WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:09.040 It's the first day of quarter 4 2014. So, with there are actually new games 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:14.080 season officially upon us, it's time for our first game performance video since 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:18.720 we did Watchd Dogs way back in May of this year. Welcome to our guide to the 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:26.720 best graphics cards for Middleear Shadow of Mordor on PC. 00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:34.640 Corsair gaming RGB keyboards feature precision Cherry MX RGB key switches for 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:39.200 16.8 million color per key backlighting for virtually unlimited customization. 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:42.320 Click now to learn more. There are a couple of things we're changing this 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:46.399 time around. First up, we're going to continue to run overclocked graphics 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:50.640 cards for our nuts andbolts video card overviews since those are more geared 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:55.440 towards tweakers anyway. But we're going to start starting today running all 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:59.120 cards at stock for our game specific showdowns. Since most gamers shopping 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:03.920 for a new graphics card to play a specific game probably won't be 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:06.159 overclocking anyway. Second, with 4K 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:10.560 becoming more affordable all the time, we're going to be adding 4K to our 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:16.080 standard 1080p testing. This will be particularly relevant for gamers who are 00:01:13.119 --> 00:01:20.080 picking up a 4K monitor or are about to soon, but also for gamers who are 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:25.040 running brand new high-end graphics cards like the GTX 970 or 980 from 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:29.240 NVIDIA who want to leverage dynamic super resolution. NVIDIA's new feature 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:33.759 that essentially is super sample anti-aliasing, but is a little bit 00:01:31.119 --> 00:01:37.040 easier to use. Speaking of the 970 and the 980, that leads me to this sweet 00:01:35.759 --> 00:01:44.159 shirt I'm wearing. You guys should check out the link in the video description if you want uh zombie Linus and Luke shirt 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:46.079 if you were there for the mod 24 PC 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:49.040 modding live stream event that we hosted. It was pretty cool. It was 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:52.560 pretty fun. If you made it through it the way that we did, even though we 00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:55.600 looked like this by the end of it, then uh check out the link in the description 00:01:53.920 --> 00:02:01.040 for a shirt. Anyway, without further ado, here's my co-surviver Luke to tell 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:03.040 you about Shadow of Mordor performance 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:07.439 things. Shadows of Mordor is a thirdp person hacken/openworld game which is 00:02:05.759 --> 00:02:11.680 getting rave reviews which makes sense when it's being compared to giants like 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:16.560 Batman and Assassin's Creed. It seems very well optimized for PC and even has 00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:20.400 an integrated benchmark for us PC folks. But as usual, we'll be doing our own 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:24.080 benchmark. Anyways, so stay tuned to the end of the video if you want to see how 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:28.000 your graphics card stacks up against the currently available options. We're using 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:31.680 our usual graphics card test bench to demonstrate the differences between 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:35.360 graphics cards by removing bottlenecks elsewhere in the system. So, keep that 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:39.440 in mind when looking at the charts. We'll start with 1080p performance. This 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:43.680 game is very well optimized and ran like a dream on every card we tested it at 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:49.360 very high presets with medium textures and no motion blur. In fact, two of our 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:51.720 cards, the GTX 970 and 980, even bumped 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:55.519 up against the 100 FPS limit on their maximums. Uh, that unfortunately is 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:58.720 built into this game. So, when looking at these numbers, keep in mind that the 00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:02.480 average frame rates could have been a little higher for both of these cards. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.720 At 4K, the observation that we made about how amazingly well optimized the 00:03:04.239 --> 00:03:10.000 game is continues. Even though frame rates were much lower, partially because 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:15.200 we increased the resolution and partially because we cranked the game settings even higher, the game just 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:19.519 feels smooth, especially when compared to other games. Even we're not running 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:23.920 at 60 FPS and even as low as 30 to 40 FPS. And on top of that, we notice we 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:28.480 noticed very little tearing without G-Sync or VSYNC or any kind of frame 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:32.080 rate limiting technology. So now we'll show you guys how we got our numbers so 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:35.360 you can replicate it on your own. I'd like to do a quick tour of the in-game 00:03:33.920 --> 00:03:39.920 settings before we start, though, because they're straight 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:43.760 badass. Every in-game visual setting has its own little explanation of what it 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:47.200 does and how it impacts performance. Even giving suggestions in some cases 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:51.680 for how to get the most out of your game with your system. I think my favorite example of 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:56.319 this is the way that they suggest different levels of texture quality depending on the amount of RAM your 00:03:54.400 --> 00:04:00.239 graphics card has, and then go as far as to not expect you to know how much you 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:04.239 have. They put a handy little indicator in the corner. One reason they might 00:04:02.640 --> 00:04:07.680 have done this is that performance really tanks in a way we have rarely 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:11.840 seen if you configure texture quality too high for your video frame buffer. 00:04:09.760 --> 00:04:15.360 Our save point is at a respawn point, which I believe all save points are at. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:18.239 I would try to be more specific about where exactly this is, but I would 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:22.560 probably have some spoilers. It is pretty close to the beginning of the game, so it's not all that hard to get 00:04:20.799 --> 00:04:26.080 to. We were thinking about doing the benchmark in the open world, but the 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:29.840 open world is very randomized, which is, I'm sure, great for gameplay, but not 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:33.840 great for benchmarking. Also, weather effects heavily in impact game 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:37.840 performance. So, we decided to do the benchmark within this kind of instanced 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:42.000 mission that we're running to right now, which you can kind of see on screen. Uh, 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:45.759 because the weather is constant inside the mission, and there's no random 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:50.120 spawning, or at least there's not a ton of random spawning within the mission. 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:57.240 So, it's called the Slaver. We'll just accept and start the mission here. 00:05:04.479 --> 00:05:11.000 I see more than any mortal. Little bit sassy, but okay. 00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:18.560 So, we do actually really need to kill the archers or else during this benchmark, we'll get wrecked. So, you're 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:22.080 going to want to take out uh there there's usually a guy that spawns there. 00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:27.360 There's often at least one guy that spawns on the far side. And one trick is 00:05:25.280 --> 00:05:32.320 to climb up here before anyone really notices you and take out the o archer 00:05:30.479 --> 00:05:37.320 across over here. And then you don't have to waste one of your fairly 00:05:33.840 --> 00:05:37.320 valuable arrows. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:45.840 Take him out and then you can just kind of drop on everyone from this little 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:48.639 rope bridge thing. 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:54.320 What we're going to want to do now is They didn't notice me. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:58.160 Okay. They still didn't notice me. Okay. Well, 00:05:55.919 --> 00:06:04.320 orcs aren't necessarily the smartest people um around. So, wow. 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:12.960 Okay. Here we go. All right. So, what we're going to want to do is thin the 00:06:10.080 --> 00:06:16.560 herd a little bit. So, start this off by just kind of going on a little bit of a 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:19.600 rampage, which I don't think anyone's really going to have a problem with 00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:25.120 because you want to kind of bring it down to three or four or five around 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:29.120 their orcs. You don't want a whole bunch around you as that'll be slightly 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:34.440 abnormally taxing on your graphics card. And if you just have a somewhat fixed 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:39.720 number, then it'll be fine. The combat in this game is very 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:44.560 Batmanlike with the blocks. Um, so just be ready to be blocking a 00:06:42.479 --> 00:06:50.319 fair amount, but there is no real timer or wait time on your block at all. So it 00:06:46.880 --> 00:06:51.440 it's actually not that hard. 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:55.520 All right, so now we're down to these two dudes. They'll get some reinforcements. So I'm just going to 00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:00.639 kind of sit here and block and wait for reinforcements to show 00:06:57.960 --> 00:07:05.599 up. Now that this guy's here, it's it's probably go time. So, what I do is kind 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:09.680 of stand on the right side of this pole and just block while looking off into 00:07:07.840 --> 00:07:14.560 the distance for the entire benchmark. There we go. There's a fourth guy. 00:07:11.960 --> 00:07:18.000 Um, cuz it's pretty consistent. I just sit here blocking, looking in the same 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:22.000 spot. It simulates about the same amount of demand as a normal fight would if I 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:25.440 was running around stabbing things, but then it's not as randomized as having 00:07:23.919 --> 00:07:29.520 the screen spinning all over the place, which would make it not very easy to 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:32.800 replicate. That being said, the frame rate in this 00:07:30.960 --> 00:07:35.520 game is extremely consistent. So, even if I did kind of swing the screen 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:42.080 around, it probably wouldn't make a ton of a difference. Um, but I do have this 00:07:37.919 --> 00:07:44.960 benchmark within 0.01 FPS uh every run. 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:48.880 So, I do want to keep it as consistent as possible, but it is a really cool 00:07:46.960 --> 00:07:52.240 thing that this game is able to keep really consistent frame rates pretty 00:07:50.400 --> 00:07:55.919 much no matter what you're doing and having only really things like amount of 00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:58.400 characters on screen and weather affected 00:08:02.919 --> 00:08:08.879 heavily. You're going to not want to die. I that that was essentially a death 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:12.800 save that I had to go through right there. You don't want to have to do that 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:17.280 because that can actually affect your frame rate. So yeah, you have to be able 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:20.919 to survive for 2 minutes. The blocking is really not that difficult though, so 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:24.879 you should be fine. Another thing you don't want to do 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:28.240 is that. So you don't want to hold right click, you just want to tap it. If you 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:34.159 hold right click, you'll go into your kind of wraith mode and that will 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:35.200 definitely affect frame rate as well. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:39.839 And other than that, the rest of the benchmark is pretty much just standing on the right side of this pole with the 00:08:38.560 --> 00:08:44.640 prisoner on it, trying to defend yourself by blocking. 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:49.120 Don't worry about saving the prisoner, though. 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:51.600 I don't even think you can. All right, guys. Thanks for watching. Don't forget 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:57.200 to check the link in the description down below for the shirt Lionus was wearing, which I will hopefully be 00:08:54.800 --> 00:08:59.920 getting later. Also, uh let me know what you think about the new testing 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:04.000 methodology for games in the comments down below. While you're down there, 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:08.160 like, dislike, favorite, subscribe. I think subscribe is wider. Either way, 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:12.000 share. Maybe if you want to comment on the video, you can comment here or on 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:14.720 the forum. If you like commenting on the forum, but you don't like the ads, you 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:20.080 can become a contributor. And while you're there, if you click the like help Lantis Media Group button thing in the 00:09:17.839 --> 00:09:24.240 kind of mid right hand side, you can change all of your Amazon links, 00:09:21.839 --> 00:09:27.040 bookmarks to to our affiliate code to help us out in the future. Thanks again 00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:39.160 for watching. I'll see you guys next time.