Assassin's Creed Origins: How Heavy Is It on Your CPU?

[Julio Franco]

Today we're doing a little benchmarking, a little playing around with Assassin's Creed Origins to see how it behaves on different CPUs. For those of you unaware Assassin's Creed Origins was recently released, and it has been creating a bit of a stir in the PC tech community due how aggressively it utilizes the CPU.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1525-assassins-creed-origins-cpu-test/

 

[Evernessince]

Good job Steve, another rumor dispelled. Even without the crazy performance claimed in the fore-mentioned rumor, Ryzen CPUs are still very competent in this game and most people would be hard pressed to notice the difference.

 

[MarkHughes]

So, What is the main reason for the high CPU use ? Does each NPC have its own thread and is reactive to its environment or something ?

 

[BSim500]

"For those of you unaware Assassin's Creed Origins was recently released, and it has been creating a bit of a stir in the PC tech community due to aggressively it utilizes the CPU broken multi-layered DRM layering up Denuvo + VMProtect on top of each other with continuous trigger calls."

Interesting test though only half the story:-

"The explosive accusation comes from noted game cracker Voksi, who tells TorrentFreak that an analysis of Origins' binaries shows the game adds a protection method called VMProtect on top of well-known (and now easily cracked) Denuvo DRM. Voksi alleges that Origins uses VMProtect's virtualization protection, which "tank the game’s performance by 30-40%, demanding that people have a more expensive CPU to play the game properly, only because of the DRM. It’s anti-consumer and a disgusting move." In a Reddit thread, Voksi further detailed how breakpoint debugging of the code showed VMProtect's code being "called non-stop" in the game's core control loop".
https://torrentfreak.com/assassins-creed-origin-drm-hammers-gamers-cpus-171030/
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquire...ling-gamers-cpus-due-to-anti-piracy-drm-tools

Heavier CPU usage is only a good thing if it's being used on the right thing. As many others are saying, it'll be far more interesting to wait until the game is cracked, then re-run these benchmarks again. We've already seen the result of just Denuvo alone for even simple games like Syberia 3 ("Game starts up about 40 secs faster without D sooo... yeah Denuvo kills performance... especially when you are using two Denuvos in one Game") and RIME ("Did you wonder why loading times are so long - here is the answer... after 30 minutes of gameplay it became 2 MILLION of "triggers". Protection now calls about 10-30 triggers per second slowing the game down. Don't forget each "trigger" is under VM + heavily obfuscated").

Normally I love Techspot's in-depth game benchmarking, but right now with the current dual-virtualization + obfuscation based DRM (deliberately filling up the CPU with junk instructions that literally do nothing but artificially cripple low-mid CPU's with nothing to show for it), it's impossible to do any serious performance tests on the game itself without measuring the impact of the badly implemented DRM more than the actual game itself.

 

[Evernessince]

Interesting test though only half the story:-

"The explosive accusation comes from noted game cracker Voksi, who tells TorrentFreak that an analysis of Origins' binaries shows the game adds a protection method called VMProtect on top of well-known (and now easily cracked) Denuvo DRM. Voksi alleges that Origins uses VMProtect's virtualization protection, which "tank the game’s performance by 30-40%, demanding that people have a more expensive CPU to play the game properly, only because of the DRM. It’s anti-consumer and a disgusting move." In a Reddit thread, Voksi further detailed how breakpoint debugging of the code showed VMProtect's code being "called non-stop" in the game's core control loop".
https://torrentfreak.com/assassins-creed-origin-drm-hammers-gamers-cpus-171030/
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquire...ling-gamers-cpus-due-to-anti-piracy-drm-tools

Heavier CPU usage is only a good thing if it's being used on the right thing. As many others are saying, it'll be far more interesting to wait until the game is cracked, then re-run these benchmarks again. We've already seen the result of just Denuvo alone for even simple games like Syberia 3 ("Game starts up about 40 secs faster without D sooo... yeah Denuvo kills performance... especially when you are using two Denuvos in one Game") and RIME ("Did you wonder why loading times are so long - here is the answer... after 30 minutes of gameplay it became 2 MILLION of "triggers". Protection now calls about 10-30 triggers per second slowing the game down. Don't forget each "trigger" is under VM + heavily obfuscated").

Normally I love Techspot's in-depth game benchmarking, but right now with the current dual-virtualization + obfuscation based DRM (deliberately filling up the CPU with junk instructions that literally do nothing but artificially cripple low-mid CPU's with nothing to show for it), it's impossible to do any serious performance tests on the game itself without measuring the impact of the badly implemented DRM more than the actual game itself.

I don't know if the higher ups at TechSpot would approve an article using a pirated copy of the game. It could cause legal issues.

 

[Burty117]

I don't know if the higher ups at TechSpot would approve an article using a pirated copy of the game. It could cause legal issues.

If they've purchased a copy of the game I can't see the problem, it's the same product they purchased just not laced with performance killing DRM systems.

Even if Techspot doesn't though, another website will.

 

[Puiu]

Forget about the CPU, even the GPU is a mess in terms of optimisation. You can't break the 120FPS mark at 1080p with medium settings using an 8700k and GTX 1080 Ti? Seriously? Sure it is "playable" on the highest end PCs, but you'll never be able to fully use those expensive 144Hz monitors.

Something is wrong, very wrong.

 

[BSim500]

I don't know if the higher ups at TechSpot would approve an article using a pirated copy of the game. It could cause legal issues.

Yeah that's perfectly understandable why. But until Ubisoft officially remove it all most benchmarks are doing is benchmarking the double-layered VM'd "wrapper" around the game rather than the game itself, which is highly misleading, ie, there's zero reason why a R5 1500X / i5-7600 couldn't run the game just fine if the game wasn't intentionally crippled.

That's what "obfuscation" means on the VMProtect site, on top of the already CPU-thirstyness of 2x VM's, basically a load of junk instructions are saturating the CPU's that literally do nothing but slow everyone's game down by 30-40% hoping to fool the cracking groups a few extra weeks. It's the software equivalent of remotely forcibly under-clocking all 4GHz CPU to 2.4-3.0GHz as collective punishment against everyone for the actions of a few cracking groups. (And why I won't be touching this steaming turd of a game with a barge-pole even if it were given away for free...)

 

[PetrolHead]

If they've purchased a copy of the game I can't see the problem, it's the same product they purchased just not laced with performance killing DRM systems.

It's probably against the EULA to remove it.

Yeah that's perfectly understandable why. But until Ubisoft officially remove it all most benchmarks are doing is benchmarking the double-layered VM'd "wrapper" around the game rather than the game itself, which is highly misleading, ie, there's zero reason why a R5 1500X / i5-7600 couldn't run the game just fine if the game wasn't intentionally crippled.

It's not misleading since the average user will not get rid of the DRM. I doubt many will even acknowledge its existence. For all intents and purposes the DRM is thus a part of the game and benchmarks done with the DRM active are indicative of the performance users should expect. Of course, if Ubisoft removes the current DRM or somehow manages to make it better, then the game should be benchmarked again.

 

[dj2017]

If they've purchased a copy of the game I can't see the problem, it's the same product they purchased just not laced with performance killing DRM systems.

Even if Techspot doesn't though, another website will.

Ubi(put whatever you like here), could accuse techspot that they deliberately publish a review that aims in creating a bad image for them.

 

[Burty117]

It's probably against the EULA to remove it.

Yeah I know, I just thought Morally, It should be ok to tinker with the product you purchased but I keep forgetting that we don't really buy anything anymore and it's just leased to us instead.

Ubi(put whatever you like here), could accuse techspot that they deliberately publish a review that aims in creating a bad image for them.

As long as Techspot are faithful in their testing and shows how it got to it's conclusion, I can't see the problem. If the DRM system's really are causing high CPU usage and limiting the games performance then that becomes fact, not harming Ubisoft's image if the product in question is truly cr*p.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I didnt see it mentioned in the review, but what memory speed was the ryzen chip paired with? I a game this CPU bound, higher speed memory (and this higher speed infinity fabric)
could make a huge difference in framerates.

If they've purchased a copy of the game I can't see the problem, it's the same product they purchased just not laced with performance killing DRM systems.

Even if Techspot doesn't though, another website will.

Ubi(put whatever you like here), could accuse techspot that they deliberately publish a review that aims in creating a bad image for them.

Oh NO! That would be just HORRIBLE!! All those other times websites point out how terrible ubisoft's DRM is and get taken down immediately by ubi's claims!!! THINK OF THE INVESTORS /s.

Who cares what Ubi thinks? They are a $h!t company that has released one broken port after another on PC, spent years treating PC users like second class citizens, and uses obtrusive DRM practices. If removing the DRM makes the game run much smoother, we, the consumer, deserve to know. And if a site is so afraid that a video game publisher will be mad at them that they hold back such information, I loose a lot of respect for said site. Its a VIDEO GAME publisher. That's like being afraid of a toy company being upset you found lead paint in their products.

 

[Uncle Al]

ZERO impact ..... don't play it and don't want it.

 

[amstech]

Forget about the CPU, even the GPU is a mess in terms of optimisation. You can't break the 120FPS mark at 1080p with medium settings using an 8700k and GTX 1080 Ti? Seriously? Sure it is "playable" on the highest end PCs, but you'll never be able to fully use those expensive 144Hz monitors.

Something is wrong, very wrong.

After using my new 27" 165Hz 1440p 1MS OMEN with G-Sync for a week I can tell you that, even if your PC can't run games at 100-165FPS the technology still makes the experience 100 times smoother. My 670 is capped at 120Hz and I am playing older games like Rift and newer games like Crysis 3, they all look butter smooth with no tearing or stuttering (at 1440p with settings on high to ultra)
I will need a newer GPU to go past 120Hz but I am so happy for now, best upgrade ever! It's so smooth and improves the gaming experience 10-fold, I will never game on a sub-100Hz monitor again! And I am coming from a quick 2MS 1080p 23" Acer and 60Hz 7MS 1600p 30" U3011.

 

[dj2017]

I didnt see it mentioned in the review, but what memory speed was the ryzen chip paired with? I a game this CPU bound, higher speed memory (and this higher speed infinity fabric)
could make a huge difference in framerates.
Oh NO! That would be just HORRIBLE!! All those other times websites point out how terrible ubisoft's DRM is and get taken down immediately by ubi's claims!!! THINK OF THE INVESTORS /s.

Who cares what Ubi thinks? They are a $h!t company that has released one broken port after another on PC, spent years treating PC users like second class citizens, and uses obtrusive DRM practices. If removing the DRM makes the game run much smoother, we, the consumer, deserve to know. And if a site is so afraid that a video game publisher will be mad at them that they hold back such information, I loose a lot of respect for said site. Its a VIDEO GAME publisher. That's like being afraid of a toy company being upset you found lead paint in their products.

I love Ubividia from the day they declared DirectX 10.1 a bug.

But while we would loved to see a tech site crucifying once more Ubiyabadabadoo, the question is, will we do it if we where the owners of that tech site? I mean take the risk and be accused that we "promote piracy" for example, just to make a point?

Using a retail game to show that a company produces bad optimized games, is something completely different with using a pirate copy of that game.

 

[PetrolHead]

I didnt see it mentioned in the review, but what memory speed was the ryzen chip paired with? I a game this CPU bound, higher speed memory (and this higher speed infinity fabric)
could make a huge difference in framerates.

"We would just like to point out that all CPUs were tested using the same DDR4-3200 CL14 memory."

The i5-7600K was also tested with DDR4-2400. Min FPS dropped by 7 to 54 FPS, Max FPS dropped by 5 to 97 FPS and Avg FPS dropped by 10 to 69 FPS. I couldn't see any stuttering on the video, so the slower memory speed seemed to have zero effect on the playability (on the test system).

 

[Mordeafaca]

It would be interesting to also make a benchmark on major cities where everyone is complaining about stuttering do to cpu usage.

 

[dirtyferret]

Since most people with a 6600/7600k or 6700/7700k processor over clock them; what would the performance be with a the 7600k or 7700k at a modest OC?

 

[Burty117]

Using a retail game to show that a company produces bad optimized games, is something completely different with using a pirate copy of that game.

Why is it a "Pirated" copy though? If I've purchased that exact game, I've not Pirated anything, I've downloaded a modified version of the same product I've purchased.

It's a grey area as far as I can tell, the opinion differs depending on who you speak to. People like you who are "if it's not directly your exact copy of something you've purchased, then it's illegal" and there's people like me who are "If I've purchased something but it's riddled with a system that stops me enjoying said product, I'll find a way around it".

Examples, If I've purchased a Blu-ray, should I have the right to rip it to my computer so I can enjoy it on my phone?
If a game I've purchased isn't performing as expected, should I be able to download a version that performs fine?

I personally think morally, yes, I should be able to rip my Blu-rays or download DRM free versions of my games. Legally though, I can see these companies obviously banning these trains of thoughts as they'd like you to purchase multiple versions of the same movie, heavy DRM in games though I've gotta say, always seems pretty pointless as they get cracked anyway. It just seems to hurt the consumer when it comes to Ubisoft (I'm sure other game companies have also put performance hurting DRM on their games as well not just Ubi).

 

[gamerk2]

So, What is the main reason for the high CPU use ? Does each NPC have its own thread and is reactive to its environment or something ?

That would be bad design, as you'd have significant latency problems as Windows attempted to schedule and run each individual thread. Speaking as a programmer, that's the exact type of thing you let one thread handle, and go through each AI (often reduced to groups for simplicity) one by one.

"Overthreading" is a thing, and you can easily tank performance by increasing thread count, even if in theory performance scales.

 

[Icysoul]

The whole discussion about testing the game without DRM when it'll be cracked it's pointless - cracks nowadays only bypass the protection, they do not remove it, the triggers are still being made.

 

[Reehahs]

I will only purchase this when they do something about the crippling DRM. Legitimate customers should not be punished.

 

[Miguel Ferreira]

Hi Steve can you make the same test but with a VEGA card, I think ryzen works better with it. Cheers

 

[PetrolHead]

Hi Steve can you make the same test but with a VEGA card, I think ryzen works better with it. Cheers

It doesn't, really. At least not often enough so that such generalizations should be made.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1490-ryzen-vs-core-i7-vega-64-geforce-1080/page7.html

The main factor in whether a GTX 1080 or a Vega 64 is quicker is the game that is played. If Vega is quicker, it's generally quicker with both Intel and AMD CPUs. There are some exceptions, but not just in the favor of Ryzen + Vega. See for example the results for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon or Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX12), where Ryzen + Vega performs notably worse than the other three combinations.

 

[dj2017]

Why is it a "Pirated" copy though? If I've purchased that exact game, I've not Pirated anything, I've downloaded a modified version of the same product I've purchased.

No, you just have both a legitimate copy and a pirated copy.

It's a grey area as far as I can tell, the opinion differs depending on who you speak to.

It doesn't really matter if it looks as a gray area. What matters is what will be the charges against you. Don't forget that for those companies, 1000 downloads of an MP3 song, means 1000 lost customers, because all who download stuff, where going to buy it tomorrow morning.

People like you

Are you twelve years old? I really can't take you seriously with comments like this.

Examples, If I've purchased a Blu-ray, should I have the right to rip it to my computer so I can enjoy it on my phone?
If a game I've purchased isn't performing as expected, should I be able to download a version that performs fine?

I guess it depends on the user agreement that accompanies the product. If is says that you can make copies, then you can make copies, but probably not download someone else's copies. If it says that you don't have the right to change the program's code or remove parts of it, then you don't have the right to remove the DRM. If you don't like the user agreement, you just avoid buying that product, no matter how much you want it.

I personally think morally, yes, I should be able to rip my Blu-rays or download DRM free versions of my games. Legally though, I can see these companies obviously banning these trains of thoughts as they'd like you to purchase multiple versions of the same movie, heavy DRM in games though I've gotta say, always seems pretty pointless as they get cracked anyway. It just seems to hurt the consumer when it comes to Ubisoft (I'm sure other game companies have also put performance hurting DRM on their games as well not just Ubi).

When it is about our personal choices, we can think whatever we like and do whatever we like. We just can't ask from a site to take the risk for us. A tech site is not just articles, but also people working behind it. As you said, morality and legitimacy some times point at totally different directions.

And just for the record. You have NOT figured me out.