Although I didn't spend much time playing Batman: Arkham Origins, I retrieve the game rather well after testing it on no less than 30 graphics cards and 20 CPUs. Arkham Origins appeared to have full reward of Unreal Engine 3, it ran smoothly on affordable GPUs, though it's worth remembering that Origins was adult for last-gen consoles.

This week marked the arrival of Batman: Arkham Knight, the fourth entry in WB's Batman: Arkham serial and a direct sequel to 2022's Arkham City (Arkham Origins was a prequel story-wise, however information technology was the third game installment).

Arkham Knight is likewise powered past Unreal Engine 3, but you tin wait noticeably improved graphics, in office considering the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One accept replaced the PS3 and 360 as the lowest common denominator.

Leading up to launch, we had loftier expectations for the game'south graphics after its recommended system specs were shared. As an Nvidia sponsored title, the specs failed to mention any AMD GPUs, but nosotros were surprised to see the GeForce GTX 980 recommended for maximum quality graphics with the GTX 760 suggested for standard play.

Oddly, 3GB of VRAM was also called for even though almost GTX 760 cards only sport 2GB, while the minimum specs demanded a GTX 660 with 2GB of VRAM.

Favoring ane camp of GPUs is hardly the least contentious mode to launch a new game, however it seems this release would have rattled cages regardless. Much of the PC gaming community has been angry about Arkham Knight'due south performance with reports of constant stuttering that ruins gameplay. The issue is mentioned past users of both Nvidia and AMD cards, though it seems AMD folks are having the most trouble.

AMD has responded quickly with a new beta Catalyst driver that resolves some of the issues. However for AMD the trouble is that similar other recent releases such as The Witcher iii and Project CARS, Batman: Arkham Knight is laced with Nvidia's performance crushing GameWorks features including PhysX habiliment and devastation on both PC and consoles. In that location are a few features that can only be enabled on Nvidia GPUs, such as interactive paper debris and interactive smoke/fog.

Some visual features like enhanced rain and enhanced calorie-free shafts tin exist enabled on all hardware, but overall the graphics menu is void of options. For case, anti-aliasing tin can be turned on or off, with no mention of what AA style is even used.

Enhanced rain ways raindrops bounce off Batman's greatcoat realistically as he jumps, flies, glides, grapples and dives through Gotham Metropolis. As helicopters fly overhead, volumetric lighting creates what developers call "god rays" that polish down from the search lights.

Between GameWorks, the express video options, and full general lack of optimization, Arkham Knight's performance paints an unusual picture. And it won't be a pretty ane. At least we hope it doesn't run as poorly as Wild Hunt did with GameWorks enabled…

Editor's note on PC issues: As reported this calendar week, Batman: Arkham Knight has showed severe performance issues on PC which prompted WB Games to halt sales of the game until the widespread technical bug are addressed. We've looked deep into the matter and have compiled a ton of testing in this performance review which should requite a hint of what to wait today (Fraps testing) and when the game is fixed (built-in benchmark). For those of y'all interested about gameplay (the game itself is solid), bank check out this review.

Testing Methodology

Arkham Origins had a benchmark style, but information technology was so crude we preferred to criterion using Fraps. Arkham Knight's born benchmark seemed to piece of work well plenty that nosotros initially opted to use it, making it easier for y'all to compare results. As you'll see however, we wound up including Fraps testing as well for a more complete wait at the game's performance on today's hardware.

Benchmarking was conducted at 1080p, 1440p and 2160p (4K) resolutions using the highest quality settings bachelor to us. Enhanced pelting and enhanced low-cal shafts were enabled, while we didn't test with interactive paper debris and interactive fume/fog every bit they cannot be used with AMD graphics cards.

The game is locked at 30fps unless you modify a configuration file, which is among the acme complaints by those playing on PC, signaling the issues that were to come.

Examination Organization Specs

  • Intel Core i7-5960X (3.00GHz)
  • x4 4GB Kingston Predator DDR4-2400 (CAS 12-xiii-13-24)
  • Asrock X99 Extreme6 (Intel X99)
  • Silverstone Strider Serial (700w)
  • Crucial MX200 1TB (SATA 6Gb/s)
  • HIS Radeon R9 390X (8192MB
  • HIS Radeon R9 390 (8192MB)
  • HIS Radeon R9 380 (4096MB)
  • Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X (2048MB)
  • Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 (4096MB)
  • Gigabyte Radeon R9 285 (2048MB)
  • Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X (3072MB)
  • HIS Radeon R9 270X (2048MB)
  • HIS Radeon Hd 7970 GHz (3072MB)
  • HIS Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB)
  • HIS Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB)
  • HIS Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB)
  • Gainward GeForce GTX 980 Ti (6144MB)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 (4096MB)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 (3584+512MB)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 (2048MB)
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan (6144MB)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti (3072MB)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 (3072MB)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 (2048MB)
  • Palit GeForce GTX 760 (2048MB)
  • Gainward GeForce GTX 680 (2048MB)
  • Gainward GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2048MB)
  • Microsoft Windows eight.1 Pro 64-bit
  • Nvidia GeForce 353.30 WHQL
  • AMD Catalyst 15.six Beta