Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Performance Benchmark

[Sithaer]

Some people disagree. Some people, myself included, do not see that as acceptable.


Wait, what? I look at the following and see a clear pattern..

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Performance Benchmark Review - 30+ GPUs Tested

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features stunning visuals that recreate the movie franchise's unique universe. There's also support for AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation and NVIDIA DLSS. In our performance review, we're taking a closer look at image quality, VRAM usage, and performance on a wide selection...

www.techpowerup.com

Given your conclusion, while the game doesn't critically "require" more than 8GB to function, it does use more when available and seems to use such to buffer assets in VRAM for upcoming use, which is an excellent optimization given that buffering GFX data in VRAM is much more efficient as opposed to buffering in system RAM. This is the whole point of having large VRAM cache.

To me, this represents the point where the limits of 8GB have been exceeded. And while it's not the first gaming example to exceed that limit, it is a clear one.

Well the game still loads the same resolution textures on 8 and 16 GB cards and the pop in happens the most once you get to fly around and it happens regardless of the Vram 'engine/draw distance limit I guess?'.
During normal gameplay 'which is majority of the game' you would be hard pressed to notice any difference and the actual performance is the same including 1% lows so yeh to me thats an insignificant difference.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well the game still loads the same resolution textures on 8 and 16 GB cards and the pop in happens the most once you get to fly around and it happens regardless of the Vram 'engine/draw distance limit I guess?'.
During normal gameplay 'which is majority of the game' you would be hard pressed to notice any difference and the actual performance is the same including 1% lows so yeh to me thats an insignificant difference.

Please understand, I'm not saying you're wrong or that a good experience can't be had with 8GB cards, I'm just saying that this is an example of a game engine that will use extra VRAM should you have it and seemingly to good effect.

 

[Sithaer]

Please understand, I'm not saying you're wrong or that a good experience can't be had with 8GB cards, I'm just saying that this is an example of a game engine that will use extra VRAM should you have it and seemingly to good effect.

I get that and I agree but thats also not a new thing, some games did the same before where it would fill the Vram if it could but it was still running fine on lower Vram cards as long as it had the raw power for it.
Not sure but from what I remember some of the CoD games did that tho I only played the singlepayer part and at the time I had a 4GB 'RX 570' card and it was fine at 1080p but the game could allocate 10+ easily if it had the option for it.
Personally I don't mind this, if an engine can use/allocate as much as Vram possible but also work well on lower end cards with less Vram especially when its displaying the same quality. 'unlike some engines/games that simply dies out on you if it can't have a certain ammount of Vram..'

 

[mxthunder]

Damn. Want to try this out on my 65" 4k OLED but afraid my 4090 wont cut it!
I also would love to see the 3080Ti in TPU testing, but understand why it isnt. Almost same perf as 3090.

 

[W1zzard]

I also would love to see the 3080Ti in TPU testing, but understand why it isnt

Interesting that there's suddenly so much interest in the 3080 ti .. I can sure add it np, I just felt I could save 20-30 minutes of my life by not testing it, because it's basically 3090 perf

 

[lexluthermiester]

I can sure add it np, I just felt I could save 20-30 minutes of my life by not testing it

It's not worth your time, because...

it's basically 3090 perf

...you said it.

 

[Heiro78]

This is incredibly strange and not related to the game but instead the image quality comparison page. My computer, and what I suspect is my 4090, make a sound as though a physical piece is scanning back and forth on a record player when I move my mouse on any image slider. When I more the cursor from left to right the sound is immediate. Almost as though it's working to better render the image? I don't know how to explain this. My tower is about 8 feet away from me yet I could hear it. When I open the side and try to listen for it, I can only guess it's the 4090. I don't believe this is coil whine since it immediately stops the moment my mouse is still and starts back up when the mouse moves.

I've now tried to listen specifically for it and it does happen while I'm even still as I write this message but it's very inconsistent and intermittent. I did just recently install a third M.2 SSD with a heatsink on it and another on the 2nd M.2. The first is behind the video card. I bring this up since I haven't noticed it before

Anyone have any idea about this?

Edit: It's not just with the image comparison. It seems to be whenever an animation on screen is occurring. Even simply having my mouse cursor change from an arrow pointer icon to hand pointer icon when going over links cause the sound. It's inaudible when sound is playing or my headphones are on. Maybe it's been happening for a long time and I'm only noticing now when it's incredibly quiet this late at night.

Edit 2: I can't seem to record the sound. I only really have my phone as a mic and it's not picking up the sound even with the case open and my phone not in the direct line of the air from the fans.

 

[W1zzard]

make a sound as though a physical piece is scanning back and forth

very interesting .. can you try to identify if it's noise from the fans ramping up and down (stop them with your fingers to verify), or if it's more of a chirping (aka coil noise)? Also, which browser? Do you see CPU/GPU usage shoot up in Task Manager when interacting with the comparison sliders?

 

[Heiro78]

very interesting .. can you try to identify if it's noise from the fans ramping up and down (stop them with your fingers to verify), or if it's more of a chirping (aka coil noise)? Also, which browser? Do you see CPU/GPU usage shoot up in Task Manager when interacting with the comparison sliders?

Firefox. It's barely audible when on the image comparison slider, but when I use the maximize feature. It's easily audible. I tried Edge, and surprisingly it's quieter at maximized. And not audible unless I'm super close with the case open and trying really hard. So I then decided to download chrome. It's very similar if no identical to Edge. Then I downloaded Opera. It's very similar if not the same as Firefox.

I believe the sound is independent of the fans. I stopped everything so GPU usage could go as low as possible and the fans aren't spinning. I still held them with my hand just to make sure. GPU usage in task manager is at 0-1%. When I begin using the slider it goes to 3% and when I go rapidly on the slider it can reach 4%. Similar deal with CPU usage in task manager. Idling at 3-4% usage then ramps to 6-7% when using the slider, up to 8% when using it rapidly.

I'm only saying it's the 4090 since the noise seems to be coming from there and it's what I figure is the only moving components/ it's related to a visual on screen. I unplugged some SSD heatsinks that have fans since that's the newest addition. I did also get a new kit of RAM. But I can't imagine it's something to do with that.

The sound has now stopped when the icon changes. I restarted the PC in the last couple days. But it's still audible from the 8 feet away I sit from it.

I'm not so worried about it anymore since got a little better after a restart. Though I've now noticed it when going over video thumbnails on youtube and the image changes from the static thumbnail to the gif. A rather strange thing here

 

[AusWolf]

A weird question:

• I've seen Youtube videos with the game tested on a 1050 Ti (I searched for it because I have one in my HTPC). It runs quite badly, but it runs.
• It's mentioned here, that the game uses Ray Tracing, even on low graphics.

So, if the game uses RT, then how does it run on a 1050 Ti? Does it disable RT effects on older cards that don't support it? Or is there some kind of weird software magic going on, like on the GTX 16-series?

 

[theouto]

A weird question:

• I've seen Youtube videos with the game tested on a 1050 Ti (I searched for it because I have one in my HTPC). It runs quite badly, but it runs.
• It's mentioned here, that the game uses Ray Tracing, even on low graphics.

So, if the game uses RT, then how does it run on a 1050 Ti? Does it disable RT effects on older cards that don't support it? Or is there some kind of weird software magic going on, like on the GTX 16-series?

I recall the DF video mentioning that the game uses a fallback software method for RT when the gpu does not support hardware raytracing.

 

[AusWolf]

I recall the DF video mentioning that the game uses a fallback software method for RT when the gpu does not support hardware raytracing.

It must be some pretty effective fallback software method if a 1050 Ti can do 30 FPS at 1080p with FSR.

 

[kev2k83]

It's sw quality rt hw accelerated if available.

Hw rt is the same quality where generally it pushes higher quality

I have my doubts how much gi is actually rt tbh.

Ok just read the interview and it seems like like SW lumen but incredibly selective.

Id be intrigued to know what the fallbacks of this method is outside of accuracy, quality and not being able to reflect anything off screen using RT such as glass etc.

Must be miles behind what is implemented in aw 2, cyberpunk or maybe even metro exodus.

Maybe not aw2 ignore that which for some reason uses SW RTgi over HW which is bonkers.

 

[kev2k83]

Infact reading it again there's allot of sw tricks here with limited scalability above the target platform.

Gotta wonder what the point is getting a new graphics card if everything outside of Nvidia titles is gonna be full of hybrid and selective tricks.

With little scalability.

 

[AusWolf]

Infact reading it again there's allot of sw tricks here with limited scalability above the target platform.

Gotta wonder what the point is getting a new graphics card if everything outside of Nvidia titles is gonna be full of hybrid and selective tricks.

With little scalability.

Probably. RT might be "the future", but traditional rasterization isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[kev2k83]

Probably. RT might be "the future", but traditional rasterization isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Aye,

We'll I'm holding off till the 5k come out.

I think with the majority of titles using SW tricks targeting consoles it should be good for quite a few years yet.

 

[mxthunder]

Finally pulled the trigger on this game last night when my son pointed out the 20% off promo code on the ubi store.
Runs good on my 4080 main system (got 99fps average in the benchmark, maxed settings @ 1440p), however having issues getting it to launch on my 4090 equipped bedroom PC. was really looking forward to seeing it on my 4k OLED.
The thing just instantly CTD. Event viewer shows 2 errors per crash - 1 is eventID 1000 the other is eventID 1005. It just references afop.exe
Tried reinstalling, verifying local files, installing to different SSD, running as admin, adding the -dx12 argument, etc.
Getting nowhere with it, not sure if i should try ubi support or just request a refund. super frustrating.

 

[kapone32]

Damn. Want to try this out on my 65" 4k OLED but afraid my 4090 wont cut it!
I also would love to see the 3080Ti in TPU testing, but understand why it isnt. Almost same perf as 3090.

I get about 80 FPS at 4K using my 7900XT. Yep I did add the launcher to Avatar to my Steam account. Why have Ubisoft open if you don't need it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Finally pulled the trigger on this game last night when my son pointed out the 20% off promo code on the ubi store.
Runs good on my 4080 main system (got 99fps average in the benchmark, maxed settings @ 1440p), however having issues getting it to launch on my 4090 equipped bedroom PC. was really looking forward to seeing it on my 4k OLED.
The thing just instantly CTD. Event viewer shows 2 errors per crash - 1 is eventID 1000 the other is eventID 1005. It just references afop.exe
Tried reinstalling, verifying local files, installing to different SSD, running as admin, adding the -dx12 argument, etc.
Getting nowhere with it, not sure if i should try ubi support or just request a refund. super frustrating.

Just sit on it for a few months while they work out the bugs.

This is why I generally wait a year after games come out until I buy...

 

[mxthunder]

Found my issue. For some reason - I had AVX disabled in my bios on bedroom PC. probably when I was trying to tune in my OC and troubleshooting a ratio offset weirdness issue. Re enabled and the game ran just fine.
Traced down via 0xc000001d and google - another user had issue with this check code with starfield and someone had posted about avx.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Found my issue. For some reason - I had AVX disabled in my bios on bedroom PC. probably when I was trying to tune in my OC and troubleshooting a ratio offset weirdness issue. Re enabled and the game ran just fine.
Traced down via 0xc000001d and google - another user had issue with this check code with starfield and someone had posted about avx.

Sweet! Glad you got it sorted out!

 

[AusWolf]

Found my issue. For some reason - I had AVX disabled in my bios on bedroom PC. probably when I was trying to tune in my OC and troubleshooting a ratio offset weirdness issue. Re enabled and the game ran just fine.
Traced down via 0xc000001d and google - another user had issue with this check code with starfield and someone had posted about avx.

When did games start to use AVX? Did I miss something?

I'm glad you sorted it out, anyway.

 

[lexluthermiester]

When did games start to use AVX? Did I miss something?

A lot of them do.

 

[Macro Device]

When did games start to use AVX? Did I miss something?

You missed at least five years.