Ghost Recon Breakpoint – Vulkan in the benchmark

– Ubisoft is doing a lot to save Ghost Recon Breakpoint and has turned the game upside down with Episode 2. Something has also changed on the technical side, because the PC version now supports the low-level API Vulkan in addition to DirectX 11. It is almost consistently strong in the benchmark.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint showed many weaknesses in the test in autumn 2019. On the technical side, there were only a few problems on the PC, but above all it was playful in the beginning. However, Ubisoft has not given up on the game and made numerous changes to the gameplay with the free update Episode 2 to push it more towards the predecessor Wildlands.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint can now do Vulkan

Not only in terms of play, but also technically there was something new: With Episode 2, Ghost Recon Breakpoint no longer only supports DirectX 11, but also the low-level API Vulkan. This goes hand in hand with the hope that the game will perform better on most hardware constellations. That would be good because the title has so far placed very high demands on the graphics card.

BitcoinMinersHashrate grabbed some 3D accelerators in the home office and measured the frame rate and frame time differences between DirectX 11 and Vulkan. In addition, the editorial team looked at the performance on eight different CPUs, where major improvements can also be seen. So much can be said at the beginning: Those who hope for a better speed will not be disappointed.

Test sequence and settings

The following graphics card benchmarks were performed on an Intel Core i9-9900K, which is operated with the standard settings and can access a total of 32 gigabytes of RAM with a speed of DDR4-3200 (14-14-14-32). "Windows 10 November 2019 Update" (1909) including all currently available patches is installed. The adrenaline 20.4.1 and the GeForce 442.75 were used as drivers.

Test sequence and settings

The test scene shows a 25 second run at the waypoint "Wall Mountain" near Lake Kathryn. The benchmark scene is very demanding, mostly the frame rate in the game is higher. The sequence is characterized by a high visibility and vegetation density, which is very demanding for the hardware. The test runs take place at lunchtime (game time).

For Full HD, the maximum Ultimate preset is intentionally switched. While this has poor performance, it represents most objects – and could create a bottleneck in the DirectX 11 API. WQHD then switches back to the much more frugal preset "Very high", for Ultra HD again to "Medium".

GPU benchmarks in Full HD, WQHD and Ultra HD with DX11 and Vulkan

Vulkan can massively improve performance in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. How much depends on two things: the GPU architecture and the GPU load? The architecture shows that all Radeons based on GCN benefit by far the most from Vulkan – presumably because so far they have not – as so often in other games – been using their shader units. The successor RDNA and Nvidias Turing also benefit from Vulkan, but significantly less than GCN. Nvidia's Pascal models can also gain performance through Vulkan, but do so least.

When it comes to GPU utilization, however, the motto applies: the more the GPU is loaded, for example due to higher resolutions, the less Vulkan brings. However, the more the load shifts towards the CPU, the greater the leaps in performance.

The results in detail

GCN benefits greatly from volcano, regardless of the model. For example, the Radeon RX Vega 64 in 1,920 × 1,080 gains 17 percent in FPS and 36 percent in frame times thanks to the low-level API. When it comes to frame times, the AMD graphics card does exceptionally poorly with DirectX 11, but does well with Vulkan.

The Radeon RX 580 is also growing well. The frame rate improves by 21 percent, the frame times by 27 percent. This shows that GCN apparently cannot utilize the shader units at the maximum level of detail even with an extremely fast CPU, regardless of the GPU load. In higher resolutions with lower levels of detail, the performance increases are always smaller, but still remain even up to and including 3,840 × 2,160.

AMD's current architecture, RDNA, also benefits from Vulkan, but significantly less than its predecessor. A major reason is that RDNA no longer has any (or significantly less) problems in utilizing the ALUs. The Radeon RX 5700 XT only grows by 4 percent in the FPS in Full HD, in the frame times it is still a good 13 percent. The Radeon RX 5500 XT still has an increase of 11 percent in frame times, the FPS are unchanged. In higher resolutions, the Radeon RX 5700 XT is still growing with Vulkan, but the plus from resolution to resolution is becoming less and less.

Turing also scores well with volcano

Nvidia's Turing generation can also benefit from Vulkan, in which case it is important that the GPU still has as much performance scope as possible. Following this rule, the GeForce GTX 1650 Super in 1,920 × 1,080 with Vulkan is a bit slower than with DirectX 11. The GeForce RTX 2070 Super, on the other hand, increases by 8 (FPS) or 5 percent (frame times), the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti even by 17 and 22 percent respectively. The plus becomes smaller in 2,560 × 1,440 and DirectX 11 is usually slightly faster in 3,840 × 2,160. The disadvantages are only measurable and not noticeable.

Nvidia's Pascal generation traditionally has the biggest problems with low-level APIs and nothing changes in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The GeForce GTX 1080 recorded an increase of 4 or 9 percent in Full HD, the GeForce GTX 1060 is slightly slower. In 2,560 × 1,440 there is a small plus in the frame rate with the GeForce GTX 1080, a tie from Ultra HD. The good news: the graphics card will never slow down with Vulkan.

Frametimes get much better on a Radeon with a volcano

Ghost Recon Breakpoint has no bad frame times on a Radeon RX 5700 XT and a Radeon RX Vega 64 with DirectX 11, there are no major outliers. However, the frame times are restless and fluctuate consistently. They are much quieter on an Nvidia graphics card, if not yet perfect.

This is the case on a GeForce graphics card, whether Pascal or Turing, with Vulkan. You rarely see such perfect frame times, there are practically no outliers and instead a fairly smooth line. And with Vulkan, AMD can do that. In this case, it also applies that it does not matter whether the GPU corresponds to the GCN or the RDNA architecture: with the low-level API, the frame times are almost perfect and are on the same level as the GeForce competitors.

Full HD CPU benchmarks with DirectX 11 and Vulkan

The Vulkan API can make legs of a slow CPU in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The Core i3-9100 with DirectX 11 as the slowest representative in the test field still delivers a sufficiently high frame rate, but there are great difficulties with the frame times. So the game stops every now and then, fun hardly comes up. It suddenly changes with Vulkan.

Thanks to the low-level API, the Core i3-9100 gains 19 percent in FPS. The frame rate is easily higher than what even the Core i9-9900K can do with DirectX 11. Even more important are the frame times, which are 30 percent better. Thus, the frame times are hardly worse than those of the Core i7-8700K with DirectX 11, so that Breakpoint does not run perfectly, but is playable.

But all other processors are also growing with Vulkan. The Core i9-9900K delivers the most FPS, which increases by 15 percent thanks to the low-level API, while the frame times are 21 percent better. AMD's Ryzen 9 3900X is marginally beaten by Intel's consumer flagship, but is hardly measurable with an increase of 18 percent due to Vulkan. But the frame times increase by 23 percent, so that the AMD processor can take the top spot in the test field in this discipline.

Conclusion

Ubisoft did a good job implementing the Vulkan API in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Vulkan is not consistently faster than DirectX 11, especially with Pascal GPUs and high GPU load, the performance can decrease somewhat. However, the losses are so small that they can be measured, but not felt. In other titles, GCN runs significantly worse.

If the hardware and the situation are right, the performance leaps through Vulkan are very large. Nvidia's Turing and AMD's RDNA architecture feel really comfortable with Vulkan and almost always deliver a noticeably better performance. Vulkan with a graphics card of the GCN generation is a must, be it a Radeon RX 580 or a Radeon RX Vega 64. Then you can hardly recognize your own hardware, up to 36 percent more performance was measured.

Stuttering or flowing? Vulcan can make the difference

Processors also benefit from Vulkan. Fast CPUs simply deliver more FPS and better frame times. With slow models, however, Vulkan can make the difference between not playable and playable. Therefore, the recommendation is: If you play Ghost Recon Breakpoint, you should definitely consider Vulkan as an API – usually it gets (significantly) faster, it is never a disaster.

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