720p Gaming Performance Continued
We are now going to continue our testing at 720p. We are going to utilize AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) in the games that support it in our gaming suite to see how that improves performance on both iGPUs.
Cyberpunk 2077
We have to include Cyberpunk 2077, even as terrifyingly demanding as it is, it’s a good test to see if these iGPUs can keep up with demanding games today. Note that we are utilizing the newest Patch 1.5 for this game. That means that this game now supports FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and we will be utilizing it in our testing today to see if it helps make the game playable.
In this graph above we are running Cyberpunk 2077 at the “Low” graphics preset, so this is hte lowest graphics settings possible at 720p. In addition, we have tested with FSR as well and we show that on the graph to see what it does to performance. Granted, it is very ugly at 720p visually, you really wouldn’t want to play with FSR at 720p, but we had to see what it would do for performance.
The Intel Core i9-12900K with Intel UHD Graphis 770 is just a mess in this game. The performance averages right at 20FPS, but the minimums are down at 10FPS. Plus, there are some artifacts while playing. FSR surprisingly works, but it doesn’t add much to performance, just 5 FPS more average. Even with FSR, unplayable period. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 does a lot better, surprisingly better, and actually playable. It’s 100% faster than the 12900K with Intel UHD 770.
The 5700G with Vega 8 averages near 40FPS, but turn on FSR and that improves to around 48FPS and the game is much smoother. But again, it is very ugly with FSR enabled, this resolution is just so low that sampling even lower with FSR is a big mess. However, with Vega 8 you might actually play it somewhat even without FSR, which is surprising for an iGPU.
We really wanted to hurt ourselves even more, and just for experimental sake see what would happen if we pushed the game up to “High” quality at 720p. Well, the 12900K with Intel UHD 770 tanks, naturally. The 5700G also is now completely unplayable, but FSR brings it to 30FPS. That shows FSR bringing a 31% performance uplift.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Next up is Horizon Zero Dawn on the PC. This game also had the pleasure of being upgraded to support FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) as well in recent patching. Therefore, we will test it.
In the graph above we are testing the game at 720p with the “Favor Performance” quality option selected. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Vega 8 is very playable at 51FPS. Turning on FSR actually boosts Vega 8 up to 60FPS in this game! That’s an 18% performance improvement using FSR. The Intel Core i9-12900K with UHD 770 is not playable under 30FPS, and FSR does very little to performance. The 5700G with Vega 8 is 89% faster.
Since the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Vega 8 performed so well we also cranked the game up to the “Favor Quality” graphics option at 720p. This definitely hurt performance, but it was still above 30FPS on the 5700G. However, once we turned on FSR that rose to above 40FPS, an increase of 23% which is pretty nice. The 5700G with Vega 8 is 75% faster than the 12900K with UHD 770 here.
Watch Dogs Legion
Finally, at 720p we are going to see how Watch Dogs Legion does. We do not have the HD Texture pack installed at all and are running the benchmark.
In the graph above Watch Dogs Legion is playable on the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G at 720p and “Low” graphics settings at 46FPS. The 12900K with Intel UHD 770 is not. The 5700G with Vega 8 is 92% faster!
We also cranked this game up to “High” to see what would happen. This hurt performance, but still above 30FPS on 5700G with Vega 8, and the 12900K tanks. The 5700G with Vega 8 is 94% faster.