The Division 2 – Warlords of New York tested

– The Division 2 received new content with Warlords of New York. BitcoinMinersHashrate has tested the chargeable DLC in the technology test with numerous benchmarks with various graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia as well as processors from AMD and Intel. The comparison between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 is also drawn.

First DLC for 30 euros

The division 2 loot shooter has received a major DLC. "Warlords of New York" must be purchased for 30 euros in addition to the main game, but with New York it also offers a completely new environment with fresh missions and skills as well as a higher level maximum. BitcoinMinersHashrate took a comprehensive look at the technology of Warlords of New York and created numerous new benchmarks and comparisons with the PC version. The technology test for The Division 2 provides detailed details about the technology that has not changed.

The Division 2: Warlords of New York thus changes from Washington to New York and thus to the playground of the first part of Ubisoft's game series. Visually, the city differs significantly from the first part and there are also enough differences compared to Washington in the second part, so that the impression with regard to graphics and atmosphere looks quite different.

Attractive thanks to the snowdrop engine

Even though the technology in the DLC has remained the same, both cities in The Division 2 still look good. The strengths and weaknesses have remained unchanged: the richness of detail is still unbeaten and the outdoor areas look impressive in connection with the very chic lighting. The Division 2 can be beautiful at the right time of the day. At night, however, the visual impression drops, the same applies to many indoor buildings. Both then only look neat.

Test system, 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 20.2.2 and the GeForce 442.50 were used as drivers. While neither offer explicit optimizations for Warlords of New York, they are of course optimized for the main game.

The 25-second test sequence shows a run through the “Two Bridges” district near the Safehouse. The scene offers a high degree of foresight, numerous details such as rubble and rubbish, some vegetation and many buildings. Although it is not a worst-case scenario, it is a demanding sequence that reappears again and again. The game is only tested between 12:00 and 14:00 in good weather, so conditions are constant despite the dynamic time of day and the weather. However, since this increases the testing effort massively, fewer components are tested than usual.

The Ultra preset is used in 1,920 × 1,080 and 2,560 × 1,440 without further maximizing the details. In 3840 × 2.160 the system switches back to the "High" setting for better performance. Regardless of the resolution, DirectX 12 is used on all graphics cards. Although there are models where the frame rate with DirectX 11 is higher, the frame times with the low-level API are still significantly better, so that DirectX 12 offers a better gaming experience overall.

The processor benchmarks will be submitted later on Friday.

DirectX 12 and DirectX 11 compared

When The Division 2 was released almost exactly a year ago, DirectX 12 was clearly the API of choice in the game and in some cases ran significantly better than DirectX 11. In the meantime, however, both the game itself, Windows 10 and the graphics card drivers have become one developed a good deal. This raises the question of whether this is still the case.

In a nutshell: Yes, DirectX 12 is also the API of choice in The Division 2: Warlords of New York, regardless of the graphics card.

This also applies to 1,920 × 1,080, with DirectX 11 falling least in the low resolution. As usual, Nvidia's Pascal generation still has the biggest problems with DirectX 12 in this resolution. The FPS on the GeForce GTX 1080 only increase by 3 percent when changing from 11 to 12, while the frame times are 3 percent worse. The three other 3D accelerators meanwhile show a significantly larger plus.

The GeForce RTX 2070 Super recorded an increase of 5 and 8 percent through DirectX 12. As usual, the AMD products are growing even more. The Radeon RX 5700 XT shows an increase of 15 and 17 percent, the Radeon RX Vega 64 of 19 and 15 percent.

DirectX 11, on the other hand, breaks off completely in all 2,5 test candidates in both 2,560 × 1,440 and 3,840 × 2,160. Not with the FPS, they are still fine. However, there are big problems with the frame times, since the game under DirectX 11 is always short-lived, which does not happen with DirectX 12.

And so it happens that even the GeForce GTX 1080 with the low-level API in WQHD has 41 percent better frame times. The GeForce RTX 2070 Super is 29 percent, the Radeon RX Vega 64 57 percent and the Radeon RX 5700 XT even 64 percent. In contrast, the GeForce RTX 2070 Super has no more advantages in terms of frame rate, while the GeForce GTX 1080 is even slower. The Radeon RX Vega 64 also increases the frame rate by 7 percent, the Radeon RX 5700 XT has the same values. In Ultra HD too, DirectX 12 is clearly faster than DirectX 11 or at least as fast. Only the GeForce GTX loses 9 percent of FPS with the new API.

The decision is easy based on the measured values: If Windows 10 is installed, DirectX 12 should be used at least for a fast processor. Depending on the hardware, it can make sense to compare the APIs in The Division 2 on your home computer yourself.

On the next page: benchmarks and conclusion