Wolfenstein: Youngblood Performance Review

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Vulkan API FTW

Introduction

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a new game that was just released July 26th on Windows, PS4 and XBOX One.  While this game is considered a spin-off of the Wolfenstein series, it is the spiritual successor to the previous game, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.  This first-person shooter was developed by MachineGames and Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. 

This game’s story takes place twenty years after Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.  Unlike the previous versions, this one is cooperative based and missions can be completed in a non-linear order with new gear and abilities being unlocked by progression and skill level. 

Similar to Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus this game is based on the id Tech 6 game engine and thus is based on the Vulkan API.  This should ensure fast performance on video cards utilizing the latest technologies.  Today’s review is focused on Wolfenstein: Youngblood video card performance only.  We are utilizing the latest GPUs to test this game’s performance.  This review will not cover game mechanics or storyline.

The recommended system requirements for this game is AMD FX-9370/Ryzen 5 1600X or Intel Core i7-4770 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (Current available GPU RTX2060) or AMD equivalent and 16GB of RAM.

Drivers

To get the best experience in this game make sure to at least be running AMD Adrenalin 19.7.3 Optional driver dated 7/25.  This driver boosted Wolfenstein: Youngblood performance by 13% to the previous driver.  As of this writing, AMD Adrenalin 19.7.5 Optional dated 7/31 is the most recent driver.  It fixed an issue where Wolfenstein: Youngblood was crashing or hanging on Radeon RX 5700 series GPUs.  Therefore, AMD Adrenalin 19.7.5 Optional is the best driver.

For NVIDIA GPUs you want at least version 431.60 which is the Game Ready driver for Wolfenstein: Youngblood dated 7/23.  This will provide the best experience and is the latest Game Ready driver.       

Vulkan API

One thing we wanted to check was the Vulkan API version AMD and NVIDIA are using in this game.  You will see above that AMD is using VK API 1.1.113 and NVIDIA is using VK API 1.1.99.

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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