RAGE 2 PC Core Scaling and Graphics Cards Performance Explored
The original RAGE was a game I still have mixed memories of, mostly because of the horrid texture loading system in IDTech 5 that simply broke my experience in the game. It wasn’t a bad game by any stretch, but didn’t really hold me very long. But, RAGE 2 is sporing Avalanche Studios Apex Engine running on the Vulkan API, my attention was held with that announcement. If you’re looking for a review of the game itself our very own Nathan Birch has already put pen to paper on that one so feel here to follow on over to our full review of RAGE 2. Here, we’re going to go down the string of performance metrics and see just how well, or poorly, RAGE 2 runs on a variety of hardware configurations.
Testing Methodology
Testing a game like RAGE 2 carries the usual drawbacks of any open world game that is missing a built in benchmark and has a decent variety of locations, elements, and complexity. Due to this I had to play the game for a little while and observe frame rates and find a place that was a bit of the middle of the road in terms of difficulty to run in regards to the rest of the game. First off was selecting a preset to run with and as usual we went with the Ultra preset but found the game has a variable resolution scaler enabled by default, we did disable that. There is an option for Dynamic Reflections and we did opt to leave that one enabled for our testing.
Our course is rather simple and starts at the entry of Gunbarrel and follow a path that leads to City Hall where I end just after I reach the first landing on the stairs. There is no combat along this path but there are plenty of NPCs running around. I found it to be a little bit harder on the frames than in underground sewers or even in the open world while driving around, so this should be on the low end of frame rates to expect.
Being a Vulkan title tools like FRAPS are useless, and there are issues with MSI Afterburner and RTSS running properly so we relied on OCAT for extracting the performance data and used our in house tool for finding the AVG FPS, 1% Lows and .
1% Low results for graphing.
Game Settings
| Setting | Used |
|---|---|
| Graphics Preset | Ultra |
| Field of View | 85 |
| Motion Blur | On |
| Chromatic Aberration | On |
| Resolution Scale | Manual |
| Automatic Resolution Scale | OFF |
| Anisotropic Terrain Filtering | On |
| Geometric Details | Ultra |
| Global Illumination | On |
| Depth of Field | On |
| SSAO | Ultra |
| Anti-Aliasing | FXAA+TAA |
| Player Self Shadows | On |
| Dynamic Reflections | On |
| Shadow Resolution | Ultra |
| Shadow Lights | Ultra |
| Shading Quality | High |
| Soft Particles | On |
Test System
| Components | Z370 |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i9-9900k @ 5GHz |
| Memory | 16GB G. Skill Trident Z DDR4 3200 |
| Motherboard | EVGA Z370 Classified K |
| Storage | Crucial P1 1TB NVMe SSD |
| PSU | Cooler Master V1200 Platinum |
Graphics Cards Tested
| GPU | Architecture | Core Count | Clock Speed | Memory Capacity | Memory Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA RTX 2080ti | Turing | 4352 | 1350/1635 | 11GB GDDR6 | 14Gbps |
| NVIDIA RTX 2080 FE | Turing | 2944 | 1515/1800 | 8GB GDDR6 | 14Gbps |
| NVIDIA RTX 2070 FE | Turing | 2304 | 1410/1710 | 8GB GDDR6 | 14Gbps |
| NVIDIA RTX 2060 FE | Turing | 1904 | 1365/168 | 6GB GDDR6 | 14Gbps |
| ZOTAC Gaming GTX 1660 | Turing | 1408 | 1530/1785 | 6GB GDDR5 | 8Gbps |
| NVIDIA GTX 1080 FE | Pascal | 2560 | 1607/1733 | 8GB GDDR5X | 10Gbps |
| NVIDIA GTX 1070 FE | Pascal | 1920 | 1506/1683 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8Gbps |
| NVIDIA GTX 1060 FE 6GB | Pascal | 1280 | 1506/1708 | 6GB GDDR5 | 8Gbps |
| XLR8 GTX 1060 3GB | Pascal | 1152 | 1506/1708 | 3GB GDDR5 | 8Gbps |
| AMD RX Vega 64 | Vega 10 | 4096 | 1247/1546 | 8GB HBM2 | 945Mbps |
| AMD RX Vega 56 | Vega 10 | 3584 | 1156/1471 | 8GB HBM2 | 800Mbs |
| MSI RX 580 Armor 8GB | Polaris 20 | 2304 | 1366 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8Gbps |
| Sapphire Nitro+ RX 570 4GB | Polaris 20 | 2048 | 1340 | 4GB GDDR5 | 7Gbps |
Drivers Used
| Drivers | |
|---|---|
| Radeon Settings | 19. 5.1 |
| GeForce | 430.64 |
Preset Scaling At 4K
Testing preset performance is a good way to see how the game scales by simply adjusting the presets rather than individual settings for a quick idea. While we did all our testing below you can see that this is a title that scales up greatly in performance as you drop the preset setting.
In RAGE 2 we don’t see much move in performance until we drop down to Medium, while playing there doesn’t appear to be much noticeable change when going down to this level. Dropping down to Low does however result in a rather noticeable draw distance reduction and pop-in becomes annoyingly noticeable, even when in towns.
Intel Core Scaling Performance
While this test won’t tell just how many cores and threads the game will and can use it does show how the game performs as you move up in cores and threads available. In a recent change I have decided to move the Core i9-9900K down to a more reasonable 3.
5GHz all core clock speed to be a bit more of an Average Joe speed for the lower core and thread count configurations and it takes away the ability for the core speed to overshadow core/thread count limitations. These were tested at the 1080p settings that we tested the rest of the results with.
I had honestly expected a game like RAGE 2 that takes place out in the open world to be pretty hungry for CPU resources, but it simply does not appear to be the case. There was a noticeable improvement going from a 4 core without Hyper-Threading to one that does, but if you’re on a mid range GPU you would likely see no difference. Once again we have another title on our hands where a Dual Core CPU need not apply, and once again I’m okay with this.
Graphics Card Results
1080p
Charging off into the mainstream 1920×1080 realm we see pretty solid performance across the board requiring little tweaking to maintain over 60fps among most modern mainstream cards. Radeon cards are showing their strength in the Vulkan API with the RX 570 powering above the 1060 series Pascal based cards and the RX Vega 56 taking the lead over the GTX 1080.
These lower level APIs show Turings architectural benefits over Pascal with the RTX 2060 besting the GTX 1080 as well. As we move through the other resolutions we’ll see a similar story unfold.
1440p
At QHD 2560×1440 we see the squeeze applied already with the performance dropping significantly across the board, and if you’ve got lower VRAM capacities then get ready to start dropping settings fast if you want to maintain smooth frame rates. I was a bit taken back by the impact at 1440p in RAGE 2.
4K
Well, it’s easy to see that UHD 4K isn’t friendly to anyone and with the lack of mGPU support it won’t be a very smooth experience unless you have a RTX 2080Ti, I would imagine that a Radeon VII would be showing off a bit in RAGE 2 at this resolution, but without one in hand I can’t confirm that with certainty.
Conclusion
RAGE 2 has come with Vulkan powering the Apex Engine and it has delivered. There are concerns for those who are using Pascal and are seeing lower than expected performance, but I wouldn’t be too concerned as the performance is still offering a smooth experience if you’re willing to tweak settings down a bit in some places.
Radeon cards are performing well across the board which is to be expected in Vulkan which is a welcome sight for the Red Team. Turing picks up performance here as well thanks to it’s updated pipeline and shows it offers more than just ray tracing and tensor core benefits. As far as CPUs go, so long as you’re packing a true quad core or better you’ll be in good shape. All around the performance is good and the world is open for a wild ride, but if you’re looking to go past 1080p be prepared to bring some power.
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Rage 2 update adds New Game Plus mode and Wolfenstein voice pack
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(Image credit: Bethesda)
Audio player loading…
Rage 2 ‘s second update might inspire you to kick off another playthrough, throwing a New Game Plus mode into the mix, along with an Ironman mode, a new ultra nightmare difficulty and a lot more.
It’s out today.
Once you’ve finished the Project Dagger storyline and completed the Arks, you can fire up NG+ and start again, but with all your weapons, abilities, upgrades and vehicles. You’ll also net yourself some new weapon skins. Each time you play through the game, it will get trickier.
If it still ends up being a bit too easy, you can try your luck at Ironman mode, where you’ve just got one life and losing it means game over. Then there’s the new «crazy hard» difficulty level.
On top of that you’ve got cheat codes, a voice pack with Wolfenstein’s BJ Blazkowicz, new weapons skins and the ability to disable tutorials and skip some intro dialogue. The full list of improvements and bug fixes is below:
Quality of life improvements
- Pop-up notifications no longer pause the game.
- Camera Deadzone slider adjustment added to controller options.
- Flashlight added for navigating dark areas (hold Focus to activate).
- You can now skip Aunt Prowley’s dialog in the opening mission.
- Added an option to disable Ark tutorials.
- Tracking projects now shows progress on HUD.
- New options to turn off Damage and Kill notifications on crosshair.
- «You Call That a Wingstick?» and TV Fatal voice packs auto-granted after Bethesda.net account link (previously required buying from Wasteland Wizard).
Bug fixes
- ChazCar vehicle no longer misaligns Walker through the chassis when at an angle.
- Fixed an issue where you could not fast travel to Kvasir’s lab when there was an objective marker on the location.
- Fixed an issue where combat music did not play correctly when playing through “The Ranger” mission.
- Fixed an issue where the Prowley hologram subtitles did not match VO dialog in Japanese.
- Fixed an issue where you could get stuck attempting to access Authority HQ prior to Project Dagger.
- Fixed an issue where bullet decals and blood stopped appearing in the game world after long fights.
- Fixed an issue where the game may freeze while navigating the Phoenix weapon upgrades menu.
- Player is no longer able to drive vehicles into the Ruined Shaft crusher nest.
- Shop vendor VO no longer overlaps with itself.
- Opening storage containers now correctly plays sound effects.
- Breaking wooden barricades no longer leaves floating spikes behind.
- Added two log entries for Bridge of Ned.
- Mutie explosion sound effects no longer play when the player turns off all sounds.
- Prowley’s VO no longer plays twice in the presidio.
It got a respectable 70 from us, with Andy Kelly calling it an «exceptional shooter cursed by a bland world» in his Rage 2 review . It’s not a bad time to grab it, as it’s currently 50 percent off on Steam during the QuakeCon sale.
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Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person.
With over a decade of experience, he’s been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He’s also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he’s not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.
«This looks like a clickbait news story» — Industry on DTF
An employee noted that the studio is doing well and is working on a project that they want to release in better quality.
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About S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 recently told the Ukrainian YouTube channel XGTV, citing its sources inside the GSC Game World. According to the blogger, the final concept of the sequel was formed only in May 2020, and the game itself may well be postponed until 2023.
According to XGTV, the studio recruited a lot of newbies and freelancers, whom the management considers «expendable material» — according to the blogger, such employees are immediately disposed of after they have completed the task.
The XGTV video was commented on in the official Discord after requests from fans, calling it «the most inverted newsbreak for clickbaits.» The community manager of GSC Game World asked the players not to pay attention to such information, assuring that everything is fine in the studio.
To be honest, it’s generally strange that someone else still believes in such a thing. And if tomorrow some other «respectable channel with 100 subscribers» says that in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will have dinosaur races, and the game is still being made by one person, and at the same time he is working in parallel on the game on space planes, which, together with the Cossacks, move to other planets, will this also need to be commented on?
It is obvious that this looks like just the most inverted newsbreak for clickbaits.
«A mess in the studio»? «Consumables»? I would recommend not paying attention to this kind of «information», there is nothing in it that could even theoretically correspond to the truth.
McCulkin, GSC
Community Manager
A GSC employee also noted that the studio simply cannot comment on all the rumors that appear on the Internet. According to him, now the team is busy only to release the game in the best quality.
We are silent for a long time about what? About these rumors? The game is constantly talked about, for many YouTubers, journalists and publications headlines that have S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 gain additional views/clicks. We cannot physically react to all this, well, it is impossible to comment on everything that appears on the Internet.
Everything is good in the studio, we are all working on a project that we want to release in the best quality. We are very pleased that tens of thousands of players around the world are interested in the state of S.
T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It’s really motivating and inspiring. I hope these words answered what «another trusted source» came up with.
McCulkin, GSC
Community Manager
Originally S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was due out on PC and Xbox on April 28, but was recently pushed back to December 8, 2022.
GSC Game World: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has nothing to do with NFT»
Editorial articles
The studio commented on the rumors.
Russian players downgrade Psychonauts 2 on Metacritic — they are dissatisfied with the lack of localization — Industry on DTF
Depending on the platform, Double Fine scores from 3.7 to 7.1 points.
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Psychonauts 2 was released on August 25 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation. The game received high marks from critics, who praised the platforming for its varied levels, the atmosphere of the original, and enjoyable gameplay with changing mechanics.
Psychonauts 2 was released in Russia without any localization.
The players themselves were also dissatisfied with this. This has not yet affected the ratings on Steam, however, Russian users are already underestimating the rating of the game on Metacritic.
At the time of writing, the PC game has a rating of 5.4, while PS4 is the lowest at just 3.7. On the Xbox Series X, the situation is better — 7.1 points.
Judging by the reviews, the players first of all give the minimum rating precisely because of the lack of translation.
Thank you for hating Russian-speaking players. Worst studio, terrible publisher.
germany
Xbox, by this act you have shown your attitude towards Russian-speaking players. Your multi-billion dollar company regretted spending several thousand on Russian subtitles. Even Nintendo has started translating their games into Russian, and you’re putting the bolt on your audience.
Vasili
Where is Russian? What za neuvazenie k velikorusskomy yaziky? S takim otnosheniem tolko torrent.
User_DTF
Please add a full-fledged Russian language to the game, with subtitles and voice acting. I really want to play the game, but I don’t know English very well. As you add the Russian language, I will definitely change my rating.
CAMCOH
It’s impossible to play without Russian, nothing is clear. Many even small studios add Russian. Therefore, while the assessment is one.
Chiefmate7
Xbox and Double Fine, your attitude towards the Russian-speaking audience is disgusting. You simply ignore it. You will not get far with such a policy in Russia, you will simply be slandered. Now you are slandered on business, then they will be slandered out of habit.
Vasily
Thanks for the Russophobia, «good» game, now it’s absolutely clear why the main character’s name is Rasputin DTF].
