Apex Legends with 29 graphics cards in the benchmark

– BitcoinMinersHashrate has the Battle Royale game Apex Legends in the benchmark with 29 graphics cards and 5 graphics units (iGPUs) integrated in CPUs. Both high-end as well as entry-level and older models take part in the comparison. The article is the first in a twelve-part benchmark test series.

A series of articles with twelve games

In the standard test course for graphics cards, processors and even gaming notebooks, BitcoinMinersHashrate usually focuses on AAA games. In addition to their high popularity and modern technology, there is another reason for this: they usually allow comparable results over a long period of time. But even if the number of players is high, the highest have other titles.

We are talking about games that focus exclusively on multiplayer and whose goal is to reach as many players as possible. Battle royale shooters like Fortnite or PUBG as well as e-sports heavyweights like League of Legends or Counter-Strike are among them. Technically, they are usually designed to be simpler than the AAA offshoots and harder to benchmark consistently due to continuously provided updates. Nevertheless, millions of players around the world keep asking themselves: How fast is or would GPU XYZ be in this game? BitcoinMinersHashrate will now look into this question again in a twelve-part series of articles.

In all twelve games, 29 graphics cards and 5 GPUs integrated in processors in two different quality settings will have to endure benchmarks. From GeForce RTX 2080 Ti to Radeon RX 5700 XT and GeForce GTX 1650 as well as older representatives such as the Radeon R9 390, numerous price, performance and age groups are represented.

So that the overview is not lost, each game gets its own article. The following titles are on our agenda:

• Apex Legends
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Destiny 2
• Dota 2
• Fortnite
• GTA V
• League of Legends
• Overwatch
• PUBG
• Rainbow Six Siege
• World of Tanks
• World of Warcraft

It starts with EA's Apex Legends. The battle royale shooter is currently in its third season, the fourth season, which will strongly adapt the well-known map, is just around the corner. The remaining eleven articles will appear over the next few weeks, there is no set rhythm.

Apex Legends: The first game in the benchmark

The free 2-play game Apex Legends by EA or developer Respawn was released on February 4, 2019 and is dedicated to the popular genre Battle Royale. The source engine originally developed by Valve for Half-Life 2 is used as the basic technology.

The AMD and Nvidia graphics cards in the test

The 29 graphics cards are 13 3D accelerators from AMD and 16 from Nvidia. In addition, three APUs from AMD are represented and also two CPUs from Intel, each of which has to use the integrated graphics units for the benchmarks. There are also tests with a very cheap CPU, each with a cheap Radeon or GeForce to show whether such a double team is worthwhile compared to a more expensive APU.

All GeForce and Radeon graphics cards adhere to the reference specifications, overclocked models for more performance do not take part in the comparison. How much faster they are can be seen in the many graphics card tests or the graphics card ranking on BitcoinMinersHashrate.

Driver and test system

Since the numerous benchmarks are created over a longer period of time, different drivers are used. The Adrenalin 19.12.3 and the GeForce 441.87 were used for the Apex Legends tests. The 26.20.100.7584 is installed for the Intel GPUs. The driver settings are left at the standard, only special optimizations like the theoretically possible adjustment of the maximum tessellation level with AMD are switched off.

An AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and the MSI MEG X570 Godlike with the X570 chipset of the same name are used as the test system. 16 gigabytes of RAM (2 × 8 GB, DDR4-3200-14-14-14-32-1T, single rank) are available to the system. Windows 10 1909 with all updates is installed.

Different resolutions and quality settings

To compare so many graphics cards from different performance classes in one article requires different quality settings, because it is clear that those with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti can drive completely different resolutions and levels of detail than one with a GeForce GTX 1050. Nevertheless, the need for benchmarks that compare all GPUs is great. This series of articles offers both.

Firstly, BitcoinMinersHashrate divided the test field into three different performance classes. Each of them receives its own resolution and level of detail, which is appropriate for its representatives. The fastest performance class includes the Radeon RX 5700 XT and the GeForce RTX 2070 Super. In the middle class, for example, the GeForce GTX 1060 and the Radeon RX 580 have to duel, while typical representatives for the slowest class are the Radeon RX 390 and the GeForce GTX 970.

In the highest performance class, the goal was to achieve around 50 to 60 FPS on a Radeon RX 5700 XT in 3,840 × 2,160. One class below were 50 to 60 FPS in 2,560 × 1,440 with a GeForce GTX 1060, while in the slowest class 50 to 60 FPS in 1,920 × 1,080 were to be achieved with a Ryzen 5 3400G.

An identical setting for all benchmarks

However, in order to be able to compare all products directly with one another, there is a fourth series of tests that come with a single comprehensive resolution and quality setting. It is a compromise that does not fully utilize high-end graphics cards and still completely overwhelms low-end APUs – but there is no other way to compare all 29 graphics cards and 5 iGPUs directly with each other.

The following quality settings were used for the four scenarios in Apex Legends.

A 25-second sprint on the map is selected as the test sequence shortly after the start of a new lap. There are no enemies or battles to be seen. The frame rate can be lower in these.

Benchmarks in Full HD, WQHD and Ultra HD

Full HD with entry-level graphics cards & iGPUs

The entry-level benchmarks in 1,920 × 1,080 show three different performance classes: The two Intel CPUs and the Athlon 3000G with their iGPUs are at the bottom of the test field and fail to come up with values ​​that are playable in any way. As of the Ryzen 3 2200G, Apex Legends is playable, at least if you have no problems that the game is always jerky.

Things are going much better with a Ryzen 5 3400G, a Radeon RX 550 or a GeForce GT 1030, all of which work just as quickly. The GeForce GTX 1050, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and the Radeon RX 560 then make another big leap and easily achieve more than 60 FPS.

WQHD with mid-range graphics cards

There are no such extreme cases as with the slow iGPUs in the mid-range graphics card, even in 2,560 × 1,440 with significantly higher graphics details; However, all candidates do not reach the 60 FPS mark. What is striking is the good performance of Nvidia's Turing architecture, which works much better in Apex Legends than its predecessor Pascal. AMD's Vega offshoot with the old GCN technology also lags behind Turing.

Ultra HD with high-end graphics cards

The benchmarks in 3,840 × 2,160 with the fastest models then show that AMD's new RDNA design also performs well in the game and can clearly differentiate itself from GCN. However, Nvidia's Turing level is not reached. In general, it can be seen that Nvidia graphics cards in Apex Legends work somewhat faster than AMD's competitor models – as long as the GPU is limited.

Full HD benchmarks across all classes

The benchmarks across all models in full HD with maximum details show that the Radeons act a little better in the CPU limit. This does not apply to the frame rate, but to the frame times, in which the Radeon RX 5700 XT suddenly strikes even the GeForce RTX 2080 Super and is only just behind the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. AMD's old GCN guard falls a bit further behind RDNA in the scenario, while Pascal moves a little closer to Turing in CPU-limited scenarios.

closing Remarks

The Apex Legends benchmarks show that even with the lowest details, the Battle Royale game “does not run on every calculator". It is currently not possible to play Apex Legends in Full HD with a desktop iGPU from Intel – and it will hardly look better in even lower resolutions. A separate graphics card, however, does not necessarily have to be. AMD's fastest APU in particular, the Ryzen 5 3400G (test), gets along quite well in the game. This also applies to a Ryzen 3 2200G with restrictions, although things are much more jerky here. For more than just the lowest details, it must be a separate graphics card.

3D accelerators from Nvidia work a little better in Apex Legends than their counterparts from AMD, although the new Turing and Navi offshoots are sometimes significantly superior to their predecessors. However, this only applies to the absolute GPU limit. If you hit the CPU limit in the game, which can happen quickly, especially in Full HD, Radeons suddenly work better than the GeForce offshoots.

Part 2: Fortnite

The next game in this series must serve Epics Fortnite, the second of three Battle Royale titles in the league. The article is expected to appear in the course of the next week. As always, the editors would be happy to receive feedback in the forum on the series of articles.

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