Dark Souls III: Graphics & CPU Benchmarks

[Steve]

Dark Souls III is arguably the biggest game to launch this month and with few other major releases there probably isn't much of an argument to be had. As with Dark Souls II, the third iteration has made its way to PC as a port from console, albeit with bonuses for the master race including enhanced graphics, better performance and higher resolutions.

Using the engine from developer FromSoftware's 'Bloodborne', Dark Souls III looks quite impressive but you can certainly tell this is a console port after a few seconds in the menu system. The tweakable options are decent though the game gives no real explanation of what you are enabling. For example, anti-aliasing can only be turned on or off.

The one real gripe we have however is the frame cap. That's right, Dark Souls III has a 60fps cap and there doesn't appear to be a way to circumvent it. Although the game plays fine when maxed out at 60fps, frame caps rarely sit well with the PC gaming community.

Read the complete review.

 

[dirtyferret]

Great review, as always

 

[Alpha Gamer]

Thanks for the comprehensive review, once again. And for including older CPUs such as i5 2500k. It's great to see the game running so well on more modest hardware. I hope future console ports are handled the same way. I've been playing the game non-stop since release, enjoying it very much.

 

[andrewyoung]

I have never played a dark souls game I might check this out.

 

[alexnode]

I just started following techpsot a month ago and I am impressed, this is a very useful review. Most review sites just look at the current models and ignore everything else.

 

[mekotron]

I see you guys forget turn off vsync. All top GPU have max 60 FPS.
try use 144hz monitors. or Force off vsync.

 

[Steve]

I see you guys forget turn off vsync. All top GPU have max 60 FPS.
try use 144hz monitors. or Force off vsync.

What's vsync?

PS. Your 144Hz monitor would really help in this title.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I see you guys forget turn off vsync. All top GPU have max 60 FPS.
try use 144hz monitors. or Force off vsync.

Wow, did you even read the entire article? Framerate is capped at 60FPS...

 

[Steve]

Wow, did you even read the entire article? Framerate is capped at 60FPS...

Any of the article would have helped, I only mentioned the frame cap 4 times on the first page, once on the second page, once on the fourth page, six times on the fifth page and once on the last page.

But why read anything when you can just jump to the comments section and let everyone know about it?

 

[meric]

The same thing caught my eye again, the last one was in the division tests. While Tahiti and Tonga based cards hold themselves (meaning performing decently), Kepler and Maxwell 1 generation cards perform worse and worse in time. I mean, look at the comparison between Tahiti/Tonga based cards vs GTX 680/770 and 780. I remember the benchmarks where 7970Ghz and GTX680 cards were going neck and neck within a couple of FPS margin, but in the newest games older amd cards pull ahead. I wonder what's the reason behind this

 

[Forebode]

Wow, did you even read the entire article? Framerate is capped at 60FPS...

Any of the article would have helped, I only mentioned the frame cap 4 times on the first page, once on the second page, once on the fourth page, six times on the fifth page and once on the last page.

But why read anything when you can just jump to the comments section and let everyone know about it?

Will there be a revisit/follow-up once(if) they release a patch to release the cap, or someone figures out how to disable it? Does freesync/Gsync work with the game. Is the 60fps just a cap or a permanent v-sync

 

[alexnode]

Both consoles work with AMD cards, I won't be surprised if pc ports behave better with AMD. This can bring a bit of competition. Nvidia was dominating the field for quite a while and it could be that we might see a tight race for the next few years. With VR and power hungry resolutions it might be another fast growing period for GPUs

 

[veLa]

The same thing caught my eye again, the last one was in the division tests. While Tahiti and Tonga based cards hold themselves (meaning performing decently), Kepler and Maxwell 1 generation cards perform worse and worse in time. I mean, look at the comparison between Tahiti/Tonga based cards vs GTX 680/770 and 780. I remember the benchmarks where 7970Ghz and GTX680 cards were going neck and neck within a couple of FPS margin, but in the newest games older amd cards pull ahead. I wonder what's the reason behind this

I think it has a lot to do with drivers. AMD has provided great support for GCN cards, not to mention the admirable VRAM size. The second Maxwell came out, NVIDIA stopped caring about Kepler. This is disappointing because despite being a generation old, they're still good cards.

 

[MonsterZero]

" framerate insufficient for online play" **** you DS3!

 

[Panda218]

I have never played a dark souls game I might check this out.

I'd highly recommend it dude! My buddy bought it and was very upset with his purchase for the first 1 hour or so, but now he's 35 hours in and says its one of the best games he's played. Sure it's punishing, but the sense of triumph after beating a boss that's been giving you a hard time is incomparable to other games IMO.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I have never played a dark souls game I might check this out.

I told someone that last night. They suggested I start with the first one, or I wouldn't fully understand it.

 

[Panda218]

I have never played a dark souls game I might check this out.

I told someone that last night. They suggested I start with the first one, or I wouldn't fully understand it.

It'd be a good start, but I don't see much difference between the games to say that you wouldn't understand it. No matter which game you play you'll end up online reading about how the game works. I've played all the games and still have a hell of a time keeping up with the story. I'm just here to smash baddies with my greathammer and collect their souls

 

[trajan2050]

Stock 980 ti? The cast majority of 980ti s are AIB partners and are considerably faster out of the box.