Denuvo Performance Cost & FPS Loss Tested

[moproblems99]

Seems to be some confusion amongst the 3 of you, for some reason they want to give a link, and not just write down a few names for you here.

So to be clear, I think Wiz is saying, share a few names here, but not a link.

I wasn't asking for links to the games. I was asking for links to his assertions that games have been deployed with DRM that destroys performance. I don't need to pirate. I can afford to buy the things I want and support the work that others do. I understand not that everyone has the means to buy what they want and things are not ever black and white. However, supporting piracy because big, bad, corporations produced them is bull crap.

Also, I wouldn't be disrespectful to the CEO of our website here if it were me, that's just my two cents.

Also, the quote about hand holding had a /s after it. As that is the only answer you ever get when asking some to follow up.

I'm all for a civil discussion of piracy anyways but my mods tell me that just attracts tons of drama (and they're right )

There could be a discussion about the sky being blue that will turn dramatic. Hell, people still argue about the world being flat...

 

[Space Lynx]

Welp I got bored of this topic fast, time to unwatch, later folks

 

[ViperXTR]

would like to see actual old processors results, the difference in architecture and the instructions sets denuvo used may come into play, i remember back then when monster hunter world pre patch, wouldn't even boot up on older cpus that lacks certain capabilities that denuvo requires (FMA3).

I haven't tested this on my old 3770K 4.2Ghz but i think there might be a noticeable difference, in numbers at least, i only play at locked 60FPS anyway

 

[lexluthermiester]

There could be a discussion about the sky being blue that will turn dramatic. Hell, people still argue about the world being flat...

That's actually a really good point.

However, supporting piracy because big, bad, corporations produced them is bull crap.

This is not something I would ever promote, would like to make that clear.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

And I agree with the mods on that. However, you're the owner and you've made the request.

There have been many games over the past few years but the most recent ones that I have are Wolfenstein 2, Wolfenstein The Old Blood, FarCry 5 and a few others. These are all in my Steam library, but I run the "patched" versions to remove the annoyances of the DRM involved. I personally have experienced a level of performance difference between the original and "patched" versions, though it is not dramatic. The only game which had a noticeable improvement when using the "patched" version was not what one would consider a AAA title. The "patched" version fixed a few minor issues the devs didn't bother with, which makes that version favorable and preferred.

The only service I use that has DRM is Steam, so I can only talk about those experiences. However, there are sites which provide "patched" versions of game EXE's without including the whole game. Those versions are not limited to Steam and include games from Origin, BattleNet, Epic and a few others. Effectively, I buy the games, but use the "patched" versions.

There were a few games where the developers coded in intentional traps intended to break the game should Denuvo/DRM be bypassed(cracked), these "bugs" where confirmed in the games forums when they were posted in the bugs section. Some of the older Denuvo laced games affected game performance so severely developers were forced to patch it out but could not directly release patches, for various reasons. Those patched versions you use may have actually had a dev hand in them, you never know.

 

[lexluthermiester]

There were a few games where the developers coded in intentional traps intended to break the game should Denuvo/DRM be bypassed(cracked), these "bugs" where confirmed in the games forums when they were posted in the bugs section. Some of the older Denuvo laced games affected game performance so severely developers were forced to patch it out but could not directly release patches, for various reasons. Those patched versions you use may have actually had a dev hand in them, you never know.

That's the thing, there are so many possibilities at play that we may never know all of them.

 

[Night]

The thing is, the patches that remove DRM also come with other enhancements/fixes. So while you can compare performance, you can't attribute the variations you might observe. That's what makes DMCV special, we're looking at the very same version for once.

You're absolutely right, I didn't take that into the equation. I however still think that not all game engines work well with Denuvo on top, with the exception of DMCV.

 

[bug]

You're absolutely right, I didn't take that into the equation. I however still think that not all game engines work well with Denuvo on top, with the exception of DMCV.

It's always a possibility. Another possibility is even if Denuvo always behaves, other implementations don't. But we just don't have numbers to tell one way or the other. And this closed approach goes towards people's reluctance wrt DRM.

 

[jmcosta]

I was just watching this

(starting minute 26:40) and it seems that the frame times are rly bad, theres a strange stutter with the denuvo protection.

From my experience the stutter wasn't too bad under dx11 but running in dx12 was almost unplayable.

 

[plonk420]

how's frametimes/frametime graphs? i got hitching in FFXV going from the demo (no Denuvo?) to the final game with the "same settings." of course, once you bought the game, you couldn't download the demo to compare...

worst at 6:20, but also at 1:20, 2:48, 4:10

 

[Chaython]

I find the biggest improvements in DRM free is load times and closing times. If a game has alt f4 enabled it will exit immediately; with DRM it hangs for upto 10 seconds; same with loading if it's a game where title cards can't be skipped if it's still loading DRM seems to take all the time of the title cards DRM free I can skip all but the first...

 

[John Naylor]

Any scheme which doesn't allow me to play the game I own on any PC I own is a game I won't buy.

 

[Vayra86]

how's frametimes/frametime graphs? i got hitching in FFXV going from the demo (no Denuvo?) to the final game with the "same settings." of course, once you bought the game, you couldn't download the demo to compare...

worst at 6:20, but also at 1:20, 2:48, 4:10

Well that ain't Denuvo, son... that's a serious hang. If that was Denuvo the game would not have shipped.

 

[BorgOvermind]

Any scheme which doesn't allow me to play the game I own on any PC I own is a game I won't buy.

Same here.
That is why probably I consider GoG was the best thing that happened to game sales industry ...ever.
I still wonder how they got official permission to do all that they do and get away clean with it.

 

[bug]

Same here.
That is why probably I consider GoG was the best thing that happened to game sales industry ...ever.
I still wonder how they got official permission to do all that they do and get away clean with it.

Easy: they don't target first tier games, but offer lower tiers a chance to make a sale when they would have made none.
StarDock did the same thing before GOG

 

[BorgOvermind]

Well, it's something good for everyone. The devs get their share of $ while the gamers get increased compatibility of the games. GoG does alter them to work on Windows versions they would otherwise not work. The only part I did not liked about that was then they replaced midi audio tracks with .mp3s for compatibility purposes. That kind of ruined the original feeling of the altered games and for some it made a big difference.

 

[loki1944]

2023 Update after testing off and on the last few years; Denuvo for AC Origins has a massive negative impact on Bloomfield CPUs; those old CPUs can typically maintain 70% or so of the performance of my more modern CPUs (i9 10920x and i7 10700KF) when equipped with GTX 980Ti/Vega 64/1080Ti/RTX 2080Ti/RTX 3080Ti but the denuvo for this game is a showstopper on Bloomfield.