The First Descendant Performance Benchmark

[W1zzard]

The First Descendant is a first-person looter-shooter with support for up to four players working together cooperatively. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the graphics look great, but hardware requirements are definitely not on the light side. In our performance review, we're taking a closer look at image quality, VRAM usage, and performance on a wide selection of modern graphics cards.

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[oxrufiioxo]

Liking this more than I thought I would and even though the micro transactions are ridiculous you can more than enjoy the game without them.

Gameplay is solid if unspectacular gives me a lot of Anthem vibes with just a lot more to do. I do like the seamless matchmaking though for missions etc.

 

[Onasi]

Making a F2P MT driven MP focused game a graphical showcase with high system requirements is… well, it sure is a move on Nexons part. Warframe is popular because it essentially can run on a toaster. Even has an iOS version. Kneecapping your potential player base right out the gate doesn’t seem like a smart move, but what do I know.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Making a F2P MT driven MP focused game a graphical showcase with high system requirements is… well, it sure is a move on Nexons part. Warframe is popular because it essentially can run on a toaster. Even has an iOS version. Kneecapping your potential player base right out the gate doesn’t seem like a smart move, but what do I know.

I think if you turned everything to low you'd be able to play on just about anything this isn't any more demanding than Fortnight or Destiny.

The only real barrier is a DX12 gpu but anything from the last half decade should be fine.

 

[Veseleil]

Another UE5 stutterfest, first person shooter at <60FPS, mandatory kernel level anti-cheat for a PvE game... Good job Nexon!

 

[Onasi]

@oxrufiioxo
Probably, but then you kinda run into the issue of it looking like shit. That’s the problem with cutting edge pseudo-photorealistic graphics - they scale poorly in terms of looks. That, and age faster than a milk carton left in the sun. There is a good reason why games trying to attract large audiences go for a stylized look of some sort.

first person shooter

Third person, actually. There are some… nice looking, shall we say, lady characters and Nexon, at least in this regard, isn’t dumb enough to lock the camera to FP. Hey, it’s a selling point for some.

 

[Veseleil]

Third person, actually. There are some… nice looking, shall we say, lady characters and Nexon is, at least in this regard, isn’t dumb enough to lock the camera to FP. Hey, it’s a selling point for some.

Yeah, my bad. Nice looking streamer material indeed.

 

[Onasi]

@Veseleil
I have to give props to W1zz in this regard for being a giga-chad and playing a cool viking looking fella in power armor, if what we see in screenshots is his main. A patricians choice.

 

[bug]

Looking at that second IQ comparison, you can easily shoot at a potential enemy sitting in front of a window of that house, on low settings. On max settings, they'd be getting cover from all that vegetation.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Another UE5 stutterfest, first person shooter at <60FPS, mandatory kernel level anti-cheat for a PvE game... Good job Nexon!

It's been really smooth for me actually running around 100FPS pretty consistently at 1440p UW.

I guess my system isn't the normal one most people will be gaming on though so maybe that does not count still for a UE game this one is pretty consistent much more so than fortnight dx12.

 

[R0H1T]

Looking at that second IQ comparison, you can easily shoot at a potential enemy sitting in front of a window of that house, on low settings.

That's a good thing right

 

[Sithaer]

It's been really smooth for me actually running around 100FPS pretty consistently at 1440p UW.

I guess my system isn't the normal one most people will be gaming on though so maybe that does not count still for a UE game this one is pretty consistent much more so than fortnight dx12.

Also not much if any issue on my end with ~High settings and DLSS Quality.
I've played in every single beta and the game went through a lot of improvements so I'm glad that hey did not rush it out.
Like the first versions did not even have a working settings menu and only had preset options.

Its a pretty cool game imo tho I might be biased since Looter Shooter genre is one of my fav type of games. 'love it since Borderlands 1'
Not sure how long I will play it since I'm not a big fan of playing with random ppl anymore so eh will see how long I can manage on my own. 'I will probably get to the current end game content and check how that works and then I will decide'

 

[KLMR]

Wasn't this a bioware game? After three screenshots and the brief description I thought...

 

[bug]

That's a good thing right

Depends on which side you're on, but yes.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Wasn't this a bioware game? After three screenshots and the brief description I thought...

This game thankfully has a lot more to do and better systems.... The gameplay in Anthem was fine and the visuals for the time were impressive but making it a live service game killed it.

Really the only downside of this game is Nexon and all their data collecting BS and the store but the store can be avoided, Nexon not so much.

Its a pretty cool game imo tho I might be biased since Looter Shooter genre is one of my fav type of games. 'love it since Borderlands 1'
Not sure how long I will play it since I'm not a big fan of playing with random ppl anymore so eh will see how long I can manage on my own. 'I will probably get to the current end game content and check how that works and then I will decide'

Randoms in this game have been fine so far but I do have a core group of friends I play with so getting a 3-4 player squad going isn't a problem most the time. A group of friends always makes games like these a lot more enjoyable it's honestly the whole reason I gave it a go....

 

[Sithaer]

Randoms in this game have been fine so far but I do have a core group of friends I play with so getting a 3-4 player squad going isn't a problem most the time. A group of friends always makes games like these a lot more enjoyable it's honestly the whole reason I gave it a go....

Randoms are usually fine in the earlier stages of such games but later on when things get more difficult/actually have to use your brain and do raid mechanics/communicate its when things start to fall apart with randoms or at least thats my experience with MMOs and such. 'honestly the main reason I've played another Nexon game called Vindictus for 7+ years is cause I've had a competent and solid guild that could clear any content on a daily basis which also allowed me to almost completely ignore the micro transaction part and only spend on cosmetics'

Nowadays eh not so much, don't have a single friend left who plays such games and I can't be arsed to find a new group so I just play at my own pace or quit the game if it becomes too annoying with randoms.

 

[Chrispy_]

Diablo with guns in 3D is sort of what Hellgate: London was supposed to be.

Sadly, that flopped because it was rushed to release as an incomplete mess with server issues, but the premise was solid.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Diablo with guns in 3D is sort of what Hellgate: London was supposed to be.

Sadly, that flopped because it was rushed to release as an incomplete mess with server issues, but the premise was solid.

Although even at release that game looked like crap visually..... Weren't some of the Devs from Blizzard North or am I confusing it with a different game.... Man can't believe 2007 was 17 years ago feeling old lol.

 

[gaav]

I think this needs investigation as RR (ray reconstruction) is reducing performance by 23% ? It should have 5-10% uplift not, a regression. So i think the RT charts should be removed or changed to include only RT ultra perf w/o RR pending new drivers.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I think this needs investigation as RR (ray reconstruction) is reducing performance by 23% ? It should have 5-10% uplift not, a regression. So i think the RT charts should be removed or changed to include only RT ultra perf w/o RR pending new drivers.

It's likely becuase there is no path tracing. RR only increases perfomance when multiple denoisers are used and given how negligible the RT is in this game it probably cost more than it worth.

This is why nvidia limited it to only be used with Path tracing at first.

A 20%+ hit seems a bit high though.

 

[Makaveli]

I just downloaded this now going to check performance shortly. Thanks for the review!

Another UE5 stutterfest, first person shooter at <60FPS, mandatory kernel level anti-cheat for a PvE game... Good job Nexon!

It seems al the UE5 title are 60 fps experience unless you enable upscaling...

 

[Chrispy_]

I think this needs investigation as RR (ray reconstruction) is reducing performance by 23% ? It should have 5-10% uplift not, a regression. So i think the RT charts should be removed or changed to include only RT ultra perf w/o RR pending new drivers.

My experience with RR is that it's sometimes faster, sometimes slower even when path-tracing.

Nvidia like to tout it as a benefit, but it's really just a trade-off. What you gain in denoising and reflection clarity is lost in temporal accuracy - RR is sometimes more expensive and suffers from worse graphical artifacts (typically delayed, blurry reflections of anything in the scene that isn't absolutely static).

If you're expecting a 5-10% uplift that's because you believed Nvidia's marketing in their ideal, cherry-picked scenario. You're not to blame, but repeated hefty doses of real-world results not matching the manufacturer's claims will eventually breed the healthy cynicism that some of us here have for marketing-provided numbers

 

[gaav]

If you're expecting a 5-10% uplift that's because you believed Nvidia's marketing in their ideal, cherry-picked scenario.

I have 6800 xt and 7800 xt just wanted point this out as it seemed strange to me. This regression is too large for the benefits. Also i'm now not sure that the graphs show RT+RR. But on the graphic image comparison 4090 rt ultra (no-RR) is in 70s and 80s and in the chart we see 63fps.

 

[Makaveli]

That first shader compile on launch is a long one. I capture this on my second boot up of the game so it was much quicker. I wanted to do a longer capture but I got a network drop from the server lol. This is with RT off. Want to do another with RT on if the server allows it.

 

[Gucky]

A CPU test would be better. There are many reports on Steam (mine included), where the CPU is constantly at 100% load.
I have a 5800X3D and sometimes it is at 100% load and below 60FPS.