The Benchmark: Elite Dangerous
Benchmarking the Game
This Benchmark is looking at Elite Dangerous, another space simulator game that is quite different from Star Citizen in scope. Interestingly, it's been backed by Chris Roberts, who is also the chairman and CEO of Cloud Imperium Games, the developers behind Star Citizen. This means that the game has their endorsement, which can be a significant factor in its success.
In contrast to Star Citizen, which is still in development for at least another year or two, Elite Dangerous is already published and available for play now. This makes it an interesting case study for benchmarking and evaluating the performance of modern graphics cards.
Graphics Performance
One of the key aspects of this Benchmark is the graphics performance of Elite Dangerous. The game's graphics are not particularly complex, with a focus on rendering polygons rather than advanced effects or technologies like Gameworks. At 1080p, the bulk of the graphics are driven by the HUD (heads-up display) and space stations, which do require some processing power.
In terms of actual performance, I was able to play the game at various resolutions and frame rates using different graphics cards. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 was able to run the game at a smooth 60 frames per second on a mid-range CPU like the Intel Core i7-2500K. Even more impressive, the same card ran the game at around 140 FPS on the AMD Radeon R9 290X, which suggests that there's little to no CPU bottleneck.
On the other hand, the lower-end NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti struggled to maintain a frame rate above 60 FPS on the Intel Core i7-2500K, even with reduced graphics settings. This means that users may need to drop their graphics settings significantly to play the game at max quality on an older CPU.
Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) and Virtual Super Resolution (VSSR)
Another aspect of this Benchmark is the performance of Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) and Virtual Super Resolution (VSSR), two technologies that simulate a higher resolution display and then filter it down to 1080p. DSR, developed by NVIDIA, uses advanced algorithms to simulate a higher resolution display on lower-end hardware, while VSSR, developed by AMD, does essentially the same thing.
In practice, these technologies have very similar performance profiles, with both producing almost identical frame rate hits compared to running the game at 1440p or 4K. This means that users can get a good gaming experience at 1080p without sacrificing too much performance.
Using DSR and VSSR on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 dropped the frame rate to around 100 FPS, while using them on the AMD Radeon R9 290X brought the frame rate down to 56 FPS. These results suggest that users with higher-end graphics cards may not need to worry too much about these technologies, but those with lower-end hardware may benefit from their ability to simulate a higher resolution display.
Recommendations
In terms of recommendations for playing Elite Dangerous at 1080p, I would say that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and AMD Radeon R9 290X are both capable of handling the game at max quality. However, users with older graphics cards may need to reduce their graphics settings significantly to maintain a smooth frame rate.
For those looking to play the game at higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K, it's likely that they'll need more powerful hardware, including a multi-GPU setup or more advanced graphics technology. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and AMD Radeon R9 290X are both capable of handling 4K at around 60 FPS, but users may notice noticeable spikes in frame rate during intense gameplay.
Conclusion
Overall, this Benchmark provides an interesting look at the performance of Elite Dangerous on various modern graphics cards. With its straightforward graphics and lack of advanced effects or technologies, it's a great example of a game that can be played at high frame rates on a wide range of hardware configurations.
Whether you're interested in learning more about gaming performance or simply want to see how your favorite games hold up on different hardware, this Benchmark is definitely worth checking out. And as always, please feel free to share your thoughts and questions with us!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone this is Steve from Gamers nexus.net and this Benchmark is looking at Elite dangerous which is another space simulator game and it's a bit different than Star Citizen in scope but uh was actually backed by Chris Roberts who is of course the chairman and CEO of cloud Imperium games the developers behind Star Citizen so it has their endorsement and the difference here is that Elite dangerous is done it is out it's complete and really that's that's that it's final yes it's still being iterated upon but unlike star citizen it is available for play now starts citizen still in development for at least another year maybe two or more so Elite dangerous I already published The Benchmark course if you're interested in that you can see the course that I took when benchmarking the game and sort of look at the graphics it looks very good I played it at 1440 and even 4K when benchmarking but of course the heart of it is at 1080 so in terms of Graphics there's nothing crazy here it's not like some of the other recent games where there are all of these new technologies or Nvidia or AMD competing Technologies there's not any gamework stuff being pushed in Elite dangerous it's pretty straightforward uh in that really the bulk of the graphics are the HUD and things like space stations do draw on the GPU a bit but that's because it's just rendering a lot of polygons and not necessarily because of any new FX or special FX at 1080p the game plays really on just about anything I tested it from the 250X scaling up to the 980 the 980 ran it at 60 FPS which shows you that even on a 3570k there's really not much of a CPU bottleneck which it's that's good news and the 290x plays it at about 140 FPS 780 is 113 so all is well in the terms of these cards uh it does struggle on a 250X I would probably not recommend playing it on Max settings on a 250X but you could drop the settings quite a bit uh this this was run on Max so you could drop them down to low and you'll be fairly okay on a 250X I would really recommend upgrading though uh for this instance moving on I ran the Benchmark with DSR and vssr which are Dynamic super resolution by Nvidia and I believe virtual super resolution by AMD and the two technologies are very similar in scope in that they simulate a 4K or 1440 or whatever resolution and then filter it down to a 1080 display so although there's a filtration process the component of the card that does the scaling for for AMD excuse me the scaler component is removed from the graphics pipeline that means that it is not impacting the frame rate output uh in this filtration process so your performance hit will be almost identical to the hit you would find using an actual 1440 or 4K display despite the extra filtration added in on top of it because it is removed from the pipeline at 1440p vssr and DSR uh the 980 drops down to 100 FPS you remember it was 160 on 1080 and the 285 drops to 56 fps 290x to 85 so it is definitely playable at 1440p with these cards you would not want to go below a 285 or a 780 for the most part if you're playing at 1440 if you have a higher resolution display 3K or 4K in that range uh the only things I could test with this were the 285 and 980 because amd's VSR is only available up to 4k on the 285 everything else is limited to 1,800 is p which would be 32 by 18 and the 980 is the only one powerful enough to run 4K so I just didn't even bother testing the others in this instance the 980 is sort of slightly playable at 4K but you're definitely going to hit some spikes that are very noticeable in gameplay as I did especially when flying around space stations and getting into really intense com comat so you probably would want something a bit more powerful or a multi-gpu setup if we're being realistic that's ultimately what you would need to drive 4K at a consistently playable FPS so that's all for this Benchmark please let me know what you think about Elite dangerous cuz I I honestly have not had much of a chance to play it I've just been benchmarking it so I'm curious to hear your thoughts you can comment below but the best way to get in touch with us these days is to tweet at us @ Gamers Nexus on Twitter and I will reply to your tweets if you send them so uh please Please Subscribe if you like this content follow us both of those help a lot and I will see you all next time have a great holiday peacehey everyone this is Steve from Gamers nexus.net and this Benchmark is looking at Elite dangerous which is another space simulator game and it's a bit different than Star Citizen in scope but uh was actually backed by Chris Roberts who is of course the chairman and CEO of cloud Imperium games the developers behind Star Citizen so it has their endorsement and the difference here is that Elite dangerous is done it is out it's complete and really that's that's that it's final yes it's still being iterated upon but unlike star citizen it is available for play now starts citizen still in development for at least another year maybe two or more so Elite dangerous I already published The Benchmark course if you're interested in that you can see the course that I took when benchmarking the game and sort of look at the graphics it looks very good I played it at 1440 and even 4K when benchmarking but of course the heart of it is at 1080 so in terms of Graphics there's nothing crazy here it's not like some of the other recent games where there are all of these new technologies or Nvidia or AMD competing Technologies there's not any gamework stuff being pushed in Elite dangerous it's pretty straightforward uh in that really the bulk of the graphics are the HUD and things like space stations do draw on the GPU a bit but that's because it's just rendering a lot of polygons and not necessarily because of any new FX or special FX at 1080p the game plays really on just about anything I tested it from the 250X scaling up to the 980 the 980 ran it at 60 FPS which shows you that even on a 3570k there's really not much of a CPU bottleneck which it's that's good news and the 290x plays it at about 140 FPS 780 is 113 so all is well in the terms of these cards uh it does struggle on a 250X I would probably not recommend playing it on Max settings on a 250X but you could drop the settings quite a bit uh this this was run on Max so you could drop them down to low and you'll be fairly okay on a 250X I would really recommend upgrading though uh for this instance moving on I ran the Benchmark with DSR and vssr which are Dynamic super resolution by Nvidia and I believe virtual super resolution by AMD and the two technologies are very similar in scope in that they simulate a 4K or 1440 or whatever resolution and then filter it down to a 1080 display so although there's a filtration process the component of the card that does the scaling for for AMD excuse me the scaler component is removed from the graphics pipeline that means that it is not impacting the frame rate output uh in this filtration process so your performance hit will be almost identical to the hit you would find using an actual 1440 or 4K display despite the extra filtration added in on top of it because it is removed from the pipeline at 1440p vssr and DSR uh the 980 drops down to 100 FPS you remember it was 160 on 1080 and the 285 drops to 56 fps 290x to 85 so it is definitely playable at 1440p with these cards you would not want to go below a 285 or a 780 for the most part if you're playing at 1440 if you have a higher resolution display 3K or 4K in that range uh the only things I could test with this were the 285 and 980 because amd's VSR is only available up to 4k on the 285 everything else is limited to 1,800 is p which would be 32 by 18 and the 980 is the only one powerful enough to run 4K so I just didn't even bother testing the others in this instance the 980 is sort of slightly playable at 4K but you're definitely going to hit some spikes that are very noticeable in gameplay as I did especially when flying around space stations and getting into really intense com comat so you probably would want something a bit more powerful or a multi-gpu setup if we're being realistic that's ultimately what you would need to drive 4K at a consistently playable FPS so that's all for this Benchmark please let me know what you think about Elite dangerous cuz I I honestly have not had much of a chance to play it I've just been benchmarking it so I'm curious to hear your thoughts you can comment below but the best way to get in touch with us these days is to tweet at us @ Gamers Nexus on Twitter and I will reply to your tweets if you send them so uh please Please Subscribe if you like this content follow us both of those help a lot and I will see you all next time have a great holiday peace\n"
