Benchmarks: Overwatch, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Test System Specs

  • Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.50 GHz (Skylake)
  • Asrock Z170 Z170 Extreme7+
  • 16GB (4x8GB) DDR4-3000
  • Samsung SSD 850 Pro 2TB
  • Silverstone Strider Series ST1000-G Evolution
  • AMD Crimson Edition 16.6.2 Beta (RX 480)
  • AMD Crimson Edition 16.6.1 Hotfix
  • Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 368.39
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Overwatch doesn't require a great deal of GPU power for high frame rate performance, so it's no surprise that the Radeon RX 480 delivers just that at 1080p. With an average of 136fps, the RX 480 managed to just outperform the GTX 970 and essentially match R9 390. Folks coming from the R9 380 can look forward to a 48% performance increase, while GTX 960 owners will receive 53% more performance.

Jumping up to 1440p we still find highly playable performance as the RX 480 is again able to match the R9 390 and top the GTX 970 by 4%. R9 380 owners are looking at more than a 40% performance boost and almost 60% for GTX 960 owners.

Even at 1080p the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt provides a challenge for those wanting to keep the frame rate above the magical 60fps mark. With HairWorks disabled the RX 480 can do just that and in fact here it was able to match the R9 390X while being 10% faster than the R9 390 and 17% faster than the GTX 970. That's a seriously impressive result and it would bring a 60% performance boost to R9 380 owners and twice the performance for anyone rocking a GTX 960.

The performance hit when moving up to 1440p wasn't that huge and while we are now below 60fps, the performance is still acceptable. Interestingly the RX 480 falls behind the R9 390X at this resolution to match the R9 390, though it was 16% faster than the GTX 970.