![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , December 05, 2011
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Batman: Arkham City Gameplay Performance and IQ Review
The Caped Crusader has returned to crack more skulls on the streets of Arkham City. Rocksteady has enhanced the venerable UE3 engine with DirectX 11 and PhysX support, but can this aging graphics engine really handle such large, richly detailed outdoor areas? You might be surprised.
Highest Playable Settings
Performance was outstanding in DX9 mode with these high-end video card solutions. It was so great that we were left really wanting DX11 support to work properly so that we could tax these video cards and take advantage of their capabilities. Sadly, performance is simply murdered in DX11 mode, so we just can't use it until it's fixed.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 single card and SLI solutions were both playable at 2560x1600 with 16X AF, Very High in-game settings, and 32X CSAA. This is simply the highest configuration available for this game in DX9 mode for these video cards. The AMD Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX setup was able to play at 2560x1600 with 16X AF, Very High in-game settings, and 24X CFAA enabled. For that option, we chose 8X MSAA in the in-game AA setting and enabled the "Edge-Detect" custom AA filter in the Catalyst Control Center. The AMD Radeon HD 6970 was not able to utilize the "Edge Detect" filter, either for 24X CFAA or 12X CFAA. With ether option, framerates were hit too hard, resulting in an unplayable level of performance. However, it was able to use 8X MSAA at 2560x1600 with 16X AF and the Very High in-game graphics setting.
Both the single and dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 solutions were able to use the High PhysX setting at 2560x1600 in DX9. We expect this situation to change when DX11 becomes usable, and it could change quite dramatically. Of course, the AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6970 CrossFireX options were not playable with PhysX enabled. Framerates were good enough in our testing procedure, but exiting the open world and entering a smaller mission area where PhysX effects are utilized more heavily destroyed performance on the AMD video cards.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and the AMD Radeon HD 6950 were both playable at 2560x1600 with 16X AF, 8X MSAA, and the Very High in-game option selected. The GeForce GTX 570 was able to use the High PhysX setting, while the Radeon HD 6950, since it does not support hardware PhysX acceleration, was not. Batman: Arkham City was playable on the GeForce GTX 560 Ti at 2560x1600 with 4X MSAA, 16X AF, Very High in-game settings, and the Normal PhysX setting. The Radeon HD 6870 was similarly playable at 2560x1600 with 4X MSAA and 16X AF with Very High in-game settings, but also was not able to use PhysX.
Again, we expect the playable PhysX configuration of these video cards to change when Arkham City is patched and DX11 becomes playable. If you want to run at the highest PhysX settings right now, DX9 is where it's at.