The main game event of the beginning of the year was the release of the role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. This is a medieval adventure in an authentic style, where the emphasis is on historicity and realism. The game has high system requirements, with maximum quality it can bring even top-end video cards to their knees. What graphics solutions allow you to play at high and maximum graphics? Let’s find out in this test.

The game tells the story of a blacksmith’s son, who found himself in a maelstrom of historical events. The action takes place in Bohemia in 1403, where there is a struggle for the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Kingdom Come: Deliverance painstakingly reconstructs medieval life and settings. Also, large spaces open up before us with a high rendering range and pretty European landscapes.

The game demonstrates good graphics, the picture looks very lifelike. Pleased with the abundance of textured naturalistic surfaces. However, the level of detail is not the highest. For example, the fantasy action movie For Honor had more detailed textures. But Kingdom Come: Deliverance draws on the technological engine CryEngine 3.8.6, which is well given to open spaces with wildlife. DirectX 11 API supported.

An additional illustration will be a short video clip of various moments from the beginning of the game. Video in 4K at very high graphics settings, which is not the maximum.

Comparative testing will involve solutions from the top, middle and budget segments, including new generation models and old cards.

NVIDIA’s most powerful solution will be the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

From AMD’s side, the standard-design Radeon RX Vega 64 will be the top choice.

Also in testing will take part Radeon RX Vega 56 by ASUS. This is the ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega 56 model, which has a slight overclock. Therefore, the video card was put into Quiet mode by switching to the second BIOS in order to achieve performance at the level of standard versions.

The full list of participants is as follows:

All video adapters were brought to standard frequencies to match the reference options. The Radeon RX Vega 64 was tested with the stock BIOS in normal balanced mode (default settings). The Radeon RX 580 4GB is a complete analogue of the Radeon RX 580 8GB in terms of frequencies, and this game does not need a large amount of memory. Therefore, the results of this video card are fully valid for the older version of the Radeon RX 580. The Radeon R9 270X replaces the predecessor Radeon HD 7870.

The participants have been tested at nominal and overclocked. An exception is made for flagship solutions, in simple test modes they were tested at standard frequencies.

The test bench configuration is as follows:

• processor: Intel Core i7-6950X (3.0@4.1 GHz);
• cooler: Noctua NH-D15 (two NF-A15 PWM fans, 140 mm, 1300 rpm);
• motherboard: MSI X99S MPower (Intel X99);
• memory: G.Skill F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ (4×8 GB, DDR4-3200, CL14-14-14-35);
• system disk: Kingston SSDNow KC400 (512 GB, SATA 6Gb/s);
• secondary drive: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1 TB, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm);
• power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
• monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560×1440, 27″);

• operating system: Windows 10 Pro x64;
• GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 391.01;
• Radeon Driver: AMD Crimson Edition 18.3.2.

Testing was done with Fraps. A walk around the starting village was carried out. The route from the forge to the central square was selected with additional actions to create a high load — running, which causes additional visual effects, entering the shop, which provokes additional lighting effects when the light level changes.

A minimum of six repetitions were performed. On older video cards, I had to do two test sessions of six repetitions.

Testing was carried out with three quality profiles:

• High;
• Very high;
• Ultra High.

Let’s start with the results at very high graphics quality (Very High) at 1920×1080.

It is immediately clear that budget video cards categorically do not cope with the game. In open spaces, they will generally show slide shows. The minimum option here is the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 19-22% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060. The Radeon RX 480/580 has even better results. The difference between the Radeon RX 580 and GeForce GTX 1060 is 9-14%. In the test scene, the game loaded up to 2.1 GB of VRAM, in large open locations the load will be slightly higher.

Let’s compare the lower models with high-level graphics.

The scores are not outstanding. GeForce GTX 1050 Ti results are approaching 40 fps, but serious performance drops are possible. It is noteworthy that the Radeon R9 270X is almost as good as the GeForce GTX 960.

Comparison in Ultra-mode is carried out only for medium and high-end video cards.

The Radeon RX 580 still shows a certain advantage over the GeForce GTX 1060, but the minimum fps of both competitors is too low. AMD Vega solutions also show the same level of minimum fps. The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has noticeably better performance, only with this graphics accelerator can we talk about complete comfort in the game.

Regarding the Radeon RX Vega, it should be noted that at maximum quality they showed very uneven GPU loading and large performance drops. Below is the download schedule.

Testing at a resolution of 2560×1440 was carried out at the two highest quality profiles only for older video cards.

With Very High graphics, you can even play on the Radeon RX Vega 56, but only the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti can handle the maximum quality. And in the second mode, we again see sharp fps drops in AMD and a big gap with the competitor. But in the first mode, the Radeon RX Vega 64 is only about 20% behind the leader. Loading video memory in the test scene up to 2.6 GB, although the game will easily eat 3 GB.

Additionally, we will check the capabilities of the flagship video adapters NVIDIA and AMD in 4K. Against the background of the top results, it is clear that the Ultra-quality will be incredibly heavy. Therefore, the tests were carried out at lower settings.

As a result, the results are poor even with graphics below the maximum. And although the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti exceeds the 30 fps mark, the drawdowns will be significant. From the video at the beginning of the review, you can see that performance drops below 25 fps in some scenes. Overclocking improves performance by a modest 10%. Radeon RX Vega 64 is 25-28% weaker than its rival.

conclusions

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a realistic role-playing game and an interesting historical adventure with a nice picture. However, the graphics are not so outstanding as to justify the incredibly high system requirements. The developers promise to improve optimization in the future update 1.4, but the situation with performance is unlikely to change dramatically.

So far, the maximum graphics quality is available only to owners of flagship video cards, and this is true only for Full HD resolution. If you limit yourself to Very High settings, then you can play normally on the Radeon RX 580, slightly worse than the GeForce GTX 1060. The difference in picture between the two highest quality profiles is minimal, and you lose little in the visual experience. For the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and simpler video adapters, you will have to turn on the settings below the high level.

If you own a monitor with a resolution higher than Full HD, then the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the minimum acceptable option. This video adapter can handle 2560×1440, but 3840×2160 can’t handle it. To get normal fps in 4K on a top-end video card, you will probably have to use medium quality settings.