Shadow of the tomb raider performance: Shadow of the Tomb Raider Graphics and Performance Guide

22 марта, 2023

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Graphics and Performance Guide

By Andrew Burnes
on Mon, Oct 08 2018
Featured Stories,
Guides,
NVIDIA GameWorks

Lara Croft returns to action in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a new adventure in which she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, and becomes the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

Brought to the PC by famed specialists Nixxes Software, Shadow of the Tomb Raider features several PC-exclusive graphical enhancements, as well as support for higher detail levels, framerates and resolutions. And in a future game update, NVIDIA, Square Enix, Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and Nixxes Software will introduce NVIDIA RTX Ray-Traced Shadows to the game, taking visual fidelity and realism to even greater heights.

In this guide, we’ll delve into Shadow of the Tomb Raider‘s PC settings and enhancements, examining each of the game’s 18 adjustable settings with interactive comparison screenshots, performance charts, and written explainers, giving you all the info you need to tweak and tailor your graphics and performance.

Guide Contents:

  • System Requirements
  • NVIDIA RTX Ray Tracing
  • Graphics Settings
    • Ambient Occlusion
    • Anti-Aliasing
    • Bloom
    • Depth of Field
    • DirectX
    • HDR
    • Lens Flares
    • Level of Detail
    • PureHair
    • Resolution Modifier
    • Screen Effects
    • Screen Space Contact Shadows
    • Screen Space Reflections
    • Shadow Quality
    • Tessellation
    • Texture Filtering
    • Texture Quality
    • Volumetric Lighting
    • Settings Wrap-Up
    • GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 4K Performance
  • GeForce Experience: Optimal Playable Settings With A Single Click
  • Game Ready Shadow of the Tomb Raider Driver
  • Conclusion

Stay Tuned, NVIDIA RTX Ray-Traced Shadows Are Coming To Tomb Raider

At a later date, via a game update, NVIDIA RTX Ray-Traced Shadows will be introduced to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, adding for the very first time hyper-realistic representations of the shadows we see in real-life, with support for large, complex interactions, self-shadowing, translucent shadowing, and a litany of other techniques, at a level of detail far beyond that has previously been seen.

This massive leap forward is made possible by GeForce RTX graphics cards, which are the world’s first gaming GPUs to include dedicated hardware for ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and other features, enabling us to raise the bar for graphical fidelity in ways that were previously impossible.

For the latest updates on the addition of NVIDIA RTX Ray Tracing to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, stay tuned to GeForce.com.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Graphics Settings

Ambient Occlusion

Ambient Occlusion (AO) adds contact shadows where two surfaces or objects meet, and where an object blocks light from reaching another nearby game element. The AO technique used and the quality of the implementation affects the shadowing’s accuracy, and whether new shadows are formed when the level of occlusion is low. Without Ambient Occlusion scenes look flat and unrealistic, and objects appear as if they are floating.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, both BTAO and HBAO+ return from Rise of the Tomb Raider, and as last time, HBAO+ adds more accurate, more realistic ambient occlusion shadows that further bolster visual fidelity.

Performance: With HBAO+, AO shadowing is improved, entirely new shadows are rendered, and detail has even-greater depth and realism, with the smallest of scene elements being accurately shadowed, making it a must-have effect for only 2.3 more FPS than BTAO.

Anti-Aliasing

Anti-Aliasing reduces the visibility of jagged edges, while the very best techniques remove all jaggies and tackle Temporal Aliasing, the shimmering and crawling seen on anti-aliased edges when they move or the camera moves.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing) is the default option, though three other anti-aliasing options are also on offer, each with their own advantages and disadvantages:

SMAA: Your basic low-cost, post-processing, screen-wide anti-aliasing technique, with less blur than the previous-game’s FXAA, intended for minimum-spec systems.

Pros: Lowest impact on texture-clarity of all options; lowest performance cost; surprisingly-good edge anti-aliasing
Cons: No temporal anti-aliasing component; ineffectual anti-aliasing on Lara’s hair

TAA: A custom temporal anti-aliasing solution that’s enabled by most of the game’s presets.

Pros: Better edge anti-aliasing than SMAA in some cases; removes virtually all temporal anti-aliasing; great hair anti-aliasing
Cons: Highest impact on texture clarity of all post-process options

SMAAT2x: Combines SMAA and TAA into one option, and applies a few further tweaks.

Pros: Lower impact on texture clarity than TAA; removes virtually all temporal anti-aliasing; good hair anti-aliasing
Cons: Slightly less effective at edge anti-aliasing than SMAA; slightly less effective at hair anti-aliasing than TAA

SMAA4x: Combines SMAAT2x with SMAAS2x, a SMAA variant that adds 2x Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing for superior edge anti-aliasing.

Pros: Best edge anti-aliasing in most cases, removes virtually all temporal anti-aliasing
Cons: Less effective at edge anti-aliasing than SMAA and SMAAT2x in some cases; highest impact on texture-clarity of all options; less effective at hair anti-aliasing than SMAAT2x; highest performance cost of any anti-aliasing option (MSAA is expensive!)

The set of comparison images below demonstrates each of the pros and cons noted above in a general-gameplay situation, with Lara ahead of the camera:

To make things easier to examine, let’s zoom in on specific parts of the image, starting with Lara’s hair, which you’ll be staring at for many, many hours, so it needs to look good:

As you can see, only TAA and SMAAT2x offer effective anti-aliasing on Lara’s hair.

Anti-aliasing on edges of geometry, characters and objects is up next:

All options offer acceptable anti-aliasing on edges, though SMAAT2x takes the lead when you factor in its temporal anti-aliasing component that stops those anti-aliased edges from shimmering, crawling and flickering.

Finally, let’s look at the fabric of Lara’s top to see how the available anti-aliasing techniques affect the clarity of textures:

Regardless of the resolution, TAA and SMAA4x blur to such a high degree —in an effort to reduce aliasing— that the dimples on Lara’s shirt, and grooves on her belt are impossible to perceive. Similarly, detail is lost throughout the scene, with the clarity of literally every other game element greatly reduced.

And while SMAAT2x is by no means perfect, clarity is significantly improved compared to TAA and SMAA4x. Plus, it fared well in our other tests, too.

Performance and Our AA Recommendation: As noted earlier, SMAA, TAA and SMAAT2x are all post-processing options, and as such only have a performance impact of 2.1-4.9 FPS. SMAA4x, meanwhile, adds 2x MSAA to the mix (old-school hardware AA), reducing performance by an unsurprising 23.7 FPS.

With the data, opinions and examples presented above, which anti-aliasing option would you select? We vote for SMAAT2x. It has good edge anti-aliasing, good temporal anti-aliasing, good hair anti-aliasing, a comparatively low performance cost, and acceptable texture clarity.

SMAA lacks temporal anti-aliasing; TAA blurs too heavily; and SMAA4x lacks sufficient benefits to counter its high cost and other issues.

Bloom

Bloom takes a backseat to the Volumetric Lighting option in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, adding only a smidge of brightness to exterior lighting, and a glow around particularly bright fires, as demonstrated below.

Note that if you disable Bloom or other post-processing visual effects, Screen Effects become more prominent, so you may wish to disable it, too.

Performance: At most, the minimally-used Bloom option will set you back a couple of frames per second, and could be turned off without noticeably harming image quality if you’re struggling for performance and need to claw back FPS wherever you can find it.

Depth of Field

In
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Depth of Field blurs backgrounds for cinematic effect during cutscenes, and occasionally blurs foreground detail during gameplay when the High DoF option is enabled.

As demonstrated above, and explained by the in-game tooltip, there is zero difference in fidelity between High or Normal in the cinematics and cutscenes used throughout the game, which advance the narrative and highlight cool moments.

During gameplay, High sometimes blurs detail particularly-close to the camera, but with Normal DoF is switched off:

Performance: The rarely-seen gameplay Depth of Field has a minuscule 1.4 FPS cost in our testing, while the cutscene DoF takes up to 4 FPS, though more typically it’s around 2.5 FPS.

DirectX

DirectX 12 was a post-release addition to Rise of the Tomb Raider, but this time round it’s available from the off, boosting framerates by up to 53% in our testing.

As Nixxes’ Studio Head Jurjen Katsman explained, «DirectX 12 will give us is the ability to spread our CPU rendering work over all CPU cores, without introducing additional overhead. This is especially important on 8-core CPUs like Intel i7’s or many AMD FX processors.»

«When using DirectX 11, in situations where the game is under heavy load – for example in the larger hubs of the game – the individual cores may not be able to feed a fast GPU quick enough. This means the game may not hit the desired frame-rate, requiring you to turn down settings that impact CPU performance. Even though the game can use all your CPU cores, the majority of the DirectX 11 related work is all happening on a single core. With DirectX 12, a lot of the work is spread over many cores, and the framerate of the game will run at can be much higher for the same settings.»

And so, in Shadow of the Tomb Raider‘s hub, which is the franchise’s largest ever hub, we see massive gains on our i7-5960X:

Meanwhile, in the game’s titular tombs, and other enclosed areas, we also recorded performance gains, albeit less impressive ones!

With superior performance throughout the game, and graphical parity with DirectX 11, DirectX 12 is recommended for all modern DX12-capable GeForce GTX and GeForce RTX systems. And even if you don’t have an eight-core CPU, you’ll likely still receive improved performance, which you can easily check by using the game’s built-in benchmark.

HDR

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is launching with support for G-SYNC HDR monitors and other HDR displays, enabling a more natural picture with brighter sunlight, darker caves and tombs, and improved fidelity throughout.

To learn more about G-SYNC HDR, head to this in-depth article.

Lens Flares

With Volumetric Lighting taking over from most of the prior game’s lighting effects, Lens Flares is now typically only seen on flashlights and other man-made lighting in dark environments, as exemplified by the following screenshot:

Performance: This time out, Lens Flares cost less than a frame per second in instances when they’re visible.

Level of Detail

As its name suggests, the Level of Detail setting adjusts the quality and visibility of game elements to improve performance on slower systems. In practice, that means objects, foliage and geometry will be simplified as the setting is dialed down, before finally being removed at the lowest detail levels.

In addition, Level of Detail can affect the visibility of lighting effects, the quality of visual effects applied to game elements, and the visibility of shadows, most noticeably on Low and Lowest.

And finally, as the level of detail is decreased, the amount of pop-in, draw-in, and fade-in increases, impacting immersion and fidelity as you move through the game’s environments.

For more examples of how Level of Detail can affects the game, check out our deep-dive from Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Performance: On a fast, modern system, Ultra Level of Detail will only set you back 7-10 FPS. On older systems, however, with slower CPUs and fewer cores and/or threads, the cost will be higher, so if you encounter FPS issues try turning the setting down, though we wouldn’t recommend going below Normal.

PureHair

PureHair is Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix’s hair rendering technology, which like our own HairWorks technique adds tens of thousands of hair strands to a character model. These hairs move realistically, can be affected by wind and water, and are lit and shaded in real-time by the scene.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the ‘Normal’ setting is recommended for just about everyone, as ‘Low’ strips back the number of hairs for min-spec users who need to disable and turn down as many settings as possible.

In the normal gameplay position, with Lara away from the camera, the difference between detail levels is far less noticeable, though as Lara walks, runs and jumps, the degree of hair movement and its realism are still affected.

In cinematic, story-driven cutscenes, however, the differences between detail levels are immediately apparent, as Lara almost-always takes key billing, with lots of close-ups and action moves highlighting the immersion-damaging loss of hairs.

Performance: As with other hair rendering technologies, dynamic level of detail scaling adjusts the visual quality and performance of hair on the fly. During gameplay, in the default zoomed-out view, expect a minimal performance cost of just 2-3 frames per second, versus Low, though that number raises to 5 or 6 frames per second when you zoom in for precision sniping or shooting.

In cutscenes, the performance cost can be up to 10 frames per second, but as performance is often higher during these moments the extra hit is offset and shouldn’t be a problem for most systems.

Resolution Modifier

If you’re playing in Windowed Mode, Resolution Modifier is activated, enabling you to further decrease the game’s rendering resolution via a slider. Performance will greatly improve as the slider is dragged down, but at the cost of fidelity.

If you’re playing on a min spec PC, with every setting already at its lowest, and you still need additional performance to reach a playable framerate, Resolution Modifier will be your last resort.

Screen Effects

Blood, hexagonal flares, dirt, water, and other effects can appear on-screen with this setting enabled, and become more prominent if you disable Bloom and Lens Flares:

Performance: This user-preference setting costs less than a frame per second.

Screen Space Contact Shadows

In select scenes with direct lighting from the game’s sun, Screen Space Contact Shadows will improve the accuracy and detail of shadows on Lara and in Lara’s immediate vicinity, like so:

It’s a subtle effect you’re unlikely to notice during gameplay, though it certainly helps make your screenshots look that bit better.

Performance: If you’ve got a keen eye, you’ll have failed to find any differences between Normal and High in our screenshots, which was the case in every area we examined. However, we did note an additional dip in performance each time we selected High, suggesting it is doing something.

Screen Space Contact Shadows is extremely subtle, is used only in select scenes, and isn’t noticeable when you’re playing. And at 6 FPS even for Normal, it’s something we recommend you only enable at the very end of your tweaking process, when you’re already running at your desired framerate and have oodles of performance to spare for an experience with absolutely everything maxed out.

Screen Space Reflections

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is filled with wet jungle environments, and open bodies of water. In many instances, their appearance is enhanced by enabling the Screen Space Reflections setting, which adds some basic reflective detail, and more importantly, prevents the rendering of inaccurate lighting:

Performance: Shadow of the Tomb Raider‘s lakes and rivers benefit greatly from Screen Space Reflections, but enabling them can cost up to 8 FPS.

If you’re struggling for performance, we recommend disabling or turning down other settings first, given this setting’s importance to image quality.

Shadow Quality

Unchanged from Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow Quality adjusts the resolution and detail of shadows, adding definition, and reducing aliasing, temporal instability and flickering as the quality preset is raised.

In static shots the difference between settings is unremarkable, but during gameplay the reduction in aliasing and other artifacts is pronounced, making High and Ultra the detail levels to pick.

Performance: On a fast, modern system the performance between detail levels was surprisingly low in all locations tested. On older or slower systems, however, the deltas may be higher, so if you run into trouble try dropping Shadows down a notch or two.

Tessellation

With Tessellation enabled, floors, walls, wadeable mud, statues, trees, destructible barriers, climbable surfaces, and other game elements gain extra geometric detail that improves their level of detail. Moreover, the added geometric detail is realistically shadowed by your selected Ambient Occlusion technique, and bends shadows cast upon them, subtly enhancing the appearance of innumerable scenes and surfaces for the duration of your time with Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Performance: Adding a smattering of extra geometric detail costs three and a half frames per second in most instances, though on older GPUs it may run a bit slower.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider‘s Tessellation is a subtle enhancement that may go unnoticed as you dash through the game’s environments. As such, if you’re in need of extra performance you can safely disable it without noticeably harming image quality.

Texture Filtering

Texture Filtering, Anisotropic Filtering, and other similarly named options affect the sharpness of textures, especially those seen in the distance, on oblique angles, or on the sides of the screen. Without Texture Filtering surfaces appear blurry, and image quality is significantly degraded.

Performance: Anisotropic Filtering has a negligible performance cost in virtually every PC game, and 16x should be used in all instances to maximize image quality.

Texture Quality

As in Rise of the Tomb Raider, the best detail level (now called «Ultra»), has a barely-perceivable affect on texture detail and clarity during general gameplay, with only a few objects and surfaces benefiting. Below is an example of a typical scenario, exemplifying the minimal differences between the Ultra, High and Normal detail levels.

Up close in cutscenes, however, Ultra makes a tremendous impact, greatly improving detail on and around Lara.

But when we switch back to gameplay moments later, the only noticeable difference between High and Ultra is an extra splash of mud on Lara’s clothes and body.

Performance: If you wish to use Ultra textures, a 6GB GPU is recommended, otherwise you may encounter stuttering when textures are repeatedly swapped in and out of memory. And if you want to play at 4K Ultra, 10GB or more of VRAM is strongly advised.

Volumetric Lighting

Shadow of the Tomb Raider‘s jungles, temples, and underwater environments frequently feature bright sunlight, God Rays, or bright highlights around the entrances to caves and buildings. All of these effects, and more, are powered by the new Volumetric Lighting setting, which is undoubtedly the most important setting in the entire game, literally bringing light to scenes throughout Lara’s adventure.

The game’s many jungle environments are also greatly enhanced by the addition of Volumetric Lighting, and were clearly never intended to be seen without the setting enabled, though with all good PC games you can turn absolutely everything off to maximize performance.

Performance: The game’s super fast post-processing implementation of screen space Volumetric Lighting costs less than a frame per second in most locations, ensuring it can be enabled on virtually all configs.

Settings Wrap-Up

If you wish to improve performance, there are a bunch of settings you can adjust to recoup up to 21 frames per second, without decreasing image quality too severely or noticeably:

  • Use BTAO Ambient Occlusion instead of HBAO+ (+1.8 FPS)
  • Turn off Bloom (+1.9 FPS)
  • Use Normal Depth of Field instead of High (+1.4 FPS when DoF is utilized during gameplay)
  • Turn off Lens Flares (+0.9 FPS)
  • Use High Level of Detail instead of Ultra (+2.1 FPS)
  • Turn off Screen Effects (+0.7 FPS)
  • Turn off Screen Space Contact Shadows (+6.8 FPS in select locations where effect is used)
  • Use High Shadow Quality instead of Ultra (+1. 7 FPS)
  • Turn off Tessellation (+3.5 FPS)

With smart setting selection you can enjoy Shadow of the Tomb Raider with a high level of visual fidelity and a high framerate, even on older systems.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti: Designed For 4K

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti reviews are live now, showing gamers everywhere just how powerful our latest and greatest graphics card is. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it accelerates my own performance by 50% at 4K, taking me from 31 FPS at 4K on a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, to 51 FPS at 4K on a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

By turning down a couple of those settings down, my average framerate increased to 59 FPS, and with a minuscule overclock 60 FPS was surpassed. And if you want extra performance, 1-click NVIDIA Scanner overclocking, available via EVGA Precision X1 and MSI Afterburner, will increase framerates even higher with zero effort, and rock-solid stability. Note also that DLSS is in the works for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and will massively increase performance when released, enabling you to max out every setting.

If you want this experience, with max settings at 4K, at 60 FPS or more, only the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti can deliver it.

GeForce Experience: Optimal Playable Settings With A Single Click

If you don’t wish to manually adjust settings, the best way to automatically configure Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a smooth, enjoyable experience is through GeForce Experience, an invaluable tool for all GeForce users. And in addition to optimizing over 300 games, the free GeForce Experience application can automatically update drivers and profiles, record and stream gameplay with ShadowPlay, and can wirelessly stream PC games, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, to NVIDIA SHIELD devices.

Taking into account your GPU and CPU, as well as many additional factors, GeForce Experience’s game recommendations can be applied with a single click and are updated over time should developer patches and NVIDIA driver updates improve performance further still. This one-click solution is perfect for gamers who wish to simply play their games, and for those with little experience in configuring settings for an optimal experience.

Game Ready Shadow of the Tomb Raider Driver

For the best Shadow of the Tomb Raider experience we recommend updating to the Shadow of the Tomb Raider GeForce Game Ready drivers. They include day-1 optimizations and fixes, and will ensure the best possible experience from the second you start playing. To download, head to the drivers tab in GeForce Experience, or download manually from our website.

The Definitive Shadow of the Tomb Raider Experience

Once again, Nixxes Software has delivered an enhanced PC edition of a new title, enabling PC gamers to experience Shadow of the Tomb Raider at higher detail levels, resolutions, and framerates, utilizing the full capabilities of their systems.

To get the game, head to Steam, and stay tuned to GeForce.com for further news on the release of lifelike NVIDIA RTX Ray-Traced Shadows.

Best Settings For Shadow of the Tomb Raider [Increase FPS Instantly]

Started playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but don’t know what the optimal settings for performance are? Or how you can boost your FPS? Find out here!

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been released, and just like all other major games, there will be lots of people who experience a sub-optimal gaming experience due to lag.

We want you to have the best possible gaming experience, which is why we make these game optimization guides.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has received good reviews so far and seems to be optimized well, but there’s always something that can be done better.

This is especially true if you have an AMD GPU since the PC version of the game is specifically optimized for NVIDIA GPUs.

If you want to higher FPS while playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, simply follow our guide below. We have not only included specific optimizations related to Shadow of the Tomb Raider but also some general PC optimizations.

First, you need to ensure that you meet the minimum system requirements for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and preferably the recommended system requirements.

Minimum System Requirements For Shadow of the Tomb Raider

  • OS: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, 64-bit versions only
  • CPU: Intel i3-3220 3. 3GHz or equivalent
  • RAM: 8GB
  • GPU: GeForce GTX 1050, or equivalent
  • HDD: 40GB available space required

Recommended System Requirements For Shadow of the Tomb Raider

  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • CPU: Intel i7-4770K 3.5 GHz or equivalent
  • RAM: 16GB
  • GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or equivalent
  • HDD: 40GB available space required

Table of ContentsShow

    PC Settings

    If you’re using a laptop, ensure that the battery mode is set to “High Performance” instead of “Balanced.” Furthermore, ensure that your GPU drivers are up to date as new releases often come with a patch from NVIDIA and/or AMD the same day or a couple of days before.

    If you have an NVIDIA GPU, follow the steps below to optimize your NVIDIA settings.

    1. Open the NVIDIA control panel and navigate to Manage 3D settings.
    2. Select the tab Program settings and find Shadow of the Tomb Raider. If you can’t find it, click on Add and try to find it here (try running the game first and close it down again if you can’t find it).
    3. Set Maximum pre-rendered frames to 1.
    4. Set Monitor technology to G-SYNC (if applicable).
    5. Set Multi-Display/Mixed GPU acceleration to Single display performance mode.
    6. Set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance.
    7. Set Texture filtering – Quality to Performance.
    8. Disable Vertical sync.
    9. Enable Threaded optimization.
    10. Set Preferred refresh rate to Highest available.
    11. Apply the changes and navigate to Adjust desktop size and position.
    12. Check the checkbox Override the scaling mode set by games and programs and click on Apply.

    Optimizing Game Settings

    Let’s now optimize the actual game settings in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We’re aiming for a stable 60 FPS with a GTX 1060 on 1080p. Feel free to adjust accordingly.

    1. Launch Shadow of the Tomb Raider and click on Options.
    2. Now click on Display and Graphics.
    3. Set DirectX 12 to On (if it’s available)
    4. Set Resolution to your monitor’s native resolution.
    5. Set Fullscreen to On.
    6. Set Exclusive Fullscreen to On. This will make alt-tabbing slower, but it’s worth it.
    7. Set Monitor Refresh Rate to the highest value possible.
    8. Set VSync to Off.
    9. Set HDR to On (if it’s available)
    10. Set Anti-aliasing to TAA.
    11. Set Stereoscopic to Off.

    Switch to the Graphics tab now. Here are our recommended graphics settings for Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

    1. Set Preset to Custom.
    2. Set Texture Quality to High or Medium.
    3. Set Texture Filtering to Anisotropic.
    4. Set Shadow Quality to Normal.
    5. Set Ambient Occlusion to BTAO.
    6. Set Depth of Field to Normal.
    7. Set Level of Detail to Normal.
    8. Set Tessellation to Off.
    9. Set Bloom to On.
    10. Set Motion Blur to On.
    11. Set Screen Space Reflections to On.
    12. Set Screen Space Contact Shadows to Off.
    13. Set Pure Hair to Normal.
    14. Set Volumetric Lighting to On.
    15. Set Lens Flares to On.
    16. Set Screen Effects to On.

    Disable Windows Update Delivery Optimization

    Let’s try to disable Windows Update Delivery Optimization now. Follow these steps:

    1. Open the Windows start menu, enter Windows update settings and click on the search result for it.
    2. Click on Advanced options.
    3. Click on Delivery optimization.
    4. Ensure that Allow downloads from other PCs is off.

    Disable OneDrive

    We recommend that you disable OneDrive if you’re not using it. Right-click on the OneDrive icon on your taskbar and click on Exit.

    Optimizing Discord

    If you happen to use Discord, ensure that you optimize it as well to boost your FPS in all games while Discord is running.

    1. Open Discord and go to the User settings page.
    2. Open the Appearance tab and uncheck Hardware acceleration.

    Optimizing Google Chrome

    You can also turn off hardware acceleration in Google Chrome so that background applications executed by Chrome do not consume too many resources when you’re playing.

    1. Open Google Chrome and go to the Settings page.
    2. Scroll all the way down and click on the Advanced tab.
    3. Again, scroll all the way down and make sure that Use hardware acceleration when available is turned off.
    4. Relaunch Google Chrome and close it again.

    Clean Your Temporary Files

    1. Press start, search after %localappdata% and press Enter.
    2. Open the Temp folder.
    3. Press CTRL + A to select all files in the folder.
    4. Press the Delete button on your keyboard to delete these temporary files. Skip the ones it can’t delete.
    5. Now empty your recycle bin.

    You can also use CCleaner – the free version will do the trick.

    Now restart your PC to ensure that your PC and Shadow of the Tomb Raider is well optimized.

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    Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Performance analysis

    The game Shadow of the Tomb Raider pleased the players with a new portion of adventure and a radical change of scenery. The updated engine shows a nice detailed picture, for which you have to pay high system requirements. In this review, we will find out which graphics cards will provide the best performance. We will also determine which API is optimal — DirectX 11 or DirectX 12. Let’s talk a little about the nuances of the maximum graphics settings and compare different anti-aliasing modes. nine0003

    The game pleases with large detailed panoramas, rich landscapes and an abundance of vegetation in the stormy jungle. The lighting system has been improved, there is an effect of dense rays of light.

    Lara herself is magnificently detailed. Uses subsurface scattering technology to bring skin to life. Thanks to PureHair technology, naturalistic hair is realized, which has a physical behavior model and looks very authentic.

    All objects have complex textured surfaces. Tessellation gives additional relief to the ground. Other minor changes have been made.

    The picture is rich and beautiful, but sometimes it suffers from the same color gamut. Sometimes in the jungle or in dark dungeons, everything on the screen merges due to the slight smearing of TAA anti-aliasing. abundant shading and dirty colors.

    The Foundation Engine supports DirectX 11 or DirectX 12. There were plans to add realistic shadows and reflections to the game based on RTX tracing technology, but this has not happened yet. The developers are working with NVIDIA specialists to optimize new effects and promise to release the corresponding update. All new effects will work in DirectX 12. So far, there are no important visual differences in different APIs, but there is a difference in performance, which we will discuss below. nine0003

    Let’s compare the performance of video cards at high and maximum quality.

    Video cards of different generations and different price categories will take part in testing. Their characteristics are shown in two tables.

    nine0031

    48

    nine0031

    32

    nine0031

    1126-1178

    nine0031

    GDDR5

    nine0031

    3072

    GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition

    GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition

    GeForce RTX 2070 Founders Edition

    GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

    GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

    GeForce GTX 780 Ti

    GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

    GeForce GTX 960

    GeForce GTX 950

    Architecture

    Turing

    Turing

    Turing

    Pascal

    Pascal

    Kepler

    Pascal

    Maxwell

    Maxwell

    GPU codename

    nine0034

    TU102

    TU104

    TU106

    GP102

    GP106

    GK110

    GP107

    GM206

    GM206

    Number of transistors, million

    18600

    13600

    10800

    12000

    4400

    7100

    3300

    2940

    2940

    nine0002 Technical process, nm

    12

    12

    12

    16

    16

    28

    14

    28

    28

    nine0002 Core area, sq. mm

    754

    545

    445

    471

    200

    561

    132

    228

    228

    Number of stream processors

    4352

    2944

    2304

    3584

    1280

    2880

    768

    1024

    768

    Number of texture units

    272

    184

    144

    224

    80

    240

    48

    64

    Number of ROPs

    88

    64

    64

    88

    48

    48

    32

    32

    Core frequency*, MHz

    1350-1635

    1515-1800

    1410-1710

    1480-1582

    1506-1708

    876-926

    1290-1392

    1024-1188

    Memory bus, bit

    352

    256

    256

    352

    192

    384

    128

    128

    128

    Memory type

    GDDR6

    GDDR6

    GDDR6

    GDDR5X

    GDDR5

    GDDR5

    GDDR5

    GDDR5

    Effective memory frequency, MHz

    14000

    14000

    14000

    11016

    8000

    		nine0002 7010

    7010

    7010

    6610

    Memory size, MB

    11

    8

    8

    11264

    6144

    4096

    2048

    2048

    Interface

    PCI-E 3. 0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    		nine0002 PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    TDP level, W

    260

    225

    185

    250

    120

    250

    75

    120

    90

    *Base Clock and Boost Clock shown are standard specifications.

    nine0031

    8000

    Radeon RX Vega 64

    nine0034

    Radeon RX 580

    Radeon RX 480

    Radeon R9 270X

    Radeon R9 270

    Architecture

    GCN 1. 4

    GCN 1.3

    GCN 1.3

    GCN 1.0

    GCN 1.0

    GPU codename

    Vega 10

    Polaris 20

    Polaris 10

    Curacao

    Curacao

    Number of transistors, million

    nine0034

    12500

    5700

    5700

    2800

    2800

    Technical process, nm

    14

    14

    14

    28

    28

    Core area, sq. mm

    486

    232

    232

    212

    212

    Number of stream processors

    		nine0002 4096

    2304

    2304

    1280

    1280

    Number of texture units

    256

    144

    144

    80

    nine0034

    80

    Number of ROPs

    64

    32

    32

    32

    32

    Core frequency, MHz

    1274-1546

    nine0034

    1257-1340

    1120-1266

    1050

    925

    Memory bus, bit

    2048

    256

    256

    256

    		nine0002 256

    Memory type

    HBM2

    GDDR5

    GDDR5

    GDDR5

    GDDR5

    Effective memory frequency, MHz

    1890

    8000

    5600

    5600

    Memory size, MB

    8192

    8192

    8192

    2048

    2048

    Interface

    PCI-E 3. 0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    PCI-E 3.0

    TDP level, W

    295

    		nine0002 185

    150

    180

    150

    All graphics accelerators tested at nominal. Reference solutions were used, and for non-reference cards, the frequencies were adjusted to the level of standard models.

    Below, the graphs for NVIDIA video cards show the full range of GPU frequencies — from the base to the maximum Boost value. Similarly, the core frequency range of the Radeon RX Vega 64 is indicated.

    Test bench

    • Processor: Intel Core i7-6950X @4.2 GHz
    • motherboard: MSI X99S MPOWER
    • memory: DDR4 HyperX Predator HX432C16PB3K4/32, 3200 MHz, 4×8 GB
    • hard drive: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332, 1 TB
    • power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM
    • operating system: Windows 10 Ultimate x64
    • GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 475. 35
    • Driver Radeon: Crimson Edition 18.12.1.1

    Testing was carried out using the built-in gaming benchmark. A series of repetitions were performed for more accurate summary data.

    Since the game has high system requirements, let’s first compare the performance at high settings (High).

    Full HD resolution, standard TAA.

    Budget solutions categorically fail to cope with the game. We can talk about acceptable results only in the case of the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and then overclocking is desirable. Not much better than the old flagship GeForce GTX 780 Ti, which is probably due to the low amount of memory, because the game loads up to 5 GB in this mode. You can play comfortably on a GeForce GTX 1060 or on a Radeon RX 580. Their results increase in DirectX 12, but budget models only lose performance. nine0003

    Now let’s switch to Ultra mode.

    Added overclocked GeForce GTX 1060 results and more powerful graphics cards

    reach an average value of 60 fps. If we compare the results in two DirectX, then the 12th version is definitely better. We see a huge increase in performance for older graphics cards and for all AMD representatives. The game already uses up to 6 GB of video memory. nine0003

    As an additional visual material, here is a video comparing the performance of GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, GeForce GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 580.

    And again, there is a significant difference between the results in DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. The same minimum fps for older GeForces indicates the presence of obvious limitations, they rest on the processor, which does not allow the potential of graphics accelerators to be revealed. But in DirectX 12, there are no problems with this, and the increase in fps is very serious. You can comfortably play at a resolution of 2560×1440 on the GeForce RTX 2070 and older video cards. Radeon RX Vega 64 also has good results, although it is lower than NVIDIA solutions. nine0003

    In 4K, the performance in different DirectX differs slightly, the advantage of DirectX 12 is very insignificant and concerns more than the minimum fps. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti allows you to play comfortably, with a slight adjustment of the settings, an acceptable fps will be provided by the GeForce RTX 2080 with the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. The Radeon RX Vega 64 cannot handle such a high resolution.

    Better evaluate the capabilities of the GeForce RTX 2080 T allows a video with cutting game moments in 4K. The video card worked at par. SMAA anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering at maximum. nine0003

    According to the monitoring data, the average frame rate is close to 60, but sometimes even lower. Video memory loading easily reaches 7 GB, but in some locations it can approach 8 GB.

    Let’s go back to the graphics settings. Some settings remain at medium or non-maximum even when the Ultra maximum quality setting profile is selected. This combination is chosen as optimal. But if you have a powerful video card, then why not set absolutely all the points to the limit? We did just that. nine0003

    We still have two shadow points available for enhancement, detail and anisotropic filtering. At the same time, it should be noted that the best shadows based on tracing have not yet been added to the game, so there will be no major changes yet. And as a result, we get the same picture as in the Ultra-mode. What is the impact on performance? To answer, we tested the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at two resolutions and different versions of the DirectX API, immediately comparing the new data (marked in a darker color on the graph) with the results in Ultra-mode

    The overall performance drop is 3-6%, and it is the least in DirectX 12. So increasing the settings is not critical for top-end video cards. At least as long as there are no tracing-based shadows in the game.

    At the beginning of the review, we mentioned that the picture sometimes lacks clarity. This is due to the peculiarities of graphics and TAA anti-aliasing, which gives a slight blur. And we decided to visually show the difference between different anti-aliasing modes. Below is a comparison of the same fragment in different modes (large image — click). nine0003

    Any smoothing mode provides smoother outlines for all objects. But the clarity of the foliage in the foreground and some other nuances are lost.

    Below is a comparison of fragments with a magnification of 2 times.

    Unpleasant combing and torn edges of small objects are clearly visible without smoothing. Any variant of AA fixes this. But if we talk about the clarity of fine details, then with SMAA it is a little better. Note the clearer texture of the thatched roofs and the distinctness of the different elements of the masonry. Although the contours of the tower still have a partially stepped shape, which is not in TAA. The difference is negligible, but SMAA wins a little in terms of clarity, and we consider it the best anti-aliasing option. nine0003

    Let’s supplement the visual comparison with tests based on GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Graphics card fans were speeding up to stabilize Boost. This will allow you to more accurately assess the difference between different modes.

    As a result, we see that SMAA, TAA and SMAA T2x practically do not differ in performance. And relative to the mode without anti-aliasing, all these algorithms give a slight drop in fps. Only the SMAA 4x mode is heavy.

    Terminals

    Shadow of the Tomb Raider has high system requirements. For Ultra-graphics in Full HD, you need a video card no lower than the GeForce GTX 1060, and for stable 60 fps you need more powerful models. The optimal API would be DirectX 12, since the performance is higher in this mode. And in this mode, up to 6 GB of video memory is required. For budget video cards with a small amount of memory, it is better to use the old DirectX 11. The minimum solution for the game can be called the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti — the video card will allow you to play at settings slightly lower than high without drastically losing visual quality. The new GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070 graphics cards allow you to play even at a resolution of 2560×1440. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti handles 4K resolution with confidence, delivering the most beautiful visuals at comfortable frame rates. nine0003

    The smallest difference between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 at 4K resolution. At lower resolutions, we see the same minimum fps on older video cards. By all indications, performance here rests on the processor. Clearly, DirectX 12 makes better use of CPU power and gets the most out of the entire configuration.

    With flagship NVIDIA graphics cards, you can safely increase the settings above the standard Ultra mode to further improve the quality of graphics. Until tracing is added to the game, the influence of shadows and better anisotropic filtering is minimal. By default, the game uses TAA, but we find SMAA to be more optimal, which slightly improves image clarity. nine0003

    Read our other reviews, stay tuned for updates via VKontakte, Facebook and Twitter!

    More in this category:

    Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Final impressions

    Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Game Impressions and Performance Testing »

    Detailed testing and analysis of game settings Shadow of the Tomb Raider

    This material was written by a site visitor and rewarded. nine0003

    The last tomb raider game came out in 2018. Personally, I was waiting for her. And she really disappointed me. I didn’t like the story line, the endless cutscenes. And the optimization left much to be desired. Lara Croft has somewhat lost her former forms, although in her profession, this is categorically not welcome. But I will not talk about the plot and the figure of Mrs. Croft. I will focus only on performance in this game.

    I will test on my main computer with a processor i5-8400 (operating frequencies 3800-3900 MHz) and video card GTX 1070 (2025 MHz for the chip and 8900 MHz for the memory). RAM (16 GB) runs at 2666 MHz (timings 16-18-18-35 cr2). The game is on the hard drive. Operating system Windows 10 (LTSC) . To study the processor dependence of the game, I will use another computer on which the GTX 1070 video card is paired with a weaker i5-4690k processor (4500 MHz), RAM operates at a frequency of 1800 MHz (11-11-11-28 cr1) . nine0003

    Game version: 292.0.64 . This is a rather important point, because. different versions of the game load the processor in different ways. Game resolution: 1920×1080.

    recommendations

    First, let’s run the built-in benchmark on various settings in dx12. I will use fixed settings: minimum, low, medium, high and maximum. Anti-aliasing in all cases will be set to TAA

    minimum graphics settings

    low settings

    medium settings

    high settings

    maximum settings

    The benchmark itself is quite informative, so there is not much to comment on here.

    The question arises: why on dx12 and not dx11? Everything is rather prosaic here: the developers again did everything wrong, and the game works on dx11 just disgustingly.

    Here is the result of running on Directive 11:

    maximum dx11 settings

    As you can see, the result is slightly worse. But the most interesting thing happens in the game itself. The video card remains heavily underloaded. nine0003

    Kuwak-Yaku, dx11

    Kuvak-Yaku, dx12

    The difference in the screenshots reaches 23 fps, which is a lot. Therefore, we are no longer returning to dx11.

    benchmark results summary table

    Now let’s look at the screenshots with different graphics presets:

    Minimum settings, TAA

    Low setting, TAA

    Medium setting, TAA

    High setting, TAA

    High setting, TAA

    The biggest difference in the picture is visible when moving from the minimum settings to the low ones.

    Now let’s check the effect of anti-aliasing on the workload of the video card and the image itself in the game. It makes no sense to run the benchmark again. We will limit ourselves to screenshots (maximum graphics settings):

    Without anti-aliasing

    SMAA

    TAA

    SMAAT2x

    SMAA4x There is not much difference in terms of performance, except for the latest SMAA4x. nine0003

    This option no longer allows the 1070 to produce a stable 60 frames. Personally, I went through the entire game with SMAAT2x anti-aliasing.

    Video cards of the Pascal series are not designed to work with Huang rays. But the rays themselves can be turned on. Although it is not applied.

    Maximum settings, TAA, no beams

    Maximum settings, TAA, medium beams

    Maximum settings, TAA, high beam settings

    I don’t understand where these beams appear at all. If you do not look at the FPS in the game, then it is simply impossible to determine whether they are enabled or not. Absolutely far-fetched technology in this game. nine0003

    It’s no secret that the game is quite processor dependent. A pure quad-core (without hyper-threading technology) sometimes has a very hard time and no amount of overclocking will help. It is necessary explicitly more than 4 flows. It is worth noting that such situations are not universal, the load on the processor increases sharply in settlements. It is good that no active events take place in them, otherwise the situation would become more complicated.

    To begin with, I will compare the performance of processors 8400 and 4690k in the benchmark.

    8400+1070

    4690k+1070

    Based on the numbers themselves, you might get the impression that Haswell did pretty well. The difference in «Game CPU» reaches only 6 frames. But this is absolutely not true. Despite the informativeness, it gives very optimistic values. This is explained quite simply: the benchmark itself is divided into three parts. And only the third, and even then in the second half, begins to seriously load the processor. Therefore, the overall result looks good. nine0003

    To get a more realistic picture, you will have to measure the FPS directly in the third part. This can be done, for example, using the program MSI Afterburner . But I will use the program CapFrameX . I tried to synchronize the segments as accurately as possible:

    Frametime graphs

    Graphs of average FPS fluctuations

    As you can see, the difference in average FPS is already almost 18 frames or 27%. And that’s enough. In the screenshot, you can also compare the difference in the graphs of FPS fluctuations on processors. nine0003

    In a recent dialogue in the comments to the article, I was reproached that the benchmark is one thing. But the real game is different. Well, let’s check the difference in one of the locations that heavily loads the processor.

    I will test in the village of Kuvak-Yaku during the run from the base camp to the entrance to the ruined temple.

    Game settings will be maximum, TAA anti-aliasing. This will somewhat blur the difference in processor performance. But so be it, because at about these settings I went through the whole game. nine0003

    Frametime charts

    Graphs of average fps

    The difference was about 11 frames or 16%. But for me the most important thing is that at such settings 4690k is not able to provide stable 60 frames.

    Test in 720p

    A small bonus for those who think that you need to compare processors without focusing on the video card.

    Run along the same route in 720p resolution (maximum settings, anti-aliasing disabled)

    Run from the base camp across the bridge to the temple.
    nine0003

    And here the difference runs into 23fps on average or 33. 8%. It’s already a lot.

    This is bad, but not critical. After all, there are a lot of settings in the game. For Haswell, I settled on this option (SMAAT2x anti-aliasing):

    Game settings

    In addition, to reduce the overall temperature of the video card and reduce the load on the processor, I will set the frame limit to 62 fps through the video card driver. The test run will take place at the same location along the same route. Then we will repeat the run on high settings and medium.

    FPS graphs at the test location

    There are no stable 60 frames (as expected), but you can play. Lowering the settings did not really help, the drawdowns did not go away. nine0003

    I believe that for a comfortable game at a stable 60 frames or more, you must have a minimum quad-core processor with hyper-threading technology. According to the video card, the model GTX 1060 or an analogue from AMD — RX 580 will probably be enough.