{"id":42217,"date":"2014-05-30T22:07:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T21:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=42217"},"modified":"2014-06-13T05:20:38","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T04:20:38","slug":"watch_dogs-geforce-vs-radeon-performance-iq-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/watch_dogs-geforce-vs-radeon-performance-iq-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch_Dogs GeForce vs. Radeon Performance Face-Off and IQ Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch_Dogs<\/em> was probably the most hyped new game of the year and we are pleased to see that it mostly lives up to it. We have been playing Watch_Dogs<\/em> since Saturday morning and have had more time to explore performance since our release day review<\/a>.\u00a0 We are going to look at expanded performance testing, now including Radeon results, and a closer look at Image Quality (IQ).<\/p>\n

\"featured-image\"<\/a>It appears that Ubisoft has taken the very best elements of the Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag<\/em> gameplay and mechanics, along with good ideas from other games, and tossed out the boring bits and what doesn’t work. The result is a fast-paced, huge open-world game with a great story, superb voice acting, awesome music, and car chases to delight the most jaded gamers. \u00a0 There is nothing particularly original about Watch_Dogs<\/em>, other than everything comes together well – including multiplayer and singleplayer – and it just works!<\/p>\n

There are some issues with stability, and Ubisoft needs to patch the game as a player may occasionally experience crashes to the desktop.\u00a0 Generally, 3GB or more of vRAM on a fast video card seems to be enough for 1920×1080 at Ultra Settings and Ultra Textures, although 2GB vRAM-equipped video cards tend to stutter slightly with lesser settings than Ultra, even with High Textures.<\/p>\n

This performance and IQ evaluation gives more a detailed performance analysis comparison between FXAA, temporal SMAA, 4xMSAA, and 2xTXAA, while comparing the IQ of the in-between settings – from No AA to 4xTXAA.\u00a0 AMD delivered a new 14.6 Beta 1 driver on launch day evening which increased performance significantly over the 14.4 driver set, and we have updated our evaluation with the Radeon R9 290X-uber, 280X and 270X results.\u00a0 Besides our\u00a0 original testing with the GTX 780 Ti\/GTX 770\/GTX 760\/GTX 680 and GTX 680 SLI (GTX 690), we have added GTX 780 results at 2560×1600 and 1920×1080. You will note that the 2GB cards are unable to run Ultra Textures without significant issues, and they default to High although Ultra can be set.<\/p>\n

Nvidia believes that the best gaming experience is on GeForce since Watch_Dogs<\/em> features Nvidia’s GameWorks, and especially TXAA and HBAO+ technology.\u00a0 AMD cards cannot run TXAA, or Temporal Anti-Aliasing, which mitigates texture crawling and shimmering at the expense of blur. \u00a0 TXAA works well with\u00a0Watch_Dogs<\/em> giving it a cinematic effect while not blurring the text significantly.\u00a0\u00a0 Nvidia’s HBAO+ technology brings a noticeable improvement in IQ with an acceptable performance hit to upper-midrange and higher-end cards of both vendors, and we run it enabled.\u00a0 Watch_Dogs<\/em> has become ABT’s latest benchmark.<\/p>\n

\"Watch_Dogs-under\"<\/a>In Watch_Dogs<\/em>, all of the major cities are networked, monitored and controlled by complex operating systems called the Central Operating System (ctOS) which controls Chicago\u2019s technology and holds information on all of the city\u2019s residents.\u00a0\u00a0 The theme of hacking is central to Watch_Dogs<\/em>, and differentiates it from similar games, like the Grand Theft Auto series.<\/p>\n

You play as Aiden Pearce – both a brilliant hacker as well as a thug, who justifies his carnage by his belief that he is protecting his family. As Aiden, you become a voyeur and you will be able to monitor, hack and manipulate everything and everyone connected to the ctOS network.\u00a0\u00a0 You can access and control security cameras, download personal information about anyone, change traffic lights and control public transportation, cause blackouts, and far more.\u00a0\u00a0 You will earn experience points to upgrade your skills, including Focus which can slow time down in critical situations.\u00a0 You have a completely open world set within Chicago’s city limits, and you can follow the main story line, or pursue side games of which there are many, including expert Chess.<\/p>\n

\"Watch_Dogs-mp-meds\"<\/a>It may all sound a bit complex, but\u00a0Watch_Dogs<\/em> presents itself to the player naturally and without hand-holding. Best of all, the game is fun,<\/em> and especially the car chases bring some genuine laugh out-loud moments as your car is basically a tank; not indestructible, but almost.\u00a0 And once the player gets used to the driving controls, it is a lot of fun to race through downtown Chicago at maximum speed, slowing for nothing and causing maximum destruction, all the while eluding the entire Chicago police force, including helicopter surveillance.<\/p>\n

Let’s first look at our hardware and software testbed before we head to the benchmarks and images.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Test Configuration \u2013 Hardware<\/h2>\n