We won't be writing an article for this one, so just wanted to run a quick post on our new DLSS comparison in Battlefield V. This was easier to relegate to video format, seeing as it required more detailed visual comparisons than anything else. Some charts are present, but the goal is to compare DLSS on vs. off across two GPUs: The RTX 2080 Ti and the RTX 2060, each of which has different allowances for DLSS enablement.

The RTX 2060 can run DLSS at 1080p or 1440p, whereas the RTX 2080 Ti can only run DLSS at 4K, as an FPS which is too high will not allow for DLSS processing to complete before frame present (and so the 2080 Ti cannot step lower than 4K). Comparisons primarily try to find where the major upsides might be with DLSS, and they seem to mostly exist with very thin objects that have limited geometry in far distances, where DLSS can create a smoother image and eliminate some of the "marching ants" effect. On the flip-side, DLSS seems to introduce some blur to the image and doesn't outperform natively running at the lower resolution instead.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was officially released on PC this past December, but it’s been playable via Steam Early Access for nearly a year now. In all that time, none of us have played the game, despite many requests for benchmarks. Games that are in active development don’t make for easy testing, and neither do exclusively multiplayer games with tons of variance. Even Overwatch has the ability to play against bots.

Now that PUBG is 1.0 on PC and sort-of-released on Xbox, though, we have extra motivation to buckle down and start testing. We chose to start with the Xbox One X version, since the lack of graphics options makes things simpler. It’s listed as both 4K HDR ready and Xbox One X Enhanced, so our primary testing was done at 4K, with additional Xbox One X benchmarking at 1080p for PUBG. Technically, it’s a “Game Preview,” but the list of other titles in this category makes it look like something that was created expressly for PUBG. It also costs full PC price, $30.

This deep-dive looks at PUBG framerate and frametime performance (which is shockingly bad for a console), along with graphics analysis of the game’s visuals. Although the article covers testing and benchmarking in slightly more depth, we’d also strongly recommend watching the video, as it contains visual representation of what’s happening in-game.

Our Destiny 2 GPU benchmark highlighted massive performance uplift vs. beta on some devices, upwards of 50% on Vega, but was conducted in largely GPU-constrained scenarios. For this content piece, we’ll be exploring the opposite: CPU-constrained scenarios to benchmark Destiny 2 performance on AMD Ryzen and Intel Kaby/Coffee Lake parts, including the R7 1700, R5 1600X, R3 1200, and i7-7700K, i5-7600K, i3-8350K, and G4560.

Most of our test notes have already been recapped in the GPU benchmark, and won’t be fully repeated. Again, we ran a wide spread of tests during the beta, which will be informing our analysis for the Destiny 2 launch benchmarks. Find the previous content below:

• Destiny 2 Beta GPU Benchmark (+ graphics optimization guide, PvP scalability)
• Destiny 2 Beta CPU Benchmark (soon replaced by our Destiny 2 launch CPU bench)
• Destiny 2 texture comparison

As we’ve done in the past for GTA V and Watch_Dogs 2, we’re now taking a look at Destiny 2’s texture resolution settings. Our other recent Destiny 2 content includes our GPU benchmark and CPU benchmark.

All settings other than texture resolution were loaded from the highest preset and left untouched for these screenshots. There are five degrees of quality, but only highest, medium, and lowest are shown here to make differences more obvious. The blanks between can easily be filled in.

UPDATE: We have run new CPU benchmarks for the launch of this game. Please view the Destiny 2 launch CPU benchmarks here.

Our Destiny 2 GPU benchmark was conducted alongside our CPU benchmark, using many of the same learnings from our research for the GPU bench. For GPU testing, we found Destiny 2 to be remarkably consistent between multiplayer and campaign performance, scaling all the way down to a 1050 Ti. This remained true across the campaign, which performed largely identically across all levels, aside from a single level with high geometric complexity and heavy combat. We’ll recap some of that below.

For CPU benchmarking, GN’s Patrick Lathan used this research (starting one hour after the GPU bench began) to begin CPU tests. We ultimately found more test variance between CPUs – particularly at the low-end – when switching between campaign and multiplayer, and so much of this content piece will be dedicated to the research portion behind our Destiny 2 CPU testing. We cannot yet publish this as a definitive “X vs. Y CPU” benchmark, as we don’t have full confidence in the comparative data given Destiny 2’s sometimes nebulous behaviors.

For one instance, Destiny 2 doesn’t utilize SMT with Ryzen, producing utilization charts like this:

UPDATE: We have run benchmarks of the launch version of Destiny 2. Please view the launch Destiny 2 GPU benchmarks here.

The Destiny 2 beta’s arrival on PC provides a new benchmarking opportunity for GPUs and CPUs, and will allow us to plot performance uplift once the final game ships. Aside from being a popular beta, we also want to know if Bungie, AMD, and nVidia work to further improve performance in the final stretch of time prior to the official October 24 launch date. For now, we’re conducting an exploratory benchmark of multiplayer versus campaign test patterns for Destiny 2, quality settings, and multiple resolutions.

A few notes before beginning: This is beta, first off, and everything is subject to change. We’re ultimately testing this as it pertains to the beta, but using that experience to learn more about how Destiny 2 behaves so that we’re not surprised on its release. Some of this testing is to learn about settings impact to performance (including some unique behavior between “High” and “Highest”), multiplayer vs. campaign performance, and level performance. Note also that drivers will iterate and, although nVidia and AMD both recommended their respective drivers for this test (385.41, 17.8.2), likely change for final release. AMD in particular is in need of a more Destiny-specific driver, based on our testing, so keep in mind that performance metrics are in flux for the final launch.

Note also: Our Destiny 2 CPU benchmark will be up not long after this content piece. Keep an eye out for that one.

Destiny 2 will serve as Bungie and Activision’s follow up to the first Destiny, which was exclusive to Playstation and Xbox consoles. Destiny 2 was announced as coming to PC a few months back, but few details were given at that time. Since then, on Thursday May, 18th, there was a livestream event discussing some features of the new game and showing the first official gameplay footage. If you missed the livestream, don’t worry -- we have you covered, we’ve posted the link to it and all the trailers below.

Blizzard announced in January that Overwatch had surpassed the 25 million player milestone, but despite being nearly a year old, there’s still no standardized way to benchmark the game. We’ve developed our own method instead, which we’re debuting with this GPU optimization guide.

Overwatch is an unusual title for us to benchmark. As a first person shooter, the priority for many players is on sustained high framerates rather than on overall graphical quality. Although Overwatch isn’t incredibly demanding (original recommended specs were a GTX 660 or a Radeon HD 7950), users with mid-range hardware might have a hard time staying above 60FPS at the highest presets. This Overwatch GPU optimization guide is for those users, with some graphics settings explanations straight from Blizzard to GN.

We saw a lot of games at PAX West and, as always, didn’t get a chance to cover all of them individually. One little game stood out, though: Midair, the spiritual successor to the Tribes series.

Cloistered away in the back of the sixth floor of the Seattle Convention Center, Archetype Studios barely got their game into PAX. Another exhibitor dropped out of the show two weeks prior to kick-off, opening a slot for waitlisted Archetype. As longtime fans of the Tribes series, Archetype Studios and its founders were disappointed by Tribes: Ascend’s support and payment model, leading to the creation of Midair. The game was already successfully Kickstarted for nearly $130,000, about 30% more than initially asked.

System integrator iBUYPOWER is furthering its commitment to eSports with the return of the iBUYPOWER CS:GO Invitational, accompanied by the newly introduced iBUYPOWER Overwatch Invitational. This weekend-long event begins on July 16th. Those in Santa Ana area can show up at eSports Arena to play in the free-to-play area and to compete in side events at the venue. Games will be streamed from the event floor.

CS:GO, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Super Smash Bros. will all be set up to play.