Fortnite with 29 graphics cards in the benchmark

– BitcoinMinersHashrate tested the Battle Royale game Fortnite 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 second 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 generally 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, the linked ones have already been tested:

• Apex Legends in the 2020 benchmark
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Destiny 2
• Dota 2
• Fortnite (this article)
• GTA V
• League of Legends
• Overwatch
• PUBG
• Rainbow Six Siege
• World of Tanks
• World of Warcraft

As a second game, Fortnite from Epic Games has to face the test. The Battle Royale shooter is currently in the first season of Chapter 2 and will start the second season in a few days. The remaining ten articles will appear over the next few weeks, there is no fixed rhythm.

Fortnite: The second game in the benchmark

The free 2-play game Fortnite by Epic Games was released on July 21, 2017 and is dedicated to the popular genre Battle Royale. The in-house Unreal Engine 4, which is used in many other productions, 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 Fortnite 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 comes 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 Fortnite:

Since Epic integrated DirectX 12 during the test period but deactivated it, DirectX 11 is used as the API throughout.

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, but there is a lot of vegetation, trees and some buildings to see.

Benchmarks in Full HD, WQHD and Ultra HD

Full HD with entry-level graphics cards & iGPUs

Even if Fortnite in Full HD with the least graphics details has low hardware requirements, it is neither with the Pentium Gold G5400 (UHD Graphics 610), nor with the Core i3-9100 (UHD Graphics 630) or the Athlon 3000G (Radeon Vega 3) possible to play Fortnite even halfway smoothly.

The Ryzen 3 2200G and the Radeon Vega 8 are doing much better, which has a few problems with the frame times, but at least comes close to the 60 FPS mark. The Ryzen 5 3400G with the Radeon Vega 11 is for the first time strong enough to play Fortnite completely smoothly. However, a discrete graphics card like the Radeon RX 550 or the GeForce GT 1030 is still faster. The Radeon RX 560, GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti then take another big step and sometimes run at significantly more than 100 FPS.

WQHD with mid-range graphics cards

In 2,560 × 1,440 and the high preset, the requirements increase significantly. Starting with the Radeon RX 590 or the GeForce GTX 1060, 60 FPS are also achieved in Fortnite. The Radeon RX 5500 XT is ahead of the Radeon RX 590 because the new RDNA architecture in Fortnite runs significantly better than the old GCN design. Nvidia's Turing, however, has no advantages over Pascal.

Ultra HD with high-end graphics cards

Fortnite then places high demands on the graphics card in Ultra HD even with reduced graphics details. At AMD, only the Radeon RX 5700 XT and Radeon VII reach the 60 FPS mark, with Nvidia this is the case with the GeForce RTX 2070 Super. It also shows that the differences between the GPU architectures become smaller and smaller at higher resolutions. So Pascal, Turing, GCN and RDNA hardly give each other any more.

Full HD benchmarks across all classes

The higher-level benchmarks in 1,920 × 1,080 with the maximum ultra presets then show an emerging CPU limit for the brisk 3D accelerators. So the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti can hardly stand out from the GeForce RTX 2070 Super. In this scenario, the Radeon RX 5700 XT is on par with the GeForce RTX 2070 Super and at the same time clearly ahead of the Radeon VII, since RDNA, unlike GCN, can also call up full performance in Full HD.

The "old guard" in the form of the GeForce GTX 970 and the Radeon R9 390 does not quite reach the 60 FPS mark, but is playable. In Fortnite, the Nvidia graphics card is ahead of AMD's competitive model.

closing Remarks

Fortnite is a bit more frugal in the benchmarks than Apex Legends, but it also needs at least one brisk AMD APU for Epic's Battle Royale game to be able to play Full HD with the lowest graphics details reasonably smoothly. On the other hand, a graphics unit without eDRAM (HD Graphics, not Iris) integrated in an Intel desktop CPU cannot do this.

Fortnite is fairly balanced in the stock of desktop graphics cards. Neither AMD, nor Nvidia accelerators, nor old or new models have major advantages and disadvantages. Only AMD's GCN offshoots drop a bit in low resolutions. From a graphics card of the caliber of a GeForce GTX 1060, GeForce GTX 1650 Super, Radeon RX 590 or a Radeon RX 5500 XT, Fortnite also runs properly in 2,560 × 1,440. For 3,840 × 2,160, however, it must already be a brisk model like a Radeon RX 5700 XT or GeForce RTX 2070 Super, as long as the graphics details are not supposed to be significantly reduced.

The following games have already been tested

Aside from Fortnite, the following series have appeared in the article series so far:

• Apex Legends in the 2020 benchmark

Part 3: Rainbow Six Siege

The next game in this series will be Ubisoft's first-person tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege. 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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