Middle-Earth Shadow of War: Performance Analysis

[W1zzard]

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is one of the most anticipated titles this season, also due to some pre-launch attention because of the inclusion of loot boxes. We are more interested in the technical aspects of the game and tested it on 15 recent graphics cards with and without the optionally available Ultra HD texture pack.

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[eddman]

Would you kindly publish system RAM usage numbers in your game reviews? It's a very useful information, specially for those who do not have 16 GB or 12 GB of RAM.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Well the previous game was also know for eating up all VRAM it sees... really strange, the other was COD, also do difference performance wise.

I miss game specific CPU tests...

And... most importantly... how's the game? Is it fun?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Would you kindly publish system RAM usage numbers in your game reviews? It's a very useful information, specially for those who do not have 16 GB or 12 GB of RAM.

Waste of time. everyones system is configured differently and the end result wont be 100% accurate due to this.

For instance... you may have only 8GBs of ram but you might run system with not much installed. Thus you have a lot of system ram to run stuff. Minimum system requirements states 8GB, so you'll be fine.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

nice game I will give this a try...I'll add it on my list of "To play games"

 

[Manu_PT]

When in 2017 no single GPUs available to play 4k maxed out at locked 60fps. FeelsBadMan. Worst era ever for hardware 200€ for ram, 900€ for a barely 4k gpu, 300€ for a 4,5ghz quad core. 100€ for ridiculous 240gb ssd. Meh.

 

[bug]

nice game I will give this a try...I'll add it on my list of "To play games"

You might want to check out what Arstechnica (and others) have to say about the inclusion of loot boxes in this title. Basically, you'll need to fork out extra cash to see 100% of the game. I'd vote with my wallet and skip this title instead, lest loot boxes become a trend.

When in 2017 no single GPUs available to play 4k maxed out at locked 60fps. FeelsBadMan. Worst era ever for hardware

It's not a bad time for hardware, it's just that 4k is ahead of time for gaming. It was made for movies (where even an IGP is more than enough these days), but real-time 3D 4k is a whole different beast.

 

[W1zzard]

the previous game was also know for eating up all VRAM it sees... really strange, the other was COD

Exactly, I thought about COD, too. Will be interesting to see if COD WWII will be like that, too.

how's the game? Is it fun?

Yup, I'm definitely having fun.

loot boxes

I don't care about those and won't ever pay for them. Still, the game seems plenty of fun.

 

[eddman]

Waste of time. everyones system is configured differently and the end result wont be 100% accurate due to this.

For instance... you may have only 8GBs of ram but you might run system with not much installed. Thus you have a lot of system ram to run stuff. Minimum system requirements states 8GB, so you'll be fine.

You do know that performance reviewers close every background task that they can, right? I think they even test on clean installs if they can (which is the proper way anyway).

Just because they say 8 GB for minimum, doesn't mean it would run fine. There are games like deus ex: MD where RAM usage constantly goes up as you play and before an hour, it shoots past 8 GB and causes a lot of stutters.

It doesn't have to be 100% accurate. A ballpark max number with background tasks closed would do.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I don't care about those and won't ever pay for them. Still, the game seems plenty of fun.

Game might be fun but its still dishonest. You pay $50-70... the price of a FULL GAME only to find that a good part of it is locked behind a paywall. Greed, Is what this is... Hopefully by the time this game goes on a steam sale Monolith Productions would of seen the errors of their ways and opened up the entire game for the price for the full game. Not hating on DLC -- Its fine to keep some things behind a paywall, but not like this.

 

[TheOne]

Was just reading an article on PCGamer about the loot boxes, according to the article WB claims you don't need to use the loot boxes to enjoy the full game.

Here’s how the two currencies work according to WB.

“Gold is awarded in small amounts at specific milestones and for participating in community challenges. It can also be purchased through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store and by adding funds to your Steam Wallet using real money. Everything a player can buy with Gold can also be earned in the game over time for free, but Gold gives players the option to acquire these items immediately. No Gold purchases are necessary to enjoy the complete game experience. The main story campaign and progression have been balanced and tuned based on the player being offline.”

“Mirian is a form of in-game currency that players earn by playing the game. Along with Gold, Mirian can be used to purchase Loot Chests and War Chests from the Market. Mirian can be acquired by defeating Treasure Orcs, destroying Gear for Mirian, destroying Orc Followers for Gear (which can be destroyed for Mirian), and finding Mirian stashes throughout the game.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/how-the-loot-boxes-work-in-middle-earth-shadow-of-war/

 

[B-Real]

It is nice to see the Vega56 outperform the 1070 by 10-15% (and the same applies to Vega64 and 1080) in an NV title.

 

[Devils41]

Was just reading an article on PCGamer about the loot boxes, according to the article WB claims you don't need to use the loot boxes to enjoy the full game.



http://www.pcgamer.com/how-the-loot-boxes-work-in-middle-earth-shadow-of-war/

If its just purely cosmetic "loot" then I have no issues with paid boxes. If it doesn't take away from the story and if I choose to bypass those extras, I don't loose out on the overall experience. It's when it ends up taking away from the experience on a game you already paid $60 for that I see a fundamental issue with. In my opinion, if you want to hide the experience behind a paywall or grind then make it a free to play game or at least offset the cost down to a more entry level price. If I'm paying full price for a (AAA developed) game I expect a full gaming experience.

 

[dirtyferret]

I'm sure it's been asked before but seeing CPU tests would be cool.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Game might be fun but its still dishonest. You pay $50-70... the price of a FULL GAME only to find that a good part of it is locked behind a paywall. Greed, Is what this is... Hopefully by the time this game goes on a steam sale Monolith Productions would of seen the errors of their ways and opened up the entire game for the price for the full game. Not hating on DLC -- Its fine to keep some things behind a paywall, but not like this.

The loot boxes are the least of the problems. The fact Publisher / Game Dev are profiting off a DLC thats uses a dead employee as an add on character where it was hyped up to raise money for charity ie said devs family. Only to find out its limited to a set % and only applies to certain regions. IE they literally decided to profit of a dead man. Kinda rubs me the wrong way. https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/7/16266046/shadow-of-war-dlc-forgey-where-is-the-money-going

I will wait till its a $10 offering on sale. Got the first one for $5 on a sale.

 

[VSG]

The loot boxes are the least of the problems. The fact Publisher / Game Dev are profiting off a DLC thats uses a dead employee as an add on character where it was hyped up to raise money for charity ie said devs family. Only to find out its limited to a set % and only applies to certain regions. IE they literally decided to profit of a dead man. Kinda rubs me the wrong way. https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/7/16266046/shadow-of-war-dlc-forgey-where-is-the-money-going

I will wait till its a $10 offering on sale. Got the first one for $5 on a sale.

That DLC is now, and retroactively, free: https://community.wbgames.com/t5/Of...rc-Slayer-DLC-Upate/m-p/1674265/thread-id/663

 

[Th3pwn3r]

Exactly, I thought about COD, too. Will be interesting to see if COD WWII will be like that, too.


Yup, I'm definitely having fun.


I don't care about those and won't ever pay for them. Still, the game seems plenty of fun.

I'm about three hours in and it sure is fun. Got it for free with my 1080ti but played it on my GFs computer that has a 1080 in it, it ran very well in 4K, maybe I don't know any better haha.

Game might be fun but its still dishonest. You pay $50-70... the price of a FULL GAME only to find that a good part of it is locked behind a paywall. Greed, Is what this is... Hopefully by the time this game goes on a steam sale Monolith Productions would of seen the errors of their ways and opened up the entire game for the price for the full game. Not hating on DLC -- Its fine to keep some things behind a paywall, but not like this.

They probably already made a fortune on the game and from what I can already guess is you more than get your money's worth. They definitely put a lot into this game and it seems like you can play it a loong time so the value is there .

The loot boxes are the least of the problems. The fact Publisher / Game Dev are profiting off a DLC thats uses a dead employee as an add on character where it was hyped up to raise money for charity ie said devs family. Only to find out its limited to a set % and only applies to certain regions. IE they literally decided to profit of a dead man. Kinda rubs me the wrong way. https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/7/16266046/shadow-of-war-dlc-forgey-where-is-the-money-going

I will wait till its a $10 offering on sale. Got the first one for $5 on a sale.

They aren't donating the funds to the family? If they are I'm fine with it. And the waiting game is silly to me in a way, if you have things to keep you occupied without this game it's all good to wait. If you really want to play the game then don't be cheap , buy it. I saw this during E3 and was blown away. The game is awesome and even my gf enjoyed watching me play, the game looks amazing. The review says the graphics are good which is a huge understatement .

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

That DLC is now, and retroactively, free: https://community.wbgames.com/t5/Of...rc-Slayer-DLC-Upate/m-p/1674265/thread-id/663

Glad to see they reversed their decision but too little to late. Rubbed me the wrong way something of that nature never should have happened in the first place.

I'm about three hours in and it sure is fun. Got it for free with my 1080ti but played it on my GFs computer that has a 1080 in it, it ran very well in 4K, maybe I don't know any better haha.


They probably already made a fortune on the game and from what I can already guess is you more than get your money's worth. They definitely put a lot into this game and it seems like you can play it a loong time so the value is there .


They aren't donating the funds to the family? If they are I'm fine with it. And the waiting game is silly to me in a way, if you have things to keep you occupied without this game it's all good to wait. If you really want to play the game then don't be cheap , buy it. I saw this during E3 and was blown away. The game is awesome and even my gf enjoyed watching me play, the game looks amazing. The review says the graphics are good which is a huge understatement .

As much as i rag on Developers for fucking things up 9/10 The mistakes happen due to publisher pressure. In this case WB were dick heads I have many friends that work in or used to work in the industry. The hours they work are ridiculous. Nearly mandatory overtime via "Crunch Time" while not as bad as it was 10+ years ago its still an industry wide problem when your expected to work 80 hours + a week with no down time to rush a broken product out the door. In some cases that Crunch Time can last months. EA was sued over it years ago because they took it so far as to be absurd. So with that said considering how far some devs need to bend to make a publisher happy = I am not impressed. They made a great game. Publisher basically had a PR nightmare because they wanted to be money grubbing assholes after a developer for the game died. Ie only $3.50 out of $5.0 from only 44 states was going to be given to the family. The other 6 states and the rest of the world at large they got to take those profits and run (originally) as VSG posted they seem to have reversed that. Still the fact they thought that was a good idea was horse shit. Basically they used Charity as a way to sell DLC got called out on it and had to reverse course. If they just hand't been dicks i would have probably bought it. But yeah that left me a bit salty.

 

[rtwjunkie]

That DLC is now, and retroactively, free: https://community.wbgames.com/t5/Of...rc-Slayer-DLC-Upate/m-p/1674265/thread-id/663

They only did it because of public outcry: public face-saving, which they wouldn't have had to worry about if they had done the right thing for the family in the first place.

 

[Pjokerxp_]

i feel graphics is lame. the old shadow of mordor is way way better looking .

 

[bug]

I don't care about those and won't ever pay for them. Still, the game seems plenty of fun.

That goes without saying, but in this case content is actually gated behind loot boxes. According to Ars:

Multiple pre-release reviews of the game have confirmed that its "100 percent" completion state is locked behind an end-game mode called Shadow Wars, which hinges largely on players' ability to recruit "more powerful" allies in the game. To do this, players must use the game's loot-box recruitment system, and reviews indicate that this is tied to a random number generator. Your probability of unlocking a worthy ally, therefore, goes up as you open more loot boxes. Doing so by simply using in-game credits takes a lot longer than opening up your wallet.

 

[Bytales]

I know from reliable Sources that the fact that the games makes you think you Need so much VRAM, when in fact it does very well, even on lower VRAM Cards, is an "optimization" made by NVIDIA just so that their 11GB 1080ti looks better, when you get to see the game uses 9 GB of VRAM, more than the 8 GB competition.
In actuality, the game does very well on 8GB, and even on 4GB, even if it tries to load as many textures as possible.

Nvidia actually tried to make the game stutter if less VRAM is available than what the game might pull in total in VRAM, so that it may Claim that their 1080Ti is the best Card for the Job, when one wishes to Play using ULTRA Textures. That is why their are offering the game with the purschade of a 1080Ti. However, they didnt manage that due to the way the engine was build, and actually doing it would have required an extensive rewrite of the game engine, which in the end, didnt happen.

This is how NVIDIA "works with Producers" to "optimize" the game for their Cards. Welcome to "the way ist meant to be played" !
Ist the same way, new Drivers nerf the Performance of old Card, when actually the old Cards would havee suffice for that much longer, only so that you may buy their newer Cards.
Hell, if i were NVIDIA, i would have done the same Thing to increase salles. Consumers be damned, ist all about the Money, the Investors Need to be pleased, cause they payed for it, the actual People who use the Cards, are just dumb shit, overpaying for stuff that otta be seld for at most half as much.

 

[bug]

I know from reliable Sources that the fact that the games makes you think you Need so much VRAM, when in fact it does very well, even on lower VRAM Cards, is an "optimization" made by NVIDIA just so that their 11GB 1080ti looks better, when you get to see the game uses 9 GB of VRAM, more than the 8 GB competition.
In actuality, the game does very well on 8GB, and even on 4GB, even if it tries to load as many textures as possible.

Nvidia actually tried to make the game stutter if less VRAM is available than what the game might pull in total in VRAM, so that it may Claim that their 1080Ti is the best Card for the Job, when one wishes to Play using ULTRA Textures. That is why their are offering the game with the purschade of a 1080Ti. However, they didnt manage that due to the way the engine was build, and actually doing it would have required an extensive rewrite of the game engine, which in the end, didnt happen.

This is how NVIDIA "works with Producers" to "optimize" the game for their Cards. Welcome to "the way ist meant to be played" !
Ist the same way, new Drivers nerf the Performance of old Card, when actually the old Cards would havee suffice for that much longer, only so that you may buy their newer Cards.
Hell, if i were NVIDIA, i would have done the same Thing to increase salles. Consumers be damned, ist all about the Money, the Investors Need to be pleased, cause they payed for it, the actual People who use the Cards, are just dumb shit, overpaying for stuff that otta be seld for at most half as much.

Right. To push the GTX1080Ti they said "let's cripple performance for every other card we sell".
Do you people ever think before you post?

 

[Parn]

Too bad that 1060 (roughly what a 980 can do) can't even break the 60fps barrier on FHD + High. Guess I have to stick to my 1080 box when playing this game.

 

[bug]

Too bad that 1060 (roughly what a 980 can do) can't even break the 60fps barrier on FHD + High. Guess I have to stick to my 1080 box when playing this game.

Depending on how fast paced this title is, you may not need to break 60fps. Remember, Nvidia has AdaptiveSync