gameplay’s sake, we suggest running the Russian voiceover with English subtitles.

The Atomic Heart open-world segments are best to run past. There are no immersive sim elements. Instead, you just zap or freeze NPCs and engage in combat with large enemy groups. The problem is that this open world is littered with endlessly respawning enemies that make it oppressive and not fun to engage. You can waste all your ammo for no reward. Camera systems that have worked in previous games to alert enemies of your presence could have been used to create cool set pieces and memorable intense battles.

In game, the enemy density is so high that stealth is rarely an option, and if you destroy a camera or enemy – no matter if it took you seven or more bullets to destroy – a repair drone is dispatched to bring it right back to life. The only way to stop this is to find the security system which will only temporarily disable it. The game is best enjoyed driving or running past most of the open world to the next objective. This means that the open world simply does not work. Couple this with awkward writing and poor voice acting, along with endless juvenile interactions and Atomic Heart never realizes its game-of-the-year potential. I am not sure this can be patched and it stops me from scoring it higher.

Steam Deck with FSR / DLSS 3 Shines Bright

So how does it run? Amazingly well and something I am ecstatic to experience after the recent rash of stutter-ridden and clunkly PC ports. Atomic Heart takes advantage of Nvidia DLSS 3 which is the next revolution in graphics that are only available in the 40xx series of RTX cards. By using “Frame Generation,” DLSS 3 increases performance while maintaining almost perfect image quality. This salvaged our framerates at Hogwarts Legacy and DLSS is also proving it is worth the price of admission for Atomic Heart.

The best way to enjoy the game is by enabling DLSS 3, which gives you comparable image quality to native while supercharging performance. Enabling Nvidia Reflex also gives you the lowest latency. Each technology can be enabled or disabled separately, but the best way to play Atomic Heart is with both of them working simultaneously.

Reflex is automatically applied when DLSS 3 is enabled to make sure latency is minimized, and in many cases, latency is lower than native with DLSS 3. They work together very well. At 3440×1440 and 165hz, I had a well-polished graphical experience that ran smoothly with only some occasional crashes with environmental bugs or by trying to access menus. The game runs nearly double its performance at all Ultra settings averaging 80~FPS with DLSS 3 off and about ~144 with DLSS 3 on.

3440×1440 Gaming Performance with Atomic Preset
Test bed: Intel i7-12700K and 32 GB DDR4-3200mhz on Windows 11 using the latest Nvidia Drivers 528.49

Here are Nvidia’s test results featuring a wider range of cards:

Steam Deck users can also rejoice. This is another well-optimized game that runs at a steady locked 30fps or can run in the medium to high 50s steady and even higher with unlocked FPS plus FSR. However, some menu systems are unreadable when everything is set to low with FSR on. There is an image sharpening setting that should be increased to at least 2 if you plan to playing with low settings.

We do not recommend playing on low – the FPS gains are not worth it. You can freely enjoy the graphics and combat at medium settings with a very playable performance at 30 FPS. But the High preset was a struggle with dips well below 30 FPS. I was able to run everything using the Medium preset with Fidelity FX super-resolution set to quality with 30 FPS locked with only rare dips. I play at this level to increase battery life, but if you are plugged in – uncap your FPS and enjoy a well-polished experience for your Steam Deck. The PS5 and Xbox Series X can run this game at 4K/60 FPS with dynamic resolution so that should be a delightful experience as well.

One of the most egregious omissions is a lack of a FOV slider. This is common on consoles but it’s sorely missing here I often felt the default FOV was way too narrow for my liking and my wife felt motion sickness and vertigo while watching me play. A simple slider would have been great. This is, however, a PC port that runs amazingly well, and doesn’t even need FSR or DLSS 3. This is something that should be celebrated in a world where PC ports are often seen as afterthoughts with little care compared with their console brethren.

Atomic Heart sadly does not have ray tracing on any platform at launch. This is strange as Nvidia and Mundfish heavily advertised ray tracing and it looked amazing when it was shown. Our only hope is that its last minute removal was due to a bug that can be easily fixed and not because it would cause crippling performance on older cards. There’s no way to turn raytracing on in the settings on PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X|S so we will have to wait and see.

Final Thoughts:

The dark undertones of Atomic Heart exist and are a setting I was extremely excited to visit. It’s truly wonderful experiencing some gaming moments on modern technology. Some scripted introduction scenes felt exactly like that – the grand introduction to this game in particular lets intense moments sink in and it’s extremely beautiful. If anything I would recommend trying this game out just for those sequences alone.

There are many things that work well for Atomic Heart that are completely worth the price of admission. Anyone with GamePass should try it for themselves and enjoy a potentially great game. After some patches and desperately needed repair bot and enemy density balancing, this could be a real gem. Despite a promising setting and inspiration, its writing may be off-putting especially if one is easily offended. Tightening up these sequences and fixing some audio issues will make this game infinitely better.

Did I have fun? Hell yes! Will I recommend Atomic Heart as a GOTY contender for 2023? No. Those looking for an interesting game that wears its heart on its sleeve will be heavily rewarded. It is an odd and enjoyable retro blast precisely because it was reminiscent of some of the great classic games of our past. Atomic Heart continues to grow on you even if it’s not an entirely cohesive or balanced experience.

Atomic Heart releases tomorrow, Feb 21st, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S February 21, 2023. Nvidia provided this review copy for BTR.

We score Atomic Heart at a solid 6.5/10.

SSD (Solid State Drive) technology is always improving and its pricing remains reasonable as speed and capacities increase. SSD technology has become accessible to PC gamers who need more and more storage as games grow larger. We received a 2TB T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD from TeamGroup that appears to have been especially developed for the PlayStation 5 as its lettering indicates Pro Special 5eries.

The A440 Pro Special Series is a very fast Gen 4 x4 PCIe 4.0 7,400MBps/7,000 MBps PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. We put it through its paces against six other SSDs. We especially want to see if it is practically faster for PC gaming than our other two NVMe Gen 4 x4 SSDs – a 1TB 7,000MBps/6,000MBps SSD or our 2TB 5,000 MBps/4,400 MBps SSD.

We will also focus on its performance by comparing it with three other NVMe/PCIe SSDs, a portable USB 3.2 SSD, and a fast SATA III SSD: (1) a 1TB CARDEA A440 (7,000/6000MBps Gen 4 x4), (2) a 2TB CARDEA Ceramic C440 (5,000/4400MBps Gen 4 x4), (3) the 1TB CARDEA IOPS SSD (3,400/3000MBps, Gen 4 x3), (4) a now midrange TeamGroup 1TB MP33 (1,800/1,500MBps, Gen 3 x4 SSD), (5) a 4TB M200 portable USB 3.2 Type C SSD, and (6) a fast 1TB Delta MAX White RGB (560MBps/510MBps) SATA III SSD.

The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD is available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, priced at Amazon at $287.99 for the 2TB version. The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 (vanilla) SSD that we reviewed in January is at Amazon for $299.99 for 2TB, but it comes with two heatsinks. They are both in a similar price range to other fast PCIe 4.0 Gen4 x4 SSDs currently available. For additional price comparisons, the 1TB SATA III Delta MAX is $124.99 at Amazon and it offers RGB lighting. The TeamGroup 2TB MP33 SSD is $179.99, the T-FORCE CARDEA IOPS is $119.99 only offered in a 1TB capacity, and the 2TB CARDEA Ceramic C440 version is priced at $259.

Here are the features and specifications of the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD which are taken directly from TeamGroup’s website.

FEATURES

• PCIe Gen4x4 Interface & Crazy Fast Read/ Write Speeds of >7000
• Special Edition White Ultra-thin Patented Graphene Cooling Fins with Zero Interference
• Ultra-large 4TB Gaming Storage Space
• Five-year Warranty for Maximum Protection
• Taiwan Invention Patent (number : I703921)
• United States Patent (number : US11051392B2)
• China Utlity Patent (number : CN 211019739 U)

Specifications

The specifications, based on CrystalDiskMark, boast up to 7,400 Read MB/s / 7,000 MB/s Write for the 2TB version and slightly lower Read/Write speeds for the 1TB version which are excellent for a Gen 4 x4 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. Although it features a SLC cache that will degrade beyond its capacity threshold and isn’t capable of sustaining its write performance until full, it is exceptional for gaming and most applications. The 2TB model is rated for up to 1,400TB of Write backed by a five year guarantee and it features S.M.A.R.T and Trim support.

Next we unbox the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD and take a closer look at it.

Unboxing, Heatsink installation, and Temperatures Under Load

The TeamGroup T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD comes in a small box that advertises PCIe 4.0 and a white graphine heatsink as pictured on the front.

Here is the back of the box which warns the buyer that the up to 7,400 MB/s / 7,000 MB/s transfer speeds can vary according to hardware/software conditions and are only to be used for basic reference. It offers a 5-year warranty and demonstrates the heatsink – a thin white Graphene copper foil – that will allow the SSD to be placed behind a video card or into the PS5.

Here is a closer look at the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro SSD in its inner packaging with the heatsink and thermal material below it.

The front of the CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series carries a sticker which warns that the warranty may be void if removed. It’s meaningless as there is only a bare PCB below the sticker.

The ICs are on one side of the PCB and the A440 Pro uses Phison’s E18 and Micron’s 176L TLC to achieve its rated speeds.

The A440 Pro Special Series comes with just one heatsink unlike the regular A440 which comes with a second finned heatsink. The Graphene heatsink is covered with a lot of unnecessary text, but it is designed to be thin and hidden behind a video card. It is also ideal for installation in a PlayStation 5.

The white heatsink is good-looking and easily attaches to the Pro.

Installing the heatsink is simple; remove the plastic covering from the sticky thermal interface material and apply it to the heatsink taking care to cover all the modules.

It is important to use a heatsink as temperatures will easily exceed 80C without one. But using the graphene heatsink behind a video card only drops temperatures by about 5C. Stressing the A440 Pro by copying 100GB over and over resulted in temps close to 80C, and using AIDA64’s drive torture test, it reached 76C. Unlike the difficult to cool CARDEA Ceramic C440 (5,000MBps/4400MBps) that has ICs on both sides of its PCB, the A440 only uses modules on one side, but it still runs too hot to be cooled by its supplied white graphene heatsink.

We measured the temperatures using Crystal Disk Info and Hardware Info 64 which were in agreement, and the SSD became much too hot to touch. In fact, we saw significant loss of performance as the SSD throttled its speeds in an attempt to cool down

We also tested the A440 Pro with the finned heatsink the regular A440 came with and temperatures stayed well below 70C under the most demanding conditions without throttling. We didn’t know why TeamGroup decided to include an additional heatsink with the regular A440 but not with the Pro, so we let them know that we found the graphene heatsink inadequate. They replied:

“We suggest that you use the NVMe heatsink that comes with ASUS ROG Maximus Apex motherboard, and also please suggest users do it this way also.

The CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD is originally designed within the PS5 environment, so when it comes with higher data transfers, the temperature will go higher than expected.”

If your motherboard has an integrated NVMe heatsink, you will wish to use it. If not, buy a NVMe heatsink. They should install easily over the A440 Pro’s graphene heatsink. In this way, the A440 will remain cool and never throttle due to heat.

Using the NVMe heatsink included with the ASUS ROG Maximus Apex motherboard, we never saw temperatures even rise to 50C.

After installing the CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series, the user may need to format it before use. If you are planning to clone it, make sure both disks are GUID or convert one of them first. Lets look at our test configuration next.

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-12900KF (HyperThreading and Turbo boost at stock settings)..
• ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Apex LGA 1700 motherboard (Intel Z690 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 5.0, DDR5)
• T-FORCE DELTA RGB PC5-51200 6400MHz DDR5 CL40 2x16GB kit, supplied by TeamGroup
• GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, supplied by NVIDIA
• T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, supplied by TeamGroup
• T-FORCE CARDEA A440 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, supplied by TeamGroup
• T-FORCE CARDEA Ceramic C440 2TB PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe SSD
• T-FORCE CARDEA IOPS 1TB PCIe Gen 4 x3 NVMe SSD, supplied by TeamGroup
• TeamGroup MP33 1TB NVMe Gen 3 x4 PCIe SSD
• T-FORCE M200 4TB Portable Gen 2 x2 USB 3.2 Type C SSD, supplied by TeamGroup
• T-FORCE DELTA MAX White 1TB SATA III SSD, supplied by TeamGroup
• Super Flower LedEx, 1200W Platinum 80+ power supply unit
• MSI MAG Series CORELIQUID 360R (AIO) 360mm liquid CPU cooler
• Corsair 5000D ATX mid-tower (plus 1 x 140mm fan; 2 x 120mm Noctua fans)
• BenQ EW3270U 32? 4K HDR 60Hz FreeSync monitor

Test Configuration – Software

• Gaming results show loading time in seconds and lower is better
• Windows 11 Professional edition; latest updates/build
• Latest DirectX
• All benchmarking programs are updated to their latest versions
• IOmeter
• S.M.A.R.T. Tool (TeamGroup)

PC Game & Level Loading Suite

• PCMark 8 (World of Warcraft & Battlefield 3)
• Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Benchmark – loading times of five different levels
• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Benchmark – loading times of five different levels
• 3DMark Storage Benchmark (Battlefield V, Call of Duty, Overwatch)

Synthetic Benching Tests & Suites

• SiSoft Sandra 2020/2021
• AIDA64
• PCMark 10 Pro version courtesy of UL (Full Storage Benchmark, Express, Extended)
• PCMark 8
• SPECworkstation3 (3.0.4) Benchmarks
• Anvil’s Storage Utilities
• CrystalDiskMark
• TxBENCH Basic
• HD Tune
• AS SSD
• HD Tach
• 100GB File Copy Timed Test

Let’s head to our benching results.

Benchmarking the CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD

Benchmarking SSDs is not an exact science as there is variability between runs, and different benchmarks may show different results depending on how they run their tests and how up-to-date the benchmarks are. However, by using enough real world and synthetic tests, it may be possible to get a good idea of the relative performance across all seven tested drives. For benchmark results, the drives are listed in the following order on the charts:

1. T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 x4 SSD
2. T-FORCE CARDEA A440 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 x4 SSD
3. T-FORCE CARDEA Ceramic C440 1TB PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 x4 NVMe SSD
4. T-FORCE CARDEA IOPS 1TB PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe SSD
5. TeamGroup MP33 1TB NVMe Gen 3 x4 PCIe SSD
6. T-FORCE M200 4TB Portable Gen 2 x2 USB 3.2 Type C SSD
7. T-FORCE Delta MAX SATA III 1TB SSD

We did not set up Windows on the DELTA MAX SSD, so not all of the benchmarks could be run on it. All of the drives will have their results summarized by multiple charts although we will not show the details for every run. Let’s start first with TeamGroup’s own S.M.A.R.T. utility to get information on each SSD tested.

S.M.A.R.T.

This TeamGroup S.M.A.R.T. utility tests each drive using three different sets of tests.

First up, the CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series dual performance tests starting with MB/s with the IOPs results immediately below followed by the latency results at the bottom.

Next, the CARDEA A440 dual performance tests starting with MB/s, IOPs and Latency.

Now, the performance tests for the T-FORCE CARDEA Ceramic C440 in MB/s, IOPs and Latency.

Here are the dual performance tests in MB/s, IOPS, and Latency for the T-FORCE CARDEA IOPS.

Next we look at the performance tests in MB/s, IOPS and Latency for the TeamGroup MP33 SSD.

Next, the T-FORCE M200 4TB Portable Gen 2 x2 USB 3.2 Type C SSD dual performance tests starting with MB/s, IOPS and Latency

Finally, the Delta MAX dual performance tests starting with MB/s, IOPS and Latency.

S.M.A.R.T. clearly shows the PCIe NVMe CARDEA A440 Pro is the fastest SSD by virtue of its fast Read speeds, followed by the vanilla A440, the CARDEA Ceramic C440, the CARDEA IOPS, the TeamGroup MP33 SSD, the Type C Portable SSD, and in last place, the SATA III SSD – the Delta MAX SSD.

TeamGroup’s S.M.A.R.T. tool is a great place to start, so let’s see what other synthetic and real world tests show. Let’s begin with 3DMark’s storage benchmark.

3DMark Storage Benchmark

3DMark’s Professional version by UL includes a Storage Benchmark (optional in the Advanced version) which also measures the time it takes to load several popular games. We are going to only show the Gen 4 x4 SSDs detailed results but will summarize all of them. If you wish to see the detailed results of the other SSDs , please check the T-FORCE M200 SSD review from earlier this year.

First, the A440 Pro Special Series results with 3229.

Next, the CARDEA A440 results with 3844.

The CARDEA Ceramic C440 scores 3009.

Here’s the summary chart of all seven of our tested drives.

It’s interesting that the CARDEA A440 is a standout as fastest SSD using this benchmark, followed by the A440 Pro Special Series, the C440, the IOPS, the MP33, the portable Type C SSD, and the SATA III DELTA MAX.

Next up, another important UL benchmark suite, PCMark 10 including the full benching suites – Express, Extended, and the Full System Drive Benchmark.

PCMark 10 Professional

UL (formerly Futuremark) has been a developer and publisher of PC benchmark applications for nearly two decades. Although PCMark benches are synthetic suites, they provide a good measure of system performance. PCMark 10 was primarily developed for Windows 10 and it builds upon the PCMark 8 suite for a package of vendor-neutral home and office benchmarks.

The regular version of PCMark 10 misses several key elements such as detailed storage testing, but the Professional version, which we use courtesy of UL, includes a storage benchmark and a full system drive benchmark. In addition, We use both PCMark 10’s Express and Extended suite also. First up is the Full System Drive Benchmark.

Full System Drive Benchmark

First, the A440 Pro Special Series results with 2917. We used the same version of 3DMark to test all of our SSDs and did not install the latest recent update for consistency across all drives. Again, we show the detailed results of only our fastest three PCIe 4.0 Gen4 x4 SSDs.

Next, we test the CARDEA A440 which scores 3474.

The CARDEA Ceramic results give 2223.

Here’s the summary chart of all of our tested drives.

Again, we see the NVMe PCIe SSDs line up in their expected order from fastest (left) to slowest (right) with the exception that the A440 Pro Special Series scores lower than the regular A440.

The PCMark 10 Express benchmark suite is best suited for office tasks while the Extended benchmarks are for power users. To properly compare the PCMark 10 scores, look at the detailed results for the three fastest SSDs which are presented as screenshots. Open the images in separate tabs for easy individual test result comparisons. All seven SSD results will be summarized after the screenshots are presented.

PCMark 10 Express

First, the A440 Pro Special Series results with 7468.

Now the online validated score which gives more detailed results.

Next up, the CARDEA A440 Express score with 7480.

Now the online validated score with more detailed results.

Now, the CARDEA Ceramic C440 Express score is 7188

The online results follow.

The summary chart is presented after the Extended scores.

PCMark 10 Extended

First up, the CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series Extended score is 13257.

Now the online results.

Next, the CARDEA A440 Extended score is 13452.

Here are the online details.

The CARDEA Ceramic C440 Extended score is 13384.

The online details are below.

Here’s the summary chart. The Delta MAX SATA III SSD could not be tested since Windows is not set up on it.

In the express suite, the CARDEA IOPS SSD actually scores highest followed by the A440 which just edges out the A440 Pro, the MP33, and then the C440 in the least demanding office Extended Office benchmarks. The more demanding Extended suite lines up the SSDs all rather closely except for the Portable SSD.

Let’s check out the older PCMark 8 benchmark suite which also uses dedicated storage tests.

PCMARK 8

Next up, the C440 Ceramic SSD Read tests.

Here is the summary chart comparing our seven tested drives where higher is better except for the Average Read Access where lower is better.

Next the CARDEA A440.

Next, we test the CARDEA Ceramic C440 SSD.

TxBENCH

TxBENCH is similar to CrystalDiskMark but with additional features including secure erase. According to the website, “It not only measures the performance of storage easily but also performs detailed speed measurements based on specified access patterns and long-period speed measurements. It also allows you to see each drive’s supported features, enabled features, and S.M.A.R.T. information.”

First we test the A440 Pro Special Series SSD.

Next we test the A440.

Now the CARDEA Ceramic C440 results.

The HD Tune benchmark results are summarized by the chart below.

Next are the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 AS SSD results showing the results in MB/s next to IOPS, and below them, the copy speeds.

Next are the T-FORCE CARDEA Ceramic C440AS SSD results.

Again, both of the CARDEA A440 SSDs stands out with the vanilla version edging out the Pro. The CARDEA C440 is next followed by the IOPS, the MP33, the portable, and finally the Delta MAX.

HD Tach

HD Tach is a low level hardware benchmark for random access read/write storage devices that was developed by Simpli Software. HD Tach uses custom device drivers and low level Windows interfaces to determine the physical performance of the device. It is no longer supported and needs to be run in compatibility mode for Windows 10.

We present the benchmarks first with the Quick benchmark (8MB zones) on the left and the Long benchmark (32MB zones) on the Right.

Here are the A440 Pro HD Tach results with an average read of 2486.0MB/s for the Quick bench and 2335.4MB/s for the Long bench.

Here are the A440 HD Tach results with an average read of 2212.5MB/s for the Quick bench and 2308.1MB/s for the Long bench.

The T-FORCE CARDEA Ceramic C440 HD Tach results give an average read of 2321.0MB/s for the Quick bench and 2150.7MB/s for the Long bench.

Here are the HD Tach Disk benches summarized in a chart comparing our seven drives. For read speeds, higher is better but for access times, lower is better.

The CARDEA A440 Pro again generally scores the fastest in HD Tach ahead of the A440, although the CARDEA C440 trades blows with the vanilla A440, followed by the IOPS, then by the MP33 SSD, the portables SSD, and the SATA III Delta MAX takes last place as usual.

Next we look at game/level loading speeds.

The Game/Level Loading Timed Results – FFXIV

Game and game level loading time results are difficult to measure precisely but generally SSDs perform similarly with regard to game loading times and they all load significantly faster than any HDD. Even SSHDs require loading the same level or program over-and-over to get quicker. We tested 5 levels and overall loading times accurately by using the Final Fantasy XIV: Stormbringer & Endwalker benchmarks.

Shadowbringers Benchmark

The Shadowbringers Benchmark will not only give you accurate framerates averages, it precisely times how long it takes to load each of 5 different levels and the total loading time. We used maximum settings.

Let’s start with the Shadowbringer benchmark using the A440 Pro. Total Loading times are 8.068 seconds.

We also use the newer Endwalker benchmark and then summarize the results of our five tested SSDs.

Endwalker Benchmark

The Endwalker benchmark is also just as detailed as Shadowbringers and is a very accurate test of loading game and level times.

We test using the Endwalker benchmark with the A440 Pro. Total Loading times are 7.888 seconds.

Here is the summary chart and we also include PCMark 8’s game loading tests.

For all 4 games and from multiple levels tested, both CARDEA A440s stand out with the vanilla version beating the Pro, followed generally by the C440, the IOPS, the MP33, the Delta MAX, and then the USB 3.2 Type C portable SSD. We see a 2-3 second difference between our fastest SSD and our slowest SATA III SSD with an additional second required to load from an external drive.

It does make an immersion difference for getting right back into the game. However, until developers start to target SSDs for PC game storage, only then we may see SSDs fully achieve the game loading performance they are capable of on Windows. In the meantime, PS5 gamers can take full advantage of either A440’s fast loading speeds. No matter what, faster is better when a gamer wants to get right back into a game.

Lets look at file copy speeds next.

File Copy 104GB

File copy speeds are important to gamers especially when they want to quickly transfer their game files from one location to another. We copy a 104GB folder containing Horizon 5 from its Steam folder to a desktop folder which is something we do regularly when setting up Steam games on multiple PCs. Pay careful attention to the charts (in green) that show the consistency and speed of file copies. They tend to show the ups and downs where each SSD runs out of cache and how long it takes to empty and refill it.

104GB File Copy

The A440 Pro Speciall Series SSD took 1 minutes and 17.0 seconds. to copy 104GB.

The A440 took 1 minutes and 44.0 seconds to copy 104GB.

The Ceramic C440 took 1 minutes and 59 seconds for the same copy.

The CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD excels at copying well ahead of the two other Gen 4 x4 SSDs. The IOPS comes in fourth place well ahead of the MP200 portable and MP33 SSDs which are in turn faster than the Delta MAX SATA III SSD. Yet no matter how you look at it, even a SATA III SSD is much faster than any HDD or SSHD for copying large files. Consider taking a nap if you are going to copy 104GB using a hard drive.

Finally, let’s revisit game/level loading times plus all of our Summary charts and then reach our conclusion.

Summary Charts and Conclusion

Here are all of the gaming and summary charts again for easy reference followed by our conclusion.

The Game/Level Loading Time Results

Game and game level loading time results are difficult to measure precisely (such as by using a stopwatch) but our tests are far more consistent. Here are the World of Warcraft and Battlefield 3 loading times again as measured precisely by PCMark 8’s storage test and accurately by Final Fantasy XIV: Stormbringer/Endwalker’s benchmarks. Lower (quicker/faster) loading times (measured in seconds) are better.

PCMark’s Storage Benchmark also provides precise SSD bandwidth, loading times, game record, install, and save time comparisons.

All seven SSDs load games quickly but the three Generation 4 x4 PCIe SSDs stand out from Generation 3 x4 and especially from SATA III and external SSDs. When PC game developers start to target SSDs for game storage, only then may we see SSDs achieve the super-fast game loading performance they are capable of. Until then, PlayStation 5 gamers may take full advantage of either CARDEA A440’s fast loading speeds.

Non-Gaming Summary Charts

Here are all of the summary charts presented again in one place.

A gamer who wishes to have the very fastest PC will choose an internal PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 x4 NVMe SSD, and both CARDEA Ceramic A440 SSDs stand out as the fastest drives, and noticeably faster than the CARDEA C440. The CARDEA IOPS slots into fourth place well ahead of the TeamGroup MP33 or M200 Portable SSDs, and finally the Delta MAX SATA III SSD is almost always in last place.

For gaming and for regular tasks on current Intel platforms, any SSD will provide decent game and level loading performance well above that of mechanical hard drives or even hybrid (SSHD)drives, but a PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 x4 will provide the highest performance. Let’s head for our conclusion.

The Conclusion & Verdict

We would suggest that 1TB has become the minimum storage capacity for a gamer that includes the operating system since PC games have grown very large although 512GB may still be acceptable. It still is not mandatory to have a SSD if you only use your PC for gaming and have a ton of patience. Games do not usually perform significantly better on SSDs since most PC developers still target HDDs for game performance optimization. However, games usually take significantly longer to load from a HDD or SSHD than they do from any internal SATA III drive or even from an external USB 3.0 SSD.

If a gamer wants to get right back into the game, any SSD will improve immersion and decrease frustration compared with using a HDD or SSHD. Windows 10/11 have become positively painful to use when installed on a mechanical or even on a hybrid solid state/hard disk drive. Indexing, Search, or Anti-malware Windows programs often saturate the bandwidth of a mechanical drive, and even downloading or updating Steam games will slow your PC to an irritating crawl. This will not happen using a SATA III SSD. But for maximum performance with the least frustration, using a PCIe NVMe SSD is the only way to fly. HDDs should be relegated only for storage and for back-up.

Let’s recap pricing. The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD is available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, priced at Amazon at $287.99 for the 2TB version. The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 (vanilla) SSD that we reviewed in January is at Amazon for $299.99 for 2TB, but it comes with two heatsinks. They are both in a similar price range to other fast PCIe 4.0 Gen4 x4 SSDs currently available. For additional price comparisons, the 1TB SATA III Delta MAX is $124.99 at Amazon and it offers RGB lighting. The TeamGroup 2TB MP33 SSD is $179.99, the T-FORCE CARDEA IOPS is $119.99 only offered in a 1TB capacity, and the 2TB CARDEA Ceramic C440 version is priced at $259.

We believe that spending the extra money is worth it for a super-fast 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD over Gen 3 x4 as long as your motherboard supports PCIe 4.0. If not, the CARDEA IOPs is an excellent choice. The 2TB CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series is actually priced less than the 2TB vanilla A440 and would be a logical choice for faster Read and copy speeds – If you already have an NVMe heatsink or plan to install it in a PS5. If not, the regular A440 is an excellent choice.

Of course, gamers on a budget should also look for sales. Because of today’s close pricing and competition, choosing an SSD is easier than ever. Based on performance and price, we will recommend the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series SSD as a competitively-priced fast SSD.

A five year warranty backed by TeamGroup insures that a player will enjoy fast performance for years to come.

Pros

• 5-year warranty backed by TeamGroup support
• Blazing fast game/level loading speeds and very fast large file copy speeds
• Very fast Write and and also extra fast Read speeds
• The A440 Pro Special Series is priced competitively and not much higher than slower Gen 4 x3 SSDs
• Designed for the PS5

Cons

• The included graphene heatsink is inadequate to prevent throttling

The Verdict

Happy Gaming!

After spending 18 hours over two sessions completing the Ghostwire: Tokyo main story, and being unable to tear ourselves away from the screen until it was completed, we will recommend it as a great game with a few flaws. It’s an epic universal story about family, regret, loss, and letting go told from a Japanese viewpoint that is absolutely worth playing. Its story, intense immersion, and authenic cultural representation could only have come from a Japanese studio. However, this review will focus on DLSS scaling performance because it cannot be played at 4K using maxed-out ray traced settings with excellent image quality (IQ) on any video card without it.

Although the game consists of typical open world fetch quests, a player is not treated like a tourist. The quests take on cultural significance, delving into mythology and religion that are a part of Japanese society and superstitions. Tokyo comes alive at night although the player is the only living human. Ghostwire: Tokyo even features Japanese audio as default by using English subtitles which add to the immersion much as watching a great Japanese film is best experienced. We did not bother with the English dub since the Japanese voice acting and emotion is top-notch.

The Ghostwire: Tokyo premise is that the city is under the control of a dangerous occultist allied with “visitors” who have caused the entire population of the Shibuya district to vanish. Playing as Akito, the player is still alive only because he has allied with a spirit detective (KK) inside him that provides supernatural abilities against dangerous ghostly and spirit foes. Akito uses a combination of upgradeable elemental powers and can even grapple onto Tengu demons to glide through the sky. The gameplay is unlike a usual FPS, since when an enemy loses most of their health, their core is exposed and the player uses takedown moves to permanently destroy them.

Gameplay & Mechanics

Although it is open world, Ghostwire: Tokyo uses a mist and fog mechanic to keep the player from venturing into locked areas of the map. Akito unlocks sections by completing side objectives and must purify shrines using Kuji-kiri inspired hand gestures to cast spells to disperse the fog opening up more areas of the map, while gaining access to new side quests and objectives. Various elemental powers including wind, fire, and water blades magic and upgrades are unlocked using XP, currency, and other resources. Akito may also save the souls of the vanished residents before they are permanently lost.

The side quests in the game often have some light narrative or humor attached to them that uncover the unfinished business of various spirits that are unable to move on to the afterlife. One of Akito’s side quests is to find toilet paper for one spirit locked in a bathroom stall that refuses to move on otherwise.

Ghostwire: Tokyo offers multiple difficulty settings, from a story mode to very challenging. There are varied environments that range from the streets of Tokyo at night, to the wide outdoors, and to exploring underground. There is no built-in benchmark but the game exhibits similar performance from one area to another, and there are individual settings available from the menu to fine tune performance.

An anytime save supplements autosave and is particularly helpful to proceed as there are many tough enemies and difficult boss fights to survive. The NPC enemies generally present good variety although some of them are quite repetitious with only minor variability.

Although it is a PlayStation PS5 console port, Ghostwire: Tokyo has incredibly detailed characters with awesome visuals that place it at the apex of the very best cinematic experiences. Ray traced reflections are featured and eveything reflects accurately in the puddles on the streets adding to a player’s immersion. However, a player cannot see their own reflections, so it is not the same as Control, although other NPCs cast reflections that are accurately traced as they move.

To progress, a gamer needs to be good at fighting, and there are a lot of side quests and souls to save, as well as XP to earn for character development. Great voice acting and music enhance a player’s experience. However, this review will not focus on reviewing the game; rather it will focus narrowly on DLSS as a means to increase framerates without compromising image quality as the game is impossibly demanding using maxed-out settings.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is basically a DX12 PS5 Pro version with unlocked framerates for the PC, and it looks better than most of the next generation console games. The PC version includes ray traced reflections, shadowing, great lightning and intense colors, enhanced screen space reflections, and ambient occlusion. The PC version also offers higher framerates and perhaps higher textures than the console version.

BTR’s benchmark is not only representative of the game and generally more demanding than the boss battles, but the runs vary from each other by less than one percent. The boss battles don’t seem to depend on ray traced reflections which otherwise can severely impact framerates

DLSS, Image Quality, and Performance

BabelTechReviews pre-purchased a copy of Ghostwire: Tokyo from Green Man Gaming at a 20% discount before it launched on Friday last week with no expectations. It received mixed reviews but with very high praise for its depiction of Tokyo. We started it with a very bad toothache that didn’t allow us to concentrate on anything else yet we were completely blown away by this game and could barely tear ourself away from it. The game was so enjoyable and immersive, the pain receded into the background as we finished the main storyline in two marathon sessions.

Ghostwire: Tokyo features NVIDIA’s DLSS as well as AMD’s FSR, but there is really no comparison – the DLSS images are much better with DLSS Quality being at least as good as the native 4K visuals and slightly sharper. Although DLSS exhibits more ghosting on raindrops than native 4K, the overall effect is superb and makes them look even more real.

More than three years ago, NVIDIA introduced realtime RTX ray tracing together with Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS). To play at high settings requires the use of AI super resolution or DLSS which provides better than a game’s postprocessing AA together with improved performance. Ghostwire: Tokyo uses ray tracing and DLSS to improve performance, and we will compare the current performance and IQ of eleven NVIDIA RTX cards using the latest 512.15 driver.

Performance Options

Although Ghostwire: Tokyo is a well-done PlayStation port, it has more limited options than most games developed primarily for the PC. The game is limited to 30 FPS on the PS5 using the highest settings and ray tracing. Playing on PC gives slightly higher graphics fidelity together with a potential for higher and thus more fluid framerates. We benchmarked using maximum settings including Motion Blur (Cinematic), but we played with it on High and we also used SSAO for Global Illumination instead of the much more demanding SSGI.

We played and benchmarked using two different displays – a 48″ LG C1 120Hz 3840×2160 display and a 32″ 60Hz BenQ 4K display. Our PC is a 12900KF Intel CPU at stock settings on an ASUS ROG Maximus Apex motherboard with T-FORCE DELTA 16GB x 2 DDR5 6400 CL40, and a 2TB 5,000 MB/s T-Force C440 NVMe SSD for C:Drive plus a 1TB T-Force A440 7,000MB/s NVMe SSD as storage for loading the game. Tokyo: Ghostwire loads very quickly from a fast SSD. We played for 18 hours using a RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition and then benchmarked and played for many more hours benching with ten more RTX cards.

We are going to compare image quality using three levels of DLSS versus using no DLSS, and we chart the performance of eleven current NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards:

• RTX 3080 Ti
• RTX 3080
• RTX 3070 Ti
• RTX 2080 Ti
• RTX 3070
• RTX 3060 Ti
• RTX 2080 SUPER
• RTX 2070 SUPER
• RTX 3060
• RTX 2060 SUPER
• RTX 2060

DLSS

NVIDIA’s DLSS creates sharper and higher resolution images with dedicated AI processors on GeForce RTX GPUs called Tensor Cores. The original DLSS 1.0 required more work on the part of the game developers and resulted in image quality approximately equal to TAA. DLSS 2.0 and later versions use an improved deep learning neural network that boosts frame rates while generating crisper game images with the performance headroom to maximize settings and increase output resolutions. Since it uses DeepLearning, it continues to evolve and improve.

NVIDIA claims that DLSS offers IQ comparable to native resolution while rendering only one quarter to one half of the pixels by employing new temporal feedback techniques. DLSS 1.0 required training the AI network for each new game whereas DLSS 2.0 trains using non-game-specific content that works across many games.

DLSS generally offers RTX gamers four IQ modes: Quality, Balanced, Performance and Ultra Performance, These settings control a game’s internal rendering resolution with Performance DLSS enabling up to 4X super resolution. In our opinion – for Ghostwire: Tokyo specifically – the Quality DLSS IQ looks somewhat better than 4K, and even Performance DLSS is very well implemented. We would prefer to drop DLSS from Quality to Performance rather than adjust other settings or drop the resolution, and Balanced DLSS is an excellent in-between choice.

Ghostwire: Tokyo’s own anti-aliasing doesn’t address temporal anti-aliasing like DLSS does. We will next focus on image quality and DLSS on versus off, followed by benchmarking and charting DLSS performance using eleven RTX cards.

DLSS On versus Off

Native 4K without DLSS is 3840×2160 for both the Render and the Output Resolution and it is especially demanding on a video card using maximum settings.

Using the magic of AI and RTX Tensor cores, Quality DLSS upscales a 2560×1440 render resolution to 4K with no loss of image quality as we shall see in the following section.

No DLSS vs. Quality DLSS

Here are mostly uncompressed JPEG 4K images images comparing No DLSS/Native (left) with Quality DLSS (right) using a slider.

[twenty20 img1=”27043″ img2=”27047″ offset=”0.5″ before=”NO DLSS” after=”QUALITY DLSS”]

We don’t recommend playing without DLSS. The DLSS image quality is equal or better/sharper than native although there are some very slight differences that can be seen with some minor DLSS specular aliasing issues visible on some surfaces.

No DLSS vs. Balanced DLSS

Balanced DLSS uses a Render Resolution of 2228×1254 to upscale to 4K and the AI must fill in more pixels than with Quality DLSS.

Here is 4K (native) with no DLSS on the left compared with a similar image on the right using Balanced DLSS.

[twenty20 img1=”27043″ img2=”27041″ offset=”0.5″ before=”NO DLSS” after=”BALANCED DLSS”]

Again the images are comparable although Balanced DLSS loses a tiny bit more detail than Quality DLSS.

No DLSS vs. Performance DLSS

Performance DLSS requires that a Render Resolution of 1920×1080 be upscaled to 3840×2160 which means the AI must use just one-quarter of the original pixels for its 4K reconstruction. This will result in a further slight loss of detail.

Here is the comparison of 4K (left) with Performance DLSS (right)

[twenty20 img1=”27043″ img2=”27045″ offset=”0.5″ before=”NO DLSS” after=”PERFORMANCE DLSS”]

There is a small loss of detail in some areas but the Performance DLSS upscaled image quality is still excellent and we doubt that anyone would notice the differences while actually playing the game, and they are even difficult to see in the above screenshot slider comparison.

Next, we check out the performance of eleven RTX cards using 3840×2160, 2560×1440, and 1920×1080 resolutions using up to three levels of DLSS with the goal of averaging close to 60 FPS while still using completely maxed-out settings.

Performance

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a visually beautiful but extremely demanding game using maximum settings, and its impossible to play at native 4K with maxed out settings on any current generation video card without slowdowns. Quality DLSS is our goal since it’s visuals are equivalent to not using DLSS. Balanced DLSS may requires a slight visual sacrifice, and Performance DLSS is still acceptable while gaming because most players are generally not exploring the gameworld with a magnifying glass looking for visual flaws.

Although there are very difficult boss battles with multiple enemies on screen at once, as long as a player can maintain average framerates above 55 FPS, the experience is sufficiently fluid as long as the minimums (1% lows) stay around 50 FPS. If a GSYNC or a GSYNC compatible display is used, it is generally not a problem for the lows to dip occasionally into the upper-40s FPS. Below that, fluidity may be compromised, and it is better to lower the graphics settings or use a lower quality DLSS setting. Ultra Performance DLSS is not recommended unless framerates cannot be increased by any other method – it is better to lower settings first as it was primarily developed for 8K gaming.

Using Ghostwire: Tokyo’s highest settings, we compare performance without DLSS versus Quality, Balanced, and Performance DLSS using eleven current RTX cards at 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160.

For Better Performance Consider SSAO Instead of SSGI

SSGI has the highest visual fidelity for ray tracing. However, it takes a solid hit over using SSAO and may not even be noticeable when traversing Tokyo. It is up to the player to decide if they want maxed out settings at all costs or will settle for something slightly “less perfect” visually.

Here are two screenshots comparing SSGI with SSAO using DLSS Quality at 4K:

[twenty20 img1=”27047″ img2=”27049″ offset=”0.5″ before=”SSGI” after=”SSAO”]

The ray traced lighting is more perfectly rendered using SSGI over SSAO. Is it enough to lose performance? Each gamer will have to decide about the visual tradeoff for performance.

All of the following charts show average framerates (FPS) in Bold and 1% FPS percentile minimums next to them in slightly smaller italized font.

Here is RTX 3080 Ti performance using SSGI compared with performance using SSAO.

Using SSAO instead of SSGI makes approximately a 10% improvement in performance and it scales similarly for all RTX cards tested. We played the game using SSAO and did not notice significant enough visual diffencies while playing to use SSGI. However, the following benchmarks use all settings fully maxed-out including SSGI.

4K Video cards – RTX 3080 Ti & RTX 3080

Only two RTX cards can generally play at maximum settings using DLSS at 4K.

The RTX 3080 Ti is a no-compromise video card that provides the best 4K Ghostwire: Tokyo experience. It absolutely can not handle maxed out 4K settings without using DLSS. Fortunately, DLSS scales superbly in this game.

A 4K gamer may choose to use Quality DLSS but must accept a framerate hit without some other setting compromises. We played at 4K but used SSAO instead of SSGI using an RTX 3080 Ti FE and managed very well using Balanced DLSS and G-SYNC displays with drops to about 50 FPS that did not impact our gameplay fluidity even during the most demanding boss battles.

If a RTX 3080 Ti gamer chooses 1440P, DLSS Quality is still a must.

At maxed out 4K, the RTX 3080 averages above 60 FPS with DLSS Performance but drops into the upper-40s FPS for the 1% minimum lows. 1440P is the ideal target resolution for this card using DLSS Quality.

1440P Video Cards – RTX 3070 Ti / RTX 3070 / RTX 3060 Ti / RTX 2080 Ti / RTX 2080 Super

The following five video cards perform well at 1440P.

The RTX 3070 Ti cannot play at maxed-out 4K without DLSS Performance. However, DLSS Quality allows for a high quality maxed-out 1440P experience with excellent averages and drops into the upper-50s.

The RTX 3070 performs below the RTX 3070 Ti in Ghostwire: Tokyo, and although it cannot play well at 4K/maxed, the same recommendations for 1440P apply as above.

The RTX 3060 Ti requires Balanced DLSS to play smoothly at 1440P.

The last generation flagship RTX 2080 Ti is not recommended for 4K without dropping settings, but it can manage 1440P with DLSS Quality if the player doesn’t mind framerate drops into the upper-40s. The experience is acceptable, but it may be better to use DLSS Balanced or Performance.

The RTX 2080 Super performs below the RTX 2080 Ti in Ghostwire: Tokyo and we recommend Performance or Balanced DLSS for 1440P although Quality may be acceptable.

1080P – RTX 2070 Super / RTX 3060 / RTX 2060 Super / RTX 2060

The following four cards work best with 1080P although the fastest two can just manage 1440P.

The RTX 2070 Super plays acceptably at 1440P with Performance DLSS. However, it would also be an excellent 1080P card using DLSS Quality for those who prefer higher framerates.

The same applies to the RTX 3060 as above.

The RTX 2060 Super performs below the RTX 3060 and should primarily be used for 1080P.

The RTX 2060 is the entry level RTX card and it is best suited for 1080P using Performance or Balanced DLSS as Quality performance is somewhat marginal.

DLSS makes a huge difference to the playability of Ghostwire: Tokyo at the highest visual quality settings, and DLSS Quality has no IQ disadvantages whatsoever while Balanced and Performance DLSS make little to no practical visual differences while gaming. It is highly recommended!

DLSS gains a large percentage of performance over not using it, and it looks at least as good depending on the level. It is really “free performance” without compromise. We see a RTX 3080 Ti playing Ghostwire: Tokyo fluidly with maximum settings at 4K using Performance DLSS whereas it’s a slideshow without it. DLSS isn’t perfect, occasionally adding some very minor artifacting and potentially losing a little fine detail, but overall all three DLSS settings look great with the camera in motion.

Any algorithm that doesn’t use AI such as FidelityFX Super Resolution on its highest setting simply cannot match the image quality of Quality DLSS and there is every good reason for a GeForce RTX gamer to use DLSS for Ghostwire: Tokyo.

Conclusion

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an immersive, outstanding, and really fun game that gives a great cinematic experience while telling an extraordinary story. We are especially impressed by its visuals coupled with the large free performance increase that DLSS brings for RTX gamers.

If you’re as fascinated by Japanese culture as much as this editor and wish to see it authentically, accurately, and lovingly represented, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a must-play game. And if you are looking to play the game with the best framerates and the very highest image fidelity, then choose DLSS. Ghostwire: Tokyo is the kind of deeply immersive game that makes a player forget everything – food, chores, work, and even pain. It is highly recommended!

Rodrigo is hard at work on his GeForce 512.15 driver performance analysis. We also have a performance review on deck of the first virtual reality (VR) game to feature both DLSS and ray tracing, followed by a super-fast 7,400MB/s SSD ready for review. Stay tuned to BTR!

Happy Gaming!

After spending nearly 20 hours playing God of War and being unable to tear ourselves away from the screen, we can say it is the prime contender for our Game of the Year. Although it is a PlayStation console port, it has incredibly detailed characters and awesome visuals that place it at the apex of the very best cinematic experiences. This well-presented mash up of Greek and Norse mythology is enhanced by its outstanding story, great voice acting, and father-son interaction that brings it to life without needing to know its backstory.

To progress, a gamer needs to be good at fighting and solving puzzles, and there are a lot of hidden areas, secrets, and power-ups as well as XP to earn for character development. Great voice acting and music enhance a player’s experience. However, this review will not focus on reviewing the game; rather it will focus narrowly on DLSS as a means to increase framerates without compromising image quality as the game is very demanding using maxed-out settings.

God of War is basically a DX11 PS4 Pro version with unlocked framerates for the PS5, but it looks better than many of the early next generation console games. The biggest visual improvements for the PC version include shadowing, better lightning and colors, enhanced screen space reflections, and ambient occlusion. The PC version also offers higher framerates and perhaps higher textures. An anytime save is particularly helpful to proceed as there are many tough enemies and difficult boss fights to survive. The NPC enemies generally present good variety although some of them are quite repetitious with only some minor variability.

The player may use his experience points (XP) gained by fighting and by completing tasks, and his gear may be upgraded from the menu by items found in the world or by visiting one of two Dwarven smiths. There are varied environments that range from the wide outdoors, to traversing lakes by boat, entering alternate realms, and exploring underground.

As a history student with a specialty in mythology, we appreciated the well-done references to Greek gods and Norse mythology. A player will get to interact with characters brought to life from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey to learn about your character’s backstory. Norse mythology accurately references the Tree of Life, Thor, Odin, and even Jörmungandr – it’s a great/fun mash-up of mythology with a very detailed universe that it builds upon from the earlier games in the God of War console series.

After playing for about 15 hours, we found the best and most repeatable benchmark time demo to be found near the beginning on the hunt with Atreus, the main character, Krato’s young son. BTR’s benchmark is not only representative of the game, but the runs vary from each other by less than one-half of one percent!

God of War puzzles are well done which require that a player think but they are not overly obscure. One of them involves freezing gears with the throwing axe; retrieving them quickly, and then stopping another gear. Sometimes you have to align runes by hitting them in a particular order quickly before it times out. This is the kind of deeply immersive game that makes a player forget everything – food, chores, and work. It is highly recommended!

DLSS, Image Quality, and Performance

More than three years ago, NVIDIA introduced realtime RTX ray tracing together with Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS). To play at high settings requires the use of AI super resolution or DLSS which provides better than a game’s postprocessing AA together with improved performance. God of War doesn’t use ray tracing, but rather uses DLSS to improve performance, and we will compare the current performance and IQ (image quality) of eleven NVIDIA RTX cards with the latest 511.23 driver released last Friday.

BabelTechReviews received a copy of God of War from NVIDIA when it launched earlier this week with no expectations. It originally received very high praise including many awards when it originally released for the PS4, and it was improved to run faster on the PS5. Although we only completed 4 chapters of seventeen, we were completely blown away by this game and could barely tear ourself away to write this review.

Performance Options

Although God of War is a well-done PlayStation port, it has more limited options than most games developed primarily for the PC. The developers were originally limited to checkerboard 4K 30 FPS on the PS4 and PS5 but have been able to increase the framerates to 60 by using checkboard. Basically there appears to be a dynamic resolution at work on the PS5 to maintain 60 fps at 4K. This kind of upscaling is not needed nor used for the PC version. Playing on PC gives slightly higher graphics fidelity together with a potential for higher and thus more fluid framerates up to 120 FPS. Unfortunately, the only display choices are either windowed or a borderless window, and there is no Fullscreen option.

We played and benchmarked using four different displays – a 48″ LG C1 120Hz 3840×2160 display, a 32″ 60Hz BenQ 4K display, a Samsung G7 240Hz 27″ 2560×1440 display, and an ASUS 360Hz 24″ 1920×1080 display. Our PC is a 12900KF Intel CPU at stock settings on an ASUS ROG Maximus Apex motherboard with G.Skill 16GB x 2 DDR5 6000 CL36, and a 2TB 5,000 MB/s T-Force C440 NVMe SSD for C:Drive plus a 1TB T-Force A440 7,000MB/s NVMe SSD as storage for loading the game. God of War loads very quickly from SSD. We played for over fifteen hours using a RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition and then benchmarked and played for an additional nearly ten hours using ten more RTX cards.

Here are the highest graphics settings that we used for benchmarking. It is basically the Ultra preset with Ultra+ reflections that really help differentiate it from the console versions.

We are going to compare image quality using three levels of DLSS versus using no DLSS, and we chart the performance of eleven current NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards:

• RTX 3080 Ti
• RTX 3080
• RTX 3070 Ti
• RTX 2080 Ti
• RTX 3070
• RTX 3060 Ti
• RTX 2080 SUPER
• RTX 2070 SUPER
• RTX 3060
• RTX 2060 SUPER
• RTX 2060

DLSS

NVIDIA’s DLSS creates sharper and higher resolution images with dedicated AI processors on GeForce RTX GPUs called Tensor Cores. The original DLSS 1.0 required more work on the part of the game developers and resulted in image quality approximately equal to TAA. DLSS 2.0 and later versions use an improved deep learning neural network that boosts frame rates while generating crisper game images with the performance headroom to maximize settings and increase output resolutions. Since it uses DeepLearning, it continues to evolve and improve.

NVIDIA claims that DLSS offers IQ comparable to native resolution while rendering only one quarter to one half of the pixels by employing new temporal feedback techniques. DLSS 1.0 required training the AI network for each new game whereas DLSS 2.0 trains using non-game-specific content that works across many games.

DLSS generally offers RTX gamers four IQ modes: Quality, Balanced, Performance and Ultra Performance, These settings control a game’s internal rendering resolution with Performance DLSS enabling up to 4X super resolution. In our opinion, Quality DLSS’ IQ looks somewhat better, and its larger hit to the frame rate is worth it over using Performance DLSS. We would prefer to lower other settings before we drop DLSS from Quality to Performance. However, Balanced DLSS is a good in-between choice.

God of War’s own anti-aliasing doesn’t address temporal anti-aliasing like DLSS does. We will next focus on image quality and DLSS on versus off, followed by benchmarking and charting DLSS performance using eleven RTX cards.

DLSS On versus Off

4K without DLSS is 3840×2160 for both the Render and the Output Resolution and it is especially demanding on a video card using maximum settings.

Using the magic of AI and RTX Tensor cores, Quality DLSS upscales a 2560×1440 render resolution to 4K with no loss of image quality as we shall see in the following section.

No DLSS vs. Quality DLSS

Here are 4K images comparing No DLSS (left) with Quality DLSS (right) using a slider. Since the scene is dynamic, they do not exactly match each other.

[twenty20 img1=”25800″ img2=”25807″ offset=”0.5″ before=”Quality DLSS 4K” after=”No DLSS 4K”]

We don’t recommend playing without DLSS. The image quality is equal although there are some very slight differences.

No DLSS vs. Balanced DLSS

Balanced DLSS uses a Render Resolution of 2228×1254 to upscale to 4K and the AI must fill in more pixels than with Quality DLSS.

Here is 4K no DLSS on the left compared with a similar image on the right using Balanced DLSS/

[twenty20 img1=”25800″ img2=”25802″ offset=”0.5″ before=”Balanced DLSS 4K” after=”No DLSS 4K”]

Again the images are very comparable although Balanced DLSS loses a bit more detail than Quality DLSS.

No DLSS vs. Performance DLSS

Performance DLSS requires that a Render Resolution of 1920×1080 be upscaled to 3840×2160 which means the AI must use just one-quarter of the original pixels for its 4K reconstruction. This results in a further slight loss of detail.

Here is the comparison of 4K (left) with Performance DLSS (right)

[twenty20 img1=”25800″ img2=”25805″ offset=”0.5″ before=”Performance DLSS 4K” after=”No DLSS 4K”]

There is some a small loss of detail in some areas but the DLSS upscaled image quality is still excellent.

Next we check out the performance of eleven RTX cards using 3040×2160, 2560×1440, and 1920×1080 resolutions using up to three levels of DLSS with the goal of averaging above 60 FPS while still using completely maxed-out settings.

Performance

God of War is a visually beautiful but extremely demanding game using maximum settings, but these settings are what distinguish it from playing on the PS5. Playing the game on a PS4 and even the PS5 originally gave a playing experience of 4K/30 FPS but its upgraded experience brings 4K/60fps using checkerboard and with slightly less visual settings than what the PC is capable of. The PC game is capped at 120 FPS which is not an issue since Even an RTX 3080 Ti cannot maintain framerates above 110 FPS consistently at 4K even by using Performance DLSS. [Updated: January 17, 2022 10:30 AM PST ] However, to turn off the framerate cap, move the slider to the far left.

Quality DLSS is our goal since it’s visuals are equal to not using DLSS. Balanced DLSS requires a slight visual sacrifice, and Performance DLSS is still acceptable to most gamers because the game is generally fast-paced and most players are generally not exploring the gameworld with a magnifying glass looking for visual flaws.

Although there are very difficult boss battles with multiple enemies on screen at once, as long as a player can maintain average framerates above 60 FPS, the experience is sufficiently fluid as long as the minimums (1% lows) stay above 50 FPS. If a GSYNC or a GSYNC compatible display is used, it is generally not a problem for the lows to dip occasionally into the upper-40s FPS. Below that, fluidity is compromised, and it is better to lower the graphics settings or use a lower quality DLSS setting. Ultra Performance DLSS is not recommended unless framerates cannot be increased by any other method – it is better to lower settings first as it looks worse than the console experience. Ultra Performance was primarily developed for 8K gaming.

Using God of War’s highest settings, we compare performance without DLSS versus Quality, Balanced, and Performance DLSS using eleven current RTX cards at 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160.

4K Video cards – RTX 3080 Ti/RTX 3080/RTX 3070 Ti/RTX 2080 Ti/RTX 3070

The following cards can generally play at maximum settings using DLSS at 4K.

The RTX 3080 Ti is a no-compromise video card that provides the best 4K God of War experience. It can handle maxed out 4K settings without using DLSS and still remain well above 60 FPS. A gamer may choose to use DLSS Quality to achieve even higher framerates for a potentially more fluid gaming experience but there is no point to using Balanced or Performance DLSS.

The RTX 3080 averages above 70 FPS but drops into the mid-50s FPS for the 1% minimum lows. DLSS Quality insures that the framerates stay above 69 FPS for an excellent playing experience with no image quality compromise.

The RTX 3070 Ti cannot play at maxed-out 4K fluidly without DLSS. However, DLSS Quality allows for a high quality maxed-out 4K experience with excellent averages and occasional drops into the mid-50s.

The RTX 2080 Ti is not recommended for 4K play without DLSS without dropping settings, but it can manage it with DLSS Quality if the player doesn’t mind framerate drops into the low-50s. The experience is acceptable, but it may be better to use DLSS Performance or too use 1440P resolution.

The RTX 3070 performs slightly under the RTX 2080 Ti in God of War, and the same recommendations apply as above.

1440P Video Cards – RTX 3070/RTX 3060 Ti /RTX 2080 Super /RTX 2070 Super

The following four video cards perform best at 1440P starting with the RTX 3060 Ti. It is unsuited for 4K play except perhaps by using DLSS Performance but it gives a very good experience playing at 1440P with DLSS quality with no visual compromises.

The RTX 2080 Super performs just slightly below the RTX 3060 Ti in God of War and the same recommendations apply as above.

The RTX 2070 Super plays acceptably at 1440P with DLSS Quality, although some players may choose DLSS Performance for a little more performance headroom. It would be an excellent 1080P card also for God of War for those who prefer higher framerates.

Next we benchmark the two cards best suited for 1080P.

1080P – RTX 3060/RTX 2060 Super/RTX 2060

Although the RTX 3060 can manage 1440P using DLSS Performance, we would suggest also lowering some individual settings for a more fluid playing experience. It makes an excellent 1080P card using DLSS Quality or DLSS Performance.

The RTX 2060 Super performs only slightly below the RTX 3060 and the same recommendations apply as above.

The RTX 2060 is the entry level RTX card and it is only suited for 1080P using DLSS Performance, or Quality with lower individual settings.

DLSS makes a huge difference to the playability of God of War at the highest settings, and Quality DLSS gives no image quality disadvantages whatsoever. It is highly recommended!

DLSS gains a large percentage of performance over not using it, and it looks at least as good. It is really “free performance” without compromise. We see a RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 2080 Ti playing God of War decently with maximum settings at 4K(!) whereas before they struggled without it. DLSS isn’t perfect, occasionally adding some very minor artifacting and potentially losing a little fine detail, but overall Quality DLSS looks great with the camera in motion and is visually equal to not using it. Balanced DLSS is only incrementally more of a compromise, and Performance DLSS still provides acceptable image quality for most gamers while giving even higher framerates.

Any algorithm that doesn’t use AI such as FidelityFX Super Resolution simply cannot match the image quality of DLSS and there is every good reason for an RTX gamer to use DLSS for God of War. In addition to implementing DLSS, NVIDIA’s Reflex is available in-game for GeForce gamers to lower latency. We will cover Reflex and latency in a future review.

Conclusion

God of War is an outstanding and really fun game that gives a great cinematic experience while telling a exceptionally deep story. We are especially impressed by its visuals coupled with the large free performance increase that DLSS brings to it for RTX gamers.

Next up is a DDR5 5200MHz review comparing DDR4 3600MHz performance using 31 games, and Rodrigo is hard at work on his GeForce 511.23 driver performance analysis also featuring God of War. We also have a super-fast 7,000MB/s SSD on deck for review followed by much faster DDR5 6000MHz and 6400MHz focusing on latency due by this weekend. Stay tuned to BTR!

Happy Gaming!

Cyberpunk 2077 is probably the most anticipated and hyped PC game of the past decade. Three of BTR’s editors have collaborated to produce this review, each of us playing for 25, 30, and more hours, and we will cover the gameplay, its performance and IQ (image quality), and of course, ray tracing. We will also give away a Cyberpunk 2077 key to one lucky reader on Saturday.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person action (read: shooter) role-playing (RPG) video game developed and published by CD Projekt Red. It was released for Windows and the last generation Xbox/PS4 platforms on Thursday. The game events take place in Night City, a huge open-world set in the alternate Cyberpunk Northern California universe 57 years in the future. Players assume the role of V, a mercenary who acquires skills in crafting, hacking, and tech, together with many customizable options for combat.

BabelTechReviews received a reviewer’s copy of Cyberpunk 2077 for PC courtesy of CDProjekt Red and NVIDIA on Thursday just ahead of release. Rodrigo and I purchased digital keys, but Mario accidentally ordered a ‘box’ key that had to be physically shipped from Amazon – the same one we are giving away today; so we traded the review key so he could preload and play the instant the game released. Mario said “I have waited for this game for 7 years”, and he did not want to wait an extra minute! He started playing the instant it released after his day job ended, and he played it for nearly 9 hours straight missing sleep before returning to work the next morning.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a very long game that will keep players involved in this dark corporate-controlled dystopian world tale by clever storytelling, exceptional voice acting and motion capture, outstanding cutting-edge graphics including ray tracing, and a ton of good content in the main story and in the side quests. However, its launch has been plagued by bugs and poor AI, by terrible performance on the last generation consoles, and by falling far short of being the in-depth RPG the developers of the game promised – that you can “be anything” in Night City.

V is a mercenary whose voice, face, hair, tattoos and piercings, body type including (male) genitalia, and clothing are customizable. The stat categories include Body, Intelligence, Reflexes, Technical, and Cool which are influenced by the character classes: hacking (NetRunner), combat (Solo), and machinery (Tech). Cyberware implants installed by a Ripper Doc offer upgrades that may be purchased or earned by completing quests.

As with most shooters, V can aim and shoot, run, punch, jump and double jump, and slide. Mele specialists can use fists, blades, or blunt objects. Three types of ranged weapons may be modified with four types of damage. The character strengths develop by use similar to Oblivion’s system. If you prefer shooting, for example, just using weapons steadily improves stats like reloading and accuracy, but the game can even be completed without killing anyone. So there is a playing style for just about every type of player.

The massive Night City is set in a future parallel dystopian Northern California location which consists of six distinct regions. It is similar to many large metropolitan areas of California now – from towering skyscrapers and crowded streets to the industrial areas and gang violence-filled ghettos and homeless people living on the streets to the suburbs. Night City is surrounded by the Badlands which may also be explored on foot or in various vehicles that may be purchased. Just like any other major metropolitan area, players can expect a good day/night cycle which affects quests and player behavior, there are non-English speaking NPCs, and there are many quests available and quest givers known as Fixers to interact with.

Completing quests gain XP which improves the stats, and side quests yield “street cred” that unlocks additional options and quests. V is also aided by various companions beginning with Jackie who is introduced into the game early as someone he already knows from the past or with who he has a good working relationship. Although V has an apartment as a home base, it isn’t upgradeable nor are there any other apartments to move to. But inside are storage for extra weapons and goods that the player doesn’t want to sell but cannot carry around without a weight penalty.

Just like with any RPG, Cyberpunk 2077 offers food and drink consumables that may be used for healing to supplement the self-healing implants and a rather extensive inventory system. In addition, there are hacking, boxing, racing, and shooting mini-games, and a rather unique device called “Braindance” which allows V to experience other people’s memories. Unfortunately, although Braindance recordings may be purchased, they do not appear to work outside of the main quest.

There are even romantic encounters available for V as well as using male or female prostitutes known as Joytoys – but these are improbably rare for such a huge city that features sex everywhere. There are a total of only two Joytoys that V may interact with on Jig-jig Street available outside the main quest, but even the romances go nowhere nor do they advance the story or change anything.

The game promises much but what it delivers is actually rather barebones for even an RPG Lite. You see NPCs everywhere but you don’t get quality interaction opportunities with generally abusive rebukes that all appear to be a part of the same weak AI subroutines. Watch Dog Legions does this so much better, and every NPC has a subroutine and a different backstory. Even Gothic 3 and Oblivion had better AI subroutines and NPC interaction than this game features.

There is much to like about Cyberpunk 2077, yet in many ways, it falls flat in the immersion department especially outside of the quests. The game world is absolutely incredible with so much promise – yet it feels unfinished. Night City seems like it should feel more “alive”, yet it feels empty, and the many game bugs do not help the experience. I was stopped in the main quest by a missing NPC that evidently clipped into an elevator wall and took his access card with him stopping my game’s progress. Reloading from an earlier save before the combat started, cost me an additional wasted hour over the time wasted figuring out that the quest was bugged.

As V, you play one of three versions of the same character. As to character development, what seem to be important choices, and even your backstory, really don’t matter. At the start, you are given a background choice of a street kid, nomad, or corporate (corpo) each of which have different strengths to build upon by choosing from development trees that you put points into so you can adapt the game to your own unique style of play. Your choice will affect the way the world often “looks” at you, how characters interact with you and opens up dialogue choices the others will never see. You can choose stealth and hacking computers, or you can put your life experience points (XP) into making an aggressive tank that shoots first and doesn’t bother asking questions.

I picked the Corpo background which allowed me some additional insight into the way that Night City is run by the corporations and became a cold and ruthless killer – no stealth, no discussion, no finesse, and no negotiation. If you are in my V’s way, he will cut right through you. It’s as though he has an evil twin inside that he is allying with … Oh, wait. Anyway, this former Corpo V is all about strength, power, and force, wielding mele as well as firearms equally. And he is far more likely to hack a NPC terminally rather than hack a computer terminal. In this way, Cyberpunk 2077 allows you a lot of freedom to solve objectives that will suit many styles of gameplay.

Mario’s V tends to roleplay a stealth hacker who listens to the fixer’s request for stealth and completing the job with no one noticing. Your reputation follows you and often stealth is challenging and interesting. Hacking everything in sight and slowly knocking every guard unconscious can be interesting. Mario likes sniping others from long distances, smart weapons, and hacking with large amounts of ram that regenerates quickly. This can feel incredible and fun when done correctly. Slight spoiler: There is a smart gun with an AI named Slippy – we suggest looking up and finding this gun when possible as it is hilarious and also deadly to use.

The choice of role playing playstyle is there but you may often have to force yourself to play this way – in some areas early on it is required for some side jobs as the enemies are very high level (this can be seen with the “very high” danger warning” on the map) that you will be unable to kill. Completing some of these nets you some serious cash and bonuses if you want the challenge. More often than not, the kill all and take no prisoners method is often ten times faster and better overall even though it forces you to ignore the fixers request for no witnesses.

Both Mario and Rodrigo picked the Street background. Rodrigo says that he picked it because of survival on the streets of a big city, learning, and interactions with its different types of people that are sometimes undesirable, as well as the hard but exciting life on the border between the harsh reality of ordinary people and the desire to opt for times better; they are all elements with which he can identify for different personal and intellectual reasons part of life history in a big city and the particular neighborhood in which he has lived. Mario feels the same way. Nomads are interesting but they center around driving and vehicles from what we have found and street kid seems like the best middle ground choice.

Once you have picked one of three backstories and created your custom V, you play through the prologue to get acquainted with Night City and your interactions with the game, and the backstory lines will converge into the main plot. There are bugs, the AI is broken, and the world is not interactive as advertised, but there is still a lot about Cyberpunk 2077 to like especially if you did not approach the game with extreme expectations from the hype. In fact, this editor paid very little attention to the game in development to keep expectations to a bare minimum.

We have all been looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077. It has been patched to v1.04 and we are eagerly awaiting the next patch. Mario uses an i9-10850K and an RTX 2080 FE, Rodrigo uses an i9-9900K with an RTX 3080, and I played using a 10900K with all of the Ampere and Big Navi cards. We all use the latest updated version of Windows 10, recent GeForce (457.51), and Radeon drivers (12.1.20), and we will give Cyberpunk 2077 visuals and general performance and compare IQ after our combined game and gameplay impressions.

Mario’s thoughts

I have more bugs, mechanic issues, driving, and gunplay issues that should never be allowed in an AAA game. Hopefully, these issues will be fixed in patches. Crafting is an exercise in futility as you never get components that really upgrades until the late game. This is terrible and can probably be fixed in a single patch.

To make a single blue item that is probably less powerful than your current weapon requires 20 purple components. Dismantling legendary weapons that should get you these components do not. The drops are terrible and you will almost never have enough materials while having thousands of normal green materials that are worthless until later. RNG is needed and would allow you to craft fun weapons. One of the best parts of Fallout 4 is its ability to build ridiculously powerful weapons, and Cyberpunk 2077 is screaming for this. This may have been a strange end-game feature that was not fully fleshed out and it shows. At this time, crafting appears to be useless and I have no interest in it if I am simply getting better weapons from bodies and looting.

The perk system seems semi-pointless except for three areas: intelligence, body, reflexes. I max them out and probably do not miss much from the others. Most missions, dialogue, and perks require leveling these three areas and give you a significant advantage over the others. On the other hand, quick hacks are incredible and my favorite part of the game so I tend to focus on intelligence.

Gunplay is often terrible for new players requiring multiple headshots for a single normal NPC. At the start felt off although as the game progresses your guns become better, eventually smart weapons and huge DPS numbers weapons make the game a breeze even at higher level difficulty. This is fine but creating bullet sponges for the most minor quests is not that fun and a combination of quick hacks, smart weapons and more do their best to make this better. We would have preferred smarter AI and harder fights – bullet sponges are a tired trope of the genre at this point and developers should do better to remove the flow of ‘500 bullets to kill one enemy and don’t get shot twice or you are dead’ game loop.

My favorite part of this game is the Ripper doc upgrades and hacking. Hacking during firefights plus everyday use during stealth and more to do things like distracting enemies is fun, and the system is rewarding enough that hacking everything is something I enjoy. Some (like Mark) might find this tedious and that’s OK! The choice is yours. Others might find it fun to rush in with grenades and massive guns. Some might enjoy a stealth katana kill that does extreme damage like a ninja assassin. I like following my fixer’s request for stealth and when they ask me to massacre everyone in sight I love that too. Again, the game allows you to role-play if you seek it out but the fools rush in gameplay loop is here for the taking and will often be easy enough to do. Mixing these playstyles kept the game interesting for me and allowed for some interesting interactions I may not have ever had otherwise.

The amount and the variability of the voice acting of the NPCs are incredible. Some parts of the game are mind-blowing and a huge step forward for gaming. Multiple interactions occur with the most random NPCs. This is not Fallout 4 yet it is still incredible even in the game’s current somewhat unfinished state. Hopefully, a couple of patches to the base systems and the game may become nearly perfect. A major complaint I have of other non-scripted AI is the weird rudeness. Everyone in Night City hates life and is a cussing champion, and the world is hyper-sexualized. This is Cyberpunk after all and most should be aware of this before they step in.

As expected, Cyberpunk 2077 was released prematurely and is under-baked. Gamers may be fatigued with games releasing in semi-broken states but this has welcomed the next generation of gaming in a glorious fashion. Just ignore the game being like Uncle Buck’s car sputtering to a halt with a massive boom and try not to notice it. The charm is there once you get to know him. The charm and the game world are just enough for us to still be able to enjoy it and I am looking forward to getting back into the game 6 months down the road when this game will be significantly improved, but it should likely have been delayed.

Performance: I had seven crashes in the first five hours. Widescreen monitor support (2560×1080) for me is garbage as the initial UI and some menus can cause issues. Upon every death, the respawn and loading menu go less than full screen. This also returns the game to these lowered resolutions and cuts off the sides of my screen. The only way to fix this is a manual switch to the desktop and then back again to the game. Alt + enter does not work for me. I play on the hard difficulty, so often there are things that can kill you instantly. Death is inevitable and a challenge that I love, but it quickly became a frustration that transcended the game and it caused me to move over to a non-widescreen display (2560×1440) until it was fixed in the latest patch.

Driving feels really really bad using a mouse and keyboard. Not too many players will use a wheel and pedals as Mark does. A controller is better, but driving feels especially bad at first. Better cars down the road have better handling and speed so it makes some sense for cheap cars to feel cheap. I often ran over NPCs because my car’s brakes took 45 seconds to bring the car to a halt causing me to have to reload the save or run from the mission area until the combat state was reset. Once I even clipped into a cop killing him before he had even been rendered causing the entire police force to teleport in behind me to nuke me.

Melee and Sword combat just feels awful especially after the Witcher 3’s beautiful combat and fluid movement that I loved; it feels like a misstep. Some melee weapons early on are powerful and fun but need some better hit detection/build help.

Loot – just way too much junk. There are small little items everywhere and this requires you to check, but it can really slow down progress. The perk to sell or dismantle this junk automatically is awesome, but this was apparently meant for crafting which is also currently useless until the late game.

Notifications/popups/calls/audio seem to pop constantly. I once had a slow-talking character telling me about a somber subject with a hooker and her male companion laughing in the background on repeat throughout the entire conversation. It was funny for 5 seconds but this is constant. Overlapping contacts and quests will try to push you all the time and the pop-ups are there again and again and often over each other.

The bugs and crashes are intolerable although I had a hilarious crash when I was robbing a car and a cop came and knocked me out. Soon as the baton hit came the crash. Ironic. But some players report 20 hours in with no crashes while others like me experience a crash every 30 minutes. I replayed a mission last night 5 times where you need to be stealthy the entire time, and it would crash right at the end just because it doesn’t let you save while in combat.

The good. Ray tracing is incredible yes, and DLSS is a godsend! Photo mode is nice. And although every voice actor in this game is perfect, I skip most conversations and read them instead. Unlike Mark’s style of shoot them first, I like the stealth with the hacking abilities. I like taking enemies out with little to no damage, plus hacking everything I see gets so many points.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a beautiful game with a rich world and characters you will instantly care for. For example, a neighbor lost an animal friend and he was causing so many issues that the cops were called. It turns out that he recently left the force and was depressed because he could never express himself to his tougher colleagues who called him a pussy for showing emotion Due to this, he only had his turtle to talk to. I only found this out by choosing the right dialogue and taking the optional path of looking for his friend’s grave. This allowed me to force his friends to show compassion and to literally save his life. But if you do not take the time to speak nicely and choose the correct dialogue, the neighbor kills himself and it felt horrible.

Role-playing is nice, and I find myself not caring about 200 FPS, but rather how beautiful the city looks and ray tracing and DLSS are worth even with a lesser 60 FPS experience. Cyberpunk 2077 is so stunning in a lot of areas that I skip fast travel points and will often explore the city doing a plethora of side quests. Traveling this way often leads to more side quests and calls from fixers as well.

Gameplay. Here are 5 minutes of gameplay video at 2560×1440 using Ultra ray tracking and Quality DLSS.

Performance and framerates. I play on 2560 x 1080 or 2560x1440P depending on the monitor using an RTX 2080 Founders Edition and I have had to adjust settings downward playing with Ultra ray tracing, even with DLSS. One solution was to turn off cascaded shadows. For some reason, that gained me 10 FPS or more.

Here are the optimized setting for an RTX 2080/16GB DDR4/i9-10850K at 1440P that I use:

[Updated 12/16/2020 7:38 AM PT: Credit to Digital Foundry; it was originally left off by mistake]

Standard Optimized Settings

• Contact Shadows: On
• Improved Facial Lighting Geometry: On
• Local Shadow Mesh Quality: High
• Local Shadow Quality: High
• Cascaded Shadows Range: High
• Cascaded Shadows Resolution: Medium
• Distant Shadows Resolution: High
• Volumetric Fog Resolution: 1080p Ultra, 1440p High, 4K Medium
• Volumetric Cloud Quality: Medium
• Max Dynamic Decals: Ultra
• Screen Space Reflections Quality: Low but High if you find the amount of grain distracting.
• Subsurface Scattering Quality: High
• Ambient Occlusion: Low (there is barely a difference)
• Colour Precision: Medium
• Mirror Quality: 1080p High. 1440p High, 4K Medium
• Level of Detail: High

Recommended Ray Tracing Settings

• Ray Traced Reflections: On
• Ray Traced Shadows: Off
• Ray Traced Lighting: Medium – If that is not enough for you, Turn off reflections – the RT lighting is more important, on balance.
• Image Quality Recommendations: 1080p DLSS Quality, 1440p, DLSS Balanced, 4K, DLSS Performance

To conclude, I play Cyberpunk 2077 this way because I find it interesting and challenging to roleplay as a stealthy hacker. But at every point, the AI is braindead. Cars run on rails whereas GTA 3 has better AI for cars. The Cyberpunk 2077 world is jam-packed with people who are only pre-determined NPCs using preset lines. Everyone acts as weird douchebags most of the time. You talk to them and it’s usually “F’-off, I’m busy” It may be the aesthetic the devs went for, but it’s off-putting when you start to peel back the layers. The core game with its multitude of sidequests are amazing and interesting, but the world you are in has to be really looked at with rose-colored glasses most of the time.

Thank you, Mario. Let’s see what Rodrigo has to say.

Rodrigo’s impressions

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that I have been following and looking forward to since CD Projekt Red announced its development years ago especially since the announcement came from the developers of an acclaimed and successful fantasy action RPG series, The Witcher. What struck me most about the announcement and development of Cyberpunk 2077 was the potential of a game with a powerful mix of elements that I found very attractive and interesting.

On the one hand, the fact of advertising itself as an immersive single-player RPG experience was already a point in its favor that immediately got my attention given my historical gaming preferences for RGP. I also liked the dystopian and cyberpunk atmosphere, setting, and plot, as I am a fan of the dystopian plots even in books, and the possibilities for philosophical reflection they offer about our current real-world and our current and future life paths strongly based on technology. Finally, as a lover of first-person shooters and RPG games, the possibility of enjoying the previous elements from this perspective was another point that undoubtedly made me enthusiastically follow the development of Cyberpunk 2077.

Now the game is finally here and I have had the opportunity to enjoy although not yet complete it, I must admit that it meets all of my expectations quite well. On the other hand, I maintain expectations at levels never too high to avoid later useless frustration and specially exaggerated criticism. In my opinion, the game complies enough with all the elements that I required, and visually it looks amazing in almost every Night City location I’ve seen so far. Therefore, the game meets all my expectations despite some RPG aspects that might be potentiated, like a higher variety of NPC conversations and interaction with them, more freedom and variety for daily activities outside the main missions or secondary plots, and some technical and optimization flaws. But the game’s main flaw is a poor and very basic NPC AI that barely meets today’s minimum standards.

Overall, I consider Cyberpunk 2077 an excellent game, I’m really enjoying it, and visually and graphically it is a blast, despite some flaws and glitches that I’m pretty sure CD Projekt Red will fix in the coming game updates. I covered only 7% of the main story, but I’ve already played 30 hours. In this game and generally, for all open-world RPGs I tend to advance very slowly in the main story, diverting myself with the secondary missions and errands I find and completing them in the interim between progressing from one of the main missions to the next.

That said I’m quite disappointed with the level of performance optimization, gameplay bugs, and graphics glitches. For me, there is also severe texture loading and pop-in right after launching it and loading a game until after playing for a few minutes, they load properly. I also found a workaround that may help gamers with similar issues.

Hotfix 1.04 bugged my prior save games in a way difficult to explain and understand. At this point, I cannot rate the game as excellent but still in the need of a lot of polishing especially in terms of gameplay bugs and graphics glitches. I had to start a new game to fix the fully broken catalog of cars after 1.04 (more precisely the lack of the original varied catalog, since after updating to 1.04 the 90% of the spawned cars are now always the same 3 models of trucks and vans all the time and everywhere!), plus to workaround a new catalog of game-breaking AI issues. Fortunately, I found at least a legit way using the GOG’s offline backup files which are still version 1.03, and skipping the two 1.04 patch files, and the instructions are reproduced here:

Quality Workaround Guide for Cyberpunk 2077

Please note that this is exactly what I did. Of course, there are some steps that you might consider unnecessary, or even redundant, but I wanted to reproduce exactly what I did to work around Cyberpunk 2077 for getting the best texture IQ and the general state of the game. Therefore, if you do not reproduce all the steps exactly the results will likely vary.

Steps

1. 1. Backup your CP’77 game saves [located in …Users/(User)/Savegames/CD Projekt Red ].
   2. Uninstall Cyberpunk 2077 via the GOG Galaxy 2.0 client (uninstalling it from Windows should work as well but I didn’t), and delete any associated game folder or file, including your the local ‘CD Projekt Red’ savegames folder (patch above) and the local game’s DX12 shader cache and settings folder […Users/(User)/AppData/Local/CD Projekt Red/cache].
   3. Go to your GOG account (gog.com/account), open your games collection (Games/My Collection) and click on ‘Cyberpunk 2077’.
   4. Download and save the ‘offline backup game installers’ from Part 1 to Part 27 [make sure you excluded the two installers for ‘Patch (1.03 to 1.04)’].
   5. Before running the offline game installer and install CP’77 from the downloaded offline files, please clean your local D3DShaders (go to Users/User/AppData/Local/D3DShaders, select all and delete, close related programs and give administrative permissions if you are asked), and then perform an in-depth GPU driver uninstallation using DDU and run it using ‘Safe Mode (Recommended)’ launch option. Before running DDU and until you reinstall the GPU drivers, please make sure you keep unplugged from your Internet, or alternatively if you know how to do it, enable the specific Windows Update OS policy to not allow Win10 automatic driver updates using your Local Group Policy Editor, and enable the specific policy, apply).
   6. After DDU (choosing Clean & Restart mode), install your previously downloaded GPU drivers suite, select your driver components and make sure you check the ‘Run a clean installation’ box as well; when the installation is complete, you can plug your Internet again, restart Windows.
   7. Back to your Windows 10 session, check if there are still present some NVIDIA/NVIDIA Corporation folder in your OS drive, search for “NVIDIA”, and if you find any NVIDIA folder delete all manually. (Optional) After step 4. and the above, you can use a Registry cleaner application to delete any possible NVIDIA registry key in the Windows 10 registry that left, even after DDU.
   8. Install the game running the downloaded offline executable (Part 1), and install it out of any of your GOG Galaxy folders, so the installation path should look like this X:\(Main game folder name), like mine C:\Cyberpunk 2077.
   9. From the NVIDIA Control Panel, leave as default the corresponding CP’77 program profile (if not present in the list, add your game’s .exe), except for the Power management mode setting set to ‘Prefer maximum performance’. In this case, do not set Texture Quality to ‘High Quality’ but left it set to Quality as default.
   10. Run CP’77 with Administrative privileges (this time, GOG Galaxy 2.0 client should not trigger now), only the game.exe will be launched, and let the Introduction to be run, when the Intro is ended also wait a minute in the Cyberpunk 2077 splash screen, then press to enter in the main menu of the game.
   11. From the main menu, go to Settings -> Graphics and make sure High is the value for Texture Quality and also select Ultra preset (no RTX features) and then disable both Film gain and Chromatic aberration settings, after that go to Video and check your display resolution and make sure ‘Full Screen’ is also set, click on Apply.
   12. Start a new game, the loading screen will trigger, and when the loading is complete please wait 2min before pressing the key to go into your new game, play a bit (do not save any game since the GOG’s cloud files will be redownloaded later, or you can always copy-paste your backup later), exit the game. Please note that the “waiting” times I recommend in steps 8 and 9. are meant to allow any shaders compilation or optimization process to be completed successfully before playing. This is also something I also recommend for CP’77 before any gameplay or benchmarking session.
   13. Back to desktop, restore to default the CP’77 NVIDIA profile, delete manually the content of the NV_Cache folder (…ProgramData/NVIDIA Corporation/NV_Cache), the content of the D3DShaders folder, and all the content of the game’s local DX12 cache/settings […Users/(User)/AppData/Local/CD Projekt Red].
   14. Open GOG Galaxy 2.0 client and it will locate your game files, start to verify, redownload and update your game files.
   15. After that repeat steps 7 to 9 in order, and then launch the game with Administrative privileges..
   16. Delete all your games autosaves, and then start a new game (optimal to prevent the gameplay issue due to possible broken saves pre- applying this workaround process), or if for you the later is not possible at all because, for example, you are very far in the main story or you love your character so much, then load a manual save you know it was made on v1.04 (the massive better IQ would work despite your decision to start a new game or load a prior 1.04 manual save game).
   17. Check the results in terms of IQ in textures, and then choose and set the RT preset, tune RT individual features, and choose DLSS preset if needed.
   18. Hope it helps you. For me, it made a massive difference in terms of IQ and a much less buggish gameplay experience (for example, it got rid of the game’s cars catalog bug post hotfix 1.04).

I hope it’s worth it and that you consider it useful or at least interesting.

Thanks, Rodrigo. Let’s look at performance and IQ.

Performance Options

There are many options for playing Cyberpunk 2077 including using ray tracing. The game is very demanding and even an RTX 3090 cannot expect to run maxed settings at close to 50 FPS on the Ultra preset even without ray tracing and especially without DLSS. Here are the graphics settings that we generally used for playing on GeForce RTX cards.

The settings used for performance benching were either 1) the Ultra preset (no ray tracing/DLSS), 2) the Ultra Preset + Ultra ray tracing with the option to turn DLSS on or off. Further tests were made of the 4 DLSS quality levels’ performance.

Here is BTR’s benchmark which is very demanding and represents what you will probably find in-game in the most demanding action scenes, but this one is 100% repeatable with almost no variation between runs.

Please note that this benching sequence was originally captured on an RTX 3090 at 1920×1080 on the Ultra preset – no ray tracing and no DLSS. This benchmark is what BTR uses for this review and for future reviews and driver performance analyses.

NVIDIA and CD Projekt Red teamed up to bring ray tracing and DLSS to Cyberpunk 2077. The cutting-edge visuals are enhanced by ray-traced shadows, reflections, global illumination, diffuse illumination, and ambient occlusion. However, the real star is DLSS for anti-aliasing using upscaling to provide the large performance boost needed to enjoy all of the improved visuals brought by ray tracing at decent FPS. Let’s take a look at it.

Ray Tracing

Instead of prebaked rasterized lighting that game developers have had to use, ray traced reflections give superior lighting which works well with the effects that Cyberpunk 2077 strives for. Here are a couple of screenshots that show an immediate difference – both captured at Ultra Preset – just with ray tracing on vs off.

[twenty20 img1=”20670″ img2=”20672″ offset=”0.5″]

It’s really obvious that ray tracing brings quite a lot to the visuals. But it is even more apparent with the camera in motion.

Let’s look a bit more closely at ray tracing on versus off in another example

[twenty20 img1=”20674″ img2=”20671″ offset=”0.5″]

All of these extra ray-traced visuals would be for naught were it not for DLSS which uses AI upscaling only for GeForce RTX cards. DLSS is almost essential when enabling ray tracing to maintain playable frame rates and it can increase performance by 50% or more in some cases. You can use DLSS by itself, but coupled with ray tracing, it allows a player to experience all the enhanced visuals that ray tracing brings with acceptable framerates. Best of all, Quality DLSS IQ is the same or better than the native resolution.

[twenty20 img1=”20674″ img2=”20675″ offset=”0.5″]

Above we see ray tracing ultra at the native resolution and using the default AA versus using Quality DLSS which improves performance for free on RTX cards and there is no disadvantage to using DLSS whatsoever – just large performance gains. In this case, AI really works for Cyberpunk 2077 visuals – but sadly not for the NPCs.

Cyberpunk 2077 features five DLSS options: Auto, Quality, Balanced, and Performance, as well as Ultra Performance. These options control the DLSS rendering resolution, allowing you to choose your own balance between image quality and FPS. The Auto option will automatically set what the game considers the optimal DLSS mode for the selected resolution. As a tourist, I preferred DLSS Quality, but when I need a bit more fluidity, it is easy to switch to DLSS Performance or Balanced on the fly by pausing the game and changing the options without having to exit the game for the changes to take effect.

Here are our performance results using the top 4 Ampere video cards and AMD’s new Navi 2 cards, the RTX 6800 and the RTX 6800 XT. Unfortunately, although Big Navi can now run ray tracing, the AMD drivers haven’t been updated to include them yet for Cyberpunk 2077.

Worst case, using BTR’s benchmark, we averaged around 43 FPS using an RTX 3090 at 3840×2160 using the Ultra Preset. Using Ultra ray tracing dropped the performance to completely unacceptable in the 20s FPS, but Quality DLSS brought it up to average just a hair below 40 FPS which is reasonable for this game using a GSYNC display. In our opinion, the RTX 3080 isn’t really ideal for 4K, dropping to 37 FPS average on the Ultra Preset and it drops a further 3 FPS turning on Ultra ray tracing with DLSS Quality.

The RTX 3080 shines at 2560×1440 averaging just above 68 FPS and turning on ultra ray tracing plus DLSS Quality drops the framerate average to just above 57 FPS. The EVGA RTX 3070 FTW3 managed 50 FPS average at 1440P on Ultra and 45 FPS with ultra ray tracing plus DLSS Quality, but the RTX 3060 Ti is best suited for 1920×1080 if you want ultra everything. The new RTX 3060 Ti averages above 68 FPS at Ultra 1080P and can handle ultra ray tracing plus Quality DLSS at 58 FPS.

My RTX 3080 results are lower than Rodrigo’s that cannot be explained by having slightly different PC hardware. It may be that his texture workaround had a positive effect on performance or that the game’s performance issues affect each PC differently. We will each continue to benchmark Cyberpunk 2077 and have added the game to our respective benchmarking suites and will continue to compare our results as the game continues to be patched.

This chart will give you an idea of how well DLSS scales with Quality (as good or better than the native resolution), Balanced (about as good as TAA), and Performance (slight IQ loss) using an RTX 3080. The scaling is similar for all of the Ampere cards. We did not test Ultra Performance DLSS.

DLSS is the magic that boosts framerates and makes ray-traced effects playable in real-time. It allows an RTX 3080 to play on the Ultra Preset with Ultra Ray Tracing at 4K that would otherwise be a slideshow without DLSS. And similarly, an RTX 3090 that gets mid-forties FPS on the 4K Ultra Preset (with no ray tracing) can get nearly 80 FPS using Balanced DLSS!

We also benchmarked the RX 6800 XT and the RX 6800 on the Ultra preset (without ray tracing). Neither card is suited for 4K but the RX 6800 XT averages 68 FPS at 2560×1440 and the RX 6800 averages 59 FPS so both cards are also excellent for 1080P with maxed-out visuals. It will be interesting to check performance when ray tracing is enabled for the Radeon 6800/XT since there is no AMD DLSS equivalent yet, and we will follow up.

Cyberpunk 2077 environments are a good showcase for global illumination and reflections which cast realistic reflections on floors and walls. With ray-traced indirect diffuse lighting, we can see accurate details that include lighting from dynamic light sources reflected from nearby surfaces in real-time. Ray tracing effects are a very nice feature for the cards that can use it, but the game is visually impressive without them. It is also very demanding and the new meme may become “Can it Run Cyberpunk?”

Conclusion & Cyberpunk 2077 Key Giveaway Contest

Cyberpunk 2077 is a really good game that all three of us enjoyed and are continuing to enjoy despite its flaws. Each of us bought a retail key prelaunch and each of us feels that we got our money’s worth. Despite the ridiculous hype and broken promises made by the developers, it offers amazing visuals and ray tracing for RTX cards, a great story with superb acting and motion capture, and some side stories with real depth.

Cyberpunk 2077 is addictive and it pulls you back in despite its bugs and flaws as an RPG lite shooter. There is a ton of good content, however, and we expect that the devs will patch the game. We three all agree that it deserves an 8/10 as a great open-world game even in its unfinished and unpolished state. Ray tracing certainly adds value for RTX card owners, and DLSS is the star that makes the game fluidly playable whereas otherwise, it would struggle.

The Cyberpunk 2077 Key Contest Giveaway!

Thank you for reading through to the end. We have one retail Cyberpunk 2077 key that we purchased from Amazon.com to give away. Starting now, please comment on any recent BTR post to enter. We will put every entrant that comments into a random drawing and draw a lucky winner on Saturday, December 18 19, 2020 at 10 AM PT and announce it right here in an update. The winner will have 24 hours to claim the key based on the email account they used when commenting/entering, or we shall move on to the runner-up under the same conditions until the prize is claimed. The key contest is for the GOG platform and for North America contestants only. Good luck!

The Winner is Magnus!

Congratulations. Please email apoppin@gmail.com to confirm your win and to receive your keycode. You have 24 hours to claim the code or the runner-up will be announced tomorrow at this time. Thank-you to everyone who entered and who commented on this review.

Next up, the showdown between the reference RX 6800 vs. the EVGA RTX 3070 FTW3, followed by an AIB RX 6900 XT review – and we shall also test this big bad boy in VR against the RTX 3090 and the RTX 3080. Stay tuned!

Don’t forget to enter our Cyberpunk 2077 key giveaway right now! On Saturday morning at 10 AM, we will put the names of all of those who recently commented on one or more of BTR’s articles into a random draw, and one lucky winner will be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 for free this weekend! Please check back here.

Happy Gaming!

Horizon Zero Dawn finally arrived last week for PC from Guerrilla Games and Sony as a PS4 console port. Although it doesn’t make use of ray tracing technology, Horizon Zero Dawn – Complete Edition includes some nice additions for PC gamers. Some of these improvements include support for ultra-wide screens, high frame rates, an adjustable field of view, and remapping capabilities for keyboard, controller, and mouse. Also, the PC version contains certain significant and specific graphical enhancements over the console version of the game such as enhanced lighting and reflections.

It’s important to have a reliable in-depth review of the current and expected graphics performance of Horizon Zero Dawn. We offer an exhaustive review of its performance using the latest drivers with a high-end gaming PC using 1080p, 1440p and 2160p resolutions, and an IQ comparison of its major video graphics settings. We will make suggestions for an optimized graphics profile, as well as analyze the effects of using FPS limiters on performance to get the best 60 FPS gameplay experience.

Another recent PS4 to PC port, Death Stranding, also uses the same Decima graphics engine but is sponsored by NVIDIA and uses DLSS 2.0. Although technically not directly comparable despite sharing the same graphics engine, both ports have aroused a lot of expectation and interest as Horizon Zero Dawn is sponsored by AMD and is the first game to use the FidelityFX Single Pass Downsampler (SPD). The PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn together with additional digital content including its only expansion, ‘The Frozen Wilds,’ is available for Windows and is distributed through Steam and the Epic Games Store.

The Game

Horizon Zero Dawn is a highly enjoyable post-apocalypse game specially created for players who like the action RPG genre set in a huge and visually diverse open-world. It’s a very good RPG Lite that starts painfully slow, but it gets a lot better as it progresses. It’s a big-budget AAA game and the gameplay is well-polished

Although the visuals are very good, Horizon Zero Dawn is ported from an aging console platform. For what it is, it’s well-done although it is nothing ground-breaking, and it features a decent story, superb voice acting, and great audio that make the game an addicting journey by driving one on just to see what happens next. The gameplay, choices, and action are excellent since you can choose to make your warrior a stealth mistress or into a tank that can go toe to toe with the largest machines.

Horizon Zero Dawn is a huge game, and it does what all great action RPG Lite games do well. It offers loot, loot, and more loot, together with crafting and skills to choose from and upgrade to as your hero transforms from a little girl into a mighty warrior. One of BTR’s senior editors completed the main quest in 30 hours, but there is still a lot left to explore and many side missions to complete.

His PC also features an RTX 2080 Ti, but with an i9-10900K instead of my i9-9900K, and he got an almost identical performance. He also benchmarked an Anniversary Edition of the RX 5700 XT, averaging 36 FPS at 4K and 69 FPS at 1440P, which leads him to conclude that the game is better optimized for Radeons than for GeForce. It’s not surprising as Horizon Zero Dawn is an AMD-sponsored game that implements FidelityFX instead of DLSS for improved image quality.

We could not find much information about the FidelityFX implementation for Horizon Zero Dawn so we reached out to AMD, and they replied:

“FidelityFX is a series of open-source effects available on GPUOpen and will work across all GPUs. Horizon Zero Dawn is the first game to feature FidelityFX SPD (Single-Pass Downsampler), which utilizes asynchronous compute to accelerate texture mapping for more efficient post-processing, driving effects like bloom and screen space reflections faster without sacrificing framerates. The end-user is not able to toggle FidelityFX SPD on or off, and it is enabled by default.”

We both agree that Horizon Zero Dawn deserves an 8/10 as it is a lot of fun after an extremely slow start. After about 8 hours, the story comes together as it takes off on an amazing flight of fantasy complete with exciting battles versus huge AI-controlled machines culminating in an exciting and very satisfying ending to the main quest as you race to save your world from extinction against impossible odds.

Here are the settings that we used except HDR off for benching:

Our 4K DSR benchmarking specifically applies to NVIDIA cards (although AMD has VSR). But before offering the game’s performance data and charts of each different analysis scenario, it’s important to describe both the hardware and software configuration used in our testing as well as its analysis methodology on the next page.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F9 BIOS)
• Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3333 MHz CL16)
• Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC 11GB, stock clocks
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2 (both OS and HZD installed)
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27″ IPS 2560 x 1440 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (G-Sync Off, Fixed Refresh Rate On)

Test Configuration – Software

• GeForce Hotfix 451.85 drivers, High Quality, prefer maximum performance, DSR for simulating 4K resolution (x2.25-native), fixed refresh rate,
• V-Sync application controlled in the control panel, V-Sync Off in-game
• AA and AF controlled by the application, set according to video quality game presets
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v2004, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features Off
• GIGABYTE tools not installed
• Latest DirectX
• Horizon Zero Dawn, the latest version
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner frame limiter
• NVIDIA Control panel frame limiter
• SpecialK mod frame limiter

Built-in Benchmark-related

• The built-in benchmark sequence is used. It is consistent and repeatable, and although not the most demanding scenario, it offers a good picture of average game performance

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each 174-second built-in benchmark sequence
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • “Aggregate excluding outliers”
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).

Note that DSR specifically applies to NVIDIA cards (although AMD uses VSR), and I did not test Radeons. A senior BTR editor supplied the RX 5700 XT performance results. Unless otherwise noted, all testing was done on the NVIDIA and Intel-based high-end gaming rig detailed above.

To compare and value the aggregated records in terms of percentages of Gain / Loss, the following thresholds are set to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:

• FPS Avg > 3% when valuing raw performance
• P1/P0.2 > 3% when valuing frame time consistency; custom formula:

[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Let’s head to our performance charts.

Full HD (1080p) Performance

Full HD 1920×1080 is probably still the most common display resolution for PC gamers in 2020, and particularly for the lower to mid-end range PCs. However, it’s also probably a more CPU-bound scenario when considering high-end PC platforms such as the one we use to perform our Horizon Zero Dawn analysis.

That said, the performance chart below shows the performance of each of the game’s individual graphics presets in terms of both raw performance (average FPS metric) and frametimes stability (P1 and P0.2 metrics).

From the chart, we see that the game progressively scales its performance on this resolution when going from the highest graphics preset to the lowest one in terms of both image quality and its use of GPU resources. In fact, we found that you can expect significant average FPS performance gains dropping from a higher quality graphics preset to a lower one. However, the same doesn’t occur with the same level of intensity in terms of frametimes consistency by looking at the corresponding P1 and P0.2 aggregated values. In this case, the increases are significant when considered by themselves and are also much lower when going from “Ultimate” or ultra to lower quality presets.

Finally, when we put the P1 and P0.2 values of each preset in relation to their corresponding and relative average FPS values, we also found a trend of improving frametimes stability from the “Favor Performance” preset to ultra or “Ultimate Quality”; the latter being the most consistent or steadiest quality preset at full HD resolution. This is also confirmed by the frametimes (ms) comparative chart below.

Next, we will perform some relevant dual comparisons between graphics game presets that will allow us to identify the recommended and most balanced presets in terms of performance/IQ when moving from a lower to higher quality preset. Here is the Favor Performance Preset (low) compared with Original (medium).

[twenty20 img1=”18265″ img2=”18266″ offset=”0.5″ before=”Original/Medium Preset” after=”Favor Performance/Low Preset”]

The change from “Favor Performance” (low) to “Original” (medium) is probably the most noticeable improvement among the presets in terms of IQ.

“Original” vs. “Favor Performance” – Full HD (1080p)

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

In this comparison, the “Original” or medium preset is recommended. Although it offers lower performance in terms of average FPS (7.75% lower than “Favor Performance” or low), it offers an equivalent level of frametimes consistency with better image quality.

Here is the Favor Quality (high) Preset compared with Original (medium).

[twenty20 img1=”18266″ img2=”18264″ offset=”0.5″ before=”Medium Preset” after=”High Preset”]

The difference is still noticeable but less striking than in the prior IQ comparison.

“Favor Quality” vs. “Original” – Full HD (1080p)

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Here we have a similar situation to the previous one: an expected significant average FPS regression in exchange for a similar level of smoothness and better IQ when going from the “Original” medium preset to “Favor Quality” or low. So, because the average FPS on “Favor Quality” is still high (141.2), we would recommend using it over “Original”.

Here is the Ultimate (ultra) Preset compared with the high (Favor Quality) preset.

[twenty20 img1=”18267″ img2=”18264″ offset=”0.5″ before=”Ultimate/Ultra Preset” after=”High Preset”]

This is the case where the difference in image quality between the presets is the least noticeable. There is not much difference between the two presets in IQ.

“Ultimate Quality” vs. “Favor Quality” – Full HD (1080p)

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Here we see a comparable situation, but in this case we found a significant improvement in frametime consistency (3.67% gain in the 0.2% percentile FPS value) going to the “Ultimate” or ultra present from “Favor Quality” or high.

WQHD (1440p) Performance

Next, we review Horizon Zero Dawn’s performance using the 2560×1440 (1440p) or WQHD display resolution which is the native resolution of the G-Sync monitor used to conduct this performance analysis.

The performance chart below shows the performance of each of the game’s individual graphics presets in terms of average FPS numbers for the raw performance, and P1 and P0.2 metrics for frametimes stability.

Once again, the above results showed how well and progressively the game scales performance on 1440p resolution when going from “Ultimate Quality” or ultra to “Favor Performance” or high in terms of both IQ and GPU workload levels. In fact, we again found great average FPS gains and significant P1 and P0.2 improvements at each preset level moving from “Ultimate” to “Favor Performance”.

However, this time it’s interesting to note that the frame pacing and stability levels are significantly better across all graphics presets than at 1080p. This is because we can see the relative gap sizes or “Deltas” between the FPS low percentiles numbers and their corresponding FPS values across all presets when we compare them to the corresponding values at the full HD display resolution.

Focusing on the 1440p scenario only, and according to the frametimes (ms) chart below, on this testing scenario the steadiest or smoothest graphics preset with a high IQ level is high or “Favor Quality” and not “Ultimate” or ultra. It’s the same as at 1080p, and “Ultimate” in this case offers the most inconsistent frametimes.

We next present some dual comparisons between the graphics game presets that allow you to identify the best and most balanced presets in terms of performance/IQ for WQHD when you go from a lower to a higher quality preset.

IQ Comparisons (1440p) – All Major Presets

Here are enlarged images that show the visual degradation from changing the quality presets. From left to right: Ultimate (ultra), Favor Quality (high), Original (PS4/medium), and Favor Performance (low).

As you can see, there isn’t a huge difference between each step-down. Here is another example.

The PS4 is an aging console and even an enhanced graphics port cannot compete visually with many PC games that are designed primarily for the PC. For example, its shadows do not appear to be particularly well-implemented although they take a performance hit.

“Original” vs. “Favor Performance” – 1440p

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

These comparative results suggest that the “Original” (medium) preset should be recommended over “Favor Performance” (low) because, despite the expected significant regression in average FPS, the “Original” preset will guarantee equivalent smoothness with better IQ at the same time.

“Favor Quality” vs. “Original” – 1440p

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Here are comparative numbers that also lead us to recommend the “Favor Quality” (high) preset over “Original” (medium). In fact, “Favor Quality” offers both a pretty similar level of performance consistency plus better IQ.

“Ultimate Quality” vs. “Favor Quality” – 1440p

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

The results of this comparison confirm that on this preset setting, “Ultimate” or ultra is significantly worse than “Favor Quality” (high) in terms of stability. Therefore, “Favor Quality” is the recommended graphics preset to achieve the best performance with the best possible IQ.

4K DSR (2160p) Performance

We used Nvidia’s DSR technology to simulate a 4K (3840×2160/2160p) rendering resolution to compare the performance of each Horizon Zero Dawn graphics preset on this GPU-limited scenario. We proceed the same way for 4K as for our 1080p and 1440p testing.

The chart below shows how the game progressively scales its performance on 4K resolution when going from the ultra or “Ultimate Quality” preset to “Favor Performance” or low. Using 4K, we see that the improvements in average FPS and with low percentile FPS are still significant, especially when going from “Favor Quality” (high) to “Original” (medium), and/or from “Original” to “Favor Performance” low).

It should be noted that moving from “Ultimate Quality” to “Favor Quality” made a great difference in frametimes consistency since the “Favor Quality” preset performance is significantly smoother and more consistent than by using “Ultimate Quality”.

The latter is also supported and confirmed by the frametimes (ms) charts below.

Finally, we next show some key dual comparisons between the graphics game presets that will allow you to identify the recommended and most balanced presets in terms of performance/IQ on using 4K rendering when moving from a lower to higher quality preset.

“Original” vs. “Favor Performance” – 4K DSR (2160p)

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

In this case, the “Favor Performance” (low) preset was better in performance – both raw performance and stability-wise – but the IQ dropped greatly as well, so it’s difficult to give a neat recommendation. There simply isn’t a balanced choice available for this comparison scenario, so choose the graphics preset that best matches your IQ/performance preferences or needs.

“Favor Quality” vs. “Original” – 4K DSR (2160p)

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Here it is also difficult to give a recommendation. While both presets, “Original” (medium) and “Favor Quality” (high), will give almost identical level of frametimes consistency, one will also experience a major performance regression in terms of average FPS but with better IQ, moving from “Original” to “Favor Quality”. If you prefer to attempt to achieve a steady 4K 60+ FPS experience while keeping an acceptable IQ level, the “Original” preset is your best choice.

“Ultimate Quality” vs. “Favor Quality” – 4K DSR (2160p)

*[(Percentile_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (Percentile_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

The “Ultimate” or ultra preset leads to a major overall performance regression. Especially remarkable is the performance loss in the P0.2 value (15.51%). Therefore, if you want maximum IQ with a near-average 60 FPS experience, “Favor Quality” (high) should be preferred over “Ultimate”.

All Graphics Settings Benchmarked

In this section, we will look at which Horizon Zero Dawn graphics settings are the best suited to lower from “Ultimate” quality to get significant FPS gains in case you need or want to boost its performance.

We identified the most demanding in-game graphics settings by first setting a baseline benchmark figure with all settings at maximum to exactly match our results for the “Ultimate Quality” preset. From there, we lower each of the individual graphic options to its lowest/off setting and we compare to the baseline to determine how it influences performance to get the best possible IQ with an optimal trade-off in terms of average FPS performance.

*% FPS (avg) gain over our “Ultimate Quality” preset baseline of 98.1 FPS (avg)

** This result was probably because, as the developers acknowledged, the AF setting does not currently work due to a game bug that will be patched in a future game update.

From the graphics settings performance breakdown table above, Horizon Zero Dawn just doesn’t have many graphics settings to tinker with. However, there are a couple of settings that will greatly influence performance like “Reflections” and “Clouds” at 11.4% and 9.2% average FPS performance gain respectively.

Although “Reflections” and “Clouds”, are undoubtedly the settings that provide the greatest average FPS performance gain when lowered, there are three other settings, “Shadows” (5.3% gain), “Ambient Occlusion”(5.1% gain), and “Model Quality” (3.2% gain), which are also associated with lesser but significant performance gains if you turn them down.

1440p Optimized Video Settings vs. All Video Presets

We decided to play with the above graphics settings to see which ones we should lower to get a significant average FPS improvement. Ideally, we aim for an optimal combination of settings at 1440p that will provide a mix of High/Ultra IQ settings with a boost in performance (both raw performance-wise and stability-wise), particularly when compared to both “Favor Quality” (high) and “Ultimate Quality” (ultra) presets.

The “Optimized Settings” custom profile we created and benchmarked are as follows:

• Textures: Ultra
• Model quality: High
• Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
• Shadows: High
• Reflections: High
• Clouds: High
• Anti-aliasing (AA): TAA
• Motion blur: On
• Ambient Occlusion: High

From the performance charts above, the “Optimized Settings” at 1440p that we recommend will give you significantly better performance than “Favor Quality” (high), but with an IQ level between “Ultimate” (ultra) and “Favor Quality” at the same time.

Now, here are some interesting dual comparisons between our suggested “Optimized” graphics profile and the “Original” (medium), “Favor Quality” (high), and “Ultimate Quality” (ultra) presets. This will allow us to identify the boundaries of our “Optimized” mix of game graphics settings, both performance, and IQ-wise.

“Optimized settings” vs. “Original” – 1440p

*[(Percentile_2 / FPSavg_2) / (Percentile_1 / FPSavg_1)] – 1} x 100

In this comparison scenario, our “Optimized” profile shows an equivalent level of frame time consistency with significantly better image quality, so the “Optimized settings” are recommended over the “Original” graphics preset.

“Optimized Settings” vs. “Favor Quality” – 1440p

*[(Percentile_2 / FPSavg_2) / (Percentile_1 / FPSavg_1)] – 1} x 100

In this case, with the “Optimized Settings,” you will get both a great improvement in average FPS with high image quality that is somewhere between the “Favor Quality” and “Ultimate” IQ levels.

“Optimized settings” vs. “Ultra Quality” – 1440p

*[(Percentile_2 / FPSavg_2) / (Percentile_1 / FPSavg_1)] – 1} x 100

Finally, and considering the best balance between IQ and performance, these results also confirm that the use of the “Optimized settings” profile is superior and preferable to the “Ultimate” or ultra graphics present at 1440p.

Getting the Steadiest 60 FPS Experience: Benchmarking FPS Limiters (in-game, NV CP, RTSS, and SpecialK)

A good way to improve the smoothness and frametimes consistency and to improve and control its generally high variability is to use an effective and optimal method of limiting the framerates. Below we offer a comparison of Horizon Zero Dawn performance, using our “Optimized settings” along with some of the best-known external FPS limiters as well as the in-game limiter, to maintain the best gameplay experience at 60 FPS.

First of all, the in-game limiter does not work properly, and it is the worst limiting method in terms of performance since it does not guarantee an average of 60 FPS (57.6 avg FPS). It also offers particularly low P1 and P0.2 values that are far below our 60 average FPS target.

Both NVIDIA’s Control Panel (“Max Frame Rate” in the Control Panel settings) and RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) limiters work as intended, averaging 60 FPS, and they each performed quite well offering P1 and P0.2 values (~56-58s) that were close to the 60 FPS set target. Therefore both FPS limiters may be considered equivalent in terms of performance.

Special mention should be made of the limiter featured by the popular SpecialK mod since through its proper use and configuration, it offers performance and efficiency results that border on perfection. In fact, with the SpecialK limiter method we got the ideal target performance scenario, 60-60-60, that is, Avg 60 FPS, P1 60 FPS, and P0.2 60 FPS.

All of these considerations highlight SpecialK superiority as the best FPS limiter for Horizon Zero Dawn and are also confirmed by the frametimes (ms) comparison charts above. Let’s head to our conclusion.

Conclusion

Horizon Zero Dawn on PC is a good game overall, but with some weak points and room for improvement in terms of performance optimization.

The gameplay is highly enjoyable, especially for those players who like the open-world action RPG genre. Horizon Zero Dawn is a very good big-budget AAA RPG Lite that gets a lot better as it progresses. The game is not ground-breaking but it is fun and probably the equivalent of a big Summer blockbuster movie. It will become a popular series judging by the post-credits scene.

However, its performance and current level of optimization, although is not the worst we have seen from a PS4 port to a PC and far from perfect, shows some noteworthy and fixable performance faults. We refer to its broken AF settings and some briefly recurrent stutter during general world traversal and other bugs including camera swaps after cutscenes. From our testing sessions, we notice visible brief stutters during the built-in benchmark runs and can confirm that they are still present in the game although they are rarer. Fortunately, G-Sync or FreeSync works well to minimize them. The minor stutters we notice are reflected by some very low minimum numbers we encountered occasionally during the benching runs.

These optimization problems, related to a greater or lesser extent to its level of performance polish, detract from an otherwise mostly acceptable and fairly consistent performance level. We believe that the AF and stutter issues are game bugs and Horizon Zero Dawn can use more-fine tuning. It also appears to be better performance optimized for Radeons as it is an AMD-sponsored game. NVIDIA’s driver team probably has further optimization work to do. All in all, the developers have quickly acknowledged the issues and announced that they consider them as a high priority and to be fixed in a future game patch.

Here is the summary of our main performance results plus recommendations:

• Overall, and among the different graphic presets that the game offers, it is highly recommended to use the “Favor Quality” (high) preset for both the most consistent and stable performance experience and a high IQ.
• The only exception to using “Favor Quality” (high) is with the Full HD resolution, in which “Ultimate” (ultra) provided significantly better stability results and the best IQ.
• We recommended a custom “Optimized” settings profile, based on a mix of high and ultra in-game graphics settings, that provide a good boost in performance along with high IQ.
• For the best 60 FPS gameplay experience, avoid the in-game limiter and use the SpecialK’s FPS limiter for optimal results. Alternatively, if you do not want to use SpecialK, RTSS, or NVIDIA’s Control Panel limiters both performed similarly and quite well.

We recommend Horizon Zero Dawn as worth buying and playing – an 8/10 – and hope our first of many performance reviews will be helpful to you. Please comment below.

***

Rodrigo González (aka “RodroG”) is an enthusiast gamer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

Nearly two years ago, NVIDIA introduced realtime RTX ray tracing together with Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS). To play at high settings and with ray tracing on requires the use of AI super resolution or DLSS which provides better than TAA IQ together with improved performance. Death Stranding doesn’t use ray tracing, but rather uses DLSS 2.0 to improve performance, and we will compare the current performance and IQ (image quality) of all five current NVIDIA RTX cards updated by yesterday’s 5.1GB patch.

BabelTechReviews received a copy of Death Stranding from NVIDIA when it launched earlier this week with high expectations. After all, it is a well-optimized PS4 port to PC from the legendary game developer, Hideo Kojima. It originally received very high praise including some 10/10 (perfect game) awards when it released last year. We played it for hours using a RTX 2080 SUPER but were let down. Instead of a game review, we are going to concentrate on what we consider to be the real jewel of this AAA game – DLSS 2.0’s IQ and performance versus TAA.

We played Death Stranding using our new i9-10900K/RTX 2080 SUPER/32GB DDR-3600 PC for more than a few hours and were somewhat impressed with its visuals as a port from an aging console. The game’s outdoor scene environments aim to be photo-realistic, and it mostly succeeds except for some poor textures in areas and pop-in that can be annoying. The character models are fairly well-detailed, but not approaching the level of Red Dead Redemption 2.

Death Stranding uses cut scenes to tell its apocalyptic story as a 40 to 60 hour long interactive cinematic experience. The voice acting and motion capture by big name stars, the superb audio, and the amazing sound track, are all absolutely top notch as befits a big studio’s AAA efforts. Norman Reedus of ‘The Walking Dead’ fame is Sam Bridges Porter, and he brings his role reconnecting America to life by delivering critical supplies despite lacking any character development options or a skill tree. You can almost feel the weight of the cargo strapped to his back as he curses and mutters under his breath while struggling to maintain balance in rough terrain.

Unfortunately, the story is painfully slow-paced, and it involves weird science fiction with logic gaps that just do not work. You will face a moral quandary with ‘bridge babies’ as you must use one to survive attacks from invisible malevolent creatures. You will deal with exploding necrotic humans that can crater entire cities; and if you die, your own body will explode leaving an impassable crater that you will have to detour around when you return to life as a ‘Repatriate’ to resume your delivery.

Sam is a porter – a human pack animal since there are no longer any roads – who carries goods between outposts. He is the adopted and estranged son of the last U.S. President. Sam is also the brother of now captive Amelia who is leading America’s reconstruction yet she can communicate despite being held by separatists. Although Sam cannot handle being touched, his task is to connect the isolated remaining few civilized outposts into a grid as humanity’s last hope, and the story unfolds through endless cutscenes.

The game’s action is also very slow and it requires doing the same thing over-and-over with painfully slow pacing. For the first few hours, Death Stranding is a walking simulator and you are the delivery boy. To be successful, you must carefully plan out each route by marking waypoints on your map. You must plan on taking rope, anchors, and the right ladders to climb steep hills and to ford swiftly moving steams. It is also critical that you balance and micro-manage your load appropriately to its contents as well as to the journey’s terrain to be successful.

Before each delivery mission, you will strap a huge pack of supplies to your back, carefully balancing your load by continually tweaking the mouse while keeping in mind that your cargo will also deteriorate if you take too long during a timefall event. Above all else, you must hold on to your load while actively hiding from multiple deadly and nearly invisible BT enemies. There are also supplies lost by other porters to pick up and deliver, and human enemy bandit MULE gangs to contend with.

The game’s promise of new gadgets, upgrades, vehicles, and even weapons to fight the enemy BTs and human NPCs were not enough to keep my interest, and I was longing for fast travel. Gamers who appreciate the story and who enjoy minutiae micro-management will probably love the game.

Death Stranding is a game about connecting and connections and it’s pertinent to our own worldwide pandemic situation. No doubt it will be very popular, and BTR will add it to our benching suite. But for us, the best part of Death Stranding is its implementation of DLSS 2.0 and the free performance boost it brings without impacting IQ negatively.

Performance Options

Death Stranding is a well-done PS4 port to DX12 using the Decima engine. The developers were limited to 30 FPS on the PS4 whereas the PC gives much higher resolution and graphics options together with much higher and thus fluid framerates up to 240 FPS. Unfortunately, cutscenes are limited to 60 FPS and several widescreen resolutions are unsupported.

Here are the graphics settings that we used and changed for benchmarking – DLSS 2.0 or TAA which can only be used by RTX video cards. All other settings are set to their highest level at a rendering resolution of 100%.

FidelityFX CAS is another option for all video cards to sharpen TAA or for use without it. We find that 25% sharpening is about the maximum value we can use before noticing visible artifacting.

We are going to compare image quality using no anti-aliasing, TAA, and Quality DLSS 2.0, as well as look at FidelityFX CAS and chart the performance of the five current NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards:

• RTX 2080 Ti
• RTX 2080 SUPER
• RTX 2070 SUPER
• RTX 2060 SUPER
• RTX 2060

DLSS 2.0

NVIDIA’s DLSS 2.0 creates sharper and higher resolution images with dedicated AI processors on GeForce RTX GPUs called Tensor Cores. The original DLSS 1.0 required more work on the part of the game developers and resulted in image quality approximately equal to TAA. DLSS 2.0 is an improved deep learning neural network that boosts frame rates while generating crisper game images with the performance headroom to maximize settings and increase output resolutions.

NVIDIA claims that DLSS 2.0 offers IQ comparable to native resolution while rendering only one quarter to one half of the pixels by employing new temporal feedback techniques. DLSS 1.0 required training the AI network for each new game whereas DLSS 2.0 trains using non-game-specific content that works across many games.

DLSS 2.0 generally offers RTX gamers three IQ modes: Quality, Balanced, Performance. These settings control a game’s internal rendering resolution with Performance DLSS enabling up to 4X super resolution. Death Stranding has implemented Performance DLSS 2.0, 1080p → 4K, and Quality 1440p → 4K.

In our opinion, Quality DLSS 2.0’s IQ looks noticeably better and its larger hit to the frame rate is worth it over using Performance DLSS 2.0. We would prefer to lower other settings before we drop DLSS 2.0 from Quality to Performance.

Death Standing’s final anti-aliasing option, FXAA, is a poor post-processing choice since it doesn’t address temporal anti-aliasing as well as TAA and its performance savings is negligible. We will next focus on IQ, DLSS 2.0 versus TAA.

DLSS 2.0 vs. TAA

First we want to see an image with maxed out settings but with no AA.

We don’t recommend playing without TAA or without DLSS 2.0. Even though still screen shots may be tolerable at 4K, the shimmering and crawling while the camera is in motion is very distracting. Using TAA only takes a very small performance hit. For example, a RTX 2080 SUPER will average almost 60 FPS at 4K highest settings with no AA, and it will only drop 2 FPS when TAA is turned on. TAA removes most of the shimmering and texture crawling, but it blurs the image.

Above is no AA compared with TAA and with Quality DLSS 2.0. No AA is a jagged mess while TAA is blurred compared with the DLSS 2.0 image. DLSS 2.0 just blows away TAA IQ.

Here are some additional screenshots comparing TAA with DLSS 2.0. Please be aware that these scenes cannot be compared exactly because the scenes are dynamic and and constantly changing.

Here is the image without anti-aliasing.

Now we look at TAA versus DLSS 2.0.

[twenty20 img1=”18007″ img2=”17998″ offset=”0.5″ before=”TAA” after=”DLSS 2.0″]

The DLSS 2.0 image is sharper, and with the camera in motion, DLSS 2.0 gives much better image quality over TAA.

Here is an enlarged comparison of an area of the above image including adding FidelityFX CAS+TAA.

Above we see beginning left to right: (1) No AA compared with (2) No AA+Fidelty FX CAS then (3) TAA followed by (4) TAA+FidelityFX sharpening filter, and lastly (5) DLSS 2.0.

(1) The image without AA is very jagged, and adding (2) the FidelityFX sharpening filter + no AA only makes the jaggies look sharper. (3) TAA adds a lot of blur although it cleans up the edges, and (4) adding FidelityFX CAS at 25% introduces a few artifacts yet only sharpens parts of the image compared to the overall best image produced by (5) DLSS 2.0.

Performance

Yesterday, Death Stranding got updated to version 1.01 by a 5.1GB patch to address performance and bugs. We reran all of our benchmarks over again as performance has increased slightly. We use a very repeatable benchmark that takes place during a timefall (with rain & other effects) that is representative of the most demanding sections of the game.

Using Death Stranding’s highest settings we compare performance TAA versus Quality DLSS 2.0 of all five current current RTX cards at 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160.

DLSS 2.0 gains a large percentage of performance over using TAA, and it looks much better while doing it. We see a RTX 2070 SUPER playing Death Stranding decently with maximum settings at 4K(!) whereas before it struggled using TAA. Upscaled DLSS isn’t perfect, occasionally adding some artifacting, but overall it looks great with the camera in motion and much better than the blur that TAA adds.

Adding FidelityFX CAS to TAA still doesn’t match the image quality of DLSS 2.0, nevermind the performance it leaves unused. There is no reason for a RTX gamer not to use DLSS 2.0 for Death Stranding.

Conclusion

Death Stranding is an interesting game that may really appeal to many gamers. However, we are the most impressed by Death Stranding‘s visuals and the large free performance increase that DLSS 2.0 brings to it for RTX gamers.

NVIDIA, 505 Games and KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS have recently announced the Death Stranding ‘Embark On Your Journey‘ bundle. Until July 29th, gamers will receive a Steam code for Death Stranding with the purchase of an eligible GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 2080 SUPER, 2080, 2070 SUPER, 2070, 2060 SUPER or 2060 GPU-equipped graphics card. A list of participating retailers and etailers is available on GeForce.com.

We are heading immediately Into the Radius for a VR game and performance review for early next week. The game is based on the same ‘Roadside Picnic’ universe that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is set in. After that, we will review the EVGA Z490 FTW motherboard to see just how high we can overclock our 9-10900K.

Happy Gaming!