Conclusion
Resident Evil Village has been released. We got an early look at the game and took the time to dive into exploring the AMD FidelityFX features and Ray Tracing. We looked at performance, how each feature affects performance and image quality. We also compared the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FE in this game using the latest drivers. We had some interesting results, so let’s dive in.
Performance Comparison
Performance in this game is spectacular. We were surprised how well optimized the game engine seems. Performance was fast on both video cards, even at 4K and even with Ray Tracing. High framerates will not be hard to achieve with this game, and the fact it is well optimized and runs well means midrange cards and lower should also perform well. It shouldn’t be too hard to find the best settings to get good performance.
For example, the Radeon RX 6800 XT at the highest settings at 4K with Ray Tracing was at 80FPS average. The GeForce RTX 3080 FE was at 85FPS average. Without Ray Tracing the Radeon RX 6800 XT at 4K was at 106FPS and the GeForce RTX 3080 FE at 98FPS. That shows you how well this game plays on these video cards and running the highest in-game settings just shouldn’t be a big problem.
It was interesting that without Ray Tracing the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT outperformed the GeForce RTX 3080 FE consistently. It was 16% faster at 1440p, which is quite a difference. It shows this game is well optimized for the AMD RDNA architecture, as are the AMD FidelityFX features which are accelerated by the RDNA architecture. Without Ray Tracing, AMD is the clear performance winner.
With Ray Tracing the story changes though. This is where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FE takes less of a hit enabling Ray Tracing. The Radeon RX 6800 XT took some pretty big performance dives enabling Ray Tracing. The GeForce RTX 3080 FE is better at not dropping so much framerate when enabling Ray Tracing. This then allows it to overtake the Radeon RX 6800 XT in performance when Ray Tracing is enabled.
AMD FidelityFX CAS
AMD FidelityFX CAS seemed to not cause any affect on performance. We tried it at a very high 4K with the highest in-game settings and performance was the same with or without it. This is good news since it does add sharpening to texture quality it’s a feature you can simply leave turned on for the best image quality and it won’t harm your gaming experience.
AMD FidelityFX CACAO
AMD FidelityFX CACAO did cause a performance drain, about 7% versus SSAO and 14% overall from having no ambient occlusion. This could be greater on mainstream or less video cards. Ambient Occlusion is a feature you do want turned on for good image quality. It allows depth shadows, and those are important for an atmospheric game like this. If you are having performance issues you can consider just using SSAO instead, that should overall be less of a burden on performance and still provide Ambient Occlusion. This is of course without Ray Tracing. If you are using Ray Tracing the only option, you’ll have for Ambient Occlusion is “On” and we suggest turning it to that value.
In terms of image quality, we did notice advantages to image quality using CACAO versus SSAO. It is more accurate and just looked better. But it does come at that performance cost. For the Radeon RX 6800 XT and GeForce RTX 3080 however, that really isn’t a problem. It could be on lesser cards though. But again, you won’t have the option with Ray Tracing enabled, so just turn Ambient Occlusion to “On.”
Variable Rate Shading
This is an option you should pretty much just leave alone in this game. With the feature off the best image quality is shown. Turning it on even to just “Balanced” decreases image quality very noticeably. Prioritize Performance is absolutely terrible for image quality. There’s just no point running the game at a high resolution and yet hurting your image quality by enabling VRS. You’d be better off just lowering the resolution or the game settings if you need faster framerates. It doesn’t even improve performance that much to be honest, nothing that will make or break gameplay. But it sure does break image quality.
Ray Tracing
We absolutely recommend you play this game with HIGH Ray Tracing enabled. Global Illumination is a game-changer for this game. It changes the environment and atmosphere of the game. Dark areas are better hidden, areas that should be lit are better lit, and the feel of the game changes. Areas of reflection also properly reflect the environment around them, adding more depth to the game.
We were also impressed by how optimized Ray Tracing seems to be in this game. Though this may be simply down to the fact that the game is starting from such a high framerate anyway, that a near 50% loss in performance still means playable performance. This is good news for the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which typically hasn’t done well in Ray Tracing performance in many other games. However, in this one, it actually allows you to use it with playable framerates. The GeForce RTX 3080 FE takes less of a hit enabling it, and ultimately provides the highest framerates when Ray Tracing is enabled.
The Final Points
Resident Evil Village is a fun game. Visually speaking is it the best-looking game out there? No, it actually feels like the RE Engine is starting to show a bit of age. Some of the environments seem hollow, even if they do look pretty. However, by enabling Ray Tracing in the game it has made a difference and made it more forward-looking. Ray Tracing actually does make the game look better, with better lighting, better dark areas, better contrast, and reflections. It does seem like they could have done more with it though, such as Ray Traced shadows or a Ray Traced AO option, but for what it has, it is nice. We like to see Global Illumination used, and we want to see that used more in games.
One thing Resident Evil Village really has going for it is how well it runs in performance. It’s well-optimized, and the async compute features it uses help keep it running fast. This fast performance means it will run at higher settings on lower-end hardware, and this is a good thing. You should have a good experience even with midrange to low-end video cards. You should be able to use higher settings than some other games recently that have been very demanding.
As for the AMD FidelityFX features, the FidelityFX CAS is nice. Sometimes it can be very subtle unless you are looking for it though. However, knowing it is there helping to improve sharpness on textures when TAA is being used is great. AMD FidelityFX CACAO also looks good, but we were surprised how much of a toll it took on performance even though it is accelerated via RDNA architecture. Getting good, accurate, yet fast and efficient Ambient Occlusion always has been a chore. Ray Tracing AO is the ultimate solution, but of course, will also be compute-intensive. At any rate, the AMD FidelityFX features that are there are nice features to have and help improve the environment. Just stay away from VRS though.
That about sums it up, if you haven’t tried this game yet now maybe you’ll have an idea of how to set it up for the best experience. Enjoy.